I mean , I ' m cool with that . <| sep |> Big dick todd layin down the law . <| sep |> Well I think most coaches will disagree with that , which is why Van Gundy was beside himself in those closing minutes . In those situations , time is so scarce that you need to look at what aspects of the game you can control in order to make up ground . The Warriors can fill their backcourt up with 85 % freethrow shooters . Those are knockdown free throw numbers , so you ' re not gonna expect them to miss . So if you ' re giving up two on that end you need to get more than that in return or otherwise you will not make up any ground . Taking layups when you ' re down by that much isn ' t going to do anything but eat up clock , which isn ' t on your side . A three ball is your best bet to gain ground in those situations , since you can almost control your own destiny even if they make 2 every trip you will get 3 . With your strategy , you ' re betting on proficient free throw shooters to miss at least one free throw on every one of those possessions , which the numbers say you will lose every time doing that unless that team gets drastically unlucky . And ya , coming up with a steal would greatly help , but the odds of doing that are drastically lower than hitting a three . NBA backcourts are hard enough to press , especially with as great of a passing team as the Warriors . Now that isn ' t to say that you can ' t take a quick two when you ' re down sometimes . You ' ll see coaches do that . But what you don ' t see is teams take nothing but twos in those situations , especially when teams are down by as much as the Cavs were . It ' s just too much of a point differential to overcome in too short amount of time to try a strategy where you ' re most likely to just trade points with the opponent . And that ' s what happened in that game . So ya , LeBron wasn ' t helping anyone except his own boxscore by driving down the lane for layups in that situation .