Late in the Los Angeles Lakers' 109-106 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, it looked as if point guard Jeremy Lin had lost his mind. Kobe Bryant had cut the Grizzlies' lead to one point with a 3-pointer with 24.2 seconds left, so the Lakers obviously needed to foul and extend the game. With the ball in Memphis point guard Mike Conley's hands, Lin did not take the foul. Even when Bryant was screaming at him to do so. Eventually, Bryant ran over and fouled Conley himself.

Lin was asked what happened, and he said Los Angeles head coach Byron Scott repeatedly told him not to foul:

That's just horrible time management by Scott. It's not as if the coach was imploring his team to trap Conley and try to force a turnover. It's not as if there were three or four seconds left and he could conceivably hope that the Lakers could get a stop, a rebound and a timeout. Here's his explanation:

So, Scott wanted to wait until there were 10 seconds left instead of having close to a full shot clock. He thought "it wasn't going to make much of a difference" if the Lakers had as much time as possible. He even told Bryant that it was his judgment call to hold off. I can't figure this one out.