Do not waste timeouts early in the game to save possession on a loose ball. The timeout is too valuable at the end of the game to waste in that way. When your team makes the second free throw and you have a 3 point lead, not when you make a basket with the clock running, but when you make a free throw and the clock is stopped call time out to set your defense. It has been my experience that a set half court defense is much tougher to score against than conversion defense. You are converting to defense on a made free throw. You can also put some slight full court pressure on the dribbler bringing it up to eat up more clock.
