Glossary

Terms explained the way a player understands them, then the way a coach uses them.

Actions 30

Back screen

A screen set behind a defender's back so the cutter goes to the rim. Why it beats a defender in a normal stance and how teams guard it.

Backdoor cut

A denied player cuts behind his defender to the rim. The standard punishment for a defense that plays the passing lanes.

Cross screen

A screen set across the lane, usually to free a post player for a seal on the ball side. How to set it, and the three ways defenses fight it.

Double drag

Two transition ball screens back to back, one big popping and one rolling. One defender has to cover both, and he cannot cover both.

Drag screen

A ball screen set in transition, before the defense has matched up. The quickest way to get an advantage without running anything.

Dribble handoff (DHO)

The ball handler dribbles at a teammate and hands the ball over, screening on the way past. A screen the defense cannot switch cleanly.

Elevator screen

Two screeners stand apart, the shooter sprints between them, and they close the gap behind him. A one-shot special for a set-feet three.

Flare screen

A screen that sends the cutter away from the ball rather than toward it, finished with a skip pass over the top of the defense.

Flex cut

A baseline cut off a cross screen to the ball-side block, the signature action of the flex continuity. How it is run and how it is stopped.

Floppy

The shooter starts under the rim with a single screen on one side and a double on the other, and picks whichever side his defender plays wrong.

Ghost screen

A screener runs at the ball, never makes contact, and sprints back out behind the arc. The simplest way to punish a switching defense.

Give-and-go

Pass the ball and cut to the rim. The oldest action in basketball, and the first thing a defender who watches the ball gives up.

Hammer

A baseline drive one way plus a weak-side flare screen to the opposite corner, finished with a skip pass. The help defender cannot do both jobs.

Iverson cut

A guard cuts wing to wing across two elbow screens to catch on the move. The standard answer to a defense face-guarding your scorer.

Pick-and-pop

The screener steps back behind the arc instead of rolling. The two-man game for a big who can shoot, and the answer to a defense that sits in drop.

Pick-and-roll

One player screens the ball handler's defender and rolls to the rim. The action every half-court offense is built on, and every way teams guard it.

Pin-down

A screen set low that sends a cutter up toward the ball. The most common off-ball screen in basketball, and the one with the most reads.

Pistol

The early-offense series between two guards on one side of the floor. A handoff or a ball screen, with a trailing big arriving behind it.

Ram screen

A screen on the screener's defender before the ball screen, so the big arrives free. The simplest answer to a team that hedges or switches everything.

Re-screen

The screener sets it a second time, usually going the other way, when the first one produced nothing. It catches the defense mid-recovery.

Reject the screen

The ball handler drives away from the screen instead of using it. The counter to a defender who cheats to the screen side, and to an over-committed ICE.

Screen the screener

The player who just set a screen gets screened himself. It works because defenses relax on a screener the moment his job looks finished.

Slip

Leaving for the rim before the screen is actually set. The counter to a defense that switches early or jumps out hard at the ball.

Spain pick-and-roll

A ball screen with a back screen on the roller's defender, and the back-screener popping out for three. The hardest single action to guard in drop.

Split cut

Two players screen for each other above a post entry. Every switch or bump on the split leaves the post one-on-one with the whole lane.

Stagger screens

Two screens set one behind the other rather than side by side, with four reads off them: curl, straight, fade and reject.

UCLA cut

Pass to the wing, cut to the block off the high-post back screen. The standard 1-4 high entry, what it opens up, and how to guard it.

Veer

The big shows a ball screen, never sets it, and veers down into a pin-down for the corner shooter. Two defenders end up guarding one ball.

Zipper cut

A guard cuts straight up the lane line off a screen at the block or elbow to get the ball against denial. The entry that starts a hundred sets.

Zoom

A pin-down straight into a dribble handoff. Two screens back to back with the ball moving, so the shooter is already downhill when he catches it.

Coverages 22

Blitz

Two defenders trap the ball handler on the screen and the other three cover four. The most aggressive pick and roll coverage there is.

Chase

Off the ball, the defender locks onto the cutter's hip and trails him over the screen. It takes away the catch and shoot and gives up the curl.

Closeout

Sprint two-thirds, chop the last third, hand high. Closing out at a shooter and closing out at a driver are not the same job.

Deny

One pass away with a hand and a foot in the passing lane. What denial buys you, and the backdoor cut that punishes it.

Drop coverage

The big stays back toward the rim on a ball screen while the guard fights over the top and chases. Why teams play it and how to attack it.

Gap

One pass away, a step off your man and into the driving lane. The compromise between denying the catch and protecting the paint.

Going over the screen

The on-ball defender fights over the top of the screen and stays attached to the dribbler. The coverage for a handler who can shoot it.

Going under the screen

The on-ball defender ducks beneath the screen and meets the dribbler on the other side. The coverage for a handler who will not shoot it.

Hard hedge

The screener's defender jumps out above the screen and pushes the ball backward before recovering. Not a trap, and here is how to beat it.

Hedge

The screener's defender steps out at the ball for a beat, then recovers to his own man. Why teams hedge a ball screen and how to make them pay.

Help side

The defenders away from the ball. Ball-you-man, the split line, and why help that arrives early is help that can still recover.

ICE

On a side ball screen the guard jumps to the high side and refuses the screen, pushing the ball down the sideline to a waiting big.

Low man

The bottom weak-side defender who owns the rim on a baseline drive and on the roll. Everything behind him is an x-out.

Nail help

The nail is the middle of the free-throw line. The defender standing there is the first body a middle drive has to get through.

No middle

Forcing the ball away from the middle of the floor. In most gyms it means force baseline, but check which one the staff means.

Pack line

A man-to-man system where only the ball is pressured and the other four keep a foot inside an imaginary arc about 16 feet from the rim.

Sag

One pass away, dropped toward the paint. Sagging concedes the catch to crowd the drive, and lives or dies on the closeout.

Stunt

A fake help. Show hard at the ball, make the driver flinch, then recover before you have actually left your own man.

Switch

The two defenders trade players as the screen happens. The simplest coverage there is, and the one that hands you a mismatch to hunt.

Tag the roller

A help defender bumps the rolling big for a beat and recovers to his own man. It buys time at the rim and costs you a shooter.

Top-lock

The defender stands between the cutter and the screen so the cutter cannot use it at all. It kills the shot and gives up the back cut.

X-out

The weak-side rotation where two defenders cross paths: the low man takes the rim, the next man up takes the corner he left.

Zones 7

1-2-2 zone

One on the ball, two at the elbows, two on the blocks. A pressure zone that is soft at the high post and in both corners.

1-3-1 zone

One at the point, three across the middle, one running the baseline. Long arms in the passing lanes, and two corners for one defender to cover.

2-3 zone

Two defenders up top, three along the baseline. Where a 2-3 zone is strong, where the holes are, and how to move the ball to find them.

3-2 zone

Three defenders across the top, two along the back line. What a 3-2 takes away, what it gives up, and why many teams 3-2 is really a 1-2-2.

Box-and-1

Four defenders in a box around the lane and one who chases your best scorer everywhere. How it works and the simplest ways to break it.

Matchup zone

A zone that picks up whoever enters an area and passes him on. Zone rules, man-to-man pressure, and the seams the handoffs leave.

Triangle-and-2

Three defenders in a zone triangle, two locked onto your best scorers. When a team uses it and how to make the three guard five.

Sets 8

1-4 high

Four players across the free-throw line extended and the lane empty. The alignment for backdoor cuts, UCLA cuts and elbow ball screens.

1-4 low

Four players along the baseline with the top of the floor cleared. The standard inbounds and press-attack alignment, and what it gives you.

4-out 1-in

Four players around the arc and one inside. The compromise that keeps driving gaps, a screener and an offensive rebounder at once.

5-out

All five players outside the arc and nobody in the post. The spacing that makes every drive a gap and every pass a cut.

Box set

Four players in a box around the lane. The most common inbounds alignment, because every screening angle is available from it.

Chin

The Princeton-family continuity built on a back screen for the passer and a flare on the weak side, run over and over until something opens.

Horns

One guard up top, two bigs at the elbows, two players in the corners. Why the alignment stretches a defense and what you can run from it.

Stack

Players lined up one behind the other so no defender can see the ball and his man. The inbounds alignment built for lobs and misdirection.