Half courtvs man3 phasesRuns 6.1 s
Hammer
A baseline drive one way, timed with a weak-side flare screen that sends a shooter to the opposite corner. The defender who rotates over to stop the layup is the one who has to recover to the corner, and he cannot do both.
Open in the appRun it, tilt it, put a defense on it, change it. Free to start. No account, nothing to install.
Phase by phase
1Phase 1
Start it with a simple wing entry — 1 fills the slot behind the ball.
- 1 passes to 3
- 1 cuts to the left slot
2Phase 2
5 sets the hammer before 3 gets to the block — 2 flares off it to the corner.
- 5 screens for 2
- 3 dribbles to the left dunker
- 2 cuts to the right corner
3Phase 3
Skip it across the baseline; the help man can never get there.
- 3 passes to 2
- 2 shoots
Teaching points
- The drive has to be a real drive. If the baseline help does not come, there is no hammer.
- 5 sets the screen before the ball reaches the block, not as it arrives.
- 2 flares to the corner, away from the ball. He never drifts up the sideline.
- Throw it across the baseline, low and hard, past the rim and not over it.
- 2 catches with his feet already pointed at the basket.
The hammer is a trade the defense cannot win. Drive the baseline hard one way, and at the same moment screen the weak-side corner defender the other way. Somebody has to rotate over to stop the layup, and the man who does is the one responsible for the corner he just left.
Here it starts with a plain wing entry and 1 filling the slot behind the ball. Then 3 drives the baseline while 5 flares 2 out to the far corner.
The read
There is one question: does the help come.
If the low defender steps across to wall off the rim, he has given up the corner, and the skip across the baseline arrives before he can turn around. If he stays attached to the corner, nobody is at the rim and the drive finishes.
You are not choosing between the layup and the three. The defense is.
Where it breaks
Timing, every time. The screen has to be set while the ball is still moving toward the baseline. Set it a beat late and the rotation has already happened, and the shooter arrives in the corner after the help defender has recovered.
The pass is the second thing. It travels across the baseline under the rim, which is the shortest line, and it should be thrown off the dribble without gathering. A lobbed pass over the top gives the recovering defender the time the screen just took from him.
Practice the pass on its own with a coach on the baseline. It is an unusual angle and players have to throw twenty of them before it feels normal.
Counters
- If they switch the flare, the screener has a smaller man on him at the weak-side block. Look inside off the drive.
- If nobody helps on the baseline drive, finish the layup and run it again next possession.
- If the corner defender ignores the screen and stays home, the driver has a one-on-one all the way to the rim.
baseline-driveflareoff-ball-screencorner-threeskip-pass