In my last article, I wrote about five tips to keep your team from giving away points in a competitive basketball game. I believe that this is such an important topic because these are things that teams can do to be successful in a year with injuries to key players. Teams can work on these ideas every day in practice to make a difference in a game when teams are evenly matched, or to make up a deficit when one team is a slight underdog.
Execution at the end of quarters often makes the difference in tight games. Here are two ideas to improve how a Basketball team performs under the pressure of the clock counting down at the end of a quarter, or even the end of the game.
If the other team does score with less than five seconds left during the first three quarters, the man inbounding should throw the ball the full length of the court inside his own basket's three point arc. The other four players should be sprinting to that spot. Since the five second count is off as the ball is basketball the trigger man should count to two before throwing (even basketball the clock is running) in order to give the other players time to run. If possible the ball should be thrown to a player and never thrown out of bounds at that end without being touched on the floor. The purpose is not necessarily to give you a chance to score, but to avoid a turnover in the back court which could lead to another score by your opponent. If the basket is made with less than five seconds at the end of the game and it either ties the game or puts the opponent ahead, everyone on the floor and the bench calls timeout as loud as they can (which will not help in a packed gym) and makes a big timeout gesture while sprinting toward the official.
Add this to your defensive rules and practice this situation. Force the ball to the sidelines in conversion defense with less then five seconds to go in the quarter. That will lessen the likelihood of a player banking in a half court shot if their momentum is going partially sideways rather than head on. It also give your players a better idea of where a rebound will go (opposite side of the shot) if there is one.
The key to implementing these ideas is for the players to be clear that this is how the team is going to handle each of these situations as they arise. Then, you must devote a regular section of practice each day to creating the scenarios by putting time and score on the clock, and then letting the players work through these situations as your team rules prescribe. If you are working with a high school team with 2 hours of practice, I would recommend 15 to 20 minutes. If you are working with a basketball team that practices less, I would say to schedule 5 minutes of situation practice for each 30 minutes of practice time allotted.
If you set clear expectations and allow for regular practice of these situations, your team will excel under the pressure of the clock counting down! It is a great feeling for the whole team to know that you won a game because you prepared and then executed your plan when it counted most!
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