Introduction
Tempo and pace are two of the most important things that you need to know when playing or watching basketball. While they might not sound like a whole lot, they could very well be the difference between winning games and losing them. Some people or teams choose to operate on a slow, methodical style of play. Others choose to fly up and down the court at the speed of light. They run so often that it catches their opponents off guard, and it quickly turns into a big run on the scoreboard. This brings up the question, how do you slow down a fast basketball team?
The answer to this question can come in a number of different ways. The first would be to play at a slower pace yourself, to avoid giving them an abundance of chances to get out and run. The second would be to operate on a full-court press style of defense.
This means that you start defending them no matter where they are on the court, rather than running back on defense and waiting for them. And then finally, you can have a set number of players immediately run back on defense when a shot goes into the air to avoid transition buckets.
Operating On A Slower Pace
The first thing that we mentioned when trying to slow down a fast basketball team would be to slow the game down yourself. See, it gets really enticing to sprint up and down the court with your opponents if they’re running this fast every play. You start to rush your offensive possessions to attempt to build your own momentum and usually those teams win the battle there because it was their set strategy.
A good counter would be to take your foot off the gas pedal and let them do the running in their own possession. When you or your team gets the ball, you can slow down the pace and get a good offensive possession out instead. This can halt the other team’s momentum if your team can get onto the board, give your teammates a chance to catch their breath, and forces the other team to play uncomfortably because it’s not their pace.
Full Court Press
Full court press really only works after you find a way to score points or if you’re defending an inbounds pass. Fast teams usually take turnovers and missed shots and immediately start running, which just forces people to backtrack quickly rather than setting up to defend. If you or your team makes a shot though, you have the opportunity to dictate how they start their own possession off. When they go to pass the ball back in play, you can set defenders up to guard the opponent as soon as the ball comes into the court.
Don’t give them a second to breathe out there and limit their space with the basketball. This harassing style of defense completely cuts off their vision and becomes a nuisance to deal with if you’re the opponent. This can cause unusual errors such as bad passes, poor shot selection, and much more. It takes an awful lot of energy and commitment to defend the entire court for long stretches of time, but we’ve seen professional teams go to those lengths to shut down fast basketball teams in the past before.
Don’t Match Their Speed
Some players or teams can match their opponent’s fast style of play with their own, but usually that other team has gotten good at their brand of basketball. If you’re going to play at a high pace, you should normally have that planned out ahead of time, rather than trying to adjust and match your opponent’s pace and tempo. Trying to go out and match what they are doing usually sets you up for a steep climb throughout the game. A climb that will likely watch them dominate in transition and go on numerous scoring runs.
When a non-fast team attempts to match a quick tempo, they could fall into poor habits that result in the transition buckets piling up for the other side in a short amount of time. Even in the NBA, we’ve seen fast teams rack up a 12-0 run in a matter of just one minute due to the tempo. The best thing you can do is try to stick to your own game plan, rather than panic and alternate to theirs.
Limiting Mistakes Is Huge
It doesn’t matter what strategy you come in with, mistakes can cause a fast team to take over a game. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing at a professional level or an amateur level either. A fast basketball team reacts quicker and runs faster down the floor, and mistakes lead to points on the other end fairly often. A bad pass, poor shot, or a simple turnover can fall into the other team’s possession and cause them to fly down the court while your team drags behind them.
This is why limiting mistakes against a speedy team like this can be a major difference. Don’t give them opportunities to torch you in transition or to even utilize that speed. Keep the ball in your possession as much as possible by limiting turnovers and taking good, open shots. That goes a very long way.
Scheme For It
The last thing that we need to cover is specific game plans that might prevent transition buckets altogether. Now, we mentioned this in the introduction, and it covers sending a few guys down the court right after you attempt a shot so that they are back there ahead of time. There are positives and negatives to strategies like this.
The positives are that you do limit transition buckets. Sending multiple guys back also means that you usually won’t have an odd-man rush of any kind either, which also goes hand-in-hand with limiting transition points. However, a major negative is on the offensive end. You will have very limited opportunities to get second-chance points.
There won’t be many offensive rebounds or second shots coming your way because half your down is back down the floor already. Some schemes are worth this risk, but it all boils down to what your team prefers to do.