bility of beating the defense
down into our scoring terri-
tory. If we see that the defense
is already set, we depend
on the in-and-out, cross-cut
weaving of our players among
the five defensive players.

If the defense we are facing
is the man-to-man type of de-
fense (and it usually is) we
count on getting one of our
players free to receive a pass
and make a shot by causing a
situation that will enable this
player to lose his guard. Dia-
gram 2 illustrates one of a
hundred such situations that
occurin theSlow Breakattack :

Guard 5 dribbles the ball
across the center line (wavy
line) then whips a bounce-

pass to his forward, 1, coming .

out. 5 then runs slightly to the
left as though he were going
to take a return pass from 1
on the inside, but just as he
reaches a point a few feet in
front of 1, 5 cuts sharply out
_to the outside, thus losing his
guard X-5, and making him-
self open for a pass on the

 

 

   

DIAGRAM 2

inside from 1. The two defen-
sive players involved here,
X-1 and X-5, sometimes at-

. tempt to “switch men”; that

is, instead of sticking to
1 when he sees what is going
to happen, switches to cover
5. However, clever offensive
players, capable of faking and
masking their intentions, and
timing their movements to a
split second, can often succeed
in losing one of the defensive
players in these plays, which
are called ‘‘screens.”’ A screen
situation develops in this