Welcome to the final part of our 3 part defensive tutorial series. I will now go over how to limit your opponent’s fast break offense with good transition defense.
Think of transition defense like a fortress. When you attempt a shot, the more players you have back defending the fort, the better chance you have of preventing an easy shot on the other end. In basketball terms, the more people around the perimeter, the better. So today, I’ll go over how you can improve your transition defense so you’re not giving up free points at the other end.
One of the main reasons and easiest ways to avoid getting hurt on the fast break is not falling asleep at the wheel. What I mean by that is when you shoot a perimeter shot, we have the tendency to watch our shots when they’re in the air, so essentially we’re just standing there flat flooted hoping the shot goes in.
So if our opponent gets the ball, the guy that was just defending us is already running full sprint the other way leaving us in the dust. You can slow this down by switching after you shoot to a guy near the paint and go for a rebound attempt. By doing so, you increase your chance at a rebound, and the computer will respond accordingly to the opponent running the break.
The only spot this becomes a problem is when you’re shooting from the corner. Since you’re not between the opponent and the basket, it’s basically a spring the other way. For your slower offensive players, this is a problem. You want to make sure your point of emphasis is set to limit transition, as it forces the guys in the corner to slowly backpedal once the shot is in the air. It won’t make your slow footed shooting guard any faster, but will give them a head start defending the break.
If you’re facing guys that like to take off as soon as you shoot, you simply just take off with them just in case you have nobody else back there to meet them (this goes for shots in the corner and towards the middle of the court).
As I stated earlier, the more players around the perimeter, the better chance you have of defending the break. So a 4 out 1 in offense is set up well to defend the break by default, but can spring a leak very easily if somebody starts admiring their shots again.
A lot of guys in 2K and real life live off fast breaks points, so by taking that option away it really forces them to be that much more effective in the half court, and you’d be surprised how ordinary some guys become.