Special Situations: Box-and-One

By: Lee Rose

Originally Published in: Winning Basketball Fundamentals

Provided by: Human Kinetics

The box-and-one is designed to guard one player man-to-man and to defend the rest of the team in a zone. The intent is to shut down a high scorer or at least limit the player's good view of the basket and reduce his points. Sometimes coaches assign the one man (in the box-and-one) to the opposing team's best ball handler, hoping to disrupt their playmaker.

Focus

Proper alignment and execution versus box-and-one.

Procedure

X2 is assigned to O2. Players begin on the half court in the LA offense. Follow these steps:

1. The offense begins by attacking the box. O1 initiates by passing to O3 and getting a return pass. O1 then passes to O2, who passes to O4. O2 dives to the strong-side block and screens X4.
2. O3 uses the screen on X4 and clears to the strong-side corner.
3. O4 passes to O3 and clears to the weak-side block (figure 9.22). O1 replaces O4 on the wing for the pass, and O5 remains at the high post in the middle and opens to the ball.
4. The realignment places O1 with the ball at the wing position, O3 in the ball-side corner, O5 at the high-post elbow ball side, O4 on the weak-side block, and O2 on the ball-side block, setting a screen on X4 and attempting to occupy two defenders.
5. O1, O3, and O5 establish a passing triangle, each looking for an open shot (figure 9.23). The objective of the offense is to find the open holes in the defense and get the best shooters to those spots.
6. If the point guard, O1, decides to reverse the ball on the dribble, O2 uses O4's screen for a turnout. In this scenario, O5 would stay at the high post and cross the free-throw lane to form a triangle with O4 on the block and O2 on the wing.