Attacking Excellence: 5 Tips For Creating Scoring Opportunities In Basketball

Basketball is like a game of chess. Your players have to develop strategies to move the ball towards a scoring opportunity. It is, by no means, a game of chance, as you can’t simply lob the ball to the other end of the court in the hope that your teammate will pick it up and score.

It is a fast-paced sport played on a small court and this makes it a sport that is incredibly strategy-driven. Unfortunately, teams that don’t work on the essentials of creating scoring opportunities score less points and, consequently, lose more games.

So, without further ado, we are going to list five on and off-court ways in which your team can create scoring opportunities:

1. Quick passing

Grab your Cairns Taipans basketball, because we are going to discuss the first way your team can create more scoring situations: the quick pass. This is when your players pass the ball quickly around the perimeter to create confusion amongst the opposition defenders to the point they can’t keep up with your team’s movement.

The quicker and more efficiently your players can move the ball around the perimeter the easier it will be to find an open shot. This will take work at training, as your players have to develop this fully-efficient, quick-moving strategy, but with practice comes effect, and the more they work on it the more shooting opportunities they will create!

2. Cutting and screening

Cutting and screening is fundamental to creating scoring opportunities. Your players have to be able to cut (use their footwork to switch momentum and fool their defenders) and screen (block a defender’s passage to free up their teammate’s space) in order to create a scoring situation.

You will see cutting and screening in any professional situation and this is because it is imperative to outsmart what might be a solid defensive team. So, develop training strategies for cutting and screening that your players can take into a match situation with them – this really makes all the difference when it comes to creating scoring situations.

3. Go for the closeout

Defenders will typically attempt to closeout attackers if they appear to be taking an open shot. This is because they think they will be able to reject the player’s shot and win back the ball (or at least put the ball out of play). So, one of the best ways for an attacker to create an individual scoring situation is to fake the shot and dribble around the defender’s closeout.

The defender will likely have momentum carrying them past the attacking player once they have faked their shot and may very well create an open layup for your player.

4. Practice ball movement

Organise half-court matchups at training to ensure you can simulate practicing creating scoring opportunities. The half-court matchup is the perfect way to practice cutting, screening as well as that all-important quick ball movement. What’s more, it is imperative for teaching your players how to move when off the ball, and this is done to help them find scoring opportunities.

5. Practice the clutch shot

Basketball is probably the world sport that is most likely to go down to the wire. Therefore, if your team finds themselves in possession of the ball with two seconds on the clock, they are going to need to know how to create a scoring opportunity within those two seconds.
These shots typically involve a cut and screen or pick-and-roll (using a drop screen to create defensive confusion and overwhelm the defense). Practicing clutch situations will come in handy in many match situations – ensure your team has them on-lock.