What is the Concept of “Playing with Advantage” in Basketball?

How your team consistently creates advantages depends on your player’s unique strengths and weaknesses, as well as what may be most effective based on the tendencies of other teams in your league. For instance, is playing as fast as possible complementary to your team’s skillset, or what triggers and coverage solutions may best fit your players to consistently create an advantage? Regardless of how your team creates advantages, the key principles for how your team converts them are known as “dominoes.” In this blog, we’ll unpack these three principles of dominoes to improve your team’s offensive efficiency. 

The Principles of Dominoes

1. Zero second decisions: shoot, pass or drive in less than 1 second. 
   1. The San Antonio Spurs called this .5 decisions. 
   2. It is more important to make a decision quickly rather than make a right decision slowly. Otherwise you give the defense time to get back in front. 
   3. Avoid excessive fakes and jabs which allow the defense to get back to neutral. 

 

1. 1 Can’t Guard 2: Space appropriately on the court so 1 defender cannot guard 2. 
   1. After a drive and kick out, the passer must re-space out to an empty spot on the court. 
   2. Off-ball players a single gap away from the drive must move with a push, pull or hold (if in the corner). Players further away may create a window for a pass or cut to increase the likelihood of the dominoes sequence ending with a wide open shot. 

 

1. Floor is Lava: Avoid catching the ball right on-top of the 3PT line or inside the midrange area. This is especially important for younger players.  
   1. You will see this in the modern game with offensive spacing templates being 5 out or 4 out 1 in with that 1 player in the dunker. 
   2. Sprint to re-space after a drive and kick. 3 seconds to “escape the lava” to create space for the next drive or the next cut. 

 

Learn more about dominoes in this video:

 

So how do you go about bringing these principles to life? Some of our favorite Transforming small-sided games to work on these principles are listed below:

3-on-2 Continuous Bursts

1. Offense stays for 60 seconds. Offense scores 2s and 3s. After each possession, a new team of 2 defenders come on. 
2. You can add constraints to reinforce dominoes principles: 
   1. Turnover = no 0 second decisions
   2. Turnover = not sprinting to re-space / catching the ball in the mid range “lava” 
   3. Turnover = no push, pull, hold 

Remember – turnovers can act as the best immediate consequences to more aggressively educate intention!

3-on-3 Continuous Advantage

1. Offense goes around a cone/coach (coach can change locations) and defender follows. If offense loses the advantage, it is a turnover and defense continues by going around the cone. 
2. Make it take it. If defense rebound they go on offense – must go around the cone/coach. 
3. Constraints:
   1. Turnover for no zero second decisions
   2. Gold medal finishes (inside the restricted area) are worth double) 
   3. Can only shoot a ROB shot (rhythm, open, balanced) in order to stay on offense for the next possession.

 

Dominoes in Action

Below, see how the Boston Celtics trigger dominoes. Jrue Holiday then does a great job of getting into and out to space (floor is lava).  

In the next video below, see some exemplar Zero Second decisions after 2 go to the ball. 

Finally, you can see the “cut and slide” after the initial trigger. This is a way to prevent 1 from guarding 2. This is a trend more teams in the NBA are now utilizing. 

 

Want to learn more about playing with advantage? Be sure to check this clinic out with Transforming’s founder, Alex Sarama. 

Want to keep learning with Transforming Basketball? Access our FREE skill acquisition workshop (value $147) to learn more about small-sided games and using an evidence-based approach in your practices: https://transformingbball.com/online-skill-acquisition-worksho