The 2-3 zone, drawn on a floor with a real lane
Basketball · Defence · 5 of your players
Two guards straddling the lane at the free-throw line, a forward outside each block, and the centre in front of the rim. It concedes the shot you can live with and defends the one you cannot.
Opens on a basketball pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
The two rows
Two guards side by side at the free-throw line, each on his own edge of the lane. Three along the bottom: a forward outside each block and the centre in front of the rim. Nothing else. The whole design is that five defenders are already standing between the ball and the basket before anybody has moved.
That is why it is the zone most teams learn first. The lane is occupied, the rim is guarded, and the three low defenders are inside the offence for every rebound. What the offence gets in exchange is space above the arc and space in the two short corners, which is a deliberate offer: the 2-3 asks a team to beat it with jump shots and passing patience, and most teams under sixteen do not have both on the same night.
The offences it frustrates
It is at its best against a side that drives at the rim and does not shoot, and against a side with one big who wants the ball on the block. Both run into three bodies. It is also the change of pace to make when your own guards are in foul trouble, because nobody in a 2-3 has to stay in front of anyone for a full possession.
Its soft spots are known and you should assume the opposition knows them: the gap on the free-throw line between the two guards, the short corner beside the block, and the skip pass that gets the ball across the floor faster than the shape can rotate.
What decides whether it holds
- The guards move as one body. Draw both of them shifting on a wing entry. If one chases and the other stands still, the high post is open and the diagram shows it.
- Somebody owns the short corner. Give the ball-side forward a path out to it and animate whether the centre covers the block behind him in time.
- Close out with a hand up, not a sprint past. Mark the closeout distance you want from each low defender, and keep the picture for the shooters who actually hurt you.
- Two on every rebound. Trace the two paths to the ball off a wing shot. A zone that rebounds by accident stops being a zone in the second quarter.
Pull the 2-3 onto the half court, set your five up against it, and draw the reversal and the short-corner catch that pull it apart.
Also known as
- zone defence
- 2-3 zone
- paint protection
- half court
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Put the 2-3 zone on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
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