How The Kings' Countered The Nets' Screen-Switching

[SeabassP]

Against the Kings late, the Nets switched every single screen. Here is how the Kings countered:

http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/10/30/the-n ... countered/

[SacKingZZZ]

Interesting. Looks more like lazy D from Morrow than anything. Teams do a lot of unnecessary switching, Jason Thompson does it a lot for us. Switching where it's not really necessary even if the idea is to do it on every possession can kill you sometimes. Tough shot by Cisco though, not a total breakdown defensively.

[OGSactownballer]

Fundamentals of defense dictate that you should always be READY and ABLE to switch off a screen.

However, the first option is ALWAYS to go over or under the screen as long as you do not lose your man and the help from the other defender should come in the form of only a slight shadow reach or side-step to let the offensive player know that he is not entirely free and can be switched on if necessary.

A classic example of properly playing the switch came when Beno ended up guarding Varejao the other night and was able to hold his position enough against the larger player at a point far enough from the basket that AJ had to essentially shove him out of the way to go to the basket resulting in an offensive foul. Stockton and Malone did that for years because Stockton was strong enough in the lower body to position and hold himself against stronger bigs while Malone was long and quick enough laterally (like JT and it seems Cousins) to stay with the guard.