Baseline Out of Bounds play
BLOB Box: Back Screen Lob
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 13 steps
About this play
The lob from the box, Coach's Clipboard's "Box-54" with its switch counter built in. The two elbows pop first, the shooter to the ball-side corner and the point to the weak wing, which empties the lane; then 5 steps across and back-screens X4, and 4 plants and cuts hard over the screen to the front of the rim for the two-handed overhead lob. Why the plant before the cut: a defender who locks and trails reads the cutter's first step, and a hard plant gives him a first step that goes nowhere. Fran Fraschilla's version of the play, on the same site, is where I picked up the plant. The read is X4's head: when he turns to look at the ball, 4 goes. The counter is for the defense that switches the back screen and sends X5 with the cutter: 4 keeps cutting and takes X5 with him to the far block, and 5 pins X4 on his back, turns to the ball-side block, and takes the bounce pass for the layup. Common mistakes: the lob thrown flat instead of over the top, the cutter going before the screen is set, and the elbows standing still so the lane is crowded. Box-54 comes from Coach's Clipboard's box plays, as does Fran Fraschilla's version with the hard plant, and I covered a youth version of the lob in a video on the Elite Hoops channel.
