Baseline Out of Bounds play
BLOB Box: Fake Cross and Back
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 12 steps
About this play
The sixth look from the box and the one you call after the defense has started showing on the cross screen: Breakthrough's "Fake Diagonal" and Coach's Clipboard's "Down and Back". The play begins exactly like the screen-the-screener layup, with 5 stepping up as if to cross-screen X4 and 4 starting his cut; the first trip shows the defense's adjustment, X5 stepping up early to show on the cutter and X4 cheating over the top of the screen. The counter uses both: 5 never sets the screen, plants, and cuts straight back to the ball for the layup, and 4 fakes his cut off the screen and back-cuts along the baseline to the rim behind the defender who went over the top. The elbows run their normal pops so the perimeter looks identical. Why it works: a defense that shows early on the cross screen has two defenders above two cutters, and the fake turns both of them into layups. The read is X5 stepping up. Common mistakes: 5 setting a real screen out of habit, 4 cutting back too early, and the inbounder looking at the fake instead of the back cut. Fake Diagonal came from Breakthrough Basketball's box series and its video on punishing switches, Down and Back from Coach's Clipboard's 3-Down; read them if you want the rest of the box.
