Baseline Out of Bounds play
BLOB Box: Low Clock Catch and Shoot
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 10 steps
About this play
The box with under three seconds on the clock, when there is no time for a dribble or a second pass: Coach's Clipboard's five-second baseline play and Mike Fratello's "Special" as Breakthrough teaches it. On the handoff the two posts take one hard step up from the blocks and set stationary screens on the lane lines; the two elbows fake a step inside and sprint off them, the shooter to the ball-side wing and the point to the weak wing, and the inbounder hits the shooter in the shooting pocket for an immediate catch and shoot. Why the posts screen from the blocks and not the elbows: the screens have to be set below the shooters, so a defender who tries to slide under runs into the screen instead of beating the cutter to the wing. Fratello sets them exactly this low. The read is X2: trailing over the screen means the pass is on time. The counter is for the defender who top-locks the shooter, standing on the high side to deny the pop: the shooter plants his outside foot and cuts backdoor through the paint for the lead pass at the rim, and the posts seal. Common mistakes: the shooter catching and dribbling with two seconds, the inbounder waiting for the slap, and the screens set a count late so the defender is already through. The five-second play is Coach's Clipboard's and Special is Mike Fratello's as Breakthrough Basketball teaches it; Coach Calls Timeout's last-second baseline video will take you deeper.
