Pick and Roll Coverages play
Coverage: Ice the Side Ball Screen
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 11 steps
About this play
Ice, also called blue or down, on a side ball screen: the on-ball defender jumps to the high side above the screen and turns parallel to it, forcing the handler baseline and away from the screen; the screener's defender calls ice early and drops to the lane line below the screen, keeping his body between the ball and the rim, and he stays on the handler there until the dribble is dead or his teammate has recovered and waves him off, then gets back to the screener with his hands high so the pop pass has to go over him. The weak-side wing slides to the nail to tag the roller, the weak corner defender is the low man, and the strong corner defender stays home because the corner is the only easy pass. What it concedes on purpose: the baseline drive into the big, the sideline pull-up, and the pick-and-pop if the screener shoots. Why that trade: a contested two from seventeen feet is the lowest-value shot in the game, and ice is built to hand the offense that shot and nothing better; ice's advantage is that the handler never gets to the middle of the floor where he has every option. The offense's counter is the reject and the step-up re-screen: the handler refuses the screen and drives baseline past the high-side stance, and if he is contained, the screener flips and sets a step-up with his back to the baseline so the handler comes back middle. The coverage's answer is that the big stays level with the step-up, the on-ball defender jumps back to the high side, and if the handler breaks middle the weak wing peels onto the ball. Common mistakes: the ice call coming late, icing a middle screen, and the big sitting so deep that the pull-up is uncontested. Ice came from Matt Woodley's ice breakdown drill on Championship Productions, Coach's Clipboard's defending screens page, and Breakthrough Basketball's coverage guide; give them a look if you want to install it properly.
