Sideline and After Timeout play
SLOB Backcourt Rip: Elbow Jumper at the Buzzer
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 8 steps
About this play
Boston's sideline out of bounds play for Jayson Tatum's overtime winner against Brooklyn on October 27, 2026: down one, 2.3 seconds, Derrick White inbounding from the sideline at the top of the key. Payton Pritchard starts behind the play at the center circle. Tatum comes out of the lane to the top of the key and sets a rip screen, a back screen, for Pritchard, who cuts off it to the rim and clears to the far side. That cut is the first option and the decoy at once: if Brooklyn loses him, it is a layup; if they switch the screen, which they did, the screener's man is now on the cutter and the cutter's man, a guard, is on Tatum. Tatum pops back toward the ball off his own screen, catches at the top of the key with two seconds, takes two dribbles to the free-throw line against the smaller defender, and shoots over him at the horn. Why the screener is the scorer: a defense guarding a rip screen watches the cutter, and the man who set it is the one nobody is thinking about when he steps back to the ball. Why the catch comes toward the ball: a short pass gets in with time to use, where a lob to the cutter from the sideline does not. Personnel: 2 is your best scorer off two dribbles and a willing screener, 1 a guard who will sprint the cut even when he knows the ball is not coming, 3 a passer who stays calm at four seconds. The read is the defense's answer to the rip: if they switch, the scorer attacks the guard off the catch; if they stay home and the cutter's man trails him, the cutter is open at the rim and the inbounder throws it there. If the defense denies the pop, the far-side pair are the pressure release at the top. Common mistakes: the screener leaving the screen before the cutter has used it, the cutter jogging the decoy, and the inbounder locking his eyes on the scorer so the layup never exists. I drew this one off the broadcast film the night it happened; the clip is in the links on this play, and the sideline package post on the site has our own back screen for a two beside it.
