Closing out Games When Leading

When playing sports there some obvious and some not so obvious things that the athlete needs to work on and experience in order to get better.  Some of the things that are obvious, is experiencing the intensity of a game, hitting a jump shot in a game, shooting a free throw in a game.  The list goes on and on.  The obvious choices are almost all fundamentals based and they are all important.  One of the most important areas of a basketball game often gets overlooked by teams and coaches alike.  These are end of game situations and one of the most important is how to close out games that your team is winning.

During the game, most kids tend to relax as the game is approaching the final quarter and they find themselves up by a couple of baskets.  This is the wrong attitude to take in a game where a couple of baskets can turn a game completely on it's head. As a matter of fact at the end of a game that is close, against a good team what you should be expecting is their best shot.  It is at that point in the game where you can expect the other team to do the following:
  • Use their best lineups
  • Use their best plays
  • Play pressure defense
  • Use maximum effort.
This is the reason close games against good teams are difficult to win.  When the game is on the line and it's almost over, your team should not shut down but rather should step up their effort to bring home the result they want. At this point in the game I like to remind my players that we need max effort on defense and smart plays on offense.  I don't necessarily pull my team out of our standard sets on offense until about the last 2 minutes or so, but before that I do like to remind them that the score is on our side and the enemy now is as much time as it is the opposition.  It is at this point where I like to run our standard sets but swing the ball around.  If the other team is in a man, then I like to spread them out and run some pick plays to set people free.  Defensively, I don't take the foot off of the accelerator.  I firmly believe that it is at this end of the floor that you win games.  Especially close games.  The team that plays tough defense, rebounds, and grabs loose balls at the end of the game will usually come out ahead.

In closing I want to remind everyone that the toughest thing in basketball is to close out a close game.  As tough as it is, end of games are very often sacrificed at practice usually because of time constraints.  It is wise to try to find time in practice to expose your team to these situations but if time is limited, you do need to at least discuss it with them so they can understand what you expect at the end of the game.

More to come on end of game scenarios.

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