Basketball Offense - Attacking the Triangle-and-2 Defense

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Some teams might try to defend your best two perimeter players by using a "triangle and 2" combination (junk) defense. They place three defenders inside in a triangle formation, playing zone and protecting the paint. The other two defenders play your best two outside players man-to-man. I believe that this is somewhat like attacking man-to-man defense, although man-to-man set plays won't work as well.

The three inside defenders are much like man-to-man helpside defenders. If you have a good man-to-man offense, like the "Read and React" or some other good motion offense, you can probably just run that without any major changes. Or you might consider the offense below. It's very similar to our "Runner" offense, that is used to attack 1-2-2 and 1-3-1 zone defenses.

The defense is in a triangle zone inside (diagram A) and are playing our two best perimeter scorers O2 and O3 man-to-man. We attack this from the baseline. O1 passes to O3 and cuts through to the right corner. O3 passes to O2, and O2 passes to O1 in the corner (diagram B). O1 could shoot the 3-point shot. If he/she is a decent shooter, X4 will have to come out to defend. O4 cross-screens X5 and O5 cuts ball-side for the pass from O1 and a lay-up (diagram C). It's possible that the X1 defender may have dropped down here, but it's still usually a mis-match with our bigger, stronger O4 against X1.

Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense

If nothing develops, O1 passes back to O2 and runs the baseline to the opposite corner (diagram D). O2 passes to O3, and O3 passes to O1 in the left corner - you can see the continuity from side to side. Now we have the same options (diagrams E and F) - O4 cross-screens as O5 cuts ballside for the pass and lay-up.

Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense

If nothing develops, O1 passes back out to O3 and runs the baseline to the right corner (diagram G). O3 passes to O2. Diagram H shows a good option. If O1 has made a couple shots from the corner, the defense will close-out quickly on our "runner" O1 - so a pass-fake to O1 followed by a quick pass directly from O2 to O4 is often open for a lay-up. This is something O2 and O3 are always looking for - they read the outside low defender. If the defender runs out, look for the quick pass inside. If the defender stays in, pass to the corner. A lob to the opposite block might be there as well (diagram I).

This offense stretches the defense down to the baseline. Before long the X1 middle defender will be dropping down to help inside. Now your scorers O2 and O3 can look to breakdown their defenders and penetrate for their own scoring opportunities.

Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense Attacking the Triangle and 2 defense


Set Plays for Attacking the Triangle-and-2 Defense

Here are two set plays that you can use for attacking the triangle-and-2 offense... (more in the members section)

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The complete article also includes:
  • Two Set Plays for Attacking the Triangle-and-2 Defense
  • An animation


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