Boston Celtics ICE: Punish & Prevent it
Some examples of the 2 different approaches
Here we spoke about the difference between punishing a help and preventing it, focusing on a situation of stunt from ball side, very common in European P&R defenses. In this post we’ll go much deeper with the idea of punishing or preventing not just a help but a coverage. Examining Boston defense, which is one of the best in NBA in general and in particular in Icing ball screen on the side.
ICE (also called blue, or push down) is a coverage where the ball handler is pushed toward the sideline, not allowing him to use the screen to the middle of the floor, due to reduce the need for help from the strong side corner, or creating an empty side for the roll of the big.
Let’s start by saying that this is not supposed to be a comprehensive guide to attack the ICE coverage, there could be more options to prevent it, but simply a panoramic view to show the “Punish vs. Prevent” dynamic in action.
1st — Punish through a short roll: The guard doesn’t try to go to the middle but “engage” X5 who has to stay in front of the ball, 5 open up with a short roll for the pocket pass on the FT more or less, to generate a 3v2 (or 4v3 if the ball-side corner is empty) on the weak side. This is ideal if 5 is a good playmaker and passer in those situations, able to keep the dominoes falling.
2nd — Punish with Snake Dribble: There are a lot of important details with this type of dribble, that’s becoming more and more popular with the years. The big man read the coverage and flip the screen, having his back to the baseline, the guard curl around him getting to the middle of the floor.
This is a great way to force the defense into a late switch, or veer, situation.
3rd — Drive baseline and kick out: What happens here is quite simple, the guard attack the baseline, again, engaging X5 is the key, because it leads to a 3rd defender having to commits to the roll, clearing up a pass to the weak side with an advantage that could lead into an immediate shot, an extra pass, or another drive and kick situation.
Let’s get into some situations to prevent the screen. These situations are mostly strategical, meaning that it’s a set, or an option, that a team has in his playbook to use specifically to prevent an ICE coverage.
There could be situations where a guard is able, with his dribbling skills to prevent the coverage and getting to the screen simply by his ability to manipulate the defender, we won’t focus on those situations here.
1st — Pistol action: Guard screen coming from below, so that even when the defense switch, as it usually happens, the defender who’s now guarding the ball won’t be in a position to ICE the action. The ball is able to get to the middle against a traditional drop coverage.
2nd — Guard screen into P&R: We see a guard to guard screen where the defenders are not able to switch to ICE the 2nd ball screen that’s coming with 5, we’ll see later in more details why it’s harder to switch and ICE on some specific actions.
In the 3rd clip in the video the guard to guard screen happens off the ball, one sprint into the handoff and the defense does a great job canceling it, but the big reads the situations and continue by passing the ball and going to screen, very hard to ice an improvised situations.
3rd — Pin down and DHO: With a Pin down on the weak side the player who’s gonna receive the DHO gain speed to get into the action with a big advantage, it’s important that this Pin down should happen involving a defender who won’t switch easily on the action.
In the last clip here the Nets makes a smart read, recognizing that Brown and Smart would have switched on the screen, Prince makes a hard cut to the basket while Dinwiddie lift, creating miscommunication and leaving him open for the DHO.
Details and reads makes the difference
These next two clips are incredible for me and incapsulate perfectly the essence of what it means to be a smart basketball player and how reads and tactical decisions, timing, are essentials to execute a strategic choice.
Same set, different outcomes: In the first clip O’Neal swing the ball to Conley and run to set a screen, Tatum is able to get in position to ICE, keeping Conley to get in the middle of the floor using Gobert screen. This is AMAZING defense by Tatum, it really is.
In the 2nd clip Niang swings the ball and run toward the UCLA screen by Bradley, Tatum goes under the screen, and as soon as this happens Niang changes direction and sets a pick for Conley. Now it’s impossible for Tatum to get in front of Conley, who takes the middle of the floor and the easy 2v1 finishes with a lob for Bradley.
Read and react to something (Tatum’s decision on the UCLA screen) makes the difference between success in preventing the coverage and failing in doing so.
I hope you enjoyed the dive into what “Punish vs. Prevent” could look like, I’d love to do more of these in the next weeks, especially focusing on the tactical skills that any players need to be successful in executing any strategy that can be necessary during a game.