BuzzerBeater Forums

I have the home court in my first playoff game with 8 enthusiasm (no one else manages this in my league) and my opponent is stacked at the PF position. He has 5 power forwards, 1 center, 1 shooting guard and 1 point guard. He plays his PF's from 2-5 and has his point guard at the 1 spot and has done so all season, so I can assume he'll continue this into the playoffs. He always plays M2M and Base offense. Since I'm in D.V and all of the players are less skilled overall, I assume that positions are a little more indicative of the player's overall skill allotment. I'd like to think that all those bigs lack in handling and passing and with that thinking, I was wondering if anyone else would also assume that the low handling and passing would be conducive to a full-court press defense or a 2-3. The idea behind full-court press is that his PG (lowest salary of his starting 5) would be forced to pass the ball prior to setting up his offense, resulting in more turnovers from his presumably more clumsy bigs. With the 2-3, I'd think his low salary PG (shooting 20% from the arc),his PF playing out of position at SG (shooting 32% from 3) and his PF playing SF (Shooting 30% from 3) would be relegated to tossing up 3 pointers because my ID is relatively good. I have 2 key injuries in my back court to my better defensive stoppers, but still have a PG, SG and SF with OD at 8, 9 and 5 respectively and my ID at my SF, PF and C positions are 7, 7 and 9 respectively. My only concern with the 2-3 is that even with a wall of defenders in the middle, the defensive strategy would break down with a rise in my opponent's 3 point shooting. I would play M2M defense, but I feel like I'd be outmatched pretty heavily at the SG position, should he choose to drive and get inside shots there. I don't have much practice with testing my tactical mind as my league doesn't generally offer competitive play week to week so I figure I'd leave it someone more experienced to help me oot.

PFs can have pretty good handling and passing, as those two skills aren't that important for a players' salary (unless he's a PG). So your thinking is a little risky there. More generally, for low salaries, PFs are often the most balanced players overall.

Putting your best outside defender on their PG in M2M might be a good idea though, as you'll likely get some FCP light that way.

lol... I dont unsually think about games that hard. Things don't always go as expect you here in buzzer beater. Well base offense and m2m worked for you the last game you were competing so, that's an option. You can try 2-3 zone because inside scoring is his best offensive weapon. FCP is a risky defense, you should have high stamina and rebounding for it to work, but if you do it would be a good defense against him. For offense go for an inside focus or neutral. Don't go for outside focus because your outside shooting is still not that good. Teams that go inside always have FG% than those outside. You MIGHT get lucky on 3 pointers on this game but you also MIGHT NOT. Going outside is a gamble so just go for something thats for sure will have a higher percentage inside shots. Well I think you surely are gonna win with the right tactics. Good luck!

I would use 2-3 and i'm pretty sure that would get the job done in defence.

I ended up winning the game. It was pretty exciting. 2 of his players ended up fouling out and he had one injury somewhere in the middle of it, but I ended up using playoff normal with base offense and a 2-3 zone for defense. My SF and my PF were both 1 assist away from having triple doubles and from watching the game, I want to say that him only having an 8 man roster was really detrimental to his play. Towards the end of the game, it seemed as though his players all just wanted to get off the court for some gatorade because every time his team could, they subbed out. I grabbed 10 more boards than his team did playing smaller and what I guess I would call less rebound oriented players. His PG I think was the catalyst of his offense when playing my 2-3 because that dude was setting up a lot of shots that they didn't make. I don't know how big of a role the 2-3 played in slowing his inside players down, but I came out with the victory and am moving to the semi-finals in my first season to play the only undefeated manager in my league (I CT'd him earlier in the season and got smashed). Thanks for the earlier input guys.