The Basketball Fast Break Of Our Time

We saw this coming, but the signature move in basketball today is launching a three-point shot attempt. Amazingly, an inanimate, painted object that gets stepped on hundreds of times during a basketball game is now a central part of game strategy. It has totally changed how the sport is taught and played, including the proper execution of a fast break. So let’s review what took place in the waning seconds of the February 25th contest between the visiting Washington Wizards and the Denver Nuggets, which ended with the basketball fast break of our time. Even with multiple players involved, the dominant figure was the three-point line itself.

WHAT HAPPENED?

In a nationally-televised contest on Thursday, February 25th, the Washington Wizards were involved in a tight contest with the home-standing Denver Nuggets, held a two-point lead, and had the ball late. A Nuggets player got his hand on a Wizards’ missed shot with about six seconds remaining in the game and slapped it towards mid-court. With four Wizards’ players under the basket, including one on the floor, the Nuggets found themselves going in the opposite direction with a rare four-on-one fast break and the ball in the hands of their second-leading scorer, Jamal Murray.

Murray streaks up the left flank and appears ready to shoot a three-pointer for the win, but with the Wizards’ Bradley Beal flying towards him and Rui Hachimura chasing him down as well, he opts to pass the ball to one of his three wide-open teammates. Surely, with most of the Wizards’ players still stuck in the backcourt, one of Murray’s three lane-running comrades would have already headed towards the basket to catch the pass for an uncontested layup or dunk, and overtime, right?

THE POWER OF THE THREE-POINT STRIPE

With no defender within 25 feet of the basket and three offensive players able to run the hoop without resistance, it was astonishing to watch all three position themselves at different spots behind the three-point line and become frozen there simultaneously. Murray’s only remaining option was to pass the ball to a teammate behind the three-point line for a rushed shot that barely clipped the rim. Ballgame over.

You could even see Bradley Beal with his hands on his head in disbelief at winning this game in regulation time.

The three players stopping behind the three-point line couldn’t have looked more synchronized had they practiced it. They all slammed on the brakes simultaneously, were evenly spaced with one on the baseline, one at the free-throw line extended, and one at the top of the three-point arc, and no one stepped over the line. It looked like they were playing “Red Light, Green Light.” Like Yosemite Sam had drawn the line and dared them to cross it. Like there was quicksand or shark-infested waters on the other side of it. Such is the power of the three-point stripe.

TIME, SCORE AND OTHER THINGS

Basketball coaches at all levels implore their players to be aware of game situations: time, score, timeouts remaining, etc. Some experts have argued that the correct play in this situation was to go for the win on a three-point shot, but if I’m Denver, there’s no way I’m employing this strategy.

The Washington Wizards were at the end of a four-game Western trip, playing their third game in four nights, including back-to-back runs against the Los Angeles teams and, on this night, playing in the thin air at high altitude in Denver. The Wizards’ Russell Westbrook, Bradley Beal, and Rui Hachimura had already logged close to 40 minutes on the court. Denver’s last game was two days prior, also at home. I’m taking my chances of playing an extra five minutes against a tired squad and going for the high percentage shot to tie the game.

NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT

This is not to beat up on the Denver Nuggets, as they acknowledged their mistake and will move on from it. You can probably find a four-on-one fast break run that way in any basketball game you watch at any level. This one garnered a lot of attention because it happened at the very end of a close game that was nationally televised. The fact is that no one runs those old Red Auerbach fast breaks with regularity anymore. The three-point line has changed the way fast break lanes are filled. This was just one highly-publicized example.

COACHING MATERIAL

The Wizards-Nuggets game’s final seconds should be a point of emphasis to teams at all levels during upcoming practices. The Nuggets know how to run fast breaks; we’ve seen them do it. There is, however, a clear issue at the lower levels of the sport. We can dream about this incident being a transformational moment in the sport, but it’s not going to happen. The three-point shot is too popular. No one emulates Lebron James’ moves on the playgrounds because they’re too difficult even to try. But anyone can attempt a three-point shot; all you need is a ball, a basket, the ability to shake off failure, and that damn line. Your verticals don’t matter. Even if you never make a shot, you can try. And if you develop some marksmanship from that range, it can open some doors for you.

THREE-POINT SHOOTERS WILL SHOOT THREE-POINTERS

I remember watching a New York Knicks-Indiana Pacers game on television back in the mid-1980s. Market Square Arena in Indianapolis was nearly empty this night, and you could hear more court conversations than usual. The Knicks’ Trent Tucker was a long-distance specialist. No one shot the three with the frequency they shoot them nowadays, but this was Tucker’s game’s clear strength. One play found him with the ball ahead of all his teammates and all the Pacers, except for one defender. Instead of driving around the bigger defender, Tucker pulls up behind the three-point line and launches a shot, and you could hear an exasperated Knicks’ coach Hubie Brown yell out, “Oh, Jesus Christ!”

I don’t even recall if the shot was successful or not, but the point is that three-point shooters will shoot three-pointers, whether they’re really three-point shooters or not. In the Nuggets’ case, their best three-point shooter is the guy who passed the ball. The guy who shot the ball has the lowest field goal percentage of anyone on the team who plays significant minutes. The other two are right around the league average in terms of three-point field goal percentage. But a layup or dunk was the safer play.

THAT LINE CLAIMS YET ANOTHER VICTIM

It’s unfortunate, but fast-break basketball is but one of the sport’s components, including low-post play and the midrange shot, negatively impacted by the popularity of the three-point field goal attempt. Hopefully, like the plodding, roughhouse style of ball we saw a couple of decades ago, it’s just another phase of a constantly evolving sport that can’t evolve quickly enough