As I’ve stated in my previous post, defense is what will separate you from the “faceroll” average 5-Out + Blow-by cheesers. Offense, IMO, is significantly easier. If you have 5 players that can shoot the ball, & you learn 1-2 3-point plays, you should rarely, if ever, have a difficult time shooting 70%+ (& also at least 50% from 3).
Defending the 5-Out is incredibly challenging. Positioning is crucial. If they’re attempting a blow-by dunk from the top of the key/elbow, a lot of times, I’ll off-ball with whatever defender (guarding the corner 3) is on the side that the ball-handler is driving, & then, I’ll go for the body-block/bump-steal at just the right moment. If I miss the steal, I’ll immediately close-out my wide-open opponent sitting in the corner (and if my timing/micro-predictions were correct, I will have secured a perfect “stop”/canceled-action.
All that being said, even with my switch-all set & settings/PoEs, this is still far from perfect. I know (err, willing to bet/hope) that there are far superior defensive methodologies out there.
One of the most frustrating games I played yesterday, was against this guy named ‘Munkays’ on XB1. He was Ruby tier, and I was 50 points away from PD tier. Within 3 minutes of the game, I was down 2-14… He went up by 20+, and I rage-quit. He was just immediately doubling me every single possession (couldn’t run plays), and like 4/5 times it resulted in a steal. Despite my smart passing (no other option but to pass it to the wide-open man), his aggressive/risky defensive plan proved to be insanely successful. I never thought Duct-tapig LB down or running a half-court trap all game long would be that rewarding.
That got me thinking though, does this actually work for any of you throughout the entire course of the game? Are there any additional settings/tips to make this even more successful?
That’s normally what happens, and they eventually stop. However, I don’t know why, but he was getting a bump-steal or pass interception almost every single time.
True. I went on a 9-0 winning streak at the start of this round (& my squad is almost unimprovable). “Maximize player engagement”- he’s winning too much. Jokes on them, I’m sitting at 10,535 (rank 77 on XB1) for the season. Ill forgo the extra 50 points, and take my 8K MT. They basically forced me to quit playing this round (not worth decreasing my chances of getting PD KP).
On the topic, as Fra said, I love aggressive double teaming. You see it coming, pass out of it and you play 4v3 game with lots of space immediately. If you are smart like Draymond, you will get an easy shot. Obviously you have to pass soon enough, with the way double teams work in this game, sometimes there are too many bump steals, deflections etc.
I’ve only made a serious run at PD 5 times now (and have gotten it every time).
I went 15-3 back in February (got Glen Rice). I immediately went 16-4 the next round (got Trillsap). Flash-forward to this round, and I went like 18-5 (K-Mart), 17-5 (A. Dantedly), and now I’m 17-5 again this round. Ill frequently go on 6-7 game winning streaks.
Not that I’m 100% refuting equalizer, but the way I figure it, if it actually is a thing, it’s a phenomenon everyone has to incorporate (most people have been on both the positive and negative ends of the equalizer effect). It shouldn’t be the ends-all/means-all justification for as to why someone and their overpriced team can’t make it to PD. I’ve been running a God-squad since February (had PD Harden, Amy Giannis, Pistol Pete, Boogie, Wes Unseld, Diamond Ray Allen, Diamond VC, etc.) and it doesn’t seem like I’ve been punished that greatly for it.
I sprinkle this in periodically. I normally run it a couple times really early to see how my opp handles it. As stated in several posts above it can be beat when ready for it.
One of the main tactics with it is to manually bring up the trapper right away while you are still in the backcourt. This way the trap will initiate right away, AND it will be with the trap defender the defense prefers. There is a trick to this that some are very good at triggering.
One extremely simple way to beaat the trap is to simply start with your pg, then before getting to half court pass to your sg. The defense will likely be a mess from trying to trap your pg and already in scramble mode.
I tell you a better option, use an amy or ruby PF who has good ball control when those bumpsteals are effective, go small ball if needed. When they can’t succeed, you can hit 30 3s and it goes in so there is no problem there. They also stop double teaming. As long as your opp is stealing, pressure will increase till 4th q especially if you have a few pd cards lol.
That effective one is icon double-teaming with extended pressure for your guards, set to tight or medium depending on your guards shooting ability of course + halfcourt press or trap. When you extend pressure it looks like fullcourt press but it is actually not. Defender chooses a player and sends him for the double team then offballs after 1-2 onball steal attempts, mainly try to intercept the pass or defend the shooter u pass, so he basically offballs most of the time. It’s easier to guess u usually pass your Sg or Sf in these situations cuz you look for an open shooter and your opponent had practised it many times before. They succeed mostly cuz you panic, your player lost the ball few times before. Icon passing does not work everytime, especially if you keep bricking open shots. Spacing the floor or Warriors motion cuts style wide offences tend to fail in this scenario. You need a tight offence not a wide one cuz you are already bricking shots or passing out of bounds somehow.
Use your C or PF so you can get a cpu controlled matchup and since less experienced ones uses their C to block your possible open shots, PF is a very good choice. The main thing is observing which player your opponent uses to defend when he sends that double team on you. I can guarantee you he is not controlling one of those more than 1-2secs (that is if he ever controls one) Change your player in that position accordingly, pass reception is extremely important along with playmaking abilities. Easy ones offballs with their center, dangerous ones change it everytime so it’s really hard to deal with. You have to go small ball.
I was playing one of the online Moments challenges last night and was playing a guy that was running full court press every possession. It’s easy to just pass up court for the easy buckets and I had the lead (the guy was pretty bad), but I remembered at the start of the 2nd quarter that I was just playing a Moments challenge and not Super Max, so I quit lol. It’s not fun to play that way all game for me, even if I know I’m going to win the game. So yeah, it did work for that guy I guess lol. He could have his 4K MT and I got to keep the 15 minutes of my life I would have wasted continuing to play that shit.
In superstar, onball defense goes from 50–>60 which is the most significant difference in all difficulty details, it changes the gameplay completely. Onball defense is rewarded when it’s compared to allstar. I love those online moments challanges, gameplay is what it is supposed to be
I recommend having players with the blue personality badge “Championship DNA” in your lineup(s) — at least your primary ball handler. It highlights double teams with the red rings and allows your player(s) to successfully pass out when being double teamed.
That’s easily the equalizer. Ruby Baron Davis was legitimately the best point guard in the game for a month or two, and now he’s back to being just as effective due to the influx of pink diamonds on everybody’s teams lmao.
I am like ‘o ooh here they comee’ Seriously, when people leave settings auto, cpu starts double teaming pd cards after a few buckets. They cause panic so i find em less useful in most situations.
