Two defenders start above the free-throw line, around the elbows extended. Three stand along the baseline, one on each block and one in front of the rim. Nobody is assigned to a player. Each defender owns an area and slides as the ball moves.
Why coaches use it
It puts three bodies between the ball and the basket, so a team that cannot keep anybody in front of a dribbler can still protect the rim. It hides a slow big and a foul-prone one, because neither has to close out thirty feet from the basket. It keeps all five near the glass. And it costs far less practice time than teaching five people to guard five people.
Coaches argue about whether the corner is a strength or a weakness of a 2-3. The honest answer is that it depends on how far you tell the baseline defenders to extend. Stretch them to the corners and the short corner opens up. Keep them home and the corner three is there.
How to attack it
A 2-3 is beaten in the seams, not on the wings.
- Put somebody at the free-throw line. The middle of a 2-3 is the one spot no defender owns. A catch there with the eyes up turns the top two around and opens everything behind them.
- Fill the short corner. The ball-side bottom defender has the block, the short corner and the corner. Ask him to be in two of those three at once.
- Overload. Four attackers below the free-throw line against three baseline defenders is the whole idea.
- Reverse it, then skip it. A zone shifts slower than a pass travels. Two quick reversals is where the first clean look usually comes from.
- Screen it. A zone defender still has to be blocked out of a spot, and most of them have never been screened.
SlongeHoops’ simulated defense (Beta) will hold a 2-3 and shift with the ball while your offense runs, which is enough to see whether your spacing actually drags that bottom defender out.