On a ball screen set toward the sideline, the on-ball defender jumps to the high side of the dribbler, gets his shoulder above the screen and refuses to let the ball go middle. The dribbler is pushed down the sideline instead, where the screener’s defender is already waiting near the elbow or the block. Two defenders and the sideline make three, and the offense is playing in a corner of the floor.
The same coverage has several names. ICE is the most common in English; you will also hear blue, down and push. They mean the same thing, and every staff is certain theirs is the real one.
ICE only applies to a side screen. A screen at the top of the key has no sideline to push the ball toward, so a team that ices everything still has to play that one straight up.
Why coaches use it
It keeps the ball out of the middle of the floor, which is where every drive and kick starts. It needs no rotation, so the weak side can stay home on shooters. And it asks the big to do one thing he is usually good at, which is stand in front of the rim.
How to attack it
- Flip the screen. The screener re-sets on the other shoulder and the coverage is dead, because the ball is now going middle.
- Slip to the middle. As the two defenders commit to the sideline, the screener dives into the space they left.
- Reject it. Attack the middle before the on-ball defender has established the high side.
- Set the screen at the top. There is no sideline to push toward at the top of the key, so most teams play a middle screen straight up instead.
- Skip it. Two defenders on one side of the floor means the weak side is short a body.