Effectiveness during ball screens in elite basketball games

Abstract Ball screens are one of the most frequently used tactical behaviour in elite basketball games. The aim of the present study was to identify their predictors of success related to time, space, players, and tasks performed. The sample was composed of 818 ball screens corresponding to 20 close games (mean differences in score of 3.1 ± 0.8 points) randomly selected from the playoff games of the Spanish Basketball League (2008–2011). Classification tree analysis (CHAID) was used to analyse which variable or combination of variables, better predicts effectiveness during ball screens. The main results allowed identifying interactions with dribbler actions after the screen and the orientation of the screen on the ball. The results showed no interaction with game quarter and quarter minute temporal-related variables in both analyses. The present findings allow improving coaches’ strategic plans that involve selecting the most appropriate offensive approach when performing ball screens.

[1]  S. Zipfel,et al.  Giving everything for athletic success! – Sports-specific risk acceptance of elite adolescent athletes , 2014 .

[2]  Scott L. Thomas,et al.  Multilevel and Longitudinal Modeling with IBM SPSS , 2010 .

[3]  Júlio Garganta,et al.  Trends of tactical performance analysis in team sports: bridging the gap between research, training and competition. , 2009 .

[4]  L. Capranica,et al.  Women’s Water Polo World Championships: Technical and Tactical Aspects of Winning and Losing Teams in Close and Unbalanced Games , 2014, Journal of strength and conditioning research.

[5]  J. Sampaio,et al.  Effects of quality of opposition and match status on technical and tactical performances in elite volleyball , 2011, Journal of sports sciences.

[6]  Wenhao Liu,et al.  Skills and Offensive Tactics Used in Pick-up Basketball Games , 2009, Perceptual and motor skills.

[7]  Andy Field,et al.  Discovering statistics using SPSS: and sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, 3rd Edition , 2009 .

[8]  Xing Liu,et al.  Multilevel and longitudinal modeling with IBM SPSS , 2011 .

[9]  S Trninić,et al.  System of the performance evaluation criteria weighted per positions in the basketball game. , 2000, Collegium antropologicum.

[10]  Keith Davids,et al.  Sports Teams as Superorganisms , 2012, Sports Medicine.

[11]  Barry Drust,et al.  Performance analysis research: Meeting the challenge , 2010, Journal of sports sciences.

[12]  Ian M Franks,et al.  Sport competition as a dynamical self-organizing system , 2002, Journal of sports sciences.

[13]  J. Sampaio,et al.  Discriminant analysis of game-related statistics between basketball guards, forwards and centres in three professional leagues , 2006 .

[14]  D. Kyriakou,et al.  Comparison of effectiveness of organized offences between two different championships in high level basketball , 2005 .

[15]  Leonardo Lamas,et al.  Space creation dynamics in basketball offence: validation and evaluation of elite teams , 2011 .

[16]  D. C. Howell.  Statistical Methods for Psychology , 1987 .

[17]  Keith Davids,et al.  Sports teams as superorganisms: implications of sociobiological models of behaviour for research and practice in team sports performance analysis. , 2012, Sports medicine.

[18]  Paul Godbout,et al.  Collective Variables for Analysing Performance in Team Sports , 2013 .

[19]  T. McGarry.  Applied and theoretical perspectives of performance analysis in sport: Scientific issues and challenges , 2009 .

[20]  Noam Tractinsky,et al.  Criticality of game situations and decision making in basketball: an application of performance crisis perspective , 2000 .

[21]  A. Nevill,et al.  Improved training of football referees and the decline in home advantage post WW2 , 2013 .

[22]  Peter O’Donoghue,et al.  Routledge Handbook of Sports Performance Analysis , 2013 .

[23]  D. C. Howell.  Statistical methods for psychology, 3rd ed. , 1992 .

[24]  Martin A. Volker.  Reporting Effect Size Estimates in School Psychology Research. , 2006 .

[25]  David Biggs,et al.  A method of choosing multiway partitions for classification and decision trees , 1991 .

[26]  A. Tversky,et al.  The hot hand in basketball: On the misperception of random sequences , 1985, Cognitive Psychology.

[27]  Jaime Sampaio,et al.  Ball possession effectiveness in men's and women's elite basketball according to situational variables in different game periods , 2013, Journal of sports sciences.

[28]  Hubert Remmert.  Analysis of group-tactical offensive behavior in elite basketball on the basis of a process orientated model , 2003 .

[29]  Tim McGarry,et al.  Space–time coordination dynamics in basketball: Part 2. The interaction between the two teams , 2010, Journal of sports sciences.

[30]  Keith Davids,et al.  Performance analysis in team sports: Advances from an Ecological Dynamics approach , 2013 .

[31]  David W. Eccles,et al.  Competition-specific preparation and expert performance. , 2009 .

[32]  B Dezman,et al.  Expert model of decision-making system for efficient orientation of basketball players to positions and roles in the game--empirical verification. , 2001, Collegium antropologicum.

[33]  Keith Davids,et al.  Constraints on competitive performance of attacker–defender dyads in team sports , 2012, Journal of sports sciences.