There are really a few ways to beat any zone. 1) Crisp passes and sit in the empty pockets 2) Pump fake the opposite direction before making a pass 3) Overload Let's talk about overload for a second. It's like a chess match. If the zone puts 1 defender in an area, you put two offensive players there. If they have 2 defenders there, you put 3 offensive players. That's the overload. Usually it's going to be putting 3 players vs 2... that's just the way the basketball court typically works out. So, in the 1-3-1 that was giving us problems, when we put Samuel up at the top to set the high screen, we now had Zyon, Clayton, and Samuel vs the top defender and the trapper coming from one of the wings. That gets Zyon able to start driving and the defender in the middle of the zone has to step up. That now leaves one or two things open... one of the corners and then the opposite baseline. If Zyon is driving he'll see the corner open and/or a cutter on the baseline coming from the opposite direction. If it's a 2-3 you can overload, especially if they aren't playing help defense by putting a guy in the post on the strong side, a guy in the corner, and a guy at the wing. Those three will form a triangle that "overloads" the wing and bottom outside defender then you have the guy up top or another player as a fourth option. If the other team doesn't play matchup zone, then it leaves the opposite wing guy or the middle defender out of position to defend. You'll either have 3 on 2 or 4 on 2 overload depending on what you do. You can also hi-lo, which we did effectively which creates a 4-2 overload with the wings, PG, and high-post man against the two defenders up top and the middle defender. As the high-post man gets the ball and heads towards the basket, the middle has to come up and then it's 1-on-1 him vs the high-postman, and then your other guys cut to the basket to either rebound or receive a pass. If you have a guy like Sameul in the high-post, he likely wins the 1-on-1 vs the middle defender.
In the 1-3-1 the bottom defender can only defend the pass to the corner or the baseline cutter. We did not force SCAR to make the choice until the last two times we ran offense against it.
