3v3 Basketball Basics

 INTRODUCTION

Let me preface by saying I DO NOT claim to be the best player in either "Basketrio: 3v3 Basketball Arena" or "Streetball Allstar". The purpose of this guide is to improve the overall quality of gameplay in the previously mentioned titles. Therefore what I have below is what I considered the BASICS of the game. These are not advance gameplay techniques in any imagination. My wish is for every match to be competitive and enjoyable for everyone involved. It's ok to lose but I rather lose because the other team was more skillful than mine; not because my teammates were less competent than BOTS. While I cannot promise you will 100% of your matches, I can almost guarantee your win percentage will increase if you follow this guide.

Another thing I would like to mention is I mainly play "Basketrio: 3v3 Basketball Arena". I prefer this game over ""Streetball Allstar". Therefore what I have here will apply towards Basketrio. However, since the games are so similar, you can apply what you learn here for both games.

DEFENSE

Before we begin, I would like to clarify something regarding playing defense in the game: SPAMMING STEAL ≠ DEFENSE. Are we clear? Good defense is sticking with your man, not letting him/her get open, not falling for pump fakes, knowing when to rotate or switch, knowing when to press steal, and contesting or blocking the shot. I only press steal when the person I'm guarding received a bad pass (right after they do that recovery animation) or they're standing there AFK. Other than that, I'm following them around either in face up stance or normal running. 

I can't believe I even have to mention this since it's common sense but apparently many people lack that in this game so here goes... DO NOT CHASE THE BALL! Some people, I have no idea how, don't realize that when you chase the ball you end up leaving someone WIDE OPEN. This is Basketball 101 or just fundamentals right? What makes it worse is that they keep doing it! (sigh...) So once again... DO NOT CHASE THE BALL! Stick to the person you are guarding.

Moving on to defending, please refer to the picture below.

The color lines on the picture indicates who defends who during the match. This is the person you follow around everywhere. NEVER leave him/her alone no matter what. This leads me to the philosophy that I would like to establish. During a game, "ALWAYS EXPECT THE WORST OUTCOME". What does this mean? It means always expect that your rebounder will not get the jump ball or the rebound and your team will not get the loose ball. If you apply this credo to your gameplay then it translate to you NEVER leaving your man open. When the ball is in the air or when it's on the ground, the first thing that should come to your mind is NOT trying to get the ball but locate the person you're supposed to defend and run over there.

       

One thing I would like to emphasize is if you're playing a Guard (PG/SG) or Small Forward (SF), DO NOT try to "help" rebound. While you might get lucky and grab 1-2 rebounds, most of the time the main rebounder will get the ball over you. Guess what happens when the opposing rebounder gets it and you're in the paint? The ball will get passed to the person you left open and easy points. So please just stick with the person you're defending. Since you won't be "helping" to get the rebound, don't clog up the area under the basket and accidentally box in your rebounder. Give them room to maneuver.

Why do I want to institute this "Always expect the worst outcome" thinking? It's due to my teammates giving up too many points because they leave the other people open. I HATE giving up easy points that could have been prevented.  

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. If you know 100% that you can get the loose ball then go for it. If you know 100% that your team will get the ball back then run to get open. Please use your best judgement.     

DON'T BE THAT PERSON

Do you know the BIGGEST reason why most people lose (besides horrific defense)? The answer is just one word... GREED!

The picture above perfectly summarizes the majority of players' mentality in the game. They get the ball and the first thought they have is "I need to spam drive (action dribble) and try to score." Even if the other team left a man wide open to go double team, they still refuse to pass the ball. GREED. Do you want to win or do you want to try to play hero ball that results in a loss the majority of the time? The first thing that you should do when getting the ball is look to see if any of your teammates are open. If not, then you can proceed to do your thing. 

Passing = more wins = higher rank. Move the ball around, find the open man, and get the highest percentage shot.

Another issue I have observed numerous times is people are so set on the pattern of spamming drive (action dribble) into a shot that they will pass up a wide open look because their finger automatically start spamming that drive button when they don't need to. By the time all of their fancy dribble moves are finished, the defense is there, and that open look is no longer available. Notice your surrounding and don't pass up easy points because you're so used to only one thing.

Please look at the cover picture for Basketrio. From this graphic, does it seem like this game will be a true-to-life basketball simulator? Of course not! It's an arcade basketball game. So why do some people play like it's NBA 2K or some other realistic basketball sim? I laugh when I see so many people drive to the rim as a guard like it really does something. What ends up happening is they either get blocked or if they pass out nothing happens. I know some of you will tell me "Well I can dunk on people with my SG!" Yeah you can... but you're more likely to get blocked by that big Center than you "posterizing" someone. So unless you are a PF, please stay out of the paint. Trust me, stick to jump shots.

Let me give you an in game scenario that I've experienced so many times: Your team is up by 5 points, the Guard on your team gets overconfident and drives to the rim... BAM! BLOCKED! The other team recovers the ball, passes it to their open SG... and now you're only up by 2 pts and a completely momentum swing to the opposing team. The Guard, to compensate for his earlier stupid action and crushed ego, now feels like he needs to do whatever it takes to make a basket; including forgoing smart decision making. He ends up making more mistakes and your team ends up losing the game.

Main takeaway here is, unless you are a PF (or sometimes a strong SF), STAY OUT OF THE PAINT!

  TIPS

The next time you think about leaving your man and sliding over to get 1 or 2 quick steal swipes in? Don't. Please refrain from ever doing that. Any competent player will take that opportunity to pass the ball to the person you just left open.

Ok, it's time to lay out one of my biggest pet peeves in the game. Why do people crowd around each other in one area and leave the rest of the court empty? Yeah... I see that you're trying to screen for your teammate but all you're doing is bringing your defender over. Even if your teammate gets free from the person guarding him, the defender you brought over is right there to take away any opening. Why not spread out to give your teammate some room to work with? The only person that should be screening is the rebounder. They're in the best position to take advantage of screens.

Spreading out will also create open shots for you because a lot of times when your teammate manages to shake his/her defender, your defender will slide over to help and leave you wide open. If your teammate is smart, he/she will then pass the ball to you for easy points.

Another key concept that people need to learn, unless you're the rebounder, is how to play WITHOUT the ball. I understand that the game is designed around ISO play (one-on-one style) but that doesn't mean there aren't useful things you can do without the ball. First of all, NEVER STAND STILL! Whether it's to give your teammate some room, to create confusion for opposing defenses when you quickly criss-cross players, or running to get open; ALWAYS BE MOVING. As a rebounder so many times I have seen my other two teammates stand still and watch each other spam drive (action dribble). It's such a stagnant offense that's doomed to fail.

The composition of your team is also very important to winning. Speaking from experience, I prefer a team that includes a main rebounder (C/PF), a main passer (PG), and a main scorer (SG/SF).

• Rebounder: gets the rebound, prevent people from driving to the basket, be the middle passing/distribution point, helps out on screens, scoring option (I'm not a good scorer so I have that last)
• Scorer: put the ball through the hoop, perimeter defender, make the opposing defense focus their entire attention on you, create openings for your teammates to score easy points (this means PASS THE BALL to your open teammate if the other team starts sliding extra people over to your side)
• Passer: floor general, get the ball to the scorer or open person (know when to pass the ball), perimeter defender, make the other team pay for doubling your scorer

I'm traditional when it comes to team composition. I prefer my scorer to be SG or SF. I dislike playing pillar with a Center and scoring PF (but a lot of people love playing this style so good for them). I always want a PG on my team. My experience with a SG masquerading as a PG has never been good because the SG always end up reverting back to trying to score.

Please don't play weird lineups like three Centers, Center-PF-SF, PG-SG-SF, etc... the weird lineups never turn out well.