🏀Glossary

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3x3 3x3 basketball

FIBA's official half-court 3-on-3 format, added to the Olympics starting in Tokyo 2021. Played with one hoop and one ball, shots inside the arc count for one point and outside for two, and a game ends at 21 points or after ten minutes, with a 12-second shot clock. A four-player roster (three plus one sub) makes it far easier to enter than 5-on-5, and open tournaments are held regularly in the US as well.

Alley-oop Alley-oop

A play in which a pass is lofted near the rim for an airborne teammate to finish with a dunk or layup before landing. The most common form is a lob thrown to a big man rolling to the rim off a pick-and-roll. For the defense, it's the standard counter that breaks drop coverage, and a high-risk, high-reward option that turns into a turnover the moment the timing is off.

And-one And-one

A situation in which a player scores while being fouled, with the basket counting and one additional free throw awarded — turning a two-point shot into as many as three, or a three-pointer into four. Driving into contact on purpose to draw an and-one is a skill players train specifically, and it carries the side benefit of pushing the defense closer to the team-foul bonus.

Assist Assist

The statistic credited to a player whose pass directly leads to a teammate's made basket. The exact standard varies slightly by league — some allow a dribble or two after the catch and still count it. The share of a team's field goals that come off assists is used as a measure of whether that team relies on individual talent or ball movement.

Backcourt violation Backcourt violation

A violation called when the offensive team, having advanced the ball past midcourt into the frontcourt, brings it back into the backcourt — the offense loses possession as a result. Simply stepping on the line with the ball counts. It's paired with the separate rule that the offense must cross midcourt within 8 seconds of gaining possession, and it's the most common breakdown point for inexperienced teams facing full-court pressure.

Block Block

A defensive play in which a player uses their hand to deflect and stop an opponent's shot. The ball must be touched before it starts its downward arc — after that point it's goaltending instead. The suppression effect matters more than the counted total: teams with an elite rim protector see opponents attempt fewer shots at the rim in the first place, and make a lower percentage of the ones they do take.

Bonus (team foul penalty) Bonus (team foul penalty)

The state reached once a team's fouls in a quarter pass a set threshold, after which the opposing team shoots free throws even on a non-shooting foul. The NBA, FIBA and most US leagues all allow four team fouls per quarter before the fifth sends the other team to the line for two shots. It's also why a trailing team late in a game will deliberately foul to stop the clock.

Box out Box out

A technique for securing rebounding position by getting a body between an opponent and the basket the instant a shot goes up, and pushing back with the back and hips. The trick is to find the opponent first and make contact with your back, rather than watching the ball. It lets even a shorter player contribute meaningfully to team rebounding, and it's one of the fundamentals that decides the most games at the amateur level.

Buzzer beater Buzzer beater

A shot that leaves a player's hand just before the horn sounds to end a quarter or the game, and still counts if it does. The release must come before the buzzer, and professional games use video review to check it down to a tenth of a second. With 0.3 seconds or less remaining, a catch-and-shoot motion is considered physically impossible, so only a tap-in counts as a legal score.

Charging Charging

An offensive foul in which a ball-handler runs into and initiates contact with a defender who has already established position, cancelling any resulting basket and turning the ball over. If the defender hasn't set their feet before the contact, it's a blocking foul on the defense instead. The distinction turns on whether the defender's feet were planted and stationary at the moment of contact, and whether they were outside the restricted-area arc near the basket.

Closeout Closeout

The move a help defender makes when sprinting out to contest a shooter who has just caught a pass on the perimeter — one of the most frequently repeated defensive actions in modern basketball. The technique is about balance: shortening your stride to control speed while raising a hand to contest the shot, without overcommitting and opening up a drive. Break down here and a drive-and-kick play converts easily.

Crossover Crossover

A dribbling move in which the ball is switched quickly from one hand to the other in front of the body to break a defender's balance the opposite way, a signature move of Allen Iverson. Its effectiveness comes less from hand speed than from the setup move that shifts the defender's weight beforehand. Carrying the ball on your palm during the move can be called a carrying violation.

Double dribble Double dribble

A violation in which a player who has already finished a dribble starts dribbling again, or bounces the ball with both hands at once, resulting in a turnover. A dribble is considered finished the moment a player grips the ball with both hands or lets it come to a complete rest in the hand. It's one of the most common beginner mistakes, usually happening when a player hesitates on a pass or shot and dribbles again without thinking.

Drop coverage Drop coverage

A pick-and-roll defense in which the defender guarding the screening big man drops back toward the paint to protect the rim and the rolling player together, rather than chasing over the screen. It concedes a mid-range pull-up jumper to the ball-handler in exchange for stopping shots at the rim and lobs. It's the default for teams with a dominant rim protector, but it's punished heavily by a shooter like Stephen Curry who can pull up from deep.

Dunk Dunk

A shot in which a player, holding the ball, forces it down through the hoop from above the rim. With a success rate near 100 percent, it's basketball's single most efficient scoring method and a play that can flip a game's momentum instantly. The rim height is a uniform 10 feet (3.05 meters) at every level except youth basketball, and an adult man typically needs a standing vertical leap of at least 28 inches to dunk.

Euro step Euro step

A move in which a player, after gathering the ball, takes one long step in one direction and then a second step in the other to slip past a defender before finishing. It's legal because the two-step gather rule allows two steps after picking up the dribble. It came over from European leagues, was popularized through Manu Ginóbili and James Harden, and is now a basic finishing move taught even at the youth level.

Fast break Fast break

An offense pushed quickly up the court right after a defensive rebound or steal, before the opposing defense can get set. Its expected points per possession are noticeably higher than a set half-court offense against a set defense, making it the cheapest scoring route in the modern game. Success depends not just on speed but on spacing wide — shooters need to fill the corners so that three defenders can't cover five attackers.

Flagrant foul Flagrant foul

A foul called for contact that goes beyond the normal bounds of a basketball play — such as hitting a shooter's legs in the air or striking near the head. It awards the opposing team free throws and possession; the more serious Flagrant 2 results in immediate ejection and further discipline. Borderline plays are re-reviewed and re-graded on video.

Free throw Free throw

An unguarded one-point shot awarded to a fouled player, taken from the free-throw line 15 feet from the basket. A foul on a two-point shot awards two free throws, a foul on a three-point shot awards three, and an and-one awards one. Because the clock is stopped, free throws often decide close games late, and they're also the basis of "Hack-a-Shaq" style tactics — deliberately fouling a poor free-throw shooter to send them to the line.

Goaltending Goaltending

A violation in which a defender touches a shot while it's on its way down from its peak arc, or while it's inside the cylinder directly above the rim; the basket is awarded automatically with no whistle needed. If an offensive player touches the ball in the same situation, it's basket interference and the shot is disallowed instead. FIBA and most non-NBA leagues, unlike the NBA, let either team play the ball once it touches the rim, which changes how the call is applied.

Isolation Isolation

An offensive set in which one player is given the ball while the other four clear to the opposite side, creating a one-on-one matchup — commonly shortened to "iso." Its points-per-possession efficiency runs lower than structured team offense, but it remains an essential release valve when the shot clock is running down, when there's a clear mismatch to exploit, or late in a tightly guarded playoff game.

Layup Layup

A shot taken by driving or cutting all the way to the basket and laying the ball softly off the backboard or into the rim — basketball's most basic shot and its highest-percentage one. The convention is a left-foot plant with a right-hand finish when driving right, and a right-foot plant with a left-hand finish when driving left. A player who can't finish on both sides gets that weak side taken away immediately by any real defense. Two steps are allowed after the gather.

Mismatch Mismatch

A matchup created — often through a defensive switch — where there's a significant gap in size or speed between the two players guarding each other, such as a slow big man stuck on a quick guard, or a small guard stuck defending a much taller player in the post. Modern offenses deliberately run repeated screens to hunt for these mismatches, while defenses counter with a "scram switch" to reroute back to the correct matchup.

Paint (key) Paint (key)

The painted rectangular area between the free-throw line and the baseline, also called the key or the lane. It's the highest-percentage scoring zone because it's closest to the basket, and also the most heavily defended. Offensive players can't stay inside it for more than three seconds, the NBA applies a separate three-second limit to defenders as well, and points scored from here are tracked separately as points in the paint.

Pick and roll Pick and roll

A two-player action in which one player sets a screen for the ball-handler's defender and then immediately cuts toward the rim — the single most common action in professional basketball. It forces the two defenders involved to instantly choose between fighting over the screen, switching, or dropping back, and reading that choice to punish it with a pull-up jumper, a roll pass, or a kick-out pass is the basic grammar of modern offense.

Post up Post up

An offensive move in which a player establishes position with their back to the basket near the paint and backs a defender down before finishing. From George Mikan to Shaquille O'Neal, it was the center of basketball offense for decades, but it declined sharply after the 2010s once analysis showed it produced under a point per possession on average. Today it mostly survives when a mismatch is available, or for a skilled passing big man like Nikola Jokić.

Rebound Rebound

Gathering a missed shot as it comes off the rim or backboard — an offensive rebound if it's your own team's miss, a defensive rebound if it's the opponent's. An offensive rebound resets the shot clock to 14 seconds instead of 24 and creates a second scoring chance on the same possession, sharply raising expected points. Positioning, boxing out and reading the shot's trajectory matter more than height alone.

Screen Screen

A play in which one player uses their body to block the path of a teammate's defender, freeing the teammate up — also called a pick. The player setting the screen must have both feet planted and be standing still; moving into the contact is an offensive foul called an illegal screen. A screen set for the ball-handler is an on-ball screen; one set for a player without the ball is an off-ball screen.

Shot clock Shot clock

The time limit — 24 seconds — within which the offense must attempt a shot that hits the rim, or lose possession. An offensive rebound resets it to 14 seconds rather than the full 24. Introduced to the NBA in 1954 on a proposal from Syracuse owner Danny Biasone, it's regarded as the single most important rule change in basketball history, eliminating stalling tactics and raising scoring by roughly 14 points a game.

Spacing Spacing

The principle of positioning all five offensive players far enough apart that a defender can't guard their own assignment and help on the ball at the same time. It's the foundation of modern offense, and its key real estate is the corner, the shortest three-point shot on the floor. A "five-out" alignment, with all five players stationed outside the arc, pushes this principle to its logical extreme.

Step-back Step-back

A jump shot in which a player finishes a dribble by taking one big step away from the defender to create space before shooting. It's the signature weapon of players like James Harden and Luka Dončić and has become emblematic of modern individual skill. It's legal under the two-step gather rule and isn't traveling by itself, but moving the feet before actually gathering the ball is.

Steal Steal

A defensive play in which a player intercepts a pass or knocks the ball away from a dribbler to take possession. Because it often leads directly into a fast break, a single steal is sometimes described as worth four points in swing. Statistically, though, a high steal total doesn't automatically mean a good defender, since gambling for steals can break down team defensive shape.

Switch Switch

A defensive scheme in which two defenders trade assignments when a screen is set, neutralizing the action entirely rather than fighting through it. It gives up almost no open shots since there's no need to chase over the screen, but it accepts the resulting mismatch instead. It works best for a team with five interchangeable defenders in the 6'4"-6'9" range — Boston's championship defense in 2024 is the prime example.

Technical foul Technical foul

A foul assessed for unsportsmanlike conduct unrelated to physical contact, such as arguing a call, taunting, delay of game, or improper bench conduct. It awards one free throw to the opponent, and possession usually stays with whichever team already had it. A second technical on one person results in automatic ejection, and a coach losing composure at the wrong moment can flip a tight game entirely.

Three-pointer Three-pointer

A shot taken from beyond the arc that counts for three points when made. Both feet must be completely behind the line at the moment of release, though landing inside it is fine. The NBA arc is 23.75 feet at the top and 22 feet in the corners, while FIBA and most other leagues use a uniform 22.15-foot arc. The simple arithmetic that three points is worth 50 percent more than two has rewritten basketball tactics since the 2010s.

Three-second violation Three-second violation

A violation called when an offensive player stays in the paint for more than three seconds without attempting a shot, resulting in a loss of possession with no free throws. It exists to keep the area directly under the basket from getting clogged. The NBA also has a separate defensive three-second rule barring a defender from camping in the lane without actively guarding anyone, but FIBA and most other leagues don't have it, which is why international paint areas tend to be more crowded.

Traveling Traveling

A violation for moving beyond the allowed number of steps while not dribbling, resulting in a loss of possession with no free throws. Modern rules allow two steps after the gather, so a play can look like it involves a lot of steps on broadcast and still be legal. Lifting the pivot foot and setting it back down before a pass or shot leaves the hand, though, is unambiguously traveling.

Triple-double Triple-double

Reaching double figures in three of the five major statistical categories — points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks — in a single game, most often in points, rebounds and assists. It's treated as a symbol of a player's involvement across every phase of the game. Russell Westbrook has averaged a triple-double for an entire season four times and has also passed Oscar Robertson for the career record.

Turnover Turnover

A mistake that hands the ball to the opponent without the offense ever getting off a shot attempt — covering bad passes, dribbling errors, offensive fouls, traveling and shot-clock violations alike. A single turnover costs more than two points in real terms, since it both wastes your own possession and hands the opponent a fast-break opportunity, and it's usually where scoring margins open up in amateur games.

Zone defense Zone defense

A defense in which each defender is responsible for an area of the court rather than a specific opponent, unlike man-to-man. The 2-3 zone and the 1-3-1 are the most common versions. It protects the paint and the rebounding triangle and hides a weaker individual defender, but it's vulnerable to a skip pass into the free-throw-line area or the opposite corner. The NBA has allowed it only since the 2001-02 season.

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