NBA 2K20 – Half Court Press Guide

by Falagar / Articles, NBA 2K20 / 09 Sep 2019

Half Court Press

How to access the set: While on defense, press left on the d-pad, R1 to the next page, and then hit left on the right stick (note: make sure to select Half Court Press, not Half Court Trap which is entirely different)

How it looks: The person guarding the inbound man will set up directly in front of the inbounder trying to prevent the inbound pass, everyone else will pick up their matchups at halfcourt

When to run it: This defense prevents a couple of annoying things about defensive AI. First, it picks up shooters at halfcourt so your defender isn’t caught in a bad position leaving the offense to a quick open 3. Second, it’s good at slowing down turbo abusers as the defenders at halfcourt will often bump or take charges against the ball handler.

How it forces turnovers: You can get turnovers by your PG taking charges at halfcourt (especially good if they just like to turbo the whole time), steals if they are doing trying to inbound the ball near halfcourt, forcing bad passes if your opponent gets stuck/bumped by a defender near halfcourt, and the occasional steal from the AI man guarding the inbounder.

Ways to beat it/when you shouldn’t run it: Calmly getting past half-court is essential to beating this defense. If you can make a move at half court and beat the defender you may have an opening to the lane. Be careful not to do a dribble move directly into your defender or they’ll take the charge. Or if you just walk/jog your ball-handler at a diagonal to the big side of the court they can get far enough to start your halfcourt offense. This works especially well if the other 4 players are already down the court because it forces help defense to come over. Sometimes your wings will also get in front of their defenders and you can throw a lead pass towards the basket (won’t work as well if the defense C is helping there). Also, if your C isn’t a very good defender or too slow to get back to provide help you may give up a few easy dunks to your opponent.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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