My Tips for Playing Online

[JamesAld]

Whats up everybody?I'm not the best player on NBA 2k9, but I do win at about a 75% clip.I play on the 360 and my GT is Jaaames6.I'm a "Hall of Famer" and all that noise.I've beat some guys with really good records and I've lost to flat our scrubs that get lucky once in a while.I'm not gonna claim to be the most sim player, but I don't try to score in cheap ways or do crazy stuff on defense. I play all 12 of my players every game. Of course, the 11th and 12th guys only get a minute or 2 of run, but the games are short.

I understand most people have a very difficult time playin defense online, but I think I have found the way to play the closest thing to realistic man defense that this game can present. I'm not about calling zone, switching to man, calling half court trap, and all that in the same posession.

DEFENSE-First, I go to the Coach Profile and put the help D at 90. Second, I put the HELP D Slider almost all the way up on the "On the Fly Menu."My defensive pressure is almost all the way down to cut down on the backdoor cuts and what not.It leads ot better position defense.The CPU is better than me at post defense, but I'm better at perimeter defense. Onball defense is very effective if you have a pretty good defender. Everyone online is always trying to trigger the DRIVE animation.When that animation comes, you better have help there, but I have found out how to stay in front of my man. Don't try to pick up your man full court so he can get a full head of steam. Start defending your man at the 3 point line. Stay close enough to have the lock on icon up, but don't lock on yet. When you are close with the lock on icon up, position your man in front of the ball handler and get squared up with him, then LOCK ON. You should get an animation that makes him switch directions, then LOCK OFF, get squared up and infront of your man, take away which direction he wants to go (Look at which hand the ball is in)then once you're squared up, LOCK ON.
I play perimeter defense because I won't fall for the pumpfakes like the CPU.When you're contesting a shot, DO NOT jump until the shooter leaves his feet.Push the left stick in the direction of the shooter when you contest and make sure you're pretty close to the shooter. Don't reach much or you'll take yourself out of position.
In the post, I usually double team. When you get the double team, you'll have to icon switch (RB + A,B,X,Y,or LT) and manually bring over the defender, then the rest of the defense will rotate correctly.Most people are not good at passing out of the double team quickly.If you don't want to double team, you can deny the post player the ball by pressing the Left Trigger and you will begin fighting for position. Be ready to steal the ball. When they catch the ball, you can attempt to defend them, but make sure you stay squared with your man. When you're not squared with him, UNLOCK, get squared with him and lock back on. Most players have tendencies, so pick up on those and take away what they like to do. Some players refuse to shoot 3's. If that's the case, play the 2-3 zone if you can't keep them out of the paint with man to man. The most important things on defense are to stay close enough to your man to have the lock on icon up, cut off the driver's angle, then lock on. When they change directions, lock off, cut off the angle, then lock back on. There will actually be help D with these settings. I think that if the pressure is higher, the CPU will attempt to take a lot more charges. Understand your personnel! Shot blockers change the game and good perimeter defenders are very difficult to get around. There are good shot blockers on almost every team. Taller defenders get more blocks on the perimeter too. Blocked shots also come from good position D and forcing the offense into a difficult or awkward shot.

OFFENSE-I don't have any crazy tips on offense, but you can play sim and play under control and be very effective. When you throw the ball into the post, most guys first reaction is to reach like crazy. When you catch the ball, don't dribble. Press and hold the Left Trigger. This protects the ball and you won't get stripped. Depending on how far you are from the basket, you can do the up and under without dribbling. I use the default camera, so the moves are camera relative. Press the shot stick toward the basket once, then quickly again. This move is tough to defend when all the human player does is reach because he doesn't contest the shot. The other move that can be triggered without dribbling is the pump fake and hop step. This move can cover a decent amount of ground. Again, don't dribble and hold the Left Trigger then pump fake in any direction, move the left stick to your desired direction and press Y or Right Trigger + Y (which is more aggressive). Use the Adaptive AI! If you hold the ball, players will come off screens and you can get really good looks. Use icon passing to get your player open coming off these screens. Icon Passing is brought up with RB and then you pass to A, B, X, Y, or LT. If the defender goes over the screen, lead your player to the opposite direction and you will gain a lot of space. Lead them in whatever direction you desire by pressing the left stick in that direction. The most important thing is to play under control, don't turn the ball over, and take good shots. If someone is trying to strip you on a breakaway or dunk, let them reach, then go up and do your move. A quick play that I use that I never see used is the pick and pop.If you have a capable midrange or 3 point shooter, press Left Trigger and B and dribble towards the pick a few dribbles and you should have the pop man open for an open look.Also, go to practice mode and practice the release points of the players you'll be using. Don't forget about the Mid Range Jumper!If you get by your defender, there will be an open area between the the man you just beat and the help defender.Open Mid Range Jumpers go in at a very high rate. My best advice is to watch the player's wrist and when he's about to release the ball.

I hope this helps.Ask if you need any clarification or any advice and I'll try to help. I'm just tryin to help you guys that want to be successful online without exploiting the programming of the game and want to play realistically.You can post this on other sites if you find it helpful.

[Joey P]

Great tips...

[sikmachine]

Great tips for online. Found some useful stuff in there. One tip I'd like to add for offense is that typically when playing someone online, people like to run after the ball looking for a steal with their point or off-guard. I personally like it when they look to double team outside. This means that one of your guys is open. Get the ball away from the double (and hopefully to your open man). If the shot looks good, take it. But what I usually see happen is the opponent will switch their player-controlled guy to cover your open man. This not only causes mismatches, which can be used for iso plays or postups, but if you use smart ball-rotation you can make them chase the ball and leave a man open. Easy buckets.

Hope that made sense
~Sik