Played the #3 team in Pro Am yesterday... (PS4)

[ajd2t]

We matched up with the #3 team in Pro am on the PS4 yesterday (Highlight Zoo 376-10) and I just wanted to share a few observations to let people know what to expect if you get matched with one of the top ranked teams.At the time we were 34-0 and #315.

Their team setup was:

2- PG's

1- SF/SG

2- Outside centers

They played an extended trapping 3-2 on Defense. They tried to steal almost every pass so that opened up quite a few holes if they didn't steal the ball.

The 2 centers would start in the paint and extend out to the corners. If someone tried to cut through the middle of the floor they would hold the take charge button and if you were using turbo they would draw the offensive foul. They managed to draw 6 offensive fouls this way. First time we had encountered that tactic in Pro AM.

The majority of the points they scored were in transition. As soon as we put a shot up the 2 PG's were out and both of the big men had the Break Starter badge. It was the first game i have played where every full court pass a team made was completed.

They weren't particularly impressive with their half court offense.They usually setup in a 4 out 1 in set.Most of the time the PG would try to isolate up top and have a center set a screen around the top of the key. The PG would try to penetrate and either take the layup or kick to an open man if someone tried to help out. If that wasn't there their offense usually broke down and led to a turnover or contested shot.

I don't think the SF scored more than a couple points. Most of the scoring was done by the two PG's or one of the Centers that took advantage of being left open on the perimeter.

The biggest problem we had was rebounding. I believe they ended up out rebounding us 36-21 which led to quite a few easy second chance points in the paint.

We got behind 10 or so points before we made a run to bring it within four towards the end of the 3rd quarter. They answered with a 3 at the end of the 3rd to take a 7 point lead and we never recovered. We ended up losing by around 15.

I just wanted to give some insight on what to expect if anybody here gets matched up with a high ranking team that way hopefully you can be more prepared for what they are trying to do than we were lol.

[barond57]

Yup sounds about right. The top 100 teams don't really win by basketball tactics. We usually play tops teams pretty tough. The main thing is to play smart and slow. Keep TOs to a minimum and the guards need to run back after every shot to stop fast breaks. As you mention before teams like that don't do well if you force them to play halfcourt offense

[Pokes404]

We've played some high ranking teams before (I think the highest ranked team we've played was in the 60s), and we were pretty heavily overmatched from a physical standpoint. A lot of my teammate's MyPlayers are still in the low-mid 80s and I have an 89 OVR stretch PF.

These games are all about controlling the pace and keeping their extra possessions down. That means limiting turnovers as much as possible and controlling the defensive glass. And of course, you have to play good defense and force them to take contested shots.

The team we played liked to play a 3-2 zone and deny the pass back to the PG at the top of the arc. That didn't last long though because my PF has a killer midrange and all I had to do was work elbow to elbow. Even when the backside wing tried to come over and contest my jumper, it left me an easy pass to the opposite wing for an open 3. They played man-to-man the rest of the game.

BTW, we lost by 2 in the end. It was a fun game though.

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Being a top 100 team I've faced quite a few of them . I can tell you the worst are the top 20 guys. It's always 2 really short great ball handling guards with speed. Then it's usually 2 really big guys who can rebound and one who can shoot. The next guy is always a SF/SG who usually is a non factor in the game . They play zone first and foremost . The bigs always have break starter . The guards cherry pick their butts off all game.

Scoring against these teams is never the problem . Defending them at half court is never the problem. They live off of fastbreaks and dribble moves. You really have to be patient . Use your fake pass button . They gamble a lot. They double and over play a lot . If you aren't patience you've already lost. Also you pretty much need at least 1 7'3 big man with maxed rebounding and the badges for this game . Limit bad shots . I've lost to some of these teams and beaten some.

I've only faced one legit top 100 team and those guys played through the high post and backdoor feeds . Other than that all these guys play the same .

[jyoung]

2K really needs to go into the sliders for this mode and downgrade pass accuracy/pass reception on long outlet passes.

The constant cherry picking and 80-foot outlet passes being caught in stride over the shoulder is the biggest gameplay flaw in Pro Am.

These passes should be flying out of bounds, or if they're caught at all, the receiver should go into the bobble animation that incapacitates him for a few steps while he regains control of the ball.

[de5m0n]

Played against #6 at the time team The Contract Killaz led by Kiing Doomz.

My team had 1 friend, 2 randoms that I never played with and computer at PF.

We lost by 16 points because they took advantage of the computer (it finished with 1 rebound at pf slot) and our offense wasn't the sharpest since i never played with those 2 randoms and computer is useless.

i feel like we could of beat them or made them sweat if we had a semi experienced team. their offense was butt ugly (my matchup ended with 7 turnovers) but their defense did give us some problems but they would of been corrected by 2nd quarter if played with familiar teammates.

[HowDareI]

Yep, see the same thing almost 100% on Xbox.

Used to be a top 100 team until we got too many losses (I don't play games were ANY one of us lags out) I play to play with my friends irl and if we win it's cool but it's not that serious...but I digress lol

Them teams really aren't good at basketball, they're "good" at 2K; at finding the exploits and nuances and once you learn how to counter one team doing it you can gameplan for probably all the top 50 teams lol.

We played probably I'd say 10 games from the top 100 teams and a couple of the top 15 the best being number 9.

Honestly without lying we won all but the first one. Like I said, we couldn't figure out how to counter the things they were doing.

We got me as a 7'3 center and my friend's a 7' center. I put it on my son I refuse to get outplayed at the center position lol, I go for 20 and 20+ in them games because just like in real life there's nothing you can do to counter a dominant center on offense or defense.

If you don't got two REALLY GOOD big men on your team you're going to lose 99.9% of the team. And they both gotta know how to board and rotate, and limit turnovers. No scoring in the paint, no post ups. All your opportunities gotta be off the glass or in transition or off a good cut.
The second you post up it's getting ripped by someone doubling.
You also gotta have a couple sharpshooters that'll make the D pay for gambling.
And your point has to be smart at setting up the offense and getting back on defense. The pg should almost never drive against these teams, because regardless his matchup is gonna leak either off a make or miss it don't matter.

[hengk23]

good to see another philly native in here (south philly) over here

anyway yea me and my team play the same way if one of us lag out we all quit . Like you said we get on to play as a team not get on and have someone wait 40mins till next game.


just dont know how they are gonna go about this eSports mode if the servers are working correctly. It happens way to many times a night with someone lagging out before game even starts. Its really annoying