“Scram” gets good defenses out of bad matchups

Exploiting mismatches has always been an important part of basketball, but as teams run out smaller lineups and readily switch on- and off-ball screens on the perimeter with greater frequency, dealing with mismatches can be troublesome for defenses. Among other teams, the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors use a technique called “scram” to quickly get out of these matchups. Scram requires the two players involved to communicate effectively and move at the right moment, so as to not leave an opponent open for too long.

The theory behind scram is relatively simple: offenses are prone to stopping what they’re running to exploit a mismatch and then take their time to get the ball in the right spot. During this brief window, defenses can move their players around in an unorthodox fashion to get the situation back under control.

Watch below how the Warriors quickly get out of a bad matchup to combat Trey Lyles in the post:

Jamal Murray brings the ball up the floor in semi-transition and uses the drag screen from Lyles to generate a switch. Golden State switches these screens consistently, especially against a shooter like Murray. When Patrick McCaw gets switched onto Lyles, the Nuggets big man immediately works his way down toward the left block, as Gary Harris flees the strong-side corner to give Lyles more room to operate. Klay Thompson follows Harris for a step but recognizes Denver has cut off whatever other offense they were going to run to get Lyles the ball against McCaw, so he scrams McCaw out of the play to defend Lyles himself. You can see both Murray and Nuggets head coach Mike Malone signal for Harris to cut through to the other side of the floor, making it all too obvious what the Nuggets were trying to do.

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Good recognition, timing and communication are the focus of a defense in these situations. Thompson has to see the play developing, ensure he doesn’t leave Harris too soon and let McCaw know to get out of there and where to find Harris now that Thompson is taking over the responsibility of guarding Lyles. All of this happens in a split second, as any confusion leads to a wide-open man and more scrambling for the Warriors.

The Celtics employ the same strategy to get their point guards out of bad matchups:

After switching a screen for Ron Baker, Kyrie Irving is left guarding Michael Beasley — a matchup the Celtics would rather avoid due to Beasley’s ability to score in the post and in isolation over smaller defenders. As soon as Beasley turns his back and calls for the ball at the free throw line, Jayson Tatum is already calling for the scram to get Irving out of the bad matchup. The Knicks don’t throw the ball to Beasley now that the larger Tatum is guarding him, and the offense stalls out as a result.

Boston is even aggressive with on-ball scram switches when they feel they can get away with it. Late in the game, the Knicks once again try to get Beasley in an advantage matchup, but Marcus Smart recognizes it and quickly gets Terry Rozier back on Frank Ntilikina before any damage is done:

After the initial switch takes place, Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek motions for Beasley to move to the right block. Ntilikina pulls the ball out, looking to make the entry pass and cut through to the weak side, but Smart immediately drops back onto Beasley, scramming Rozier back to Ntilikina — a non-shooter whom Smart doesn’t mind leaving open for a moment or two while the Celtics get their defense reset. The Knicks dump the ball in to Beasley anyway, but their advantage is lost as he bricks the ball off the front of the rim.

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It doesn’t come up very often, but the best defenses in the league use these unorthodox switches to get out of bad matchups. They know offenses will slow down to try to exploit them, which frees the defense to do the unexpected and close that advantage before it even opens.