Nick Nurse didn't open the Sixers scrimmage at 0-0 like a normal game or quarter starts, they started the score at 80-80.
The 76ers scrimmage gave me some good ideas for situations this season. Any of the live quarters we play will use a different score and scenario to end it to give us situations and reps for each one of the quarters.
Last year we played 4 different live quarters throughout our practice with rarely stopping the clock, with each one focusing on a different emphasis.
Early in the season we would use them for our tempo and playing fast, so we would use quick strike, Celtics, 5/3/1 and more variations.
Later in the year we would use them for scouting or teams we would play against with different coverages and man/zone alignments.
Then we would end practice with situations. Each coach gets a team, scenario and timeouts to talk about it, usually slower paced and more teaching only that scenario. Here is a situation sheet I found useful and include on every practice plan:
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Other examples I found of this:
John Carrier started the score at 76-76 and then when a team hits 80 the clock starts.
A good idea to figure out situations to work on is look at every game that was close with a few minutes left and use those to teach situations in practice. Good article on that idea here.
I’m excited to use these as ideas as I plan out our early season practices with different situations in out focus quarters.
Keep Improving
Coach Pyper