5 Buzzer-Beating Plays & Late-Game Strategies To Help Win Those Close Nail-Biters

Having players on the floor who can keep their cool, maintain their poise while under duress and execute the last-second strategies you’ve drawn up during timeouts is a game-changer for a coach as you battle your way through a rollercoaster season.

Most successful basketball coaches say that possessing players who thrive in pressure-packed situations stems from how you’ve set up and managed your practices during the year and that success in those types of situations is always a matter of cumulative, daily preparation.

As you prepare for this upcoming season, ask yourself the following questions: Are you building competitive situations in practices? Do your drills simulate game-like pressure? Have you regularly placed your players in challenging and disadvantage situations that require good decision-making while under duress?

With everything that coaches must accomplish during limited practice time each day, over the course of the season, you’ll inevitably find yourself forced to make some tough decisions on the best ways to spend time and set up a practice plan that covers the most-critical items that help to put your team in the best possible positions to win games.

As such, it’s important to keep an array of go-to plays on hand that you can draw upon in a variety of late-game situations.

As you prepare your players to thrive in crunch time, the following clips showcase five excellent late-game sets that are sure to keep your opponents on their heels and guessing as the clock winds down.