Effects of using four baskets during simulated youth basketball games

This study aimed to identify how playing basketball with two additional baskets influences the players’ technical, physiological, physical and especially, positional performance. Fourteen youth players performed eight 5vs.5 simulated basketball games, four with the two official baskets and four with two-extra official baskets, each one placed in the court restricted area. The variables collected were technical (field-goals made and missed, offensive and defensive rebounds, steals, passes, dribble-drive, give-and-go and ball possessions), physiological (heart rate monotony and sample entropy), workload (total distance covered and distance covered at different velocities) and positioning-related (distance to the nearest opponent, distance to the nearest teammate, stretch-index and distance between centroids). The results showed that the four-baskets games favoured the emergence of individual behaviours, increasing the game' physical demands and promoting a collective dispersion, which might impair team playing. Conversely, when playing with two-baskets, there was less distance between teammates. In conclusion, this study has clear implications for practice as it emphasizes that coaches can manipulate the number of baskets to modulate training workload and promote different individual and team behaviours.