the spurs' hammer action

and a few awesome cross-court baseline passes

one of my favorite passes of all time is this wicked sidearm bullet from manu ginobili to danny green:

from one corner to the other, along the baseline, right into the shooting pocket, with two people on him. so pretty.

what most people don't see is the fact that this was a set play. yes, manu is a brilliant passer, but on this possession he didn't just happen to spot green on the other side of the court and decide to whip it over - he knew danny would be there because the san antonio spurs ran the "hammer" action to get green open in the corner.

"hammer" refers to this hammer screen that tim duncan sets on green’s man (kevin durant) on the right elbow:

every hammer set has two essential parts:

1. some action leading to a baseline drive on one side of the floor

2. a weakside baseline drift with a hammer screen

here's another example, this time against the cleveland cavaliers:

the hammer set is one of the most popular plays in the league (and in college, international play, high school, etc.). i'm not quite sure where it originated from, but every single team runs some variation of it nowadays. search "hammer set" on youtube and i'm sure you'll get a ton of results.

we can thank the hammer set for this insane lebron james pass to mike dunleavy jr.:

one amusing possession i remember was from a game between the spurs and the sacramento kings.

one of the kings' coaches' voice was captured by a hot mic; he was repeatedly yelling "hammer!" at his team when he realized that it was the play san antonio was running.

technically it worked, as jimmer fredette was extremely alert in getting over the hammer screen to deter a gary neal corner 3 attempt (unfortunately for sacramento, they still gave up an and-1 dunk):

i also watched an impressive defensive possession from joel embiid during the nba bubble, when he snuffed out a hammer play the indiana pacers were running.

instead of sitting in the paint, he turned, sprinted to the corner, and blocked what would've been a wide-open doug mcdermott 3:

finally, this chris paul pass didn't come from a hammer set (or any set play at all), but i wanted to include it here because it was a gorgeous sidearm cross court pass as well:

---

if you enjoyed this post, please hit the like button (the little heart)!

also consider subscribing to stay up to date! you’ll get email updates when i post. it’s 100% free!