The countdown is on. With just four days left before the Worlds, as the saying goes, there won’t be any more changes or extra preparations. The team is locked in. I’ve always found that mentality fascinating, and it’s the perfect lens through which to view 3’s Company basketball. This isn’t a format for last-minute overhauls or cramming new plays. Domination here is about mastering a core set of principles so thoroughly that, by game day, your execution is instinctual. It’s about building a system so resilient that your trio operates as a single, formidable unit. Over years of playing in and observing countless tournaments, I’ve seen that the teams who consistently win aren’t just collections of talented individuals; they are entities that have internalized a few non-negotiable strategies. They’ve done their preparation long before the first whistle, reaching a point where, with the tournament a mere 96 hours away, they are simply refining what they already own. So, let’s talk about how you can build that kind of unshakeable foundation. Forget complex playbooks for a moment. Winning in 3-on-3 hinges on these five essential team strategies, which are less about what you do and more about how you think and move together.
First and foremost, you must treat defensive rebounding as an absolute religion. In a game where every possession is critical—with the scoring often skyrocketing into the 60s—a single offensive board for the opponent can be a backbreaker. It’s not just the center’s job; it’s a collective mandate. I coach my teams with a simple, non-negotiable rule: on a shot, all three players must box out. All three. We practice this with a brutal drill where if the other team gets an offensive rebound, we run. Immediately. The data, albeit from my own tracked stats over a season, is stark: teams that secure over 75% of available defensive rebounds win roughly 80% of their games. The math is simple. More rebounds mean fewer second-chance points for them and more transition opportunities for you. It’s the single most controllable factor in the game, and it requires relentless communication and physicality from everyone. You have to want that ball more than they do, and that desire has to be systematized.
This leads directly into the second pillar: organized chaos in transition. The beauty of 3’s Company is the space. A defensive rebound isn’t the end of a play; it’s the start of your most potent offense. We don’t just outlet and run; we have designated lanes and reads. My personal preference, and one I’ve seen work at the highest levels, is a “drag screen” system. The rebounder immediately looks to outlet to a guard filling the wide lane, while the third player, instead of just sprinting mindlessly, sets a subtle screen for the ball-handler around half-court. This simple action, practiced until it’s second nature, creates a massive numerical advantage before the defense can even get set. It turns a routine board into a high-percentage look within three seconds. The key is that it’s organized. It’s not freelance. It’s a rehearsed attack triggered by a specific event. When executed well, it can generate 15 to 20 easy points a game, which in a 21-point contest (or a 10-minute game), is an enormous chunk of your offense.
Half-court execution, our third strategy, then becomes about simplicity and versatility. You don’t have time for elaborate sets. You need actions that are multi-faceted. My absolute favorite, and the one I believe every serious 3-on-3 team should have in their arsenal, is the “horns” set with two bigs at the elbows and a guard up top. From this alignment, you can flow into a dribble hand-off, a pick-and-roll with either side, a post-up, or a simple isolation if a mismatch presents itself. It’s one formation with five lethal options. We might only run three or four core actions all game, but we run them from multiple looks and with different personnel. This consistency breeds confidence. Players know where their shots will come from and where their teammates will be. It eliminates hesitation. When the Worlds are four days away, you’re not learning new plays; you’re mastering the nuances of the ones you have, learning to read the defender’s reaction to your basic action a split-second faster.
Communication on defense is the fourth non-negotiable, and I mean constant, verbal communication. In the 3-on-3 game, with so much space, silent defense is losing defense. You have to talk through every screen, call out every cut, and signal every switch or “stay.” I tell my players to imagine they are connected by a string; the movement of one dictates the movement of the others. If I’m guarding a shooter in the corner and my teammate gets beaten off the dribble, I need to know instantly whether to “help” or “hold.” That decision is communicated, not guessed. A team that talks well on defense can cut its points allowed per possession by, in my observed estimates, at least 0.3 points. That might not sound like much, but over 40 possessions, that’s 12 points—often the difference between a win and a loss. It’s tiring, it’s demanding, but it’s the glue that holds everything else together.
Finally, and this is where true dominance is cemented, is the cultivation of a two-man game with a third-man threat. Every great trio has a primary battery, two players whose pick-and-roll or two-man action is nearly unstoppable. But the magic happens with the third player. He cannot be a spectator. He must be a dynamic spacer and a reactive cutter. His movement is what punishes the defense for over-helping. If my big man and I are running a high pick-and-roll, and our third man is just standing in the corner, the defense can easily collapse. But if he’s making sharp basket cuts or relocating to the open slot on the weak side, the defense is in an impossible bind. I heavily favor having that third player be a shooter who isn’t afraid to put the ball on the floor; that dual threat makes the offense truly unguardable. This isn’t a strategy you draw up; it’s a chemistry you build through hundreds of hours of playing together, learning each other’s tendencies until the game feels like a shared instinct.
So, as you approach your own metaphorical “Worlds,” with just four days or four hours to go, remember that dominance isn’t found in a new trick. It’s found in the obsessive mastery of the fundamentals that are unique to the three-on-three canvas. It’s in treating every defensive board like gold, in transforming those rebounds into orchestrated fast breaks, in executing a few half-court actions with brutal efficiency, in talking until your voice is hoarse, and in developing that almost telepathic connection between your trio. These five strategies form the bedrock. Drill them, live them, and internalize them to the point where, when the ball goes up, you’re not thinking—you’re reacting within a system you trust completely. That’s when you stop just playing and start dominating.
