Gaps are a technical basketball term used to describe a hole or gap in a defense. As a team on offense you want to find the gaps in the opponent's defense, while defensively you want to fill any gaps or holes to prevent the offense from getting to the basket.
Finding Gaps in a Zone
Finding gaps and then splitting those gaps is a popular way to attack a zone defense. Zone defenses in basketball involve players on the defense covering a specific area or zone of the court instead of each player guarding a specific player, as in a man-to-man defense. Zone defenses are designed to enable a team to cover the entire area by working together and forcing the opposition to take outside shots that are contested by a defender. Gaps in the defense come from the defense being forced to rotate, or simply from holes in the zone that occur based on the defense's alignment.
For example a 2-3 zone -- which has three players along the back line of the zone and two players at the front around the top of the key -- is weak in the middle of the floor. A 1-2-2 zone -- one player at the head of the key, two players at the foul line area on the elbows and two players at the back of the zone along the low blocks -- is weak in the middle of the floor and along the baseline. If the offense can get the ball in these spots, that will open up gaps elsewhere to allow players to penetrate to the basket.
Gaps in a Man-To-Man
Man-to-man defenses create less concern about gaps and covering different areas because each player is assigned to a particular opposing player. However, gaps still come into play in man-to-man defense because defenders are forced to help a teammate if an offensive player is able to get past his man-to-man defender. A popular newer offensive scheme known as the Dribble Drive Motion, which was invented by Vance Walberg, involves creating more space to attack gaps against man-to-man defense. The idea is to beat your man and get into an open space where you then draw other defenders and in turn free up your teammates for open shots.
Gaps Against a Press
Some teams employ full-court defenses, which are known as presses or pressing. The idea is to double-team or pressure the ball handler and force turnovers by the offense. Presses leave even more of the floor open and have plenty of gaps to attack. Therefore presses are often "feast or famine," since offensive teams can attack gaps and get easy shots if the press does not work and fails to create a turnover.
The vulnerable gaps for presses are most often in the middle of the floor because it is difficult to cover an extra man with the large gap or space in the middle. Since the press revolves around double-teaming the ball, that leaves the defense to cover four offensive players with only three defenders.
Preventing Gaps on Defense
As a defensive team, regardless of your preferred defense or strategy, you want to work as a unit and eliminate driving lanes or gaps in the defense. This is hard to do in the press unless you are extremely fast, tall and athletic as a team. However, in the half court it is easier to do with practice, by learning the proper rotations and understanding how you can work together as a unit. To eliminate gaps, players must help one another; if a player is beaten, he must hustle back into the play to pick up his teammate's man so that rotations to help in gaps do not create easy, open shots.
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