A solid defense is critical to your team’s victory in NBA 2K23 because you can stop the opposing team from scoring too many goals or any goal. But defending can be one of the trickier components of 2K to master. Some of the best tips we can give you for defense are:
1. Become the shadow of your opponent
When the defense starts, every player will have one opponent assigned to them, and they have to cover that player for the rest of the round, so make sure you stick close to them and don’t give them an opening for passing and keep narrowing the circle around them. As you start following a player and observing him closely, he will become nervous and make some mistakes you can take advantage of.
2. Force turnovers
Turnovers are an essential part of defense strategy. If you can force your opponent players to turn over, it’ll benefit your team, and the opponent team will lose the opportunity to score. You can pull off turnovers by simply catching the ball halfway.
3. Stay at an arm’s length
Because you will be covering a single opponent throughout the defense, you must keep the optimum distance between you and the other player. If you are too far away from the opponent, they will slip past, and if you are too close to the player, you have a chance of causing a foul. The optimum distance is at arm’s length.
4. Substitute Tired Players
Always observe your team throughout a match, and whenever it’s halftime, check for any player, especially defensive players, that have become tired and substitute them for another player. This will help keep your team strong for the rest of the match.
5. Beef up your defensive stats
If you’re a guard or wing, max out the perimeter defense, lateral quickness, and steal. If you’re big, max out rebounding, interior defense, and block.
6. Pick the right badges
Picking the right badges is instrumental for better defense, as they help your manual defensive inputs.
Here’s our list of best defensive badges for every position and tier:
1). Guards
Tier 1
• Chasedown Artist
• Anchor
Tier 2
• Pick Dodger
• Menace
Tier 3
• Clamps
• Challenger
• Glove
2). Swings
Tier 1
• Rebound Chaser
• Pick Dodger
Tier 2
• Chasedown Artist
• Anchor
Tier 3
• Clamps
• Challenger
• Interceptor
3). Big Men
Tier 1
• Challenger
• Interceptor
Tier 2
• Boxout Beast
• Chasedown Artist
Tier 3
• Anchor
• Rebound Chaser
• Brick Wall
7. Learn the passing lanes
The passing lanes are where your opponent passes the ball. When playing off-ball defense, you want to close off the areas where your opponent may pass the ball so you can get easy steals. This is only learned by playing the game.
8. On-ball defense
The key to on-ball defense is predicting your opponents’ moves. You won’t always guess correctly, but over time you’ll get better, start getting bumpy on the ball handler, and get the stops you need on the defensive end.
9. Rebounding for Big Men
You’ll need the Rebound Chaser and Boxout Beast badge, and the most essential tips to rebounding are to box out your opponent, guess where the ball will land, and correctly time your jump for the board.
10. Quickly Switch To Last Defender
You might think the computer controlling your big man should have everything covered, protecting the rim. But constantly relying on this will have your big rack-up fouls in a hurry. I can’t stress enough how important it is to switch to your last line of defense before your opponent goes for a shot. Otherwise, they are highly likely to foul. You can switch defenders by pressing X (PS4) or A(XB1) on your controller. You can even press R1/L1(PS4) or RB/LB(XB1), a button combination dedicated to switching to the closest guy to the rim.
11. Prevent Offensive Rebounds
Getting dominated on the offensive boards is one of the most annoying ways to get beat in 2K. Failure to control the glass often results in games lost. Defense doesn’t stop once you force somebody into a 45% covered shot. You still have to pull down the board to end the possession.
12. Defensive Communication
Turning on your defensive communication setting is an afterthought to many 2K gamers. But there is a lot of value in turning this feature on for “Defense Only.” When defensive communication is on, a little indicator will appear above your head, assisting you in many things on the defensive side of the ball, from improving communication with your computer teammates on fast breaks to giving you a heads-up when screens are coming.
13. Manual Switch Mechanic
Aided by having defensive communications on is utilizing the Manual Switch Mechanic. By switching assignments, you can coordinate with your computer defenders on fast breaks to create a better path for defending long passes. Or if you beat on defense or have a mismatch, holding A(XB1) and X(PS4) tells your nearest defender to switch with you to limit the damage.
14. Practice makes perfect! Finding when to use certain defensive moves and how to read your opponent will prove vital down the road.
15. If you are playing as PF/C, post-defense can be tricky initially, but you will eventually figure it out.
These are the ways you can use defense in NBA 2K23. However, if you are looking for more guides like where can I buy MT NBA 2K23, you can check out here for help.
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