Investigating the Effect of Playing Different Defensive Styles and Court Sizes on Physical, Perceived, and Technical Demands in Basketball Small-Sided Games

This study aimed to determine the effects of different defensive styles (i.e., man-to-man vs. zone) and court sizes (full vs. half) on physical [PlayerLoad™ (PL), total jumps and jumps in low (<20 cm), medium (21–40 cm), and high (>41 cm) bands, the number of and distance covered during accelerations and decelerations divided in high (>2 m∙s−2) and low intensity (<2 m∙s−2) bands], perceived [rating of perceived exertion (RPE)] and technical (total, scored, missed and % of made shots, rebounds, steals, assists, turnovers, and blocks) demands during basketball small-sided games (SSGs). Ten semi-professional male basketball players (age: 20.4 ± 2.1 years; stature: 189.4 ± 8.1 cm; body mass: 77.4 ± 8.4 kg) from the same basketball team participated in this study. Players were asked to play four 5 vs. 5 SSG typologies in randomized order: 1) half-court man-to-man defense, 2) half-court zone defense, 3) full-court man-to-man defense, and 4) full-court zone defense. No significant interaction (p > 0.05) between two independent variables was observed for physical demands. An effect of court size was found for most of the physical demand measures (except jumps) with higher values (p < 0.05) found in full court SSGs. The defensive style had an effect (p < 0.05, trivial-to-small) on total distance and low-intensity accelerations and decelerations. No effects were evident for the independent variables on the RPE and technical demands. Coaches should design full court SSGs when aiming at increasing players’ physical demands. Differently, similar physical, perceived and technical demands should be expected when playing man-to-man or zone defense during SSGs.