Wedge Action
Back-screen sets up the ball screen — defense has two problems at once.
Wedge action layers a back-screen onto a ball screen. The setup: a wing back-screens the ball-handler’s defender; the same wing then receives a ball screen from a teammate, catching the ball with downhill momentum. The defense has to defend two consecutive actions, in opposite directions, with the same on-ball defender.
What makes wedge effective is the timing. The back-screen creates a half-step of separation. By the time the defense rotates, the wing is already coming off the ball screen at full speed. The roll happens against scrambled coverage.
European clubs run wedge action as a primary half-court set; NBA teams use it situationally, often out of timeouts. The complexity is the cost — wedge requires two screens, two cuts, and three players in coordinated motion. Teams that install wedge halfway run it slowly and produce nothing; teams that drill it produce uncontested catches at the rim.
Key principles
- Player sets a back-screen on the ball-handler's defender
- After the back-screen, the same player immediately receives a ball screen
- Defense has to fight two actions in opposite directions in two seconds
- Roll continues toward the rim with full momentum