Horns: the two-screen set, explained in words
Set plays
Where all five players start, what the first pass is, and the three options the set produces depending on how the defence reacts.
Horns is probably the most common starting alignment in organised basketball, and once you can recognise the shape you will see it four or five times a game. Five players set up in a formation that looks like a pair of horns from above, which is where the name comes from.
The positions: the ball handler stands at the top of the key, above the arc. Two big men stand at the elbows, which are the two corners where the free throw line meets the edge of the lane, one on each side. The remaining two players stand in the corners on the baseline, as far from the ball as they can get while staying inbounds. That leaves the entire lane and both wings completely empty.
The basic action is a double screen. Both elbow players step toward the ball handler and set screens on either side of him. He now chooses a side, and critically, the defence does not know which until he moves. He dribbles off one screen. The screener he used rolls to the basket. The other one, the one he ignored, pops out behind the arc or slides to the opposite elbow.
That creates three options in sequence. One, the ball handler turns the corner and gets to the rim, which is available because the lane was emptied before the play started. Two, the roller is open under the basket if the defence steps out to stop option one. Three, the popping big man has a jump shot if the defence collapses to stop option two.
There is a fourth that appears when the corner defenders help. Both corner players are standing in the shortest three-point shot on the floor with nobody near them. The moment one of their defenders takes two steps toward the lane, a single pass produces an open corner three.
Variations on the set are endless and all start from the same picture. Instead of screening the ball, one elbow player can screen the other, sending a big man cutting to the rim. The ball handler can pass to an elbow and cut off him. The set works because the alignment itself, with four players high and wide, is awkward to defend regardless of what happens next.
When you watch, look for the two players at the elbows before the ball moves. If you see them, you know a double screen is coming, and you can watch the defence make its choice a full second before the play resolves.