This is probably one of the biggest frustration and steepest learning curves yet for me and many of our team members.  In NBA 2k11 the lock on defense was essentially that!  You held the left trigger (L2) and the animation took care of the rest.  You man moved left and you barely had to move your left stick to keep up with him.  It was awesome, I had that crazy Ron Artest (my bad – Metta World Peace) type defense no matter who I played with.

Unfortunately, with the launch of NBA 2k12 came many changes to the the defensive game.  On ball defense became much more realistic and hence requires you to put in work and understand player movements and heighten your anticipation for offensive moves.  To assist you in the development of your defensive game we have included the move list along with a video posted by operation sports(the first 2 minutes of the video are kinda pointless and useless).  Below are the movies and following that the video and couple pointers that we found useful in the video.

Steal

Accomplish this move by pressing X.

Hands Up or Deny Ball

This move in a nutshell outs your hands up to block passes or obstruct a clear shot by the ball handler.  When executed on a player who does not have the ball its purpose is to deny the player a pass.  Move the right stick (not holding left trigger) in any direction.  this move is perfect for a defender that has already used their dribble and is now looking to either pass or shoot.  At a more advance level it great blocking the passing lane and even post defense (we will touch on this one in more depth in a post to come).

Aggressive Block

Hold right trigger (R2 on PS3) and press ‘Y’(circle on Ps3).  This move is all about timing.  I find that it is more effective when actually blocking from behind as opposed to facing up with the ball handler.  When faced up, its probably best to block with out holding right trigger (R2 on PS3).

Hard or Wrap Foul

Names says it all.  To execute the hard foul move simply hold right trigger (R2 on PS3) and move the right stick towards the shooter.  The situation that I find best to use this move (hard foul) is basically when you in a horrible mismatch situation like Tony Battie on Lebron or even J.J Barea on Dwight.  In instances like this when you basically know the out come of a score, sometime its best to take your chances at the line and foul them in the act of shooting.  To execute the wrap foul you want to push in the right stick while the opponent is in a shooting motion.  Basically use this when you don’t want them to score.

Cutoff Move

To Execute this move holg the left trigger (L2 on Ps3) and move the right stick in the direction you want to hop.  this move is basically a hop to cut off the ball handler movement in a particular direction.   You will probably find that this move hurts more than helps the majority of the time.  The reason being is because if the offensive man is holding turbo, you are going to get beat, due to the slight hesitation the hop provides (see video below).

Quick Shuffle

To execute this move, hold the left trigger (L2 on Ps3) and right trigger (R2 on PS3) together to move quickly side to side.  This move I find a little more useful than the cutoff move, simply because it allows you to react quicker to your opponents isomotion moves or drive.

Intentional Foul

hold the right trigger (R2 on Ps3) and move the right stick towards the player.  this move can be sued in various instances, sometimes to just stop the clock and send your opponent to the line, or even to foul on a horrible mismatch before the shot.

Double Team

This move says it all, sometime you just need a little help because your in way above your head.  To execute the double team simply tap ‘y’ (L1 on PS3) to bring up the player icons, then press the icon of the teammate that you would like to lend you some assistance.  it as simple as that!  To have an automatic selection of a player to help with the double team just press y(L1 on Ps3) normally.

NOW for the VIDEO!

while watching this video the first 2 mins didn’t really contain much useful information but moving on from there we thought their were some really good tips that we want to highlight.  We have included the tips we found useful and video time associated with each.

Exposed weakness of the cutoff (1:56)

Advantage of Quick Shuffle versus cutoff (2:25)

Hands up defense to block the pass (2:50)

Bodying up an opponent (using the left trigger vs not using the left trigger) – 3:30

Weakness of guarding using quick shuffle/cutoff and being close to the defender (4:00)

- the best note here is not defending where is but defending where he is going to be.

-sometime you will find that you will have to swap who you are using on defensive because some defenders aren’t quick enough and result in you having to play too far back.  Hence giving you opponent to many offensive options (like the drive to pull up shot shown in the video).

5 Meridian (6:00)

-possibly the best defensive exploit shown by the Czar

for more tips see some of our other NBA 2k12 tips and strategies.

Video Source: Operation Sports

Related Posts:

• How do you throw an Alley oop in NBA 2k12
• NBA 2k12 ISOMOTION TIPS, MOVES and TUTORIALS
• NBA 2k12 Defense Strategy Tips
• NBA 2K12 POST MOVES (offense)