How do you play 21?

[QUOTE=Kaspah]21 is like a little kid game

Everyone out here plays 32

Game starts with someone breaking from the 3pt line, he scores, he checks the ball and it's a 1on1 situation with everyone else hanging around the rim just talking n messing around. It's always live basketball, not sitting around watching a dude shoot.

Everything is worth 2pts, if you shoot a three it's worth 3pts. Some people play straight up, others play where you gotta take the ball behind 3pt arc to reset the game before you shoot. If you shoot and miss, you have to guard whoever got the rebound. Driving is dangerous though because you can get past your defender and then get to the rim with 5 guys waiting for you to swat your shot.

Usually only play when there's an odd number of guys or if no one plays like playing a real game. 32 is more laid back hanging out cracking jokes with basketball as a background noise type of deal.[/QUOTE]Man, that does not sound like my 32 experience at all. Maybe because we only had three players. But it felt non-stop to me, even without going 110%. I felt like I was driving or defending continuously with no breaks. Sometimes I settled for a jumper just to try to get some of my wind back. I suppose if there was, say, 7 guys, the possessions may have been more variable, which could have helped.

Still, I believe I prefer 21 at this point because the occasional breaks allow for stronger pushes during gameplay. Also, the compact scoring total (21 by 3's, 2's, and 1's) seems to up the stakes a little. By the time I had 28 points in a game of 32, my legs were dead, as if I were finishing up a series of sprints - though I guess that could be a good thing. Still, 21 seems to allow me to go hard while still having a bit of fun. Three person 32 (aka two-man one-on-one to 16 by all 1's) was a chore.

[QUOTE=Rake2204]Man, that does not sound like my 32 experience at all. Maybe because we only had three players. But it felt non-stop to me, even without going 110%. I felt like I was driving or defending continuously with no breaks. Sometimes I settled for a jumper just to try to get some of my wind back. I suppose if there was, say, 7 guys, the possessions may have been more variable, which could have helped.

Still, I believe I prefer 21 at this point because the occasional breaks allow for stronger pushes during gameplay. Also, the compact scoring total (21 by 3's, 2's, and 1's) seems to up the stakes a little. By the time I had 28 points in a game of 32, my legs were dead, as if I were finishing up a series of sprints - though I guess that could be a good thing. Still, 21 seems to allow me to go hard while still having a bit of fun. Three person 32 (aka two-man one-on-one to 16 by all 1's) was a chore.[/QUOTE]

Obviously, more people playing means less boards/less possessions so you'd be able to chill around the rim more often. When there's only 3 people you will definitely require more energy. However, it only becomes a dog fight if everyone's missing and no one can get buckets. If someone is consistently making shots, you'll end the game in 10-15min.

With all that being said though, basketball is a very active sport. If you aren't tired, you aren't playing correctly. 32 with three people will almost always have a lull somewhere in the middle where everyone is feeling dogged, and it'll result in dudes just shooting 3's as they take the ball back.

We play Kings round these parts

[QUOTE=Kaspah]Obviously, more people playing means less boards/less possessions so you'd be able to chill around the rim more often. When there's only 3 people you will definitely require more energy. However, it only becomes a dog fight if everyone's missing and no one can get buckets. If someone is consistently making shots, you'll end the game in 10-15min.

With all that being said though, basketball is a very active sport. If you aren't tired, you aren't playing correctly. 32 with three people will almost always have a lull somewhere in the middle where everyone is feeling dogged, and it'll result in dudes just shooting 3's as they take the ball back.[/QUOTE]Truth. I think that last sentence was probably the biggest issue. We played all 1's, so I felt it was likely never the right choice to settle for a three pointer, particularly since I was succeeding on the drive. So it was just a ton of successive hard attacks in a row and if I [i]did[/i] settle for a J, and I missed it, I was right back on defense with no one else stepping up to help. That was my struggle there.

But otherwise, you're on the money. It'd have undoubtedly been a ton easier with more players.

At our gym tap backs restart you at 0. If you go over 21 and lets say you score, you are at 22 and get busted... and start at 0. Some kid in my gym had this rule (I don't know why we followed it that one time). At our gym no one really plays anything beside half court or full court games.