In basketball, small ball is a style of play that sacrifices height, physical strength and low post offense/defense in favor of a lineup of smaller players for speed, agility and increased scoring (often from the three-point line).
[1] It is closely tied to the concepts of pace and space, which pushes the speed of the offense and spreads out the defense with extra shooters on the court.
The opposing defender will come out to mark the player on the perimeter of the three point line, allowing space for teammates to run in and score around the basket.
The addition of speed and agility comes at the cost of strength and height; the lack of traditional "big men" can make it more difficult to guard the space under the basket while on defense and can also prevent the team from having a low-post offensive threat when attacking.
The Rockets led the 1st half by double digits, yet their greatest strength also became their achilles heel where they spectacularly missed a record breaking 27 consecutive 3s,[16] they lost by only 9pts, exposing just how over reliant their small ball system was on making 3s.