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In basketball, an offense is a team's overarching philosophy and system for how they intend to score. It's the general framework that dictates spacing, player movement, and decision-making. Examples include the "motion offense," which relies on players reading the defense and reacting with cuts and screens, or "continuity offenses" like the Flex, which run a repeating pattern. The offense is the default set of rules and principles a team operates under during a possession.

A play, on the other hand, is a specific, pre-designed sequence of actions intended to create a high-percentage shot in a particular situation. Often called "set plays," they involve scripted passes, screens, and cuts to get a specific player a shot in a specific spot. Plays have a definite start and end, and they are often used after timeouts, for inbounds situations, or at the end of a game when a basket is crucial. If the initial options on a play are defended, the team will typically flow back into its base offense.

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