Does game pressure affect hand selection of NBA basketball players?

The purpose of this study was to compare hand selection and accuracy of technical skills between low- and high-pressure games of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 2018–2019 regular season and playoffs. A notational analysis was conducted on 24 games of four teams (12 low-pressure games and 12 high-pressure games, six of each team, three in each condition). One- or two-handed actions were recorded for dribbling, passing, catching, and shooting (layups, dunks, hooks, and tips) skills. During high-pressure games, players significantly increased the frequency of right-handed passing. High-pressure games also increased the frequency of left-handed catching. For dribbling and shooting, no differences were observed in hand frequency between conditions. The success rate of all analyzed skills was similar between the hands in both low- and high-pressure conditions. Our results showed that game pressure could selectively modulate hand preference for passing and catching skills in elite-level basketball while presenting no significant effect on performance between hands. • Game pressure could selectively modulate hand preference for passing and catching skills in elite-level basketball. • Game pressure could not affect accuracy of dribbling, passing, and shooting skills between hands in elite-level basketball. • A preferred-hand bias was observed for all skills in elite-level basketball, but more strongly for the shooting actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]