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Twenty-One

Twenty-One

Min number of participants 2
Age 8+ yrs.
Safety support by adult Not required
Min duration 15 min.
Cost None (Free)
Environment Indoor / Outdoor

A playground basketball shooting game where a long shot and a putback decide who keeps control of the ball — chase points through rebounds and quick reflexes until someone hits exactly 21.

The Essentials

How to play

  1. Decide a shooting order (clockwise, or the order players arrived) — this sets who takes the attacking turn each round.
  2. On your turn, take a long shot from anywhere behind an agreed line (often the free-throw line or the three-point arc) — a make is worth 2 points.
  3. If the long shot goes in, you immediately get one continuation shot from right under the basket (a putback attempt), worth 1 point, before the turn passes on.
  4. If the long shot misses, everyone on the court can crash the boards for the rebound — whoever grabs it can shoot right away from wherever they caught it, without dribbling first, for a 1-point putback.
  5. A missed putback stays live: any player, including the original shooter, can keep chasing the loose ball and shooting again until someone scores or it goes out of bounds.
  6. Scoring a putback, whether off your own miss or someone else's, earns you the next long-shot turn from behind the line.
  7. Keep a running tally of every player's score, updated out loud or on a scoreboard after each basket.
  8. The first player to reach exactly 21 points wins the round.
  9. Overshooting is a bust: if a basket would push your score past 21, your score drops back to an agreed lower number instead (commonly 13 or 15), and play continues.
  10. Once a round ends, start the next one from zero, rotating who shoots first.
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