Other than health and man games missed which the team can do nothing about besides limit minutes the key to how far we go this season comes down to: Interior Defense Last season we had two weaknesses, playmaking and interior defense. The playmaking issues should pretty much resolve themselves if Paul stays healthy. The defense was addressed with perimeter defenders. We'll have to see if that fixes the volume and efficiency by which teams torched us in the paint last season. I will be tracking and posting data throughout this season on this issue, including: Defensive points in the paint Shooting defense efficiency in the paint Defensive fouls in the paint There will be comparisons between the rest of the league and previous years championship teams. IF.....if we can improve to simply a middle of the pack team defending the paint (15) then I believe we've got a 50/50 shot of beating the Warriors in the conference Finals. If we lag to bottom 5 then we have no shot.
Transition defense and rebounding. If we shoot a lot of 3s there will be long rebounds. We need to account for that and run back on D to prevent easy baskets.
If we do not have a bottom tier defense then we have a better chance of beating the Warriors than if we do have a bottom tier defense.
Was expecting to read "The Rockets must find a way to get Jared Uthoff and Specer Dinwiddle" to win the chip.
A lot of ppl forget that we were *this* close to going up 3-2, headed home, against a superior Spurs team last year All we had to do was stop this Rockets PnR by a 39yr old Harden ... but Capela just gives him left and couldn't track him. (Instant Replay included) Who says Pops doesn't run simple plays at crunch time?
Although I get how important it is to get back on defense after long 3 pointers, I also think we should definitely go for some of those long offensive rebounds instead of always just running back after the shot. We are sometimes terrible at tracking the ball in flight for rebounds. I hate to pick on my boy Ryno, but probably 70% of his misses come right back to his area on a long rebound that hits the floor before someone picks it up...but he has already started to run back on defense and never seems to get his own rebound. As the shooter, sometimes when it leaves your hands, you should have a feel about how it may bounce off and track your own rebound to get another easy shot. Many NBA players do this regularly. I wish Ryno would learn it.
Game 1 vs. Warriors Warriors were 16/26 in the paint. That's good for us. Relatively low volume of possessions resulting in shots in the paint. And relatively low efficiency when they got in the paint. All in all Warriors scored 99 points in the paint, on the free throw line, and on three balls. We scored 97 points on those same plays. They forced us off the three point line and we went inside. Game was essentially a toss-up with the difference being a couple turnovers which yielded us a couple extra possessions along with us being able to get the ball inside when they ran us off. This was good interior defense. At least good enough for the moment. They did burn us from 3 when we gave them the shot but we did force them into 24 midrange looks, which are not quality possessions. And we didn't put them on the foul line an inordinate amount. Defensively, we allowed 32 shots in the paint with mediocre efficiency, and 24 shots outside the paint and inside the arc, which are poor efficiency looks for the opponent. Those are good numbers. And the game was still close.
Against the Kings in game 2 we gave up 56 points in the paint on 28/41 shooting. That's not good. Too much volume and efficiency. And that was the main reason why the game was close. However they are a bad team and we did force them off the three point line and they wound up taking 24 midrange shots with terrible efficiency. This is a lottery team. So I don't take much out of games like this. We're supposed to beat them. But a small note. WCS, an athletic 7 footer did clean up on the interior. He went 10 for 15 down low and we didn't even make him go to the line and earn it. He shot only two free throws. All he is offensively is garbage man and finisher. We couldn't hold him.
I can see teams like the Spurs that will give us problems. NO has twin towers but not good perimeter defenders. Timber Ws are interesting, up and coming because Thibs is there.
In game 3 against Dallas we gave up 30 paint points on 23 shots. That's a very low volume with mediocre defensive efficiency. Dallas has no inside game. They're starting Dirk in the middle. And they shot way too many midrange shots. Another lottery team in my opinion. So I don't take much away from this game good or bad. I think it's mostly a case of them being a bad team and settling for midrange shots more than our interior defense pushing them out.
In game 4 against the Grizzlies, we allowed 40 points in the paint on 38 shots. Decent efficiency. But too much volume in a slow defensive game where they dominated the pace and forced us into shooting a ton of bad threes and they got to the free throw line. They scored 74 of 98 points in the paint and at the FT line and especially best us by getting to the FT line and doing a good job defending our shooters. You may be able to mark this a fluke. Lots of questionable calls and non-calls. I thought officiating sucked. There shouldn't have been such a FT disparity against us. However we did pile up a lot of fouls while they were taking it to the hole. And a lot of them were legit. I.would call our interior defense somewhat porous this game. We didn't hold Memphis to enough midrange looks. They got inside and they got to the line.
Harden improving his mental toughness is the key to our season. This team will only go as far as he takes us interior defense or not. I'm hoping he learned from last yr and is ready for the mental gymnastics the NBA playoffs put you through.
