On the drive penetration of opposing point guards, I've Yao come to help out but this often leads to an easy dish to opposing center. Other times, I've seen Yao stick with his man until the last second and then tries to help but this is often to late. I am wondering who is supposed to help in this situation. Who is responsible for helping cover Yao's man when he helps stevie or moochie.
The league is a point guard league right now. You have to be a pretty good defender to shut down the point guards. Gary Payton has had trouble with PGs this year. The team defense is the important thing.
I went to the game today and our defense was just awesome. Mobley and Francis did a great job and we won despite the fact we shot for **** most of the game. If we played with this much defensive intensity every game, we would be title contenders.
I think Posey may have fixed the minutes problem with Francis and Mobes. And talk about defense! Now we can turn to the PF drama as it plays out. Suddenly seems a bit thin there, doesn't it? Kenny will be missed. Will we make any moves there, or is this it for the season? Anymore trades in the future? This one surprised the hell out of me.
Well, I do see the improvement in Mobley to make an effort towards playing defense, and I think it gives everyone a bit of comfort knowing we have players like Ming and Griffin back there guarding the basket. But yes, we must improve our team defense, especially our rotation when going into a zone. Once that falls into place, we can occaisionally suprise a team with a half-court trap/press. As a team, we must also have a basic understanding of the other team's players and their abilities. It's really frustrating to see us double up on someone that doesn't deserve the double team. There are exceptions with such players as a Tmac or a Kobe, but for the most part, we must do our best to force a player towards his weakness. Whether that be shooting, going left, or ball handling, we must disrespect that aspect of their game until they prove otherwise.
DEFENSE IS THE KEY! And the guards have to learn that they have to play it all the time in every game. With Ming, Griffin, and now Posey, our frontcourt D will probly be pretty consistent. Now the guards have to step it up. Mobley has been playing pretty good D, Francis has also been playing pretty good D except for the 3 games before the Pacers games. He sorta went on vacation (probly cause they were playing sub .5 teams). Now in this Pacers game, we have to applaud them for their D. Holding the Pacers ENTIRE backcourt to 12 points is amazing. Especially when the backcourt consists of Tinsley, Miller and Mercer. These three are not bad scorers. Now if they could only do this against the bad teams too..... But I have faith, I hope they've learned their lessons.
