Amazing, How a lot of you have excuses for Lin when he has to to fight against pnr and gets burned, but when it was Bev "He's a bad defender". Bev had to fight against the same or more picks... As for as D goes, bev is better.... He's a hard nose defender.. When it comes to O, lin drives and is a better creator. Now you guys are pissed at Harden, for not letting Lin play the pg position (As I stated in another.. A lot of you would be pissed)... When Lin does bad it's excuse after excuse... When he doesn't get the ball it's complaint after complaint.... Lin, is a good player; but he's not a superstar.. For this team Lin is better suited coming off the bench where he can be himself with no restrictions from Harden. When he's on the court with Bev or Brooks, he can be more creative. He will not get that same opportunity with Harden... News flash, Harden isn't going anywhere no time soon... So I too agree with Clutch... T_Man
i dunno, watching the game it seems pretty consistent that Lin was able to prevent the blow by by shading IT right, he got a couple of fouls doing that but otherwise prevented IT from getting anywhere he wanted. and really, Thomas has been one of the better scorer in the league this year. I'd be more concerned with letting Marcus Thornton light you up for 15 in just 20 min As for if you watched or not, you can always rewatch all the plays from here. click on Thomas's 10 assist or 12 points to see what happend on each play. http://stats.nba.com/playerGameLogs.html?PlayerID=202738&pageNo=1&rowsPerPage=25 Take a look at Thomas' assist especially, the vast majority of them were glaringly obvious Harden break downs, or Rudy Gay simply making plays. I count' 1 to 2 where Lin was somewhat at fault, and it was far from a gigantic blow by break down either.
Lin has to do a better job of pressuring the ball and moving his feet... He's flat footed on defense... As DD as stated Lin is good with anticipation with help defense, but his man to man defense needs work. For those who complain about bev, other teams are not dumb and they watch a lot of film also.. That's why they throw so many picks at bev, but the difference is bev fights thru those picks a lot better than Lin. Yes Lin is better on offense, but Bev is a hard nose defender.... T_Man
There's really nothing wrong with Bev's defense. He's a pressure on-ball defender opposed to Lin's positioning defense. PGs don't usually one on one stop other PGs, just try to contain what they like to do and disrupt them and Lin contains while Bev tends to disrupt. Bev may be a little better but both are now above average. Bev isn't Gary Payton yet though.
Bev does not fight through picks better than Lin. You may prefer him but that's not the case. I think they have different styles of defense but Lin has done a fine job guarding PGs since coming back from the back spasms injury. Bev is hard nosed, but Lin doesn't have to play like Bev because Lin is Lin and Bev is Bev. Lin is actually doing fine on the defensive side, it's his offense he needs to step up and hopefully that comes against the NY Knicks with him knocking down some 3 pointers.
What happens is another defender has to rotate to prevent an easy bucket which leaves that player open for a shot.
We'll have to disagree. I've seen the games and Bev has some trouble with some picks. He isn't as big as Lin who has 15 or so pounds on Bev. Lin is doing OK with the picks. I think you'll get on Lin for his defense but truth of the matter, he is miles ahead of Harden's D and he played better D last game than Howard did on Cousins, Parsons on Rudy Gay and Harden on Thornton. AND, IT had a much less effective game against Lin than he had in his five previous games. DEC 31, 2013 - SAC @ HOU W 35 6 17 35.3% 1 4 25.0% 4 6 66.7% 0 1 1 10 1 0 0 1 17 6 DEC 29, 2013 - SAC @ SAS L 36 10 17 58.8% 5 6 83.3% 2 2 100% 1 3 4 9 0 0 2 2 27 2 DEC 27, 2013 - SAC vs. MIA W 41 7 16 43.8% 3 7 42.9% 5 6 83.3% 1 6 7 11 1 0 3 3 22 6 DEC 23, 2013 - SAC vs. NOP L 35 8 15 53.3% 3 6 50.0% 2 3 66.7% 3 2 5 5 3 0 4 3 21 -14 DEC 21, 2013 - SAC @ ORL W 43 8 15 53.3% 3 7 42.9% 4 4 100% 1 4 5 9 3 0 4
Four previous games. Stats for IT http://stats.nba.com/playerGameLogs.html?PlayerID=202738&pageNo=1&rowsPerPage=25
All this lin vs bev defense on IT and rating guys ability to "fight through screens" is laughable. As evidenced by the last 2 kings games, neither bev or lin can keep IT in check 1 vs 1. The guy is a 5'10 sonic the hedgehog. The difference this game was good help defense. Jones pushed IT outwards when cousins set the screen allowing lin time to catchup. He also came up to block his layups, causing several high glass bricks. The 4th quarter small ball approach cleared up the lane and that's when IT got his buckets. On another note, Rudy Gay has killer reach. Whenever Parsons got screened and rotated lin or harden, gay just shot over their heads. We desperately need another big wing defender. Garcia stepped up against Durant last year, but has regressed.
Stats... never tell the entire story.... You can defend Lin as much as you like... Stats can be changed and modified to meet any need.... The fact is Bev is better than Lin on D.. not on offense, but on defense... In my subject i'm not speaking of any other player...
Once IT or any other guard blows by Lin, it's the 2nd pass that kills.... So no.. he's STAT line want show an assist, but the damage was done. T_Man
What, throw out these stats because it shows that Lin did better against IT than other teams? I said Bev is better, but Lin is playing above average D since coming back from back spasms. There are a lot of PGs out there with much worse D than Lin. Overall, with Lin's better than average D and his offense, there is no reason why he shouldn't start. Starting PGs are NOT abusing him. However, he hasn't played his best offense or really as well as he played mid November and I hope he gets back to that level soon. It's all moot anyway, McHale wants him from the bench and that's probably where he'll be once Bev comes back barring some change of heart by McHale.
This is only true when a wing defender rotates in to help when his man is on the 3 point line. In that case it's the help defenders fault. You are supposed to force the driving man to your center or forward to trap or contest the layup. What did Lin say in the pre season?" Funnel them to Dwight."
