<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">When he was coaching the Portland Trail Blazers, Maurice Cheeks wanted to have his defenders pick up opponents farther up the floor, creating deflections that led to turnovers that, in turn, led to easy baskets. Now, as coach of the 76ers, based on what he saw in the preseason, Cheeks thinks he'll have more success using that type of defense. The reason? "I think we have more willing guys to get up and play this type of defense than we did in Portland," he said. "It's what I wanted to play [there], but I think these guys are a lot more willing. You also have, as I had in Portland, a couple of shot-blockers back there." One of the shot-blockers, 6-foot-11 Samuel Dalembert, will be out of action for the next two weeks with a strained right quadriceps. But 7-foot Steven Hunter will be on duty near the basket, ready to be the primary shot-blocker. Cheeks is emphasizing to his players the importance of forcing turnovers, and the Sixers did plenty of that in the preseason. They forced an average of nearly 20 in their eight exhibitions, including 34 in one game against the New York Knicks. "It's something we talked about in training camp - getting up and forcing turnovers," he said. "We don't want to just rely on our offense to score points but try to score points off our defense. We did that for the most part. "We always had a good amount of deflections, which indicated our defense was active, our hands were active. That's what we're trying to do - get our hands active, get guys up the floor and defend." One of the keys to the defense in the preseason was second-year pro Andre Iguodala, who averaged 2.5 steals and, according to Cheeks, led the team in deflections. "Andre is our best perimeter defender," Cheeks said. "The reason we have so many deflections on the defensive end is because of him. He anchors our defense. All the things he does on the defensive end are the reason why we can be as good as we can be on the defensive end." Being an anchor on defense is nothing new for Iguodala, who has drawn the top perimeter scorer on the opposing team since he first took the floor in a Sixers uniform. "It was similar last year," Iguodala said, "but it's now just given me a leadership role, something that I'm embracing. I'm calling out the defense when we're trapping, when we're zoning up, when we're in [man-to-man]. So that gives me that extra freedom to play more freely out there." Still, the overall defense needs some work. The Sixers allowed opponents to shoot 45.2 percent from the field in the preseason, including 54 percent shooting by San Antonio - which was using something approaching its regular rotation - in the exhibition finale. "It's been OK," Iguodala said. "There are a lot of kinks in there that we need to work out, a lot of things that we need to go over. Hopefully, we'll get there sooner rather than later."</div> link:http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/13039639.htm
Well the 76ers have been good at forcing turnovers, last year they were number one in the NBA when it came to that. They continued to do that in this seasons exhbidition games but I think with all the injuries to important players, they failed to produce those turnovers into points at times.
