http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/11/portland_93_new_jersey_83_blaz.html In order to help with that confidence, McMillan delivered a message at the morning shootaround. With the team huddled around him, he asked his players if they knew where they ranked defensively in the NBA. When nobody spoke up, lead assistant Dean Demopoulos rolled off the impressive list: No. 1 in points allowed, No. 1 in field goal percentage against, No. 1 in defensive rebounds, No. 1 in assists given up and tied for third in blocks. "It was a message that we are doing a lot of things right," reserve center Joel Przybilla said. "I don't care who the opponents have been, we are doing some good things. I think it made us all feel confident."
I am such a fan of good defense. Something about taking a team out of their comfort zone. You can take high scoring teams and make their end score 20 points less than their average, that's an amazing feat. I congratulate all the Blazers for their team effort on the defensive end.
Just keep telling yourself, that if we can always be this efficient on d, we can win games, even when our o ain't good. Embrace it and cheer it on. We will need it in the playoffs.
Yes we've played easy opponents but unlike previous seasons you can see the defense that's being played by the Blazers is top notch. Closing the paint and making the opponent shoot jump shots.
Our post defense is really good, but our rating is a combination of really bad teams and our slow pace in terms of points allowed. Our perimeter defense is still pretty awful.
So I take it if we hadn't shut them down, we would be better off? Is this one of those situations where it is like fighting a retard? If you win, you beat up a retard. If you lose, you lost to a retard. It's a no win situation.
However, the Blazers seem to be getting better at switching out as of late. I see a lot of hustle taking place. Playing good defense is a lot about attitude.
You know its interesting you mention that. You know what kind of coincided with that timing? Travis Outlaw going out, a game or two going by, and then Dante Cunningham being put into the lineup. I touched on this before the season started. Dante Cunningham is a very smart basketball player. He knows how to play defense. The Villanova team he was on in college was near the top in ranking in defense every year. I was blown away in the game against Chicago, he got switched on to Lamarcus matchup. The ball moved away and as his guy he was guarding moved towards Lamarcus, he quickly communicated to Aldridge and they switched back. It was refreshing. A player who actually knew what to do.
Looking at our defensive efficiency, tells a different story. We are down to 3rd best in the league from 2nd that we were before. Inserting Webster into the starting line and moving Miller to the 2nd unit helped our offensive efficiency, but defensively - we are not as good as we were before.
