Perimeter Defense: Greatly Improved

Last night can't determin a "FAIL". 1st thing, Orlando was shooting 60% from the 3. That's 20% more than their average. They were out of control. And if you want to say it's because we left them "wide-open"; other teams have done this very same thing and Orlando failed. We were trying to stop Howard; which we did. Unfortunately the shooters were on fire.

 

They weren't "out of control" they were completely wide open. That was some of the worst 3 point defense I've ever seen.

 

Regardless... Like I said before. I've seen teams use that strategy before on them and it worked. I thought our team was doing the same thing, and it almost worked as well. If you make them hit some wide open tres in the first half; they fall in love with them. Then teams bunker down on Howard and foul anytime he goes to the basket. The shooters keep shooting and the shots stop starting to fall. Then they get all mind fucked and don't know what to do.

It almost worked for us if Orlando didn't have an "out of his mind" Turk performance in the last 3 minutes of the game.

You do that same game 100 times and I bet Orlando loses more than 70 of them.

 

Before the game yesterday a buddy of mine said, "The Blazers need to NOT double team Dwight, just let him get his 30 points."

Looking back now, he was right. It was all the doubling off the bat that got their shooters warmed up and in groove all night, almost 60% FG,and 48 points off three's!

 

I just disagreed with the scheme last night. I would have preferred to make Howard prove he could beat us while shutting down everybody else. For some reason we kept running a half-assed double or triple team at him. Since it was half-assed, it didn't bother Howard AND it left their 3-pt shooters wide open.

It isn't surprising that later in the game when we decided to use our perimeter defenders to apply pressure and disrupt their offense, we had more success.

 

Exactly ^

Dwight had only 13 points. You let him get 20 or so, and you take away a ton of made three pointers from the cast.

 

Yeah you're right about one game, but if this game was played 10 times, we win 7 of them easily. I think our game plan was good because Howard hurts your team in the first 3 quarters and then becomes a liability in the 4th. If we kept this game close, we would have blown them out in the 4th.

 

If the Blazers played defense the way they played the first three quarters 10 times against that team then they probably lose 9 of them. Stop kidding yourself. It was a shitty game plan on defense and shittier execution.

 

You think it is a good game plane to run a half-assed double or triple team at Howard, with defenders getting caught on no-man's land?

 

Now we go up against a Spurs team shooting 42% from three, even better then the Magic were. If we don't prevent wide open threes today it likely will end up being another game of double digit deficits.

 

Especially on the road.

 

The Spurs don't have a post threat that commands a double team; they get open threes mostly off of Parker's dribble penetration and kick-outs. If guys can play strong man defense and keep people out of the lane it should be much easier to defend the three point shot ... I guess we'll see what happens.

 

I agree with this. It's a completely different situation than going against D-12 and the Magic. There should be no need to double down on the post. If it were Duncan 5 or 6 years ago it would be a different story.

 

And Aldridge just seems to give Duncan headaches defensively too. LMA can play Duncan straight up and actually contain him. Howard; there was no chance unless we want Aldridge or the other bigs in foul trouble. I'm hoping this is the game (like our second against clippers) that Felton proves why we got him. He needs to make sure Parker stays at bay. I'm rooting for our "help pressure d" to really frustrate Parker too.

This is what I want to see with Parker:

 

I do have a better feeling about this game then before the Magic game. Still Spurs are the only west team undefeated at home, and this is probably our toughest road game for the 6 game trip unless you think highly of Atlanta.

 

BUMP...

Ok, I lied about the improved perimeter defense.

 

It's kind of a shame to see it happen to this team, but I get the feeling these players are starting to quit on Nate.

 

I just don't think these players are all that talented. Seeing the w/o LMA is a reality check.

 

This team without LA is about as good as Minnesota; one good player (Batum) and a junk drawer full of random pieces.

 

You're right. But after watching them get run off of their own floor by one of the worst teams in the league, it doesn't look like just a talent deficiency.