Re: Blazers: 4th best defense in the NNA What I'm most impressed with is just how focused, commtted and dialed in they are to this one area of the game and it's almost a mere flip of the switch that it's happened. Who who have thought a team that was coached by a offensive mind who of come in and produced these kind of numbers immediately? it makes you understand why they are not as potent so far offensively. If you have to lose a series the way they lost the Spurs series, you hope they take something away from it. And I think they did.
Re: Blazers: 4th best defense in the NNA The big keys have been Damian and Kaman. Last year we had a really tough time defending PG's. Even when we hid Lillard on the other team's worst wing, that guy would go off on us. It's night and day now. Lillard is fighting through screens and really putting in a lot more work out there. Maybe it comes from practicing with Steve Blake (a so-so defender in absolute terms, but a fantastic defender if you factor in he has basically no athleticism or speed). Maybe he's finally getting used to defending NBA players instead of Big Sky players. Maybe he's pissed off about getting cut from the World team. Maybe a little of everything. But we no longer have a massive weak link in our starting lineup's defense. He's gone from utterly terrible to reasonably competent, which is just huge. And Kaman. Holy shit. It's almost like Rolo gets to play 48 minutes now. Kaman just swallows up the paint. He's just so damned big--sometimes it seems like he's the one high school guy playing with grade schoolers. I've never thought of the guy as even a good defender, but maybe much like Dame he's just out there playing with a chip on his shoulder (and feasting on other team's generally smaller and less skilled second units). I guess Blake also should get some recognition for just not being Mo Williams. Blake's basic defensive competence allows Batum and Matthew's pretty good defense to shine just because they aren't constantly adjusting from the PG's mistakes. I had Portland pegged for 60 wins, and I think it's optimistic, but I'm sticking with it.
Re: Blazers: 4th best defense in the NNA I'd also add that Portland seems to be changing their defensive philosophy some. Because we run 2 bigs nearly always, there seems to be a lot more switching (since our bigs just aren't going to get over the top of screens). Seems like there are a lot more shots from the other team taking 3 pointers with a seven footer throwing up a hand at them. Seems to work so far. Also, I really like the quick blitzing double teams they are throwing in more. Portland had a philosophy last year that they basically never double teamed ever. I understand the general idea (double teams leave weak side guys wide open) but when you were as extreme about it as Portland was, the opponent's defense gets very relaxed. They know they can run whatever they want, and as long as their one individual guy beats our one individual guy, they'll score. The new philosophy of blitzing a double team almost at random seems to keep opponents off guard much more. Even if you only do it once every 4 or 5 possessions it throws off the other team's rhythm. Kudos to Stotts for making these adjustments.
Re: Blazers: 4th best defense in the NNA I underestimated the impact of having a 7' center in the middle at all times. And Rolo's timing on blocks has been markedly better this season so far.
Re: Blazers: 4th best defense in the NNA http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats/_/sort/defensiveEff/order/false After last night we're tied in 7th for offensive efficiency (with GSW) and 5th in defensive efficiency. All while playing some really good teams. Again, only 5 games but some promising signs.
Very promising indeed. I agree the additions of Kaman and Blake have been huge. Our bench has been night and day better this year; and I think it not only improves the production for the minutes the bench is on the court but allows the starter to exert more energy on defense while in the game. The Blazers success the last 3 years really illustrates how beneficial it is to keep a core of players and coaches together. They have been able to make significant improvements each year. Stotts has the freedom to build upon the good aspects of the previous year and correct the faults. Contrast that to superstar teams thrown together such as the Lakers with Dwight or even this years Cavs.
Honestly my knock last year wasn't necessarily the bench scoring. It was how the bench played. Last season, our bench would Give up so much ground our starters gained. So far, our current bench either sustains leads or even increases them. I see much better defense and much better ball movement. The entire team has bought into this defense strategy! Such good news!
Re: Blazers: 4th best defense in the NNA I'm impressed by it, too, but it really only happened in the last two games. They played almost no defense against the Warriors, for example. I wish they would have come out of the gate playing this kind of defense.
Re: Blazers: 4th best defense in the NNA Holding the Warriors to 95 pts and having a chance to win it with 14 seconds left was not bad defense. We may have been the only team to keep them under 100 pts so far
Re: Blazers: 4th best defense in the NNA We really held them to 91 points and the. Intentionally, sent them to the line for 4 more points after it was pretty much decided considering our inability to get the ball inbounds.
Update: 6th in OFF EFF at 107.7 and 6th in DEF EFF at 99.0 Thats like contender sexy right there. Keep up the good work guys
The offensive efficiency will go up, because I think the other teams ahead of them will drop. Hopefully we stay with the defensive efficiency because that's a legit contender right there. Also, I'm really curious how our rebounding will rate by the end of the season. We should be at least a top 3 rebounding team as well.
Teams ahead of Por Mavs 112 Nets 109.5 Raptors 109.4 Bulls 108.6 Heat 108.3 Blazers 107.7 I think we will hang between 1-8 for the season. The raptors are the only other team with a top 10 defensive rating, however their schedule has been nothing compared to ours.
They talked about how good they were tonight on both ends. They still have up 113 points. And then Casey asks can they better than they were tonight. LOL. They have a lot of work to do. On both ends. We haven't seen their best ball.
