Here is an article that points out that the Nuggets need more defense from everyone other than Camby and Evans, who are already playing well. The team has largely failed to step up defensively during the suspension games. The article focuses mostly on the Laker game, but the same lack of defensive hustle and intensity happened again the next night against the Jazz during at least the first half and in the 4th quarter that decided it. I think the time for talking is over; it's time for the coaches and the players to concentrate on defense more than they have been. Everyone knows it is a problem, so I am expecting at least a little progress in solving it. Giving up 105 points or more but still winning the game might happen from time to time in the regular schedule, but it will not happen as often in the playoffs. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Remember the old scene from the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off when everyone's favorite monotone teacher Ben Stein is standing in the front of the class room taking attendance and says: "Bueller . . . Bueller . . . Bueller?" Well, if he was watching the game last night in Los Angles between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers he would have said: "Defense . . . Defense . . . Defense?" "Anyone . . . Anyone . . . Anyone?" In short, Denver's defense has been absent from class for some time. If the Nuggets are going to win big this season, everyone knows their offense will be the primary catalyst. That said, they have to play at least some semblance of defense to win basketball games. "When you let them get off to a confident start it's kind of stupid when you're shorthanded," head coach George Karl said after the game. That's true, and it didn't help that the Nuggets were playing a Laker team which has been on a roll offensively. Moreover, it's not like the Nuggets didn't give good effort because they did. They even attempted to battle back from a 20-point deficit. Effort alone, though, is not the problem. "In a lot of ways we did a lot of nice things to come back, but we never got a defensive dimension in the game," Karl explained. Karl's postgame hammer hit the Nugget nail squarely on the head with the above comment. When the Nuggets struggled on defense giving up lay-ups at will last week against the Sacramento Kings, everyone pointed to Marcus Camby's absence as the primary culprit. The theory was once he returned, everything would be fine on the defensive end. Well, that proved to be nothing more than a fallacy, and it's not Camby's fault. He's been solid on defense, but he shines in coming from the weak side to block shots. If the team is allowing dribble penetration at will, it helps to diminish Camby's effectiveness due to the fact that the opposing team simply penetrates right at Camby and passes to his man, as the Lakers did by dishing the rock to Andrew Bynum, Brian Cook and Ronny Turiaf for easy buckets most of the night. "There were moments we did some good thing defensively, and moments where we were awful defensively," Karl asserted. Sorry coach, but you are just being kind with those comments, because it's hard to remember too many good things the Nuggets did defensively on Friday night in a game where the Lakers scored the easiest 123 points of their season thus far. The Nuggets have said since training camp they want to play in a fashion similar to the Phoenix Suns. Apparently the Nuggets have bought into the notion being bandied about by some ignorant members of the media that the Suns play no defense. Are the Suns a defensive juggernaut? Absolutely not, but what the Suns are effective at doing is making opponents take jumpshots, many of which are contested. The Nuggets on the other hand simply give up lay-ups. It's hard to run offensively if you're constantly taking the ball out of the net. For the Suns, they are banking on the fact that teams are going to miss a fairly high number of contested jumpshots -- especially those jumpshots taken early in the shot clock. Last night, the Nuggets allowed lay-ups early and uncontested jumpshots far too often. So is the sky falling in The Rocky Mountains? No, far from it? Now is not the time when a depleted Nuggets squad is going to make a move, and in defense of the team (no pun intended), their schedule has been tough this past week. That said, if they don't figure out how to play defense soon, the season will not end the way everyone had hoped following the acquisition of Allen Iverson. Time to break out the good old fashioned basketball chant tonight at Pepsi Center, people. "De-FENSE!" Say it again! "De-FENSE!" </div> Source
I think this nuggets team is very capable of playing good defense. It seems like this team is full of decent to good defenders. I think Karl needs to get a little tougher on his team and make sure they no that if they dont play D they dont play at all.
