<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Chicago - There is really no way to sugarcoat the way the Milwaukee Bucks have been playing defense lately. Coach Terry Stotts' team has been awful on the defensive end and the players know it. "It's killing us," forward Ruben Patterson said after the team's practice Thursday at the Moody Bible Institute. "I was just talking to Coach about it. Our team defense ain't that great. We've talked about it since Day 1 of training camp. Everybody knows that teams are scoring on us. We can score the ball but we can't stop nobody." The Bucks have struggled on defense all season but their performance in the last week or so has fallen off to the point where they now rank dead last in the league in some key defensive categories. Perhaps the most accurate indicator of a team's defensive prowess is defensive field-goal percentage, and Milwaukee sits at 48.7%, easily topping Philadelphia's 48.0% mark. Also, the Bucks block fewer shots than anyone (2.3) and teams record more assists against the Bucks (25.68) than any other team. The Bucks are giving up 103.45 points per game and only Golden State (105.81), Denver (104.85) and Phoenix (104.61) - all fast-paced Western Conference teams - yield more. It's no wonder that inconsistency remains the Bucks' calling card this season and that they have been able to make up only one game on .500 after starting the season with a dismal 3-8 record. The Bucks take a 9-13 record into their game against the Chicago Bulls tonight at the United Center. "I think we've shown that we're not consistently a good defensive team," Stotts said. "We can play good defense in spots. But numbers don't lie. Part of it is mental focus. Part of it is talent. It's different things. And, when you're a poor defensive rebounding team on top of being a poor defensive field-goal percentage team, it's a bad combination." </div> Source
Wow. We officially rank dead last in the two most telling defensive stats: opponent FG% and assists against. That tells me that we are the laziest team in the league. Think about it - how do you stop people from shooting a high %? You get a hand in their face, you bump them, you make them uncomfortable, and you force deep jumpers. We do none of those things consistently if at all. Secondly, the assist statistic tells you that we are not stopping guys from making easy cuts to the goal. Most assists come from plays where a guy has a clean lane to the bucket, and we're giving up the most of them. Again, what do we blame this on? I hate to say it again, but TERRY FRIGGIN STOTTS. If he got his players motivated to play tough defense, this would not be happening. Looking at these stats, and the continuing TOTAL lack of defensive conscience, it's pretty obvious that either Stotts has no idea how to coach a team defensively or the players have simply tuned him out and don't care what he's preaching to them. I think that both cases are true. This is a team that's pretty much as bad as anyone in the NBA. I have a sick taste in my mouth watching the total lack of hustle and intensity outside of Redd and Ruben most of the time, and Bogut and Charley on occasion. Skinner and Gadz are the toughest, most energetic guys we've got. For the love of Christ, we might as well just put them out there with Ruben, Redd and Charlie as the starters, because quite obviously NO ONE else gives a **** how bad we're playing. This team is pretty much worthless.
