The Blazers defense is giving up 108.1 points per 100 possessions which is 4th worst in the NBA. Their defensive effective FG% is .486 which is above average good for 13th. Defensive FT/FGA is .141 which is excellent only three teams are better Their defensive turnover % is 9.6% second worst in the league. Their defensive rebounding % is 69.7% which is bad, only 4 teams are worse one of whom is surprisingly Phoenix. So through three games the Blazers are terrible at forcing turnovers, very bad at defensive rebounding, and overall have the 27th rated defense. They are winning games due to having the second most efficient offense behind the Clippers scoring 112.3 points per 100 possessions. I sure hope the "Lopez effect" helps more going forward than it has thus far.
Dwight Howard and Omer Asik alone have a higher defensive rebounding percentage than our entire team.
Watching these games it feels to me like we are just flying up and down the court. Totally different from the McMillian era. But surprisingly our pace is 94.7 possessions per 48 minutes which is one possession slower than the league average.
Just watched highlights of the Spurs game. When Wes Matthews gets that big dunk late, Lopez is a complete wall preventing Duncan or anyone else from contesting that dunk. It's a huge lane to the basket for Wes. And THAT is why Lopez is more than his stats in the box score.
He was ejected for good reason. The league's new concussion rule. He took a HARD swipe and made contact near the head/neck area. Blake Griffin or not, that is a Flagrant 2 all night long.
His Per/36 rebounding is 6.8. His PER is 9.0. For comparison's sake, Meyers Leonard last year had a per/36 of 7.6 rebounds (9.0 this year, but in limited minutes), and people were freaking out because Leonard couldn't rebound. I think Robin Lopez has been a huge disappointment so far, but that could be a part of learning to play with LMA on offense.
It's LMA that has been disappointing me on Defense. Lopez has lived up to my expectations: http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/i...trail_blazers_by_the_number.html#incart_river
I am a big time Aldridge homer and I totally agree with you. I am with Brian too. I think he's getting pushed out of the paint to easily. He needs to force the issue down low.
It sounds like you're talking about offense. If not, how is he supposed to "force the issue down low" on defense?
Oh yeah you're right. My bad… I think I'm talking more about rebounding. Aldridge's offensive rebounding needs to improve; which I believe improves the team's defense. If a shot goes up and he can grab an offensive board, teams won't be able to push after a miss as much as they've done so far.
