What is wrong with the defense?

[zerophase]

slow rotations... lucky outside shooting...

[BillfromBoston]

2) the bench play when it is 4 bench and one starter is just to terrible.  Both quarters that started with them led to a 30+ point period.  (though notice the bench players were better when they were mixed with more starters)

Really?

2 starters + bench: outscored by 6
1 starter + bench: outscored by 7

The difference is that the 4bench+1starter lineup played 7 more minutes. I guess a lie repeated a million times...

Plus, Pierce and Allen are playing around 40 minutes every close game we have and I don't like the Rondo+TA backcourt. Today there were moments were all the 5 SA players were defending inside the paint when we had the RR+TA+KP line-up. Plus, Garnett and Pierce hanging around the 3pt line on the weakside wing is a waste. I don't know if it's that easy to play less 4 bench players units (that I don't mind at all). 

Call it a lie when you calculate those stats for the entire season - the 4/1 bench/starter lineup has been decent defensively,  but atrocious offensively...

The lineups with a more even mix of starters and bench have been more efficient offensively and still effective defensively overall...

The pacing in the last few games has been higher as well i'd imiagine - we've played some up-tempo teams and forced a bit of a tempo ourselves - more posessions, more points...shooting percentages are up too with the quality of offenses we've faced...

Biggest Factor: Perkins being injured and then returning coinciding with the quality of teams and quality of offenses we've faced - Perk isn't back to pre-shoulder form - where he was averaging about 12/11 at the time...he gets back to  conditioning form and the d picks up as well as the balance in team scoring with the starters and bench...need Scal back too...

[LB3533]

I did some research for the last 8 games and I found a couple interesting statistics.

1.) Over the last 8 games we are allowing opponents to shoot 36-81 per game @ 44.5%. Our seasonal averages prior to these 8 games 32-77 @ 41.6%.

This could mean that our defense has been subpar because we are allowing teams to shoot more shots and convert them at 100% rate, because over these last 8 games, opponents are taking 4 more shots per game and making all 4 of those shots. And to be honest, I have seen about 4 or 5 more uncontested layups these past few games. Maybe we are tired.

This could also mean that maybe the pace of these games have gone up these last 8 games, but can't really tell just by looking at the small sample size of increase in FGA's by our opponents.

2.) This second statistic is the key.

In our 2 losses (LAL, SAS) and 1 near loss which should have been a loss to PHI, these opponents shot an average of 26 Free Throw Attempts per game. We averaged 15.7 FTA per game! Our seasonal averages excluding these 3 games we average 26.6 FTA per game!

That is 10 FTA difference that we are getting shafted on.

It's not that the refs are blowing the whistle more for the other teams, they are not....they are just swallowing the whistle when we need them to blow it for us.

[ManUp]

Poor perimeter defense

Poor help defense/rotations

too much fouling (us or the refs?)

[BballTim]

It's not that the refs are blowing the whistle more for the other teams, they are not....they are just swallowing the whistle when we need them to blow it for us.

  That pretty much fits with what people have been complaining about.

[RAcker]

Let me submit my response to this question as we've become either tired and/or lazy on defense.  Perfect example: Why was Perk so far under the pick set by Duncan that gave Mason, Jr. that 3 at the end of the game and SA the lead for good?  Just a mental breakdown due to either of those options or both.  We know that our guys know better, especially with Thibs yelling it out to them all game on that end of the floor.  What other explanation can there be when you watch that play or the others like it we have seen recently?

[wdleehi]

Let me submit my response to this question as we've become either tired and/or lazy on defense.  Perfect example: Why was Perk so far under the pick set by Duncan that gave Mason, Jr. that 3 at the end of the game and SA the lead for good?  Just a mental breakdown due to either of those options or both.  We know that our guys know better, especially with Thibs yelling it out to them all game on that end of the floor.  What other explanation can there be when you watch that play or the others like it we have seen recently?

To defend against Duncan rolling to the basket easily. 

[housecall]

Our defense on Sunday made Duncan and Finley look 20 again.

[RAcker]

Let me submit my response to this question as we've become either tired and/or lazy on defense.  Perfect example: Why was Perk so far under the pick set by Duncan that gave Mason, Jr. that 3 at the end of the game and SA the lead for good?  Just a mental breakdown due to either of those options or both.  We know that our guys know better, especially with Thibs yelling it out to them all game on that end of the floor.  What other explanation can there be when you watch that play or the others like it we have seen recently?

To defend against Duncan rolling to the basket easily. 

Thibs defense is supposed to allow for both.  You have a hand "on your man" and show just long enough to keep the man from coming off the pick clean for a wide open look unless he is not a shooting threat.  Perk was caught 8 feet off of Duncan. That kind of space is not necessary in stopping a roll to the basket.  You are just in no man's land and leave the team defense vulnerable.  Just basketball 101.  

[RAcker]

When we hustle and play defense correctly (as taught by Thibs) it has been said on more than one occassion that we seem to have 6 players out there.  The way we played Duncan Sunday, we were so soft we'd have literally had to have pulled a Trailblazer to seem like we had 6 out there.

[LB3533]

Forget about the defense on Tim Duncan.

What about the defense on Matt Boner? We made Mat Boner look like Tim Duncan with a 3 point shot.

[RAcker]

Forget about the defense on Tim Duncan.

What about the defense on Matt Boner? We made Mat Boner look like Tim Duncan with a 3 point shot.

Huh huh, you said Boner. 

What you said was true though.  Contest a ****' shot! Well, even when we did he banks it in.   

[TheReaLPuba]

Guys we lost KG for a couple games that's going to hurt our team defense and then we got the flu going around PLUS we're playing some good teams - they're going to score a bit more than other teams.

What we are missing is that key guy off the bench that can D'up the opposing teams swing man that we had last year.....now we are relying on Big Baby, TA, or Scal to do that....it's obviously going to hurt our defense overall.

[cordobes]

Forget about the defense on Tim Duncan.

What about the defense on Matt Boner? We made Mat Boner look like Tim Duncan with a 3 point shot.

Bonner was making heavily contested shots. Defence is about contesting shots, that's the proper way of evaluating if good or bad defence is being played.

Anyway, perimeter jump-shooting bigs always give us trouble, as we're forced to position Garnett two steps ahead of the sight line, making our help scheme less reliable.

[cordobes]

2) the bench play when it is 4 bench and one starter is just to terrible.  Both quarters that started with them led to a 30+ point period.  (though notice the bench players were better when they were mixed with more starters)

Really?

2 starters + bench: outscored by 6
1 starter + bench: outscored by 7

The difference is that the 4bench+1starter lineup played 7 more minutes. I guess a lie repeated a million times...

Plus, Pierce and Allen are playing around 40 minutes every close game we have and I don't like the Rondo+TA backcourt. Today there were moments were all the 5 SA players were defending inside the paint when we had the RR+TA+KP line-up. Plus, Garnett and Pierce hanging around the 3pt line on the weakside wing is a waste. I don't know if it's that easy to play less 4 bench players units (that I don't mind at all). 

So it is ok that they were only outscored by 6?

Uh? I thought you were the one saying that only the type of 2nd units with a single bench player was terrible... I just proved that the difference on the game was minimal - in fact, in a per minute basis, the 1starter+4bench players unit did better. It's not the first time this happens. I think the importance of the "mixes" is grossly overstated. For example, I prefer a all-bench team than a mixed team with Rondo/Tony Allen/Pierce/Powe/Perkins. Again, it's not that easy for Doc to mix starters and bench players so much, considering injuries and the limitations of several contributors. Anyway, from our top10 units, there are only 3 with a negative +/-: 1 has 4 starters, the other 3 starters and the 10th has no starters at all. Units with 1 starter+4 bench players have positive +/-.