« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2017, 09:02:26 AM »
The C's were a top 10 offensive team this season. Yes, they rely too much on IT but the team has been a better offensive team than defensive by a wide margin.
Last night, their defense was disgustingly lazy. If they play better defense, they are able to get out in transition more, get more easy buckets, and that makes scoring points in the half court easier when guys are in rhythm. But it all starts on the defensive end.
And lazy defensive effort has been a recurring weakness all season, after being a strength last year.
The best explanation I can come up with is that Stevens, as smart as he is, simply doesn't understand how physically intense NBA basketball needs to be. Remember his first season, when the team would repeatedly run up big leads and then collapse when the other guys started to play hard?
It feels like this team the previous two seasons relied on individual players and their personal habits of toughness and this season they finally realized they could slack off and Stevens wouldn't do anything about it.
Mike
It's a mystery to me, how this team could go from playing such intense, focused defense last season and play as lazy as they have all year on that end.
I wonder about the addition of Horford. I love Horford and I think he's a terrific player. He gets a raw deal around here a lot. But I also think his personality is that he's not a particularly intense guy. He's calm and smart and executes but he doesn't have a fiery personality. That can be a good thing but for an undersized team like this, they can get away with anything less than 110% on every possession.
As much as I love Al, he might be better suited to being a cog in a well oiled machine (like San Antonio) and as a tempering force on a more volatile squad (he could be the guy who keeps a Lance Stephenson type in his place).
I don't know.

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