Poll: Is our championship caliber defense a thing of the past?

[coco]

I am getting a bit tired watching teams scoring in the 100s against the Cs.  We are looking more like the AWalker Cs than the KG Cs.

I truly starting to doubt our defense will regain its spunk....

Rondo is cheating too much, PP looks old, KG lacks movement....

[Roy Hobbs]

I went with "too early".  The defense has looked spectacular at times, and mediocre-to-poor at others.  I'm anxious to see if it gets more consistent as the season progresses.

[indeedproceed]

Good poll

We will get it together. Faith. George Micheals.

[KCattheStripe]

I am getting a bit tired watching teams scoring in the 100s against the Cs.  We are looking more like the AWalker Cs than the KG Cs.

I truly starting to doubt our defense will regain its spunk....

Rondo is cheating too much, PP looks old, KG lacks movement....

Only two teams have scored 100 on us, and the Suns will drop 100 on just about anyone. Only one other team has scored more than 95. So there it is ladies and Gentlemen, keep an NBA offense under 96 points, and the Celtics win, you know, like they've done those 9 times.

[Who]

Nope, the defense is still elite.

Just not on top form at the moment.

[Roy Hobbs]

Most observers will tell you that the two best statistical indicators of a team defense are Opponent's FG%, and Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions (i.e., Defensive Efficiency.)

Right now, we rank 21st in Opponent's FG% (44.0% allowed), but 1st in Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions (97.7).  Those numbers seem oddly inconsistent, but one way we're accomplishing it is by forcing the highest percentage of turnovers in the league.  Also, while teams are shooting three pointers at a high percentage against us, they're shooting a relatively low total number compared to other teams.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2010.html

[Fafnir]

I think we'll get back to being more consistent as the season goes on.

The defense has still be very good across the whole start of the season.

[Fafnir]

Most observers will tell you that the two best statistical indicators of a team defense are Opponent's FG%, and Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions (i.e., Defensive Efficiency.)

Right now, we rank 21st in Opponent's FG% (44.0% allowed), but 1st in Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions (97.7).  Those numbers seem oddly inconsistent, but one way we're accomplishing it is by forcing the highest percentage of turnovers in the league.  Also, while teams are shooting three pointers at a high percentage against us, they're shooting a relatively low total number compared to other teams.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2010.html

While our FG% is bad, our eFG% is 7th in the league.

[BballTim]

  We haven't been consistently great on defense but we're still leading the league in defensive efficiency. Look at last night. We didn't play great defense in the first half but were better in the 3rd quarter (in spite of the complaints). GS is shooting 49% on the year, they shot 46%. They usually hit 39% of their threes, they hit 35%. They average 16 turnovers a game, they had 21. That might add up to 10-12 points below their norm for the same number of posessions.

[Chris]

I think the defense will be there when they need it.  Although I think they will continue to struggle against long, athletic teams with good shooters, the same way they did two years ago.  The difference is going to be whether the younger guys like Rondo and Perk can keep their energy level up.  At this point, KG, Pierce, Allen, and Wallace are all going to be grind it out defenders.  They are still very good, but they are not going to be all over the place like some of them have been in the past.  So they are going to rely on guys like Rondo to keep the energy up, and cause problems for the other team, without completely disregarding their assignments.

[ManUp]

I selected "no", but I meant to go for "to early". The defense has been inconsistent through quarters (specifically through the last few games), but like KCat points out the overrall results have been good. If our Championship Caliber defense ever goes so will our title hopes.

[Fafnir]

I selected "no", but I meant to go for "to early". The defense has been inconsistent through quarters (specifically through the last few games), but like KCat points out the overrall results have been good. If our Championship Caliber defense ever goes so will our title hopes.

The other thing to remember is in 2007-2008 we had one of the best defenses, ever.

You don't have to be that amazing to win a title, simply because we're also a very good offensive team.

[JSD]

We haven't even played 10 games yet...

[Chris]

We haven't even played 10 games yet...

And in half of our games, the defense looked better than ever. 

[Roy Hobbs]

Most observers will tell you that the two best statistical indicators of a team defense are Opponent's FG%, and Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions (i.e., Defensive Efficiency.)

Right now, we rank 21st in Opponent's FG% (44.0% allowed), but 1st in Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions (97.7).  Those numbers seem oddly inconsistent, but one way we're accomplishing it is by forcing the highest percentage of turnovers in the league.  Also, while teams are shooting three pointers at a high percentage against us, they're shooting a relatively low total number compared to other teams.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2010.html

While our FG% is bad, our eFG% is 7th in the league.

But as mentioned, teams are shooting threes very well against us (we're 22nd in the league in 3PT% against).  The area where we've been fairly good is limiting the total number of three pointers attempted against us.

Also, the current defense is a far cry from the championship team, at least as compared to other teams.  Our championship team was 1st in defensive efficiency, 1st in FG% allowed, 1st in 3PT% allowed, 1st in eFG% allowed, and 1st in turnover percentage.  This team isn't there yet, although as mentioned, it's early.