Revived wrote:One thing I noticed today was how often both DeRozan and Lavine were attacking Cam Johnson on switches. I know Johnson had bulked up last off season to play PF but damn it’s hurt his later quickness for sure because both guys cooked him. DeRozan in particular had a play which had Cam spinning in circles after a 1-2 crossover.
Booker I think is becoming close to being as good as Crowder defensively. And Crowder of course is a very good defender so that speaks volumes to how good he is. He had that completely clean rip on Lavine (which dumb refs called a foul) which was beautiful timing and anticipation. Bridges is still the best defender due to his length but prone to committing dumb fouls like he did today fouling 3pt shooters on back to back possessions.
Even with the best record in the league and basically dominating the regular season, there’s still many little things the team can do more work on.
CamJo defense has always been about great positioning, anticipation and defensive IQ. He's more of a smart defender than he is a lock down defender with lateral quickness, length and strength. I still think he's a damn good defender given he doesn't have elite length or quickness.
I don't think Booker's D is nearly as good as Crowder's. He works much harder on defense and he's a lot more aware than earlier in his career but most of his defense is about trying to stay in front long enough to challenge and/or channelling his man into the help rather than trying to lockdown. Being the go-to scorer on the team, he can neither expend a ton of energy to try and lock down his man nor risk picking up cheap fouls being too physical. Crowder is still very good on defense, he's super strong, he plays "big" and has amazing awareness especially when it comes to helping on D.
Today wasn't Bridges' best defensive outing but I think we can all agree the reffing was pretty suspect today so I'll let this game slide.