Official Thread - Wizards vs Clips (12/12/14)

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

We now lead the league both most assists per game at 25.9 and least assists given up per game at 17.3. Now that is a pretty significant stat.

[nate33]

We now lead the league both assists per game at 25.9 and assists given up per game at 17.3. Now that is a pretty significant stat.

Interesting. I'm not sure what to make of a team that doesn't give up a lot of assists. I suppose some of it is that we just don't give up a lot of points. (We're 7th best in points allowed.) But is the fact that we don't give up assists actually an indictment of our defense? Does it mean we don't close out and challenge the shooter enough, forcing him to pass?

Hmmm. Looking deeper, I see that we give up the 5th most long 2's (16-22 feet) and the 6th most from 10-16 feet. We give up nothing at the rim (3rd fewest at rim shots allowed), and the 11th fewest 3 point attempts. It looks like we are content to cede the midrange shot as long as we don't give up the pass to the cutter at the rim or the kick-out to the 3-point line. That's smart defense.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

We now lead the league both assists per game at 25.9 and assists given up per game at 17.3. Now that is a pretty significant stat.

Interesting. I'm not sure what to make of a team that doesn't give up a lot of assists. I suppose some of it is that we just don't give up a lot of points. (We're 7th best in points allowed.) But is the fact that we don't give up assists actually an indictment of our defense? Does it mean we don't close out and challenge the shooter enough, forcing him to pass?

Hmmm. Looking deeper, I see that we give up the 5th most long 2's (16-22 feet) and the 6th most from 10-16 feet. We give up nothing at the rim (3rd fewest at rim shots allowed), and the 11th fewest 3 point attempts. It looks like we are content to cede the midrange shot as long as we don't give up the pass to the cutter at the rim or the kick-out to the 3-point line. That's smart defense.

Yeah we are pretty solid all around in terms of percentage based defensive indicators. We rank 3rd in fg% allowed, 6th in adjusted fg% allowed, 11th in pps, and 15th in three-point fg% allowed (which has slowly improved after the beginning of the season when teams where making them at against us at a pretty blistering clip). The teams defensive numbers are solid across the board whether its forced TO's, defensive rebounding, steal, or blocks, each of which we are within top ten in most measures.

[tontoz]

We are currently 4th in defensive efficiency and 5th in rebounding rate.

[Wizardspride]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Todd_Dybas/status/543600932672798720[/tweet]

[Hypnotizer]

Clippers' Barnes fined $25K

[DaRealHibachi]

Only 12 pages, no PotG thread, I thought we lost..

[tontoz]

Clips don't like the east. Last night they lost to the Bucks. Paul had another 6 turnover game.

[doclinkin]

We now lead the league both assists per game at 25.9 and assists given up per game at 17.3. Now that is a pretty significant stat.

Interesting. I'm not sure what to make of a team that doesn't give up a lot of assists. I suppose some of it is that we just don't give up a lot of points. (We're 7th best in points allowed.) But is the fact that we don't give up assists actually an indictment of our defense? Does it mean we don't close out and challenge the shooter enough, forcing him to pass?

Hmmm. Looking deeper, I see that we give up the 5th most long 2's (16-22 feet) and the 6th most from 10-16 feet. We give up nothing at the rim (3rd fewest at rim shots allowed), and the 11th fewest 3 point attempts. It looks like we are content to cede the midrange shot as long as we don't give up the pass to the cutter at the rim or the kick-out to the 3-point line. That's smart defense.

Pressure on the ball handler and our defense of the P&R contribute to this especially in games where the Big Brazilian is healthy. John is always submarining under the pick, which gives an open shot to the jumpshooter (no assist) but also prevents penetration --- still he's often long enough and quick enough to be able to recover even then to challenge the shot. Nene is so strong, wide, huge, and with such good positioning that he forces his man way outside of the paint disrupting many teams' designed sets, and disallowing penetration by the Big when P&R sets are run. So no assists there. Pierce too has proven a revelation on spatial defense, preventing entry and keeping his man in front of him, funnelling to traps the baseline or a Big. And we have players with situational intelligence who work to cover each other well, especially on the interior. Then too, fouls: Miller will grab and hold rather than get beat; possessions with Seraphin on the floor often end with FT trips early in the clock, so no assist there.

Plus some coincidence, we haven't played the toughest schedule.

[payitforward]

I was only able to watch half way into the 2d quarter in real time, so I made sure not to find out who won and then watched the rest yesterday.

Going into this game I looked at it as the first real test of the season. It was great to see us pass that test and pass it with confidence. Especially on defense -- we held a high-scoring team to 67 points through 3 quarters and built a 13 point lead in the process. That's some good stuff right there!

What a terrific game from Bradley Beal. Certainly the PotG (is there a thread?). And Nene was outstanding on defense.

It was nice to see Butler shoot well again. I've been noticing that they are having more difficulty recently in finding open looks for him. Coaches are reading the box scores! Starting to put a bit more defensive attention his way.

Any way you look at it, a terrific game -- and a terrific season so far!