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91.6 ppg allowed
45.5% on FG% allowed.

Impressive stuff. What do we attribute to this?

great play by the front court.

Josh Smith stepping up.

plus this shows the myth about Crawford not being able to play defense, is just ridiculous. he is not elite, but he is defiantly not a liability when it comes to staying in-front of his man and contesting a shot.

The team finally starting to click with LD's defensive scheme is the simplest answer. Between implementing a new system and having to deal with numerous injuries throughout training camp, preseason and the regular season it's no wonder that it's taken these guys this long to finally understand and run the scheme and yet it still looks shaky.
We got rid of the switch as a base defense and now only use it at certain spots and certain positions. We fight through screens and picks with Jamal being the only weakest/laziest at this but he makes up for it by finally using his superior length to pressure passing lanes from PGs at the point of attack.
We also don't sag the paint anymore or double nearly as much as we used to and realize that although a jumper is a lower % shot it is still less difficult than a contested one.
Playing our larger lineups has also helped this aspect as it allows us to go single coverage on centers.
Also noticed that we don't sellout on Oboard's anymore as usually Marvin or whoever is furthest out on the perimeter doesn't even bother stepping into the perimeter when a shot goes up and often on other occasions we only have just one rebounder attack the glass. I'm sure this has improved our nearly or just league worst transition defense.
Have noticed that our rotations are still a little out of whack. When usually Bibby get's beat off an initial drive we have a perimeter guy show off the corner, the ball is then kicked out but our initial rotation usually covers this but now teams keep swinging it to the opposite side of the court creating breakdowns in our rotation as we either have slow footed Bibby crossing the court or Collins having to run out to the corner three. Spurs were running this on us even with their 3rd unit.

The offense has fallen off the cliff though but I attribute that to missing our number one option and facilitator. When things bog down we no longer have that guy who can get his own shot AND set up for others. I've noticed that too often now teams zone up on us when Jamal is in with mostly the second unit and doubling him when he's with the starters forcing him into jumpers that he already has a predilection for. The majority of his passing comes off of pick and rolls which are met with hard traps now or just aren't bothered with cuz of the zone but our rating is still respectable. I actually see us as a different team from before and I honestly believe that a healthy Joe could at least push us over the top in terms of an easier 1st round series and a competitive 2nd round. Not the champ run we want but it's better than the past.

Chuck Daly used to say that defense was more hard work than talent. He actually believed no one was too slow to play defense - he just needed to work more.

Maybe the new offensive sharing is boosting the team mindset, especially among those players who may have felt shortchanged during the many iso plays of last year.

parson wrote:Chuck Daly used to say that defense was more hard work than talent. He actually believed no one was too slow to play defense - he just needed to work more.

Maybe the new offensive sharing is boosting the team mindset, especially among those players who may have felt shortchanged during the many iso plays of last year.

I think you might be on to something there. It might not be all psychological, the added movement on the offensive end as opposed to standing outside and watching all the time might be contributing energy to the defensive end.

The other element I wanted to bring up was the use of different lineups based on the opponent. In the last two weeks LD has selectively trotted out either a big lineup or a small lineup based on the opponent's strength at C. Matching up better may have helped the defensive stats.

ATL DirtyBird wrote:91.6 ppg allowed
45.5% on FG% allowed

Actually, the FG% allowed is 44.3 ont he last 10 games, 45.5 being from the start of the season.

On the other end, our FG% is 46.2 on the last 10 games, but 47.2 from the start.
It's a bit less, but and offense goes down from 98.8 to 97.8

The big number is that defense, from 45.5 to 44.3, goes from 96.08 to 91.6, which is more than the offensive loss.

It means than the opponent FG% is down, but also that that take less shots (78 on the last 10 games, and 81 on the first 15 games).
So more defensive rebonds, blocks and steals on our side