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Wallace made it clear that defense is his focus.

"That's what we set it at. We set our whole team pride on defense," Wallace said. "Defense wins championships, offense sells tickets. That's a motto that I always believe, and that's a motto that they believe here.

"Just go out and knuckle up, pretty much. Man to man, knuckle up."


http://www.nesn.com/2009/10/rasheed-wal ... p.html?sbn


Man....I like what I'm hearing.......

Funny how R-test and Sheed think so much alike, and everyone outside of these two teams called these two guys a problem or a cancer, but its completely the opposite. They know their role. Thats good.

Sheed definitely came in with the right mentality. I think this team is going to go down as the best defensive team all time beating the 2008 mark.

DorfonCeltics wrote:Sheed definitely came in with the right mentality. I think this team is going to go down as the best defensive team all time beating the 2008 mark.

I still can't get over how Ray & Pierce some of the worst defenders in the L, especially Ray, all the sudden had a commitment to defense, but they proved otherwise.

DubaLakers wrote:I still can't get over how Ray & Pierce some of the worst defenders in the L, especially Ray, all the sudden had a commitment to defense, but they proved otherwise.

Huh?? Since when was Pierce one of the worst defenders in the league? He was always a talented defender. Did a great job his first 4 years then started taking plays off as he got older. KG renewed the commitment. Ray was indeed a sub-par defender.

Like Pierce said a couple of years ago - he didn't always play tough D because he'd always need to save energy to carry the load on offense. Now that the Cs are loaded with scorers, he can expend more energy on the defensive end.

Well the other thing is BOS play the best team D, so it hides any deficiences in a guy like Ray.

Thanks for those insights on PP.

G Karl used to go nuts trying to get Ray to play D, same with Melo and Melo finally bought in in the playoffs.

DubaLakers wrote:

DorfonCeltics wrote:Sheed definitely came in with the right mentality. I think this team is going to go down as the best defensive team all time beating the 2008 mark.

I still can't get over how Ray & Pierce some of the worst defenders in the L, especially Ray, all the sudden had a commitment to defense, but they proved otherwise.

I am stunned to hear a Laker fan think Pierce is a bad defender after he took on Kobe defensively and turned a 26 point deficit into greatest finals comeback of all time by locking down the MVP.

You cannot engineer the greatest comebacks in NBA history without playing defense and Pierce has been a part of some amazing comebacks in his career and has usually been among the best 1-2 defenders on the court in those games.

But he definitely was asked to do too much for many years offensively and his defense also suffered from never having a big man to watch his back until KG got to town. With regards to Pierce's defense, he is not the best perimeter defender. However, his so strong and such a great defensive rebounder that he can physically make plays and get to loose balls. This is the most underrated aspect to his defensive abilities. People always notice ballhawking defense that Kobe, Lebron, Rondo etc. possess especially on NBA all defensive team because it is flashier.