KGdaBom wrote:TheZachAttack wrote:Calinks wrote:How the hell do we have the 5th best defensive rating? We have given up so many threes and open shots? Something doesn't seem right.
Most conventional defensive wisdom especially in the regular season is to defend the rim at an elite level and force teams to take perimeter/midrange jump shots even if you are over defending and leaving open jump shots and live with the variance... in a general sense this is what we've been doing.
For the most part this strategy is working well.
Yes, what's more surprising (although the focus has been on the open shots) is that we are 5th in defensive rating while being in the bottom 5 or so in rebound percentage, opponent second chance points, opponent points off of turnovers, and transition points. The transition defense thing is going to be a bugaboo playing with two bigs, but we're not really helping ourselves here playing at one of the leagues highest paces either and all of these things compound off of eachother. However, what they really need to focus on is limiting second chance points, rebounding the ball, and getting back in transition.
If they do that and defend the rim well (this again all compounds off of eachother) then I wouldn't worry so much about the jump shots.
