Defensive Focus

[Ranma]

Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times (2/26/14)

Dwight Howard actually didn't look happy for most of the Rockets' 101-93 loss Wednesday night at Staples Center, perhaps mindful that he was not the best defensive player on the floor.

That title went to Jordan, a 6-foot-11, 265-pound block of granite with an equally massive accelerator. He was citius, altius, fortius without needing a passport to Sochi.
...

Jordan tallied four blocked shots and three steals, enhancing his reputation as one of the game's top stoppers.

"D.J. has been so important for us with his energy, with his emotion, driving our guys on defense," Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. "He's been great."
...

Even Howard apologists would probably concede the three-time defensive player of the year, who had only one block Wednesday, couldn't provide liftoff for his team the way Jordan did for the Clippers.

Jordan notched his career-high 30th double-double by making six of seven shots, improving the NBA's leading field-goal percentage. He's on track to become the first player to finish atop the league in rebounding and field-goal percentage since Howard did it during the 2009-10 season.

Clippers' DeAndre Jordan a defensive dynamo

[TheNewEra]

The defense has stepped way up the past two games and it should continue to do so.

[Ranma]

Eric Patten, Clippers.com (3/3/14)

Barnes getting to full strength has helped as has the continued trust that the group, playing together in Rivers’ system for the first time, has built over the past four months.

“I think everybody trusts each other and everybody wants to help each other and wants to be in the right spot defensively,” said Darren Collison, who started at shooting guard against the Pelicans in place of Jamal Crawford and helped slow down James Harden in the second half of the Clippers’ win over the Rockets last week. “[The trust] was there and it wasn’t. We were inconsistent, but we did show signs of what our team can be. We’ve got to be consistent through this process. As long as we’re getting better that’s all that matters.”

The newfound trust for a defense that has allowed just 85.5 points and 38.5 percent shooting in the past two games and vaulted to No. 8 in defensive efficiency will be tested on Tuesday against the Suns.

Defensive Improvements to be Tested in Desert

[TheNewEra]

great test tonight.

[mkwest]

DeAndre Jordan's improvement key to Clippers' new elite defense

I've been critical and skeptical of the Los Angeles Clippers' defense all season. Their numbers have been terrific. But they've been inconsistent. Their league-rank in points per possession via NBA.com month by month since November: 14, 3, 15, 20 and then in March they've been insane, allowing just over 97 points per 100 possessions, best in the league. Their inconsistency has been good enough to generate an 8th overall ranking in points per possession.

One of the biggest problems was inside. DeAndre Jordan's rebounding and block numbers have been fantastic, but all the data suggested that the team was vulnerable defensively with him on the floor. I noticed in particular that teams could kill the Clippers on basline backdoor cuts, often finding scores underneath the defense's umbrella. Jordan was actually tracked by the SportVU camera system as one of the worst at contesting shots at the rim.

But in recent weeks, as I mentioned, they've turned it around. They look like a genuinely different and better team. Their rotations are sharper, their focus has improved, communication is substantially better than it has ever been in the Blake Griffin era. And their rim protection is leaps and bounds improved. Here's what Rivers told reporters in Denver earlier this month.

Matt Moore, CBS Sports

DeAndre Jordan and Rim Protection: An Update

A crucial aspect of this improvement has been his increased awareness and ability to rotate and protect the paint. You may have heard Kevin Arnovitz mention it last week on Zach Lowe’s podcast, but the numbers demonstrate DJ has been a much improved rim protector since the start of the season. As it’s been a while since my original piece noting the trend, now seemed like a good time to quickly update the numbers, (especially since I reran the rim protection numbers just this past Saturday!)

In the chart below, DeAndre’s production has been broken down into four components. As Arnovitz alluded to, the endpoints for each segment are completely arbitrary. NBA.com/Stats does not yet have a date filter for player tracking data, so each block of dates represents the period of time where the site data was scrubbed and recalculated, which are presented along with the Clippers’ team defensive rating and their percentage allowed on all close shots during each period (league rank in parenthesis):

Since the All-Star Break, his rim protection has been truly spectacular. Jordan is contesting 11.6 shots per game, raising his season average to 10.4 contests per game (tied for first in the league). He is contesting nearly 55 percent of opponents shots at the rim while he is on the floor. Over a full season, this would put Jordan sixth among all big men and second only to presumptive DPOY front runner Roy Hibbert among players averaging more than 20 minutes per game. DeAndre is “saving” just two points per game over the expectation of a league average big man (Points saved is an estimate of the effect a league average big man has on contesting shots at the rim with respect to both FG% allowed and number of contests, adjusted for pace and general team defense). This would rank fourth in the league behind Hibbert (far and away leader at over four points saved per game), Robin Lopez and only fractionally behind Andrew Bogut.

Seth Partnow, ClipperBlog

[Quake Griffin]

Doc...what a dumb@$$.

he can't hit FTs...he wasn't playing defense...why didn't you bench him and kill his confidence?