IamBBAnalysis wrote:BelgradeNugget wrote:darmani wrote:I don't understand all these Portland-Phoenix comparisons. These 2 teams aren't similar at all.
Portland had one of the worst defenses in the history of the NBA. The Suns had a top-6 defense in the league whole season.
Portland has a heliocentric offensive system with one player doing EVERYTHING on that end. The Suns offense is predicated on ball movement and player movement. The Suns were 1st in the league in assist ratio, the Blazers were last.
Good questions. In Den-Por series we used this forum to find out more about opposing team. Portland fans helped a lot. What I learned about their team and their defense, was the fact that you couldn't look at their season to make conclusions about their team in playoffs. They had a lot of injuries to their main players during the season, and were fighting to be even in position to make a run for playoffs. Their defense is one story with Nurkic, and totally different with Kanter. Their team was at their best entering playoffs. Their defense was terible over the season but when they got all of their players back they were in the middle of the pack. 18th in DEFRTG since 3/31/2021 in last 26 games.
https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/advanced/?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&DateFrom=03%2F31%2F2021
What I find interesting here is the fact that Phoenix defense was 24th in the same period. What is the reason for that?
About Portland offense they used a lot of pnr's with Dame and Nurkic. Both of them were good at hitting shooters in the corner if defense rotate. Nurk averaged 3.4 ast. Thay had 7 players shooting better than 38% from 3, as a team they were hitting 16 3s per game on 38%.
I can answer the Suns part. They got tired and/or complacent. They stopped trying as hard. But once the playoffs started that changed quickly. They have been playing a consistent brand of defense now with stretches of complete lock down. But the Lakers were a weak offensive team without AD.
My impression of this series is that people are underestimating the Suns defense. However, Denver has one big advantage if they can get Ayton into foul trouble.
Thanks for the answer. I'm not underestimating Suns defense but there is not much defense can do against some superstar players. LA had great defense but couldn't do a **** against Booker. Just watch Dame in games 2,3 and especially in crazy game 5. Hitting from the logo, with hand in his face. Can't stop that. BTW we won all three of those games. We can survive that.
Denver has 2 players that can't be stopped in Jokic and MPJ. MPJ averaged 23/6 on 56/49/86 since Murray went down. Had one bad game in the series against Portland, other than that unstoppable. Averaged 19/7 on 54/41/91 and for Nuggets fans he was like ok. Can play better. Scary thing is 60% of his shots are bad shots. And he has one of the best % in the league when tightly contested. Than you have Jokic. No defense for him.
What Austin River did for us is unsustainable, but we will get Will Barton back and he can do more than Rivers. Morris can play on the level he played against Portland. PJ Dozier was our best guard defender we will get him back too.
Can Payne play on the same level? And of course CP3 is on 70 %. That is why I feel pretty optimistic about our chances. Anyway it is going to be good series.
