McDonald: Popovich downgrades team's defense; loss to Kings doesn't help

[some_user86]

Spurs notebook: Popovich downgrades team's defense; loss to Kings doesn't help

Web Posted: 11/27/2007 12:30 AM CST

Jeff McDonald
Express-News

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Spurs entered Monday night's game in Sacramento ranked second in the league in scoring defense, allowing just 91.5 points per game.
Still, coach Gregg Popovich gives the Spurs' defensive effort a C-plus.

That's because the Spurs are ranked 23rd in the defensive statistic Popovich cares most about — field-goal percentage.

Before Monday, foes were shooting 45.9 percent from the field — a stat Popovich called "God awful."

"(Shooting percentage) is a better indication of stopping people," Popovich said. "If people are shooting 37, 38, 39 percent, that's a good indication that you're playing pretty good 'D.' We're not doing that."

They certainly didn't Monday.

Sacramento shot 55.1 percent in a 112-99 victory, at one point scoring on 12 consecutive possessions in the third quarter.

Of course, as Professor Popovich's Sacramento counterpart noted, such grades so early in the season are relative.

"I think most of the league right now are below C-plus," Kings coach Reggie Theus said. "If you're grading on a curve, they're pretty damn good."

After Monday, you can forgive Popovich if he doesn't agree with that assessment.

In a zone: Sacramento switched to a mix-and-match zone defense early in the third quarter. The Spurs did not handle it well.

The defensive switch confused the Spurs into three consecutive turnovers, which resulted in three consecutive easy Sacramento baskets.

That helped kickstart a 22-8 run that allowed the Kings to seize command.

Mahinmi update: Spurs rookie Ian Mahinmi, recently assigned to the team's developmental squad in Austin, has had a solid but not spectacular debut with the Toros.

He is averaging 13 points and seven rebounds in 26.5 minutes in two games in Austin. He fouled out of both contests.

LINK: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA112707.08D.BKNspurs.notebook.2f71295.html

[some_user86]

It has begun.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

In a zone: Sacramento switched to a mix-and-match zone defense early in the third quarter. The Spurs did not handle it well.

The defensive switch confused the Spurs into three consecutive turnovers, which resulted in three consecutive easy Sacramento baskets.

That helped kickstart a 22-8 run that allowed the Kings to seize command.

Hmmmm, I wrote this yesterday about the game with Seattle:

"However, I saw the second half, and something I noticed was that we don't seem to know how to get inside on a zone. Thankfully we have a great 3pt shooting team, so zone busting playing outside isn't very difficult, but on a night when the 3s aren't falling I worry about us vs a zone. Tonight TP overdribbled against the zone and there weren't enough cutters. You have to throw 2-3 dummy cutters through a zone to get them out of shape and create a space down low, but we didn't do that at all."

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82240

McDonald is stealing my stuff! :lol

[urunobili]

kinda early for the Pop D bashing though... i think a couple more losses will press the panic button...

[MoSpur]

I think the Spurs defense is very weak at this point. Teams like Seattle and Sacramento should not be putting up numbers like that against the Spurs.

[easjer]

I think the Spurs defense is very weak at this point. Teams like Seattle and Sacramento should not be putting up numbers like that against the Spurs.


I agree with this. I don't expect the D to be in playoff clampdown perfection mode yet, but I'm not happy with the inconsistency that has beenn exhibited with it. They are capable of better D than they are playing right now, and knowing that it could be better (if not yet expecting SPAM defense) makes it more frustrating.

Which is why I'm glad they had this loss. I mean, I'd rather win, but on the whole, it should makes things better in the long run.

[MoSpur]

I agree with this. I don't expect the D to be in playoff clampdown perfection mode yet, but I'm not happy with the inconsistency that has beenn exhibited with it. They are capable of better D than they are playing right now, and knowing that it could be better (if not yet expecting SPAM defense) makes it more frustrating.

Which is why I'm glad they had this loss. I mean, I'd rather win, but on the whole, it should makes things better in the long run.

Good point.

Maybe we're spoiled and always expecting the Spurs to only allow 80pts a game. I have come to expect that all the time. I know they're going to have some mishaps and what not. However, this team is not a new team trying to gel or anything so I guess that is what is confusing to me about the defense. They should have this down by now.

Its early in the season so no panic from me. Just saying what I feel.

[SpurOutofTownFan]

Our D has been terrible. Period. It's good people start noticing this and don't attempt to add the "November effect" to it. Pop is right about the FG%, it's ridiculous. I don't think this has anything to do with the time of the year, we are just playing sloppy D.

[SAGambler]

I really don't see any reason to panic over the poor rating in FG% allowed, when you consider so many of these have been long jumpers, many times at the buzzer that just went in. Now it would be a different story if they were just driving the lane and putting in lay up after layup. As the season goes along you will start to see legs tire and the jumpers that are falling now won't be falling then and they you will see the FG% start to come down. Going into last nights game the Spurs were 2nd in ppg allowed. So either the entire league is in a "all star" type defense mode or there is just a whole lot of scoring going on right now.

No time to panic for Spurs fans. If we keep up the current pace we will win 64 or 65 games this year. And knowing the Spurs, come playoff time, they will go into full shut down defense mode.

[some_user86]

I really don't see any reason to panic over the poor rating in FG% allowed, when you consider so many of these have been long jumpers, many times at the buzzer that just went in. Now it would be a different story if they were just driving the lane and putting in lay up after layup. As the season goes along you will start to see legs tire and the jumpers that are falling now won't be falling then and they you will see the FG% start to come down. Going into last nights game the Spurs were 2nd in ppg allowed. So either the entire league is in a "all star" type defense mode or there is just a whole lot of scoring going on right now.

No time to panic for Spurs fans. If we keep up the current pace we will win 64 or 65 games this year. And knowing the Spurs, come playoff time, they will go into full shut down defense mode.

See the following link for timvp's good analysis into why we should be concerned: http://spurstalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2088168&postcount=17

As you said it would be a different story if they were driving into the lane and putting lay up after lay up; well, that maybe the case. Our perimeter defense has actually been pretty solid so far.

[SenorSpur]

I really don't see any reason to panic over the poor rating in FG% allowed, when you consider so many of these have been long jumpers, many times at the buzzer that just went in. Now it would be a different story if they were just driving the lane and putting in lay up after layup.

A layup drill is EXACTLY what we witnessed versus the Sac Queens. How many dunks/layups did Mikki Moore get?

[slayermin]

I wonder how we are giving up so few points but such a horrid percentage.

I guess we aren't being called for shooting fouls as frequently and our three point defense must be spectacular.

[some_user86]

I wonder how we are giving up so few points but such a horrid percentage.

I guess we aren't being called for shooting fouls as frequently and our three point defense must be spectacular.

Our perimeter defense is spectacular (one of the three best in the league, I think).

The reason why we can give up so few points and have such a horrible percentage is because we force our style on opposing teams. So we slow down the game, but aren't playing good D while we slow it down.

[slayermin]

Our perimeter defense is spectacular (one of the three best in the league, I think).

The reason why we can give up so few points and have such a horrible percentage is because we force our style on opposing teams. So we slow down the game, but aren't playing good D while we slow it down.

Isn't our ppg pretty high? I know the Orlando game inflated the stats a little.

[some_user86]

Isn't our ppg pretty high? I know the Orlando game inflated the stats a little.

I think our ppg being moderately high is a reflection of how ridiculously efficient our offense has been. We are the 4th best offense in the league in terms of FG%, but are 13th in ppg. Our saving grace this season has really been our three point shooting, which is 2nd best in the NBA, and our defense of three point shooting, which is 5th best in the NBA.

Right now, our perimeters are the reason why we are where we are.

We need our bigs to step up.