Popovich offers harsh evaluation of Spurs' defense
Jeff McDonald
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In a moment of truth just before the Spurs took the floor Saturday night in Chicago, coach Gregg Popovich opened up to inquiring minds about all that was wrong with his club.
The laundry list of problems was so small it would fit on a Post-It note. It was just one item, really. But in Popovich's world, it was a biggie.
“We suck on ‘D,'” Popovich said, with the “D” standing for defense.
That was the entire text of Popovich's State of the Team address, as succinct as it was devastating. All follow-up questions fishing for a silver lining were quickly rebuffed.
Do you mean all game long, or just in fourth quarters?
“No, pretty much throughout,” Popovich said. “Both individually and team-wise, we suck. We're pretty consistent that way.”
Surely there is a way to fix this problem, some sliver of hope on the horizon?
“I don't know if I have an answer to that,” Popovich said. “If I did, we wouldn't suck quite so bad.”
A suffocating defense has long been the Spurs' calling card, the common thread that has hung four NBA championship banners in their home arena.
This season, the Spurs are 26-13 and sitting atop the Southwest Division. But, in a flip from years past, Popovich believes his team's success has come in spite of its defense, not because of it.
Heading into today's MLK Day matinee at Charlotte, which caps a three-game road swing, the Spurs rank eighth in the NBA in scoring defense, surrendering 94.2 points per game.
That number isn't so bad. To Popovich, it also is largely irrelevant.
A truer measure of a team's defensive effectiveness, he believes, is its field-goal percentage defense. It is the first number he looks at when handed the box score at the end of the night.
In Popovich's 11 full seasons on the bench, the Spurs never have finished worse than fifth in the NBA in that category. So far this season, they rank 21st. Opponents are shooting 46 percent against them.
The Spurs also are giving up a 36.9 percentage from 3-point range, 19th in the league.
A firm believer that a team eventually gets what it deserves, Popovich cringes to think of the comeuppance due the Spurs if they don't begin to boost their defensive numbers to familiar levels. And quickly.
“The only thing that's saving us is that everybody else is beating everybody else up, so our record looks basically as good as anybody else's,” Popovich said. “It's fool's gold, as far as I'm concerned.”
Rock bottom for the Spurs' defense came in Philadelphia, during a 109-87 loss that opened the road trip Friday night.
The 76ers shot 50 percent from the field, 57 percent from the 3-point line, and alley-ooped their way to 30 fast-break points en route to handing the Spurs their most lopsided defeat of the season.
Essentially, the Sixers transformed the Wachovia Center into their own personal pick-up game, with the defenseless Spurs as an unwitting foil.
Perhaps inspired by their head coach's not-so-gentle public pregame prodding, or the sheer humiliation of what happened in Philadelphia, the Spurs turned in one of their better defensive performances of the season a night later in Chicago. They held the Bulls without a field goal in the final 3:13 to lock up a 92-87 victory.
Afterward, however, the Spurs resisted the urge to declare themselves cured of all their defensive ills.
“We were better,” point guard Tony Parker said. “It's a good first step.”
The next step comes today at Charlotte. Physically, the Spurs are in North Carolina, the Tar Heel State.
Philosophically, however, they find themselves in a show-me state of mind — as in, “show me” the defensive stand they took against the Bulls is more than just a one-night wonder.
“It's just one game,” Tim Duncan said. “Now you have to build on that. If we go back to the way we've been playing, this game doesn't mean anything. It starts with one game, and you build from there.”
It might be the one way for the Spurs to silence their most vocal critic, their head coach.
ALOT has to do with Bonner and Finley getting so many minutes.
I still stick with my prediction that Bonner will be coming off the bench come playoff time and Bowen will get his starting spot back soon.
Then you will see a Spurs defense that will be as good as ever. IMO
Thanks for the clarification, McDonald. For a second I thought a trade for Eddy Curry was in the works.“We suck on ‘D,'” Popovich said, with the “D” standing for defense.
So far, so true.“The only thing that's saving us is that everybody else is beating everybody else up, so our record looks basically as good as anybody else's,” Popovich said. “It's fool's gold, as far as I'm concerned.”
When it happens repeatedy, it can no longer be called a fluke that time and time again teams shoot so well against the Spurs this season.In Popovich's 11 full seasons on the bench, the Spurs never have finished worse than fifth in the NBA in that category. So far this season, they rank 21st. Opponents are shooting 46 percent against them.
Fixed.
As long as you have "I Alone" in the middle, referencing timmay.. then your defense is gonna suck, but hey Solid D insists that Bonner is an integral part of Defense..
They have never been 21st in opponent FG% half-way through the season.
Still a month away from the all star break.
Bonner's way of defense is to outscore his man.
I agree that it has to do with Bowen not getting as much PT, and Fin/Bonner getting more. Not all of the reason though.
soft card.
this is the dilemna the spurs will face come playoffs: who will play at the last 5 minutes of the ballgame?
having parker, manu, mason and bowen together will make the spurs small. unless parker's minutes get sacrified or if pop feels he can get away with it, spurs can't have manu/mason and bowen on the floor at the same time. even if all the spurs have is bonner and thomas to play center, one of them will absolutely have to play along side duncan in the last 5 minutes of the ballgame.
uhmmm draw lots?
Classic.
Off topic: At this point it doesn't matter if it's true or not...the legacy of Eddy Curry has already been established. He will forever be remembered as the man who may or may not have said, "Look at me, Dave, look" and, "Come and touch it, Dave."
lmao i was thinking the same thing.
does he really need to explain that?!
maybe he thought people would interperet it as meaning " ."
The Spurs at this point last year were 20th in opponent FG%.
The Spurs at this point last year were 20th in opponent FG%.
Pop is actually finding an interesting way to pull the Soft Card™ this season.
I never thought I'd here him say suck in a professional capacity.
Your fault. Michael Finley isn't going to stop anyone. He may be the worst perimeter defender to play for the Spurs in the past 10 years. Start Bruce. You've upgraded the starter's offense with Bonner and Mason. We need Bruce to keep the other team's stud in check. By the time he gets into the game now, it's too late. The guy has confidence and is GOING OFF.“We suck on ‘D,'” Popovich said, with the “D” standing for defense.
Bruce may not be in his prime, but he is BY FAR the best perimeter defender on the Spurs roster. He still has lateral quickness. Finley hasn't been in the same room as lateral quickness in 5 years.
Bill Land...
Pop is actually finding an interesting way to pull the Soft Card™ this season.
I never thought I'd here him say suck in a professional capacity.
Pop...
Who's next???(and please don't say Eddy Curry)
It's fashionable to blame Bonner and Finley for our defensive struggles, but Fin has had to pick up a lot of the guys Bowen would've usually taken if he was the starter. Bonner, according to 82games.com, has been our best defensive rotation player outside of Thomas. We only give up 89 points with him per 48 minutes. Either that means he's been better than he looks on defense or that Pop has an innate sense of when to bench him so that he can't kill us. Probably a little bit of both.
I would lay a lot more blame on the big three. I think both Manu and Tony have been dreadful defensively. Parker has turned to AI. His offensive game has picked up a notch, but his defense has never been worse. He doesn't even pretend to care back there anymore, he's just conserving energy. Ginobili makes some good plays with steals and drawing charges and whatnot, like a gambling NFL corner who jumps routes and gets the occasional pick six, but I've never seen him so regularly scored upon, even by average players.
Duncan meanwhile played good, focused D when Manu and Tony were hurt, but has reverted to his usual pre-All-Star break defensive hibernation on defense since their return.
I agree. This dude must have pics of someone to have gotten and/or kept his job.
As long as you have "I Alone" in the middle, referencing timmay.. then your defense is gonna suck, but hey Solid D insists that Bonner is an integral part of Defense..
Just because I said the other day that "Bonner's defense has actually been decent this season", doesn't mean anything beyond that. It's all relative. I think most of the regulars here know what I have thought of the Spurs' D since 2006. The Spurs obviously don't have the perimeter quickness and interior size to lock teams down. As I've said several times, I will never consider a team that allows 45% shooting a great defensive team...and that's what the Spurs have allowed the past three seasons.
I have been saying it over and over... we are not defending the 3 point line as good as we can... it's January though...
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