nobody left in the western conference has a defensive ranking above the spurs, or at least not much better, aside from the grizzlies, which is ranked 5 compared to spurs' 13th or something. the heat are ranked 4th, so it would be nice to see how the spurs fare against something ocmparable.
our defense remains my big concern.
I would love to play the grizzlies , they would be a tough matchup to get us ready for wcf and the finals plus we would get revenge . However the only reason I am rooting for the clippers Is because the 2nd round would start sunday rather then Tuesday.
The Grizzlies are definitely better defensively than alot of other teams out west but I don't think they are as good as they were last year.
Before the season ended the Spurs' defense was ranked 4th in the past 10 games in the entire NBA. It's gotten dramatically better with the subtraction of RJ, benching of Blair, and the additions of Diaw, Jackson, and Kawhi getting more minutes.
I'm pretty sure Blair was statistically the worst defender in the NBA, RJ was ing horrible as well.
10 games seems like an awfully short span of time to base anything on. i liked this guy's approach
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/show...1&postcount=18
but even then, it showed that the addition of the new guys only improved the points-allowed number by about 2, so i looked it up and saw that the improved number still only puts us at about the 11th best defense in the league for the regular season. the lakers pulled it all off with a points-allowed number ranking at about 13 or so for their second championship with kobe/gasol, i think, but facing a top-flight defense as memphis' stats suggest would be good.
I tend to agree with the OP. Last year (i know things were a lot different) a good defense was the silver bullet against us. We thrived against other offenses and mediocre defenses. But when we came against hard-nosed compe ion we couldn't find our stride and folded. This has been true to a lesser extent this year. If we play the clippers, I feel they will not stretch us in the direction where we need the most improvement - grinding out wins possession by possession. I think we'll beat Memphis but they'll make us a better team for the rest of the playoffs. Key is avoiding injuries...
The defensive efficiency means more that points allowed because of pace. Holding somebody to less points in a higher possession game counts for more.
not sure i follow what your take is.
We're past the testing stage. If our defense is a concern, you should hope we avoid better defensive teams.
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