Amateur: The Blazers' D

[jeebus]

Bump


Letting the Twolves score 122 pts

Non issue.

[Rogue]

Life dependent on 3 pointers is inconsistent by nature imho. There's a reason why people still don't take Blazers and the Lockets seriously despite their records. While the Lockets D might be the tiest of the league (even worse than MDA's Lakers), it's unfair to call Blazers' D ty just because they conceded 122 pts to the Wolves. Adelman just found out the weakest link in Blazers D and he exploited the out of it.

It's just the Blazers defensive strategy imho, especially their strategy in defending p'n'r. It's like, their bigs fall back to the paint too soon which allows the ball handler plenty of time to shoot a 3. So, the Blazers games don't just depend on their own shooting %, but also their opponents'. They need to shoot good % themselves to win games, meanwhile they also need the opponents to shoot bad from outside.

[Katherine Robinson]

High volume scoring and poor defense is a good way to rack in season wins. It falls apart in the playoffs, though.

[Seventyniner]

It's just the Blazers defensive strategy imho, especially their strategy in defending p'n'r. It's like, their bigs fall back to the paint too soon which allows the ball handler plenty of time to shoot a 3. So, the Blazers games don't just depend on their own shooting %, but also their opponents'. They need to shoot good % themselves to win games, meanwhile they also need the opponents to shoot bad from outside.

This could also explain why they can do so well against the Spurs. Parker is not a 3-point threat except maybe in the corners so sagging off him in the pnr is not nearly so damaging; at worst you're giving up an open long 2 which in today's NBA isn't that bad.


Some math about the "live by the 3 die by the 3" mentality:
Variance is the supposed killer of teams that shoot tons of 3s, where hot shooting = auto win and cold shooting = auto loss. I agree that 3-pointers are higher variance than 2s because 3s are always a lower percentage shot. However, shooting more 3s actually reduces variance. A team that averages 40% from 3 is more likely to finish under 40% for a game if they take 6 shots (54.432% chance) than if they take 12 shots (43.818% chance).

[Double-Up]

Blazers