Duncan, Spurs defense recieves praise from SI.com

[cd021]

(Minnesota, LA. Clippers, & Golden State, all 3 are also featured if you want to read)

http://nba.si.com/2013/01/07/san-ant...?sct=uk_t11_a2By Rob Mahoney


"Every NBA season has its mirages, whether due to lucky breaks, a fortunate schedule, uncharacteristically good shooting, or innumerable other factors. Part of the fun of an 82-game slate comes in discovering which improvements are more than mere trends. There’s no fool-proof process, but the tape and data available do give the most curious of basketball fans a chance to interpret every bit of information available in an effort to assess the lay of the league.


Today we turn our attention — and our magnifying glasses — to three such trends, all of which feature stark improvements in team defense.


San Antonio Spurs (2012-13: 5th in defensive efficiency, 98.5 points allowed per 100 possessions; ’11-12: 11th, 100.6 points allowed)


Though Gregg Popovich had been as proactive as possible in accounting for Tim Duncan’s inevitable decline, even his best efforts couldn’t completely offset the half-step lost and the lift that had vanished. Last year, Duncan was still effective and unquestionably cerebral, but the toll of a long career seemed to take away the very crux of his — and by extension, the Spurs’ — defensive transcendence.



But this season a funny thing happened on the way to the Hall of Fame: Duncan not only has rejuvenated his scoring and rebounding marks to prime-levels, but appears completely capable of again anchoring a team defense rather than merely participating in one. The Spurs’ most pressing needs (another rebounder here, another interior defender there) of the last few seasons were all created by Duncan’s drop-off, but in reversing the hands of time Duncan offers a new world of possibility to a Spurs team that assumed his downward turn as fact.


Players like Tiago Splitter and Boris Diaw were once defined by the negative space in their defensive games. But with Duncan more closely resembling his best basketball self, Splitter and Diaw’s defense can now be appreciated in very different (and far more reasonable) context. Splitter, in particular, bore the initial burden of a long-awaited arrival and long-brewing expectations, but a little NBA seasoning has made him an integral part to San Antonio’s most successful defensive lineups.

We saw shades of that defensive impact a season ago, but the Spurs had trouble maintaining their atom-splitting offensive precision whenever Duncan and Splitter were on the floor together. A little clutter clearly goes a long way, and though Duncan and Splitter were each a part of explosive offensive lineups individually, their combination together yielded an offense that scored about nine points fewer per 100 possessions than the Spurs’ season average. That’s what ultimately made Diaw such a terrific late-season find; with decent, girth-defying defense and the capacity to reroute offensive possessions by way of his handle and passing, Diaw represented a happy medium between Splitter and floor-spacer extraordinaire Matt Bonner.

With Duncan reinvigorated, his offensive chemistry with Splitter has improved significantly, the need for Bonner has dwindled and the grounds for playing better defensive bigs has only increased.



The Spurs attempted, in recent years, to shift the workload away from Duncan as a matter of courtesy. He hardly seemed capable of being the superstar-level big he once was, and with more able-bodied stars at his side, it only seemed appropriate to shift the burdens of San Antonio’s play to the Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili. Yet in this wind-back-the-clock season, Duncan has undone that redistribution of responsibility; this team will now go as far as he can take them with his defense, and we know full well what he can do as the core piece of a capable defensive team. At present, all the pieces fit, though only because Duncan gives new meaning and power to their arrangement.


He empowers Kawhi Leonard, who continues to ace every defensive test in his sop re season, and Danny Green, who has become a pesky on-ball foil. He makes up for Parker’s miscalculations, Ginobili’s gambles and whatever it is that Gary Neal is doing defensively. He bridges the best available lineup options, aids starters and reserves alike, and gives the Spurs a real (if completely overlooked) shot at upsetting the playoff balance.



All of which results in a team that ranked 15th in effective field goal percentage allowed a season ago leaping up to 4th in that same measure — all because Duncan found his youth wedged between the cushions of his couch over the summer. We don’t really have any way of knowing how long Duncan’s renewal might last; let’s just hope it endures the length of what could be a fascinating postseason run."




Duncan's averaging over a block more per game than last season and has nearly surpassed his total from last season already.

[Cry Havoc]

This team feels pretty special so far. And once again, we are flying far, far under the collective NBA's radar with the troubles in Lakerland combined with the Clippers newly achieved status as an elite team, the Knicks making noise, and Durant & Co. doing their thing.

[Leetonidas]

and whatever it is that Gary Neal is doing defensively

lol