There's been enough negative talk about Portlands defense from the media here in town, how about some love for last nights performance?
Off the top of my head, the best I've seen the Blazers look defensively this season. Indiana, known as a pretty good offensive team was held to 19 points under their season average, while shooting only 40% (on the season they shoot 45%) and committing 16 turnovers (two more than they average). Had the Blazers not let up down the stretch in the 4th, it's hard to say how far under their scoring average the Pacers would have been as they only had 55 points at the end of three.
I thought the Blazers did a great job at aggresively switching on defense, making sure to jump out on the pick and rolls, forcing the offensive player with the ball to move away from the basket and often times forcing him into a contended fall away jump shot. Defending the three point line was still an issue, but needless to say I was very impressed with the over all team defense.
Off the top of my head, the best I've seen the Blazers look defensively this season. Indiana, known as a pretty good offensive team was held to 19 points under their season average, while shooting only 40% (on the season they shoot 45%) and committing 16 turnovers (two more than they average). Had the Blazers not let up down the stretch in the 4th, it's hard to say how far under their scoring average the Pacers would have been as they only had 55 points at the end of three.
I thought the Blazers did a great job at aggresively switching on defense, making sure to jump out on the pick and rolls, forcing the offensive player with the ball to move away from the basket and often times forcing him into a contended fall away jump shot. Defending the three point line was still an issue, but needless to say I was very impressed with the over all team defense.