Monday Musings: Spurs show off elite D

This Spurs team isn't shy about agressiving helping on defense, having, so far, forced turnovers on about 14.2 percent of opponent possessions, the 10th-highest mark in the league. (US PRESSWIRE)

I went into the last week of NBA action with the goal of answering one question: What is wrong with San Antonio’s defense?

The Spurs have spent basically the entire season in the top 10 in points allowed per possession, but they were showing significant cracks heading into a three-game stretch against the Lakers, Mavericks and Thunder — three of the league’s top 10 offensive teams. In the seven games before that trio of toughies, the Spurs had given up more points per possession than the league average — not their team average, but the higher league average — six times. Opponents were shooting better than 40 percent from deep, putting San Antonio on pace to allow one of the highest three-point shooting marks in league history.

Sure, the Spurs were 26-4 at that point, sporting the best offense in the league. But there were problems, and I wanted to figure out their origin.

And then the Spurs shut down all three teams. They held all three to a points-per-possession mark better than the Spurs’ season-long average, and they reduced the Lakers and Thunder into a mess of bricks and turnovers that would have made even the Bucks blush. Those three teams shot a combined 92-of-249 (37 percent) from the floor, and the Lakers and Thunder — two of the league’s best at avoiding turnovers — coughed it up 35 times between them against the Spurs.

The Mavs were playing without Dirk Nowitzki, so San Antonio’s solid win in Dallas wasn’t a surprise. But in shutting down the Lakers and Thunder at home, the Spurs may have signaled to the league that they can still bring top-shelf defense when they are motivated. And if they really can do that, it would be fair to call San Antonio the clear-cut favorite in the West right now. The Spurs suddenly have a huge lead in the race for home-court advantage, and their two top challengers are dealing with serious injuries (Dallas) and semi-ugly infighting (the Lakers, regressing into 2007-era bickering in the wake of a blowout home loss Sunday against the Grizzlies).

The way the Spurs defended the West’s elite last week was notable. This was not the staid Spurs defense of the last half-decade. This is a team that helps more aggressively than any Spurs team we’ve seen in a long while. At times, they almost look as if they are over-helping — with a big man running up to contain a dribbler who hasn’t really broken free yet, and as a result leaving an opening somewhere else. But right when I find myself yelling about that overeager initial help — and right when the offensive team is ready to attack that opening — another defender is scrambling into position to cover for his teammate. The Spurs, if you’ll pardon a rare cliché, really are a whirling dervish of rotations and spread-out arms and deflections and wings working their tails off to box out big men for rebounds.

This is no longer a team that stresses staying home on your man and the avoidance of gambling in the pursuit of forcing a long two-point jumper and grabbing a defensive rebound. The numbers reflect that. The Spurs have forced turnovers on about 14.2 percent of opponent possessions, the 10th-highest mark in the league. This is a quantum leap for San Antonio. The Spurs have finished in the top 10 in opponent turnover rate just twice in the Tim Duncan era, and they’ve ranked 20th or worse eight times — including in each of the last four seasons before this one.

They’ve taken a hit in defensive rebounding, since all the rotating can leave them a bit out of position when a shot finally goes up. The Spurs rank eighth in defensive rebounding rate, which would be outstanding for anyone else but would be San Antonio’s worst ranking since the 2002-03 season. (The Spurs finished in the top three five times between 2003-04 and last season.)

Gregg Popovich deserves a lot of credit for retooling the defense to fit his personnel. The Spurs start an undersized power forward (DeJuan Blair) who moves his feet well and is super-active on defense. They’re stocked with quick, long-armed wing players (Manu Ginobili, George Hill) with a knack for getting hands in passing lanes. This roster forces Popovich to play smallish lineups more than most teams do, and given that reality, it makes sense to push for more activity on defense.

When you think of San Antonio this way, you can make sense of the hot three-point shooting from their opponents. First, teams don’t shoot threes very often against them; only four teams allow fewer three-point tries per game, according to Hoopdata. Part of the Spurs’ aggressive style is to run shooters off three-point shots, even if it creates a temporary crisis someplace else.

As for the high shooting percentage, my best guess is that those good looks are the product of patient possessions in which smart teams dribble-drive and swing the ball until an opening finally appears from deep late in the shot clock. Those looks will be available against clubs like San Antonio that rotate aggressively, but they’ll only be there if opponents have the confidence to wait for those looks instead of hoisting the semi-open long two or contested floater the Spurs want you to take three seconds earlier. One piece of evidence for this theory: Teams are torching the Spurs late in the shot clock. Only the Warriors have allowed a higher field-goal percentage than San Antonio on shots taken with three or fewer seconds left on the 24-second clock, and Spurs opponents are actually shooting better in that situation than on shots attempted in the middle of the shot clock — a trend that goes against what we usually see.

So perhaps a high opponents’ three-point percentage is the price San Antonio is paying for its broader defensive excellence. That doesn’t mean it’s not a concern, particularly against good teams. Even in losses, the Mavs, Lakers and Thunder hit a combined 19-of-53 (37 percent) from deep against San Antonio.

The Spurs have to clean this up, and some regression to the mean will probably help them. But that’s really the only thing they have to clean up right now. They’ve served notice that they might really be the best team in the league.

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10 THINGS I LIKE AND DISLIKE

1. Young players, coming along in fits and starts
Gordon Hayward has three double-digit scoring games this season — and they have come in Utah’s last three games. DeMar DeRozan’s career-high scoring game before New Year’s Eve was 26 points. The Toronto swingman went off for 37 that night and hit Boston for 27 on Sunday. Philadelphia’s Evan Turner has scored 35 points combined in his last two games after flirting with “maybe he should go the D-League” status for much of December. Oklahoma City’s James Harden averaged 14 points on 47 percent shooting in December after having all of us worried in November that he might not be ready to assume crunch-time 2-guard duties by playoff time. Jrue Holiday’s play — and his jumper — for the Sixers probably deserve their own bullet point here.

All of these guys will regress now and then, and some young ones we haven’t mentioned will never make it big in the league. But it’s nice to see progress from guys who generated serious hand-wringing just a few weeks ago.

2. Hasheem Thabeet

Just an absolute disaster of a sophomore season for the Memphis center, who may have reached his low point Sunday night against the Lakers, when he could not finish four easy looks at the rim. He’s shooting 42 percent — no easy feat for someone who is 7-foot-3 — in fewer minutes per game this season than last, his Player Efficiency Rating is an embarrassing 3.8 and he looks out of place in NBA games.

3. Mike Bibby, the screener

There is a lot not to like about Bibby’s game. He can’t guard anyone, and he can’t create off the dribble much anymore. But he’s still a tenacious screener, and he helps Atlanta’s offense in that way more than most folks realize. The Hawks like to run a set where Bibby brings the ball up and drops it off to Joe Johnson, who then enters it to Josh Smith at the elbow. Bibby cuts to the corner, as if he’s going to chill out there as Smith and Johnson do their two-man thing. But as Johnson cuts by Smith at the elbow, Bibby suddenly shoots up and hits Johnson’s man with a back screen, freeing up Johnson (if all goes well) for a backdoor pass from Smith.

This play works more than you’d think, and Bibby deserves credit in general for being a pest.

4. The lengths the Hawks are going to in covering up for Bibby

The Hawks have been dealing for a while now with the reality that Bibby can’t defend point guards, but the problem has gotten worse in the last two weeks. Joe Johnson has taken over primary point guard defense duty, but the Hawks have also used Mo Evans in this role and raised the white flag of playing zone when Johnson, Bibby and Jamal Crawford are all in the game together. None of those things are good long-term solutions to a problem that isn’t going away.

5. Wilson Chandler as a screener

Over the last week or so, the Knicks have made more of an effort to vary their pick-and-roll attack, which is probably healthy in the long term. One step: using Chandler instead of Amar’e Stoudemire as a screener for Raymond Felton at the top of the arc. Chandler has preferred slipping the screen, which is basketball lingo for getting in position to set the pick, but rolling toward the hoop before actually setting it. This action hasn’t produced much yet, but it could prove to be another useful weapon in New York’s offense.

6. Vince Carter, defensive mentor

Upon arriving in Phoenix from Orlando and playing parts in the Suns’ latest defensive meltdown against the Sixers, both Marcin Gortat and Carter made public comments about how differently the Suns and the Magic approach defense. The implication was obvious: Phoenix needed to be more like Orlando.

If you’re going to call out your new team like this, you should probably play some solid individual defense yourself. Ha. If you’ve got access to that Philly-Phoenix game, check out Carter’s laughable non-attempt at taking a charge against Andres Nocioni at the 8:44 mark of the first quarter. Carter moves into the lane and has a chance to step in front of Nocioni, but instead stops about a foot or two to the right of Nocioni’s direct path and stands there in the classic taking-a-charge position, with his arms at his side. Only, he’s not actually in position to take the charge. Even worse: He actually ducks his head and shoulder out of the way as Nocioni rumbles by him to hit a layup and draw a foul on Robin Lopez, who actually tries to interfere with the shot.

I haven’t yet watched the Suns-Kings game from Sunday, but I’ve seen the video and photo evidence of Carter’s lax late-game defense. This stuff — combined with a shaky playoff résumé — is why Carter deserves no part of the Hall of Fame, even as he prepares to blow by the 20,000-point mark.

7. Grant Hill’s right-handed layup on the left side of the floor

Yes, two Phoenix bullets in a row. Am I crazy, or is Hill the best guy in the league at finishing a right-handed layup in transition on the left side of the floor? In theory, you should switch to your left hand here when a defender is closing in the middle, but Hill glides so fast — and uses his body so well to ward off defenders — that he finishes this play every time. Wonderful to watch.

8. New Jersey’s offense

Man, this is ugly. Three teams actually rank below New Jersey in points per possession for the season, but no one has been worse in the last 10 days, as New Jersey has put up four straight putrid offensive performances in four straight ugly losses. This tends to happen when your starting lineup includes both Stephen Graham and Kris Humphries. Watching this team struggle through one endless series of pick-and-rolls after another is just awful.

Also, the Nets need to stop running the Travis Outlaw-Brook Lopez pick-and-roll. It’s not working. Using Outlaw as a pick-and-pop power forward, on the other hand, is worth exploring more often.

9. The underrated athleticism of Ronnie Price

He might be the most secretly athletic guy in the league. Super fun to watch in the open court, and perhaps the best little-man dunker in the league.

10. Zach Randolph, having another monster season

It was a novelty last year — all that love the hoops cognoscenti showered upon Randolph, so often the (deserved) target of scorn. You know what? He deserves it just as much this season. He leads all Memphis regulars in Player Efficiency Rating (20.9, down only a tick from his mark of 21.2 last season), and he’s putting up a 19-and-12 line on 49 percent shooting.

He is the Grizzlies’ most unguardable offensive weapon, too strong and rangy for just about any big man in the league. He draws constant double teams, and his activity on the pick-and-roll, as both screener and backup target, is fantastic. He’s never going to be a stopper on defense, but when he works at it, he’s usually making solid reads and getting to the place he needs to be.

Someone is going to pay Randolph after this season. Who will it be?