re: Anybody wanna guess who's been leading the team in blocks AND steals the past 9 games?

We are currently 9th in fast break points defense at 13.7 points per game.

But lets just look at the last 12 games since the IST debacle
We are 3rd at 11.7 points per game in opponents fast break points

Our Defensive rating in the last 12 games is 108, which is 2nd best.

We are 3rd in steals at 8.4

We are 3rd in opponents 2nd chance points at 11.9

We are 8th in opponents points in the paint at 48.2.

We are 8th in forcing turnovers

We are 5th in opponents assists per game, which is a nice stat showing we are forcing teams to beat us one on one and we are able to defend at a high level one on one.

We are 3rd in opponents 3P% at 32.6%, and teams are jacking up 3's against us b/c we have the 9th most 3's shot on us.

We are 1st in opponents FG%

We are 2nd in points allowed.

We are being fouled the 4th most in the nba at 17.9, and we are 15th in fouls committed at 19.7

the one area that isn't great is points off turnovers, where we are 12th at 15.8. Imagine that, saying being the 12th best team in a stat is the worst defensive stat you can find against us.



The defense has gotten really really good since the IST debacle.
And i do think in the NBA that playing smarter more efficient offense is the first step to playing good defense. Bad shots are like turnovers that lead to fast break opportunities. When you limit the fast break points and make a team play half court offense, you give yourself a chance to be a really good defense.