NBA Playoffs: Defense Rules!
Writing by admin on Tuesday, 1 of May , 2007 at 5:56 pm
Is Robert Horry a work of art?
ESPN commentator and noted Grateful Dead fan Bill Walton thinks so. During Game 3 of the first-round series between the San Antonio Spurs and the Denver Nuggets, Walton compared watching Horry play defense to watching a painter or a musician at work. Now there’s a true basketball fan – and someone handicappers can appreciate.
Finding value in basketball isn’t too difficult. Although it is supposed to win championships, defense is a commodity that rarely gets its due; individual exceptions include Ben Wallace and Ron Artest, two of the NBA’s most identifiable personalities. When defense is examined at any length by the conventional media, it’s almost always by looking at the numbers: defensive rebounds, blocks and steals. “Intangibles” like excellence in taking charges and working around screens are invariably missed, which explains why Marcus Camby (9.3 defensive boards, 3.3 blocks and 1.2 steals per game) is your 2006-07 Defensive Player of the Year.
But we come here to praise Camby, not to bury him. His work against Tim Duncan is one of the less talked-about reasons the Nuggets have been hanging with San Antonio. Meanwhile, Duncan himself joins Camby and Spurs teammate Bruce Bowen on the league’s All-Defensive first team. Add a dash of Horry, and the first three games of the Spurs-Nuggets series all went under the posted total.
The series between the Toronto Raptors and the New Jersey Nets also tells us a lot about the value of defense. The Raptors have not been able to raise their level of play, and it appears the absence of Jorge Garbajosa from the lineup is having a bigger impact than expected. His position on the floor was covered nicely during the regular season; the Raptors, however, could clearly use his defensive intensity during these playoffs. They allowed 102 points in each of Games 3 and 4 at the Swamp – a large total to give up to one of the slowest teams in the league at 93.6 possessions per contest.
Remember when the Spurs met the Nets in the 2003 Finals? If things keep up like this, we’re going to see it again.
Bet on the NBA playoffs…it’s not as hard as it looks.
Category: Online NBA Basketball Betting
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