10.15.2009

The "Defense is Ahead of the Offense" Canard

I was re-watching Greg Dickerson's interview of Big Baby at the end of one of the exhibition games. Dickerson asked Baby if the defense had some catching up to do? What do you mean? asked Baby. The offense is scoring at will, while the defense doesn't seem to be getting stops.

Well, well. Greg Dickerson, you old iconoclast.

The company line from the first week of camp was that the defense was ahead of the offense. You know, '85 Bears and all. Now that we've actually been able to see the defense in action, I have a one word response. Poppycock. Yes, we've held the last two teams to 90 and 88 points, which is pretty good. But as I mentioned earlier today, we gave up 60 points in the first have against the Nets and 18 first-quarter points in the paint against the Raptors.

This is bad, very bad. The impression I got last night was that we had no second line of defense, much less a third or fourth wave. You all remember the crux of Tom Thibodeau's defensive scheme, right? Send wave after wave of defensive players at the opposing team's offense, and never let them get to the rim. That just hasn't been happening.

So we can circle games on the road against Cleveland and talk about being the best defensive team ever, but I say we still have work to do.

2 comments:

FLCeltsFan said...

I agree that what we have seen so far from the defense is far from being the best ever. But then again, we haven't seen the team as it will be in the regular season. KG has been rounding into game shape. The starters minutes have been limited. Rondo started out a bit slowly. Sheed & Quisy are still learning the system. Once they get the rotation set and the players are all in game shape, we'll see the lock down defense they have been promising.

Lex said...

I agree. But hopefully they understand it too