Is BK's dream being realized?

[Diesel]

I think you fail to see that Phoenix's defense doesn't hound. They don't stop. They don't press.

Their offense, rebounding, and tempo control is their defense. The thing that Phoenix does best is control the rebounding. You're right that they have added new faces that can actually play defense. However, they are still not a classical good defensive team. What it's going to take to prove that is an offense that is patient.

Watch Phoenix's defense fall apart against teams like:

San Antonio...

Dallas

Boston

Miami

Clippers.

when healthy, these are the teams who are executing the best.

That means that you put the Suns into a half court game... I think they run zone defense in the halfcourt, but no way they stop lowpost players like Brand/Duncan...

Hell, i betcha Gasol may give them problems too.

It's not defense, it's the tempo they play.

[Plainview1981]

Yes, I remember about Hendu... But I'm not so sure I remember about Grant Long or Corbin that year. But losing the way we did was just embarassing no matter how you look at it.

Yes, that NY team went to the finals, but they were an 8th seed and they didn't even have Patrick for the playoffs that year.

[Weez]

this isn't really directed at Diesel...

the argument over phx playing defense (especially this year without amare) is absurd, even when adjusting for 'pace of play'.

you want to know why most teams lose to them despite their lack of defense? because they have a gameplan (fast, shoot) and a great floor general to execute it...and are tremendous at luring other teams into playing their pace..which they can't do; don't have the man-power, don't have the guns, don't have IT.

thus, becuase teams that are less able to play PHX pace/style sputter, PHX trucks on, leaving other teams to crumble in their wake

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Saying that Phoenix is a good defensive team, is like saying that the Indianapolis Colts were a good defensive team last year in the NFL.

The Colts defense feasted off of horrific offenses to boost their defensive numbers. But as soon as they played a potent offense in the Cincinnati Bengals, they got lit up like a Christmas tree.

Because Phoenix is so efficient and so explosive offensively, mediocre to bad teams routinely find themselves down by 10 or more points early in the game. To catch up, those teams start to force a lot of things on offense, which plays right into Phoenix's hands.

The Colts forced teams to do the same thing, offensively jumping all over teams, which forced them to abandon their run game and go strictly to a pass attack to get back in the game.

In Phoenix's case, if you take a bad 3-point shot or a long jumper, they're grabbing the rebound and fast breaking the other way, even taking 3's off the break. If you can't keep pace with them offensively. Or if you can't slow them down, they'll devour you by the time the half comes around.

( see tonight's game vs Milwaukee, in which Phoenix shot 56% while the Bucks shot 43%. Oh yeah, the Bucks were 5 - 20 from 3-point range because they tried to shoot themselves back into the game )

To that team's credit, they are better defensively this year, than they were last year. But a decent offensive team has no trouble running their offense and scoring on Phoenix.

It's just that Phoenix's offense is too hard to stop.

Take our two meetings for instance.

In game 1 out in Phoenix, they jumped all over us after starting out slow to begin the game. When they started to pull away, our guys started taking bad shots and forcing everything to try to stay in the game. Before we knew it, we were down 20, on our way to being down 30. We ended up with 22 turnovers in that game. And it had very little to do with what Phoenix was doing to us defensively.

In game 2, the Hawks went toe to toe with Phoenix. Why? Because we were much more efficient on offense, even though we still shot 41% in that game. Phoenix shot 51% by the way. But we grabbed 19 offensive rebounds in that game, which gave us extra possessions. More importantly, we only had 12 turnovers in that game. And that was because we were under control for most of the game.

Like Diesel said. When Phoenix plays a great defensive team, or an efficient offensive team, that's when you'll see them lose games.

The reason why we lost games early in the year, had a lot to do with our offensive ineptitude, as well as our defense. In that stretch in which we went 2 - 16, we failed to break the 80 point mark 5 times. We failed to break the 90 point mark 8 times.

Since then, the Hawks have failed to score 80 points just one time ( the debacle in the first Washington game in January ) . . and failed to score 90 points 5 times in the last 38 games. We lost all of those games by the way.

So that means that in the games in which we've scored 90 or more points since starting out 2 - 16, the Hawks are 16 - 15.

When we score 100 or more points, we're 12 - 6