Insider Special: NBA Power Outage

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NBA Power Outage: Riley can't

generate the Heat

By Terry Brown

Wednesday, December 4 Updated 12:21 PM EST

Forgive us, Pat Riley, for we have sinned.

No team in the entire NBA averages fewer steals per game than the Miami Heat. No team in the entire NBA averages fewer blocks per game than the Heat.

Eddie Jones, your maxed-out superstar who made a name for himself on the defensive end, is averaging a career-low one spg, less than half of his 2.03 career average. Only one player on your entire team averages more than 0.7 blocks per game. There are 29 teams in the NBA, but the highest you can place a player on the top steals list is No. 45. The highest you can place a player on the top blocks list is No. 36.

Remember when teams used to fear your defensive goon squads?

You took Voshon Lenard off the scrap heap and turned him into a player. Now he averages a career-high 1.6 spg for another team. P.J. Brown is also putting up a career-high 1.06 spg average in another uniform. Bruce Bowen is a starting defensive stopper in the Midwest Division.

In an attempt to figure out the most aggressive and passive defensive teams in the NBA, we added up each team's steals and blocks numbers on the season and then subtracted their opponents' same numbers to create a surplus or deficit margin for each team. Of course, there are other factors such as field goal percentage, points scored, unforced turnovers, tempo, pace and style of play that go into an overall defensive concept.

But according to our calculations, the Heat are the third-worst team in the NBA.

And Riley's former team, the one that he used to hammer out his back alley, black and blue defensive reputation on, isn't doing much better.

The New York Knicks are the fourth-worst team in the NBA.

If the Heat have the fewest amount of blocks in the game, then the Knicks are second worst. They have only one player who averages more than 0.43 blocks per game. Their two players leading the team in steals per game have each missed more games than they have played so far. Allan Houston, their maxed out superstar, is averaging 0.7 steals per game and 0.07 blocks per game. Make sure you get all the zeroes and decimal points in there. His next block will be his second.

Othella Harrington has played in 15 games with five starts and has a grand total of two steals. Lee Nailon, their athletic free-agent signee, has three steals and no blocks in 14 games. There are six players on the roster who have combined for a total of three blocks all season and two of them are starters.

Remember when a Knicks versus Heat game meant lots of blood, sweat, technical fouls and ejections? It wasn't the best basketball to watch, or, arguably, even basketball. But it was the finest in defensive strategy and execution that the league had to offer.

Now, the two teams combine for a 2.7 steal per game deficit and 2.8 block per game deficit.

And if you thought they were ugly before, how does a combined 10-22 record look from behind the black eye and fat lip that are now their own.

MOST AGGRESSIVE DEFENSES

1. Dallas Mavericks

Difference: +3.5 margin (9.2 spg, 5.2 bpg)

Comment: After scoring 1,767 points in 17 games, I can easily give you 104 reasons why the Mavs are the hottest team in the NBA. But I'd be wrong. Last year, they averaged 105 points per contest and won 69 percent of their games. This year, they're holding their opponents to 10.4 fewer points on 41 percent shooting and winning 94 percent of their games. Six of their players are averaging more than a steal per game (there were only two last season), including four of their five starters. And the only one that isn't, center Shawn Bradley, is rejecting 2.7 shots per game (more than twice as many as last year). Don't get me wrong. They are, at best, an average defensive team. But over all, on the floor, on both sides of the ball, there is no one playing better.

2. (tie) Sacramento Kings

Difference: +2.2 margin (9.8 spg, 6.1 bpg)

Comment: Quietly, hush hush, on the down low, Chris Webber has started the season scoring less, shooting worse, with fewer rebounds and assists per game than last season and, just as secretly, nabbed 34 steals in 16 games for a career-high average and sixth in the NBA. Doug Christie is No. 2 at 2.4 spg while Peja Stojakovic, Bobby Jackson and Vlade Divac as well as every other starter averages at least one steal per game. Only the Sixers (10.7) and Celtics (10.4) average more steals per game than the Kings (9.8). Somewhere in between the Mavs' win streak and Shaq's toe, the rest of the league has lost track of a team that, by design or default, has turned very defensive minded.

2. (tie) Boston Celtics

Difference: +2.2 margin (10.4 spg, 4.1 bpg)

Comment: Ditto as above but substitute Antoine Walker for Chris Webber, make it No. 5 in the league, while adding that the Celtics have six players who average at least one steal per game, including their backup point guard and a 6-foot-10 sub who plays only 22 minutes per game. Which is a good thing, I guess, since the Celtics are actually being out-blocked by one.

4. Toronto Raptors

Difference: +2.1 margin (8.5 spg, 5.0 bpg)

Comment: We're preaching to the, well, preacher here. You'd expect nothing less from a Lenny Wilkins squad. Forget the record, injury report and shooting epidemic, his players get back and play defense. Six of them average a steal or more a game led by Jerome Williams, who is on the verge of doubling his career average at two. Yet none is known as a defensive stopper. Consider it a miracle or just defensive grit that a team averaging only 88.7 points per game has a 6-11 record.

5. Milwaukee Bucks

Difference: +2 margin (7.9 spg, 5.1 bpg)

Comment: Let's be honest. These guys are not going to be confused with a good defensive squad or even an average one. In fact, their steal and block numbers are only better by fractions from last season. The difference, though, is that they've somehow turned the 1.2 turnover deficit of last year into a 1.7 surplus this season. Fewer stolen balls and blocked shots by their offense (in fact, no team has allowed less than the Bucks at a combined 11.0 per game) is actually helping their defensive numbers. Insert cliche, remember that the Bucks traded Glenn Robinson to the Atlanta Hawks and keep reading.

MOST PASSIVE DEFENSES

25. Atlanta Hawks

Difference: -2.3 margin (7.8 spg, 6.3 bpg)

Comment: Glenn Robinson leads this team in scoring and rebounding, is second in assists and three-pointers made while also turning the ball over an eye-popping 4.53 times per game. Do not adjust your computer screen. Somehow, the Big Dog is also averaging a career-high in steals, Theo Ratliff gets his fistfull of blocks while Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jason Terry chip in their token steal per game. But nothing is going to compensate for the 19.3 turnovers they commit on a nightly basis, 10.4 of which are opposition steals. We call them hand outs at this pace.

26. New York Knicks

Difference: -2.4 margin (7.3 spg, 3.7 bpg)

Comment: See above.

27. Miami Heat

Difference: -3.1 margin (5.9 spg, 3.5 bpg)

Comment: See above

28. Denver Nuggets

Difference: -3.5 margin (8.4 spg, 5.3 bpg)

Comment: A South American high schooler is, by far, their best defender. Nothing against Brazil or seniors, but Nene Hilario, at 19, should be learning English and names of streets rather than anchoring something as complicated as an NBA defense that goes from man to zone to matchup zone from possession to possession with something called defensive three seconds in the key infractions. Heck, the Nuggets know this. Hilario plays only 23.5 minutes per game. He's one of only two players on the entire team who hasn't had a start yet. And it doesn't help when 7.3 of your team's shots are blocked night in and night out as evidenced by their 38 percent shooting. Believe it or not, they have some guy named Chris Whitney who has started eight games for the team and played 218 minutes but has yet to record his first steal of the year. Juwan Howard's next block will fill force him to use his thumb to count it. Who would have thought Marcus Camby could be pictured in wings and a halo at his point in his career?

29. Chicago Bulls

Difference: -4.3 margin (7.4 spg, 4.6 bpg)

Comment: At this pace, team leader Jalen Rose will get his 10th steal of the season next week and his 10th block next month, or year, whichever comes first. And we haven't even gotten to Eddy Curry's 0.1 steals per game and, say it together, 0.2 blocks per game. Wasn't that fun? Remember, this is the team that traded away Elton Brand, who now leads the entire league in blocks per game at 3.3, while they can come up with only 4.6 as a team. It's too bad that the near career numbers in steals (1.2) and blocks (1.0) being put up by Donyell Marshall can get him only two starts in 17 games. Rookie Jay Williams leads them in steals at 1.5. Twenty-year-old Tyson Chandler leads them in blocks at 1.2. Bill Cartwright leads them in bald spots.