tommy
02-03-2012, 02:14 AM
Ok well that was a little more like it. What I saw in closely watching both our on-ball and off-ball defense was a team that played with intensity, passion, determination, and intelligence on the defensive end. We denied well on the wing, we denied well in the post, we fought through screens very well. We hustled. We helped.
Yes, we were still beaten off the dribble some (I charted three times by Thornton being the most) but by and large we did OK even in that department.
Now Virginia Tech is not a very talented team offensively, let's not kid ourselves. But I don't think very many teams would have had a lot of success against us tonight. Josh Hairston absolutely played with the reckless abandon one would expect of a guy given an opportunity to start for the first time. Did he make an impression? He had to. Austin Rivers, I'm sorry, is a good defensive player. He has quick feet, he anticipates where his man is going to go and beats him to spots, he works hard to get around screens, he is rarely beaten off the dribble. Just thinking here, but if we really want to play our best defensive team, but also have a more "traditional" looking lineup than we've had, perhaps the starting combination in the backcourt should be Thornton and Rivers, with two killer shooters ready to come off the bench, and we ride whoever's hot. If K likes Hairston, could he maybe play the 3? Sure, we'd be a little challenged offensively, as neither Ty nor Josh gives us much, but if the idea is to try to lock it down better on D, then what about that?
The one guy who did not have a great game defensively really was Miles Plumlee. He was only on the floor for 14 defensive possessions and gave up two baskets and I considered him 1/3 responsible (with Seth and Ryan) for another, and also committed a foul that resulted in points and another silly foul as well, without forcing turnovers, forcing missed shots, or a whole lot else good in terms of denial, help, etc. That's three subpar defensive games for Miles in a row if I'm not mistaken, and his minutes have gone down as a result. For a guy who has been our best defender all year, this is not a good development.
Also on the defensive performance: I was watching and taking some notes on our hedging in this game. The results, as usual, were excellent. I counted 17 times that we hedged on a high screen, and of those 17, they only got 5 shots off as a result of the play, and made 3 of them, including the 3 pointer at the end of the half. There were two other hoops they got early in the second half, and that was it. I'll take a 14 of 17 success rate anytime.
By the way, I am posting a different kind of defensive charting of our games over on Airowe's dukehoopblog.com. They provide another perspective, data-based, on all of this. Virginia Tech should be up tomorrow, but I have a number of other games up, some recent and I'm catching up on some older ones. Check em out!
OK here are the stop% charts for this game and the cumulative for all the games I've charted this year.
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
22
18
55%
Rivers
35
27
56%
Dawkins
19
13
59%
Mason
30
21
59%
Thornton
26
22
54%
Kelly
30
19
61%
Miles
6
7
46%
Cook
11
7
61%
Gbinije
Hairston
10
11
48%
TEAM
38
29
57%
OK here's the cumulative:
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
255
237
51.8%
Rivers
291
257
53.1%
Dawkins
202
198
50.5%
Mason
248
236
51.2%
Thornton
185
148
55.6%
Kelly
239
205
53.8%
Miles
162
147
52.4%
Cook
120
107
52.9%
Gbinije
31
41
43.1%
Hairston
66
60
52.4%
TEAM
361
322
52.9%
Thornton and Rivers in the backcourt??
Yes, we were still beaten off the dribble some (I charted three times by Thornton being the most) but by and large we did OK even in that department.
Now Virginia Tech is not a very talented team offensively, let's not kid ourselves. But I don't think very many teams would have had a lot of success against us tonight. Josh Hairston absolutely played with the reckless abandon one would expect of a guy given an opportunity to start for the first time. Did he make an impression? He had to. Austin Rivers, I'm sorry, is a good defensive player. He has quick feet, he anticipates where his man is going to go and beats him to spots, he works hard to get around screens, he is rarely beaten off the dribble. Just thinking here, but if we really want to play our best defensive team, but also have a more "traditional" looking lineup than we've had, perhaps the starting combination in the backcourt should be Thornton and Rivers, with two killer shooters ready to come off the bench, and we ride whoever's hot. If K likes Hairston, could he maybe play the 3? Sure, we'd be a little challenged offensively, as neither Ty nor Josh gives us much, but if the idea is to try to lock it down better on D, then what about that?
The one guy who did not have a great game defensively really was Miles Plumlee. He was only on the floor for 14 defensive possessions and gave up two baskets and I considered him 1/3 responsible (with Seth and Ryan) for another, and also committed a foul that resulted in points and another silly foul as well, without forcing turnovers, forcing missed shots, or a whole lot else good in terms of denial, help, etc. That's three subpar defensive games for Miles in a row if I'm not mistaken, and his minutes have gone down as a result. For a guy who has been our best defender all year, this is not a good development.
Also on the defensive performance: I was watching and taking some notes on our hedging in this game. The results, as usual, were excellent. I counted 17 times that we hedged on a high screen, and of those 17, they only got 5 shots off as a result of the play, and made 3 of them, including the 3 pointer at the end of the half. There were two other hoops they got early in the second half, and that was it. I'll take a 14 of 17 success rate anytime.
By the way, I am posting a different kind of defensive charting of our games over on Airowe's dukehoopblog.com. They provide another perspective, data-based, on all of this. Virginia Tech should be up tomorrow, but I have a number of other games up, some recent and I'm catching up on some older ones. Check em out!
OK here are the stop% charts for this game and the cumulative for all the games I've charted this year.
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
22
18
55%
Rivers
35
27
56%
Dawkins
19
13
59%
Mason
30
21
59%
Thornton
26
22
54%
Kelly
30
19
61%
Miles
6
7
46%
Cook
11
7
61%
Gbinije
Hairston
10
11
48%
TEAM
38
29
57%
OK here's the cumulative:
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
255
237
51.8%
Rivers
291
257
53.1%
Dawkins
202
198
50.5%
Mason
248
236
51.2%
Thornton
185
148
55.6%
Kelly
239
205
53.8%
Miles
162
147
52.4%
Cook
120
107
52.9%
Gbinije
31
41
43.1%
Hairston
66
60
52.4%
TEAM
361
322
52.9%
Thornton and Rivers in the backcourt??