The reason "defense wins championships" is because you have to beat a very good team 4 times in a series to advance and then you have to do it again and again. Even the best scorers in the league only make about half of their shots. Everyone is vulnerable to a bad shooting night and if you string a couple of those in a row in a playoff series, that's all it takes sometimes to end your season. Conversely, defense isn't susceptible to bad bounces. If you build your team around the idea that you're going to dominate every game with your defense, you're giving yourself a much better chance to win. Maximizing what you can control is what's important. We're giving up 103 points per game to our opponents over the course of a season and we've managed to win 27 games. San Antonio is giving up 97 points per game over the course of the season and they've won 60 games. Lowering the threshold of success is a much more reliable way to win consistently than stacking your lineup with scorers and trying to get enough touches for everyone. Diminishing returns are going to make it harder and harder to bring that points per game average up. All we have to do is cut our points allowed by 6 per game. That's doable. That takes commitment and focus. This isn't rocket science. Telling players to forget about defense and concentrate on scoring is just not going to get it done.
PS - Cousins is the only player in the league who makes the top 20 list for both steals and blocks per game. He also leads the league in defensive rebounding percentage. The myth that he's a poor defensive player should be put to rest. He's already above average and he should get even better as he gets more experience and develops some trust with his teammates and coach's defensive schemes.
PS - Cousins is the only player in the league who makes the top 20 list for both steals and blocks per game. He also leads the league in defensive rebounding percentage. The myth that he's a poor defensive player should be put to rest. He's already above average and he should get even better as he gets more experience and develops some trust with his teammates and coach's defensive schemes.
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