Atlanta Hawks and Hornets prove defense key for NBA dogs

This is not uncommon, either. The NBA playoffs mean both teams are likely to show up and play hard for the entire game, which is not the case during the regular season.

Even good teams can pack it in during the long season, as we saw down the stretch with the Celtics and during the second of back-to-backs all season long. Boston, beset by injuries all year, was awful when playing the second game in two nights. The Lakers, Celtics and Spurs took much of the last two weeks off, as well, resting key players.

During the playoffs, however, all teams want to give it their all the entire game, with so much at stake. This often means exceptional defense, which will help an underdog stay close in a lower scoring game than oddsmakers might expect and can give NBA handicappers the edge.

The Knicks, one of the worst defensive teams in the league this season, held the Celtics to .438% shooting in Game 1 and won the battle of blocked shots by a 9-5 count. That game sailed under the total by 26 points with Boston’s defense holding the uptempo Knicks to 85 points and .423% shooting. There’s little doubt who controlled the pace.

Indiana held the Bulls to .439% shooting and nearly pulled off the upset, except for a 16-1 Chicago run to end the game, fueled by big ‘D’. Chicago held a 49-34 rebounding advantage. Rallying in the fourth quarter is nothing new for Chicago. The Bulls had 11 wins this season in games in which they were trailing at the end of the third quarter. 

You know the old sports adage, “Defense wins championships.” It’s still very much alive and well in all sports. That’s what fueled Butler’s run to its second straight NCAA title game and UConn to another championship. In basketball, Michael Jordan may have been best known for his offense, but it was his and the team’s defense from 1996-98 that netted the Chicago Bulls three straight titles. And the same has been true for the five-time champion Lakers this decade: Phil Jackson teaching defense to the Lakers was the final piece of the L.A. championship puzzle.

Let’s look at those Bulls teams under Michael Jordan. When Jordan won his last championship in 1998, the Bulls were a tremendous defensive team and notice that Chicago went 13-6-1 in games under the total during the 1998 playoffs. When Larry Brown coached the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA finals, he taught them how to play great defense and the 76ers went 14-9 under the total in the playoffs. He then took that defensive intensity to Detroit where he won an NBA title in 2004 with a Pistons’ team that was one of the most smothering defensive squads in NBA history. Just ask the Lakers, who the Pistons upset in five games despite being 7-to-1 underdogs.

One thing that happens is that strong defensive teams play as hard as they can defensively during the regular season a lot of the time, but not all of the time. Sometimes games are blowouts and teams will coast on defense or have fun trying to score in the fourth quarter, rather than work hard playing defense (which isn’t noticed as much by the fans as is a flashy offensive play). This is human nature, as it’s an 82-game regular season, so you can’t play all out on defense for six months and expect to be full of energy come playoff time.

But once the playoffs role around it’s a different story, as there are fewer one-sided games and opportunities to coast. And since the postseason is so short and every game means something, it’s more likely strong defensive teams will go all out on defense throughout the entire playoffs.

Sportsbooks are aware of this and often adjust the totals to reflect this. The under went 4-1 the last five games of the 2010 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics, with the losing team scoring 86, 67 and 79 points the last three games. With more on the line, the defense often intensifies.

A decade ago in the Eastern Conference Championship between Milwaukee and Philadelphia, there was a contrast of a run-and-gun offensive team (the Bucks) against the rugged defense of the 76ers. The first four games went under the total, which averaged around 190. NBA odds makers dramatically altered the line by almost 10 points to 181 and the final three games went over the total. So if you have a run-and-gun team against a strong defensive team, many times the edge is with the under early in a series before oddsmakers adjust, as we just saw with the Celtics/Knicks, another clash of varying styles.

A memorable defensive clash took place a few years ago when Pat Riley’s Miami Heat club took on the New York Knicks in a battle of two monster defensive teams. The totals were very low for each game (an average of 170), yet in the seven-game series the unders still prevailed by a 5-1-1 mark. Again, the playoffs are a different season entirely and when it comes to playing defense, and there’s no better time for teams to show off their best if they want to pull an upset or advance.