NBA Stretch Run: Lethargic Defense
There are three more weeks to go in the NBA regular season. This means there are professional athletes in the NBA who will be going on vacation soon, while other players who will be working hard, huffing and puffing 40 minutes per game, some right on through until June.
Now let me ask you -- Will the majority of the players on the Sonics, Clippers, Heat, Knicks and Grizzlies be working as hard the next few weeks as those teams on the NBA playoff bubble, like the Hawks, Nets, Warriors and Nuggets? Good coaches can get their players motivated, even on a losing team this time of the season.
However, the fact is good coaches are hard as hard to find as self-motivated athletes. This is the time of year when some disappointed teams play out the schedule and think less about preparing for their next opponent and think more about golf and early spring/summer family vacations. This is understandable, as losing is no fun. Teams hit the 70-game mark this week, and many players on losing teams realize they have no shot at the postseason, which means the year was a failure.
Some fans and local newspapers are focused more on where their team will end up in the draft, rather than show an interest in the last few weeks of the season. Teams like the Clippers, Sonics, Heat and Bucks were hoping to have better campaigns. The Clippers were hoping for good health while the young Sonics were looking at a new beginning with prize rookie Kevin Durant, the No. 2 pick in the draft. The Miami Heat had won the NBA title less than two years ago and certainly looked formidable with star guard Dwyane Wade entering his prime, teamed with veteran big men Shaq and Alonzo Mourning. No one envisioned a train wreck season with the worst record in the NBA while winning 18% of their games.
They've been a go against all season, at 10-23 ATS at home and 4-22 SU, 7-18 ATS in the conference. Motivating athletes as the ship is sinking is no easy task. Over the last few months the Clippers have played lethargic basketball, on a 2-12 SU, 3-11 ATS run. Like Miami, the Clippers have more players resting from injuries off the court than on.
Lethargic play on bad teams is first noticeable at the defensive end. Athletes that have nothing to play for are more inclined to pad their own stats on the offensive end, but expend less energy on defense. Part of it is psychological, where a player can point to the stat sheet after the season and say, "We didn't lose because of me. I did my part with 17 points per game." The other part is simply that defense requires a lot of hustle, and unmotivated teams simply don't have the energy at practice or in game conditions to bring their 'A' game on 'D'.
The Seattle Supersonics stand out in that regard. Seattle is on an 8-2-1 run over the total, and had back to back games last week allowing 121 and 168 points! In a loss at Denver, they gave up 48 points in the first quarter and 84 points in each half! The joke in Seattle is that the Washington Generals showed more heart losing to the Globetrotters.
While that blowout loss got a lot of publicity, the Milwaukee Bucks continue to play no defense, something that was a major problem last year, too. The Bucks just lost convincingly on their home court to the team with the worst record in the NBA, Miami, 112-106. It was Milwaukee's sixth straight loss while Miami snapped an eight-game losing streak. The Bucks are on a 5-14 SU, 9-10 ATS run, including 16-3 over the total.
This is nothing new. A few years ago, Cleveland seemed more interested in setting itself up to get LeBron James in the draft than playing quality basketball, starting 24-42-1 against the spread. The Cavs went 2-13-1 ATS down the stretch. One year the Hawks completely packed it in, going 6-24 SU/ATS to end the season! You don't always have to back the good teams to win and cover, as there are plenty of go-against spots and "over" teams this time of year.
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