When the Suns are focused they are one of the better defensive teams.
Nash
Bell
Marion
Amare
Thomas
Without a doubt a great defensive line-up.
Utah is very good at rebounding, and defensive rebounding, but in terms of interior defense they have no shotblocker outside of AK, and AK/Harpring/Giricek get burned badly by guys with good footspeed.
This isn't news they gave up more 50 pt games than anyone. Weak inside defenders, weak guard defenders (Fisher's not bad but not at SG). AK is a roamer he would be a good defender a team full of good defenders. And as has been stated, Suns have nice individual defenders
Utah is very good at rebounding, and defensive rebounding, but in terms of interior defense they have no shotblocker outside of AK, and AK/Harpring/Giricek get burned badly by guys with good footspeed.
It depends on the team the jazz are playing... If they play a shooting team like GS, their defense looks great because they are so good at rebounding. But if they play a team like the spurs, their weakness in defense is easily exposed. As much as i love the jazz, i have always known that they have some weak inside defense. Boozer and memo just can't block shots like other centers and power forwards in the league.
its not so much that the suns defense is better, its that their offense keeps them in close games. that is why the games looked competitive. utah doesnt have the scoring capability besides boozer/williams. when the other players struggle like they are doing, then its hard for utah to stay in the game. on phx, anyone of those guys could knock down big shots time and time again.
Boozer and memo just can't block shots like other centers and power forwards in the league.
I'll give Okur some slack, because he's not quick, athletic and doesn't have an especially long reach. Okur could be better night in an night out though, he could learn to be better, could play the way he played Yao.
Boozer has no excuse, the guy is big and athletic, he should be 10 times the defender that he is. Boozer is very soft, you'd think he'd be a bruiser with his size and strength, but he really isn't. Boozer has even gotten a great deal better since the Jazz first got him, that just shows how horribly terribly he used to be. Boozer needs to step up. He also missed I don't know how many defensive assignments where he was suppost to help out, he just disappears and only plays one half of the court. Boozer is one dimensional. To compare him in the same breath with Karl Malone has always been an insult to Karl Malone in my eyes. That's not to say Boozer isn't a good offensive player, but he lacks a lot of things.
Agreed, Jazz defense is mediocre at best. That's why AK is so important to this team because of his phantastic help defense.
Sometimes, even often, the Jazz get away with their lackluster defense. But this is the Spurs
Why is Utah's defense worse than Phoenix's?
