San Antonio Spurs: Green, Leonard Key To Elite Defense

With just a single game remaining on the regular season schedule, the San Antonio Spurs have a chance to head into the NBA Playoffs riding a 12-game winning streak, if they can defeat the New Orleans Pelicans in their final game.

If everything breaks right they will also land the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, securing home-court advantage until at least the Western Conference Finals.

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That would be impressive anyway, but it is especially impressive when you remember that the Spurs were in seventh place in early January, and many were questioning whether or not they would even make the playoffs. How the times have changed.

The most consistent aspect of their team has been their stellar defense this season. Even when their shooting was slumping the elite defense remained a constant. They currently hold the second-best defensive rating in the NBA, allowing only 101.9 points per 100 possessions. How have they done it?

Great defense obviously is about gelling collectively as a team, but it also comes down to individual contributions from certain players, specifically Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.

Kawhi Leonard is the best defensive player on the Spurs, and possibly the best player period. He may even be the best defensive player in the NBA. He has had a spectacular season defensively even when dealing with a hand injury earlier in the year.

Despite only playing in 63 games Leonard has 4.4 defensive win shares. Lately Leonard has made the news for his penchant for stealing the ball. For the season Leonard is averaging 3.8 steals per 100 possessions, and in a recent game against Golden State he racked up seven steals in only 24 minutes. The last game Leonard played without recording a steal was way back on Feb. 20.

Leonard currently leads the NBA in individual defensive rating at 96. With Leonard on the floor the Spurs have allowed their opponents to have an offensive rating of 99.5, but that number jumps to 104.8 when he leaves. Leonard’s Real Defensive Plus/Minus is also second best in the NBA behind Andrew Bogut at 5.01.

No matter how you slice it the Spurs are much better defensively with Leonard in the lineup. This excellent video from bballbreakdown.com perfectly illustrates the value Leonard provides to the Spurs.

Joining Leonard on the perimeter is Danny Green. Green has developed into a solid wing defender and is a huge part of the San Antonio defense. He has the sixth-best DRPM for shooting guards this season at 1.99, and a defensive rating of 100. Neither number is spectacular, but Green is holding his own.

He helped Leonard hold James Harden to 22 points and 16 points respectively in their two meetings last week, holding him to only 14 free-throw attempts over those two games.

He doesn’t put up gaudy steal numbers like his counterpart, Green averages 1.6 steals per game, but he does nab his fair share and plays fundamentally sound on-ball defense. With both Green and Leonard on the floor the Spurs are plus 15.2 points per 100 possessions, the best two man combination on the team.

What makes these two so dangerous is their versatility. At 6-foot-6 Green is tall enough and athletic enough to defend several positions. Green can defend point guards, shooting guards, and small forwards while Leonard can guard every position except for center.

This allows the Spurs to hide defensive liabilities like Tony Parker on less threatening offensive players when San Antonio is going up against a dangerous point guard.

In a matchup against the Clippers, Gregg Popovich could elect to have either Green or Leonard guard Chris Paul for an entire game, never allowing Los Angeles to take advantage of that severe mismatch. Few teams have that luxury.

Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter throw in the rim protection that is also an important part of keeping any defense strong, but without Leonard and Green on the wing it is clear that this defense would not be close to second best in the NBA.

The questions that lingered about the Spurs all season seem to have answered during this eleven game winning streak. They’re back to doing what they do best, and only one question remains.

Can anybody beat them in a seven-game series?

Next: San Antonio Spurs: The Importance of Home Court

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