if you had seen the kings at suns game last night, you would've heard me cracking up so hard during the 1st quarter. suns were just scoring layups at will 2 seconds after the kings scored a bucket. LAYUPS. the last possession, marion nailed a shot at the buzzer, then ran into the locker room like it was halftime. goes to show how kings are not really that defensively improved compared to last year; i think the kings have no frontcourt defense.

the kings announcer greg napier was like "good basket by bibby-oh there goes marion" "what a move by mart-oh there goes barbosa." cracked me up.

in the past 2 years i've sorta frowned upon the suns because they did not play defense. i now realize that's a bit of a stretch; just because opponents score a lot more points on them does not mean they are defensively soft; they have more possessions to try and score more. granted, they don't lockdown like the spurs, and i truly believe their defense is related emotionally to their offense; when their offense goes down, they start to suffer defensively. and mike antoni asking them to play more defense is-yes, i agree with tim legler, lip service. but they don't suck persay; there are worse defensive teams in the league; washington, celtics, sixers, sonics as well. they also suck on the boards. that's their main weakness. that's why i'm looking forward to hearing the prognosis when they run into the magic. orlando is just crazy, love dwight.

what i don't like about the suns' defense though, is sometimes they'll allow the opponents to score just so that they can start a fastbreak. like not put any defensive pressure. it's funny to watch(especially if they get a layup 2 seconds later for doing so), but a good basketball team wants to minimize those types of things during the postseason. and of course, nash can't defend a statue.

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team-by-team comparisons:

in curiousity, i wanted to look at each team to get a glimpse of how defensively tough some teams are. what cracked me up though was that golden state(though a very defensively porous team) leads the league in blocks per game(an average of 6). while orlando has the monstrous dwight howard, magic are 16th in rebounds per game. utah is 1st.

as to oppt fg%, i love the orlando magic; according to the stats they are one of the most offensively efficient(fg%) AND defensive stopping teams(oppt fg%) in the league; 1st and 2nd to be exact. houston is right now surprisingly the best defensive team; #1 in oppt's fg%. other teams of note(at least for me):
utah #10
detroit #11(this doesn't look too bad until you look at their oppt's 3pt% category; please stop trying to teach zone d flip)
san antonio #13
golden state is #20
chicago #21(they'll get better)
sacramento is #23
phoenix: #22

and 3pt% for opponents, respectively(since it really means jack if you lock down the paint if the perimeter just opens wide):
phoenix: #2(weird; perhaps too many are trying to match their offensive game, and so screw up?)
orlando: #4(told ya they're defensive beasts; at #2 and #4, they are a complete defensive team)
houston: #21
utah: #29
detroit: #27(ya detroit sucks like crap defensively; we should just call them Etroit until they improve; i miss larry and ben)
san antonio: #25
golden state: #12
chicago: #14
sacramento: #24

i forgot to say the hornets' defense also looks very good on both sides; #4(fg%), #6(3pt%). i guess getting tyson chandler was a huge boost for them.

of course, it's still only about 1.5 months into the season, i expect this stuff maybe to swirl around a bit more. but it's always fun to look at numbers like this this early.