Rising Suns

Much is going to be made of the Suns' offense and (ostensible) lack of defense against the Spurs' vaunted, suffocating D.

Well, here are the defensive numbers breakdown for both series. Remember, both series went six games:

The defensive rebounding efficiency rating is the percentage of defensive rebounds taken down off of missed shots (Total missed shots minus offensive rebounds relinquished divided by total missed shots, so for San Antonio, there were 237 missed shots that counted for non-team rebounds. The Spurs gave up 74 offensive boards in the series. 163/237 gives my rebounding efficiency rating).

These numbers are for the entire series

Seattle
FG%: 45.0% (206/458)
3pt FG%: 26.9% (21/78)
Turnovers: 76
Spurs Defensive Rebounding Efficiency: 68.8% (163 DReb/74 OReb Given Up)

Dallas
FG%: 45.6% (255/559)
3pt FG%: 31.4% (33/105)
Turnovers: 75
Suns Defensive Rebounding Efficiency: 68.2% (199 DReb/93 OReb Given Up)

Obviously, to say that the Suns got more rebounds than San Antonio is deceiving, because there were 55 more missed shots on the defensive end in the Dallas/Phoenix series than in the San Antonio/Seattle series. On a similar note, points per game allowed is not a very telling statistic, because as I've been saying over and over again, more possessions lead to more shot attempts. Dallas attempted 101 more shots than Seattle did over the course of the series.

Those numbers look awfully similar for two teams that have such disparate defensive capabilities.

Makes you think a bit, doesn't it?