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What pictures do you see in newspapers, on Internet sites, or on ESPN after an NBA game? You see dunks, you see honey-sweet passes, you see amazing long-distance shots.
You see offense.
Defense is a dirty word. Defense is dull. Defense doesn’t sell tickets, or cause sponsors to line up at a team’s door. Defense doesn’t prime the adrenaline pump like a dunk. Never will.
So how does a new coach come into a team, as in the defense-poor Milwaukee Bucks, preach defense and not have the players bust out laughing? How does Scott Skiles convince offensive-minded players that defense will do for them what it did for the United States Olympic basketball team this summer?
Yes, defense still wins games in the modern-day NBA. Skiles knows it, and by the way, I doubt anyone would laugh in this tough guy’s face.
He’s the NBA’s version of Bruce Willis in one of the Die Hard movies.
“It is nice if you have great individual defensive players in your team. If you have that, you probably don’t have very good offensive players,” said Skiles, who will bring his Milwaukee Bucks to La Crosse tonight for a preseason game with the Dallas Mavericks in the La Crosse Center.
“I have seen some very poor individual defensive players become very good team defensive players which allows them to stay on the floor. Defense is drilling incessantly, it is holding guys accountable, it is having a basic understanding of what you’re trying to accomplish. Whatever your defensive schemes are, it is having those down pat.”
The only thing the Bucks have down pat is not making the playoffs, which has happened for the past two years and three of the past four. While Milwaukee is far from the most talented team in the league, or even in the division, it’s a good bet Skiles will get the most out of this new-look roster — offensively and defensively.
Tonight we’ll get to see, first-hand, how much work Skiles and his staff have done, and how much they have left to do. Even though it’s a preseason game, the Mavericks are an upper-tier team, and will show just how far Milwaukee has yet to climb.
“We know we have to become a better defensive team. The guys have been very receptive to that,” said Skiles, who was in La Crosse for a preseason game last year as coach of the Chicago Bulls. “The first game was not very good at all. Last night (Wednesday) we had a really good stretch of offense and defense.”
The challenge is to take those stretches of good defense and turn them into complete games, then two or three good defensive games a week, and so on. Does Skiles believe Milwaukee, which ranked 17th overall defensively last season, can be a good defensive team?
Skiles, known for his all-out playing style during his 10-year NBA career, is convinced it can happen. And if you have followed Skiles’ career as a player at Michigan State, then the NBA, and now as a coach, you know he doesn’t back down, nor does he lose more than he wins.
That would be a welcome change of pace for Bucks’ fans.
“Players have to come to the understanding that 82 times you are not going to come out and play a beautiful offensive game,” Skiles said. “In 82 games, if you play good defense it gives you an opportunity to win that you might not otherwise have.”
Andrew Bogut, the Bucks’ starting center, found that out at the first practice.
“Yeah, during practice that is the main thing. It is much more intense,” Bogut said. “We haven’t been the best defensive team, and once he (Skiles) took the job, he took that personally. We all need to take it personally.”
Don’t get the idea that this is going to be a slow-down type of Bucks team that will put you to sleep. With Redd, who ranked ninth in the league in scoring last year at 22.7 points per game, and the addition of Richard Jefferson, who ranked 10th (22.6) last year while playing with New Jersey, this team should be able to score.
“You don’t get to snap your fingers and win games. We have to become a much better defensive team, a team that has great chemistry, moves the ball and plays unselfish on the offensive end,” said Skiles, who has a 281-251 record as a head coach in the NBA.
“I want to make sure we compete every single night. I’m not sharing a big secret here, but the last couple of years we have not been competitive night to night.”
We’ve noticed. Now we’ll be watching to see if Skiles can really make this team play defense.
