The best defense in the NBA currently belongs to the Golden State Warriors, who are only allowing a stingy 97.6 points per 100 possessions. No other team is even below 100. How exactly are they doing it, and can they keep it up?
Let’s break this down with lots of statistics, starting with the defensive four factors –- opponent eFG%, opponent turnover rate, defensive rebound percentage, and opponent free throw rate. Here’s how the Warriors are faring so far (rank in parentheses).
Opp eFG%: 44.6% (1)
Opp TOV%: 14.1% (12)
DRB%: 74.0% (15)
Opp FT rate: 0.205 (12)
As you can see, the Warriors are above average in every category, but only really elite in just one –- effective field goal percentage. The best recent team in regards to this category was the 2003-2004 San Antonio Spurs, who allowed a ridiculous 43.3% eFG%. The difference between the two is that the Spurs that year were also the best team in the league in grabbing defense boards. This was also during a time in which offenses aren’t what they are today –- there were six teams that season that had a DRtg of below 100, so this isn’t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.
So the Warriors are incredible at forcing inefficient, contested shots. They aren’t forcing as many turnovers as some teams, but it hasn’t really mattered when teams can’t buy a shot anyway. But how exactly are the Warriors holding opponents to such a low shooting percentage?
| League Average | Warriors | |
|---|---|---|
| Opp FG% | 45.2% | 40.9% |
| Opp Shot Distance | 13.77 ft | 13.42 ft |
| Opp Dribbles Before Shot | 1.92 | 2.16 |
| Opp Touch Time Before Shot | 2.66 sec | 2.94 sec |
| Defender Distance | 4.14 ft | 3.93 ft |
| Shot Clock at Shot | 11.72 sec | 11.82 sec |
The difference between the Warriors and the rest of the league is even higher when looking at pure field goal percentage (eFG% adds in a 3-point component). A lot of this has to be attributed to increased minutes for NBAsavant.com.