One of the more defensive minded teams in the NBA over the past decade has been the San Antonio Spurs. It’s not hard to see the coorelation between defense and winning championships – they have four!
Their secret defensive scheme? Force guards away from the middle of the floor.
Yep, it’s that easy! Boil it down to this: when the ball-handler gets to the middle and into the lane, bad things happen. This is because the offensive player has options. And the basic premises of defense are to limit the number of ways the offense can score and make it as hard as possible for them to do that.
When opposing guards get into the lane, they cause damage. They get good looks at the basket, find open teammates and draw fouls. A ball-handler in the middle of the lane usually has a better look at the basket than when forced towards the sideline or baseline. Additionally, he probably got past the defender guarding him en route to the lane. This means other defenders will have to rotate over to help on the ball-handler, leaving other offensive players open if the ball-handler can find them with a good pass.
(Thanks SA Bleacher Report)
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