http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/stats/byteam?cat1=Total&cat2=opponent&sort=332

1. Boston
2 Detroit
3. SA
4 Houston
5 New orleans
6 76ers
7 Dallas

What does this say? First off all 7 teams are in the playoffs. 6 of the teams represent the top 8 records in the NBA including the best record Boston

If you build a foundation of defense--you will COMPETE--it's also possible you can be quite GOOD. Some of the higher scoring good teams ie Phoenix GS etc.. have seemed to crash and burn at playoff time.

I think that we can score enough but the problem is we dont have good consistent defense and Isiah has FAILED with the defensive players he ahs tried to bring in i.,e balkman Jefferies Jerome James Malik Rose--millions of $ in investment.

I just hope Jim Dolan understands how poorly the team is put together--that another yera of Isiah Thomas will equal another year of failure. Let him have his 20mm and let him go

briggs... Isiah is talking about 2009. I am at the point of losing all hope...

I completely agree here that defense is absolutely key to winning a championship.

However, I'm not sure that's saying enough to prove causality rather than correlation.

I bet the top 8 teams in the NBA have pretty good stats for PPG, rebounds, assists, FG % etc..

Our problems start with our defense. Evil I agree with you that what you say is true. But the fact that we give no resistance on the defensive end even on nights that we don't turn the ball over it becomes a problem.