http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/24644/the-knicks-defense-is-good-how%E2%80%99d-that-happen

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Take a deep breath as I tell you this: The New York Knicks have one of the best defenses in the NBA. They rank fifth in defensive efficiency — which is a measure of points allowed per 100 possessions — giving up just 97.6 points. They are at the top of the list, along with with the Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics, and Miami Heat. The Knicks consciously focused on their defense after struggling for years. They brought in Mike Woodson, signed Tyson Chandler, and drafted Iman Shumpert to lock guys up on the perimeter. Now they have found defensive success as a result.

First, led by Chandler, they play excellent post defense. On post-up plays, they allow 0.73 points per possession (PPP) on just 39.5 percent shooting.

Chandler is very effective near the rim because he is able to contest shots without contact. Because of his length, he can still stop bigs who have a size advantage on him, and because of his quickness, he can stop smaller bigs who try to face him up. He doesn't need any of his teammates to help with a double team, so the Knicks can defend the kick-out pass efficiently, too — they also have the best PPP when factoring in pass-outs from the post, allowing 0.767 points per possession on 39.2 percent shooting.

Yet, double-team scenarios are not altogether unavoidable, and I've been impressed by the Knicks' ability to rotate out of them and close out hard, especially since Woodson became head coach:

As Dwight Howard makes the catch on the block, Shumpert reads the play and leaves his man to double team. Carmelo Anthony rotates to cover Shumpert's man. Then, when Anthony sees the pass out, he sprints back to his original man, J.J. Reddick on the wing, closing out hard on him. Anthony's closeout forces another pass — this one to Jason Richardson — and Steve Novak rotates out to challenge the shot.

The Knicks' prowess with rotations extends beyond post plays. All season long, the Knicks have done a fantastic job of not only helping, but helping the helper. It's these kinds of rotations that are preventing opponents from getting open shots:

Here the Nets run a pick-and-roll with DeShawn Stevenson setting a ball screen for Sundiata Gaines, and Novak hedges out. Now, Novak may hedge a little too long, but this is the beauty of rotations and helping the helper — it covers up mistakes. J.R. Smith rotates to Novak's man, forcing a pass. As that happens, Anthony rotates and covers Smith's man, forcing yet another pass. Now, Novak sprints from his hedging position all the way to the corner, knowing that is where the open man is going to be. Novak gets there in time and he is able to contest the corner 3. The reason each Knicks player readily rotates is because he trusts that his teammates will do the same. He knows the second, third, and fourth rotations will happen.

The third interesting aspect of the Knicks' defense is how they contest 3-point shots. Check out the following chart from NBA.com/stats, looking at where Knicks' opponents are shooting:

knickschart

According to this chart, the Knicks are giving up more 3s from the wings and the top of the key than they are from the corner. This is vital considering that the corner 3 is closer to the basket. The Knicks are funneling offenses away from the easier shots by playing corner 3-point shooters very closely:

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On this play, the Bulls start in a 1-4 low set. Then their two bigs sprint up to the 3-point line to set screens for C.J. Watson. As this happens, the two defenders responsible for the corner men, Anthony and Smith, get in help position while staying close enough to close out on their respective guys. The key here is that they are staying in a position to see both their defensive assignments and the ball.

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Now as the dribble penetration takes place, they are simply "stunting" from the corner, opposed to fully helping. What that means is that they are showing quickly at the ball handler, taking a step at him in an effort to slow him down, while allowing the defense to recover. Not only are they stunting from the ball-side corner — something most teams do — they are stunting on the weakside, too. Anthony stunts, but then returns to his man in the opposite corner.

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Watson makes the pass out to Ronnie Brewer, but Smith is right there to contest the 3-point shot. This close-out forces the dribble penetration, but the Knicks collapse (except Anthony, who is staying home in the corner) and forces a kick-out pass.

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The only pass that was available was to Luol Deng on the wing, the tougher shot. The Knicks finish off the play with a hard close-out as Landry Fields gets out there to contest Deng's 3 and make it even tougher. Here's the play in real time:

Watch Smith and Anthony defend the corners. If the ball does make it to the corner, the defense is right there, taking away the 3-point shot.

Based on the past few years, it's hard to believe that the Knicks' defense is actually good. But the videotape doesn't lie.

arkrud wrote:Stat out - defense better.
Lin out - defense better.
No surprises.

The team actually did play good D even with Lin in there. STAT maybe less so, but during Linsanity and even earlier in the year the Knicks D was pretty good. It only makes sense that as the season has moved along that the D would continue to get better. It was imperative that Melo play good D cuz when he does it really helps to solidify the team D. STAT has been mostly bad but he did start to show some good signs just before he went down with injury. Still the Knicks have been a good defensive team all year.

Long a sore spot for Mike D’Antoni, his team’s defensive consistency (or lack thereof) had previously been an impediment to their success. But recently, New York’s stingy defense has been essential to their winning ways.

When the Knicks knocked off the Kings at Madison Square Garden last Wednesday night, beating Sacramento100-85 for their seventh straight victory, it was also the seventh straight game New York had held their opponent to below 100 points. This tied the organization’s longest streak of that kind over the past 18 seasons. The last time New York had matched that feat was back in 2001, which, coincidentally, was the last time the Knicks won a playoff game.

And despite losing to New Orleans on Friday, the Knicks defense kept an opponent under 90 points for the 10th time (they are 9-1 in such games). Prior to this season, the Knicks held their opponents under 90 points five times in their previous 95 games.

Coming into the 2011-2012 campaign, the Knicks had allowed over 110 points per 100 possessions in each of their previous four seasons, including all three under D’Antoni. This season, New York is allowing just 99.5 points per 100 possessions, which ranks sixth-best in the entire league. This is the first time New York has allowed under 100 per 100 possessions since… yes, 2001.

New York is currently holding its opponents to 93.9 points per game on 44.5% shooting after allowing 105.7 points on 47.2% shooting last season. This type of terrific turnaround is rarely seen in the NBA from one year to the next.

In early January, the Knicks actually held three straight opponents under 90 points. Prior to that stretch, the last time New York had held even two straight opponents under 90 points was all the way back in December of 2005. In fact, during that streak, the Knicks kept those teams under 88 points. As a point of comparison, in NY’s three previous seasons with D’Antoni at the helm, they held an opponent under 88 a TOTAL of nine times. That’s three games in a row, versus nine times total over the span of three complete seasons (246 games).

As these numbers illustrate, New York’s team defense hasn’t just been adequate, it’s been very good. And by just reading the headlines you might not know it, but there have actually been other players sharing the court with Jeremy Lin. The most important of these players has been big man Tyson Chandler.

Rarely is one player credited with turning around a team’s defensive aptitude, but Chandler is not your common defender.

Shumpert ranks fourth in the NBA in steals, with 2.1 swipes per game. As a team, the Knicks rank second in the league in steals.

Jared Jefferies’ defensive contributions have also been integral to New York’s defensive turnaround. Jefferies filled in admirably at power forward with Amar’e out of the lineup last week. Jared currently ranks fifth in the NBA in charges drawn per game (0.75).