Improved perimeter play has sparked the Spurs' solid D

Spurs guard Tony Parker checking Golden State wingman Harrison Barnes.

If you don't know, now you know: the Spurs sit 2nd in the league's Defensive Rating rankings. San Antonio trails only it's Saturday opponents -- the Indiana Pacers -- for it's ball-stopping prowess.

With Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter manning the paint, it's almost expected that the team should boast a defensive unit good enough for a top ten standing. The notion that a Duncan-Splitter combo will strangle the interior slashes of the opponent is not a new one. In sixty games of sharing the floor in 2012-13, the pair (when measured as a two-man lineup) restricted opposing FG% to 41.4%, and generated a handsome Defensive Rating of 92.7. An unquestionably elite performance. Given the tall timber's penchant for roaming in the restricted area, then, what is required to propel the team as a whole to the next echelon of defensive dominance?

It starts with a collective commitment from the rest of the roster. A little tinkering to the rotation and a couple of new faces don't hurt, either. Last season, San Antonio were proud owners of a number of key defensive indicators that the majority of NBA teams would kill to achieve. Whether it was keeping Opp. FG% to 42.9% in their 58 wins, placing third in the Association for defensive rebound percentage at 74.9% (behind only Golden State and Houston), or fourth for opposition True Shooting %'s at a paltry 51.6% (courtesy of HoopData.com). Recently, "Pounding The Rock" paid homage to the Spurs' propensity to defy and withstand the hallmarks of opposing offenses, and detailed the growing reputation of Danny Green as a "3-and-D" wingman. But what about Tony Parker -- far from being regarded as a defensive menace -- and the removal of 22 minutes of Gary Neal from the nightly lineup?*

Sure, offseason manoeuvring and substituting the likes of Marco Belinelli and Jeff Ayres in to replace Neal and DeJuan Blair may seem minor and inconsequential to the casual onlooker. Not quite. It is actually difficult to adequately describe just how much of a defensive albatross Gary Neal was for San Antonio, in 2013 especially. Neal was one of the team's chief defensive liabilities, mustering an individual Defensive Rating of 101.4 over his 68 regular season appearances. Spurs fans will remember Neal's rise from obscurity and his role as a streaky shooter (with a clutch performance or two along the way). Don't let that distract you from his identity as the definition of a one-way player, though. Look, Belinelli himself is not exactly a brick wall on the defensive end. Nonetheless, it's worth looking at how the team has fared when the Italian gunslinger has been plugged in alongside rotation bigs. For example, through seventeen games together, the Splitter-Belinelli tandem has earned a Defensive Rating of 81.5. We're crippled by the reality of a small sample size here, but this mark is currently the Spurs' best of any combo that has logged greater than 100 minutes together on the season. It's a figure that's overwhelmingly weighted by the stature of Splitter and is certain to balloon back out toward a more reflective and sustainable number. Belinelli, however, has (thus far) given honest, near league-average D and has avoided the sieve-like play that proved costly for the team with Neal on the floor.

Stepping away from the team's bench help for a second, if we know that three of the Spurs' five starters can more than hold their own when called upon on D, where do Parker and Danny Green stand as a backcourt playing heavy minutes? According to basketball-reference.com, Tony Parker managed 2.3 Defensive Win Shares (defined as "an estimated number of wins contributed by a player due to his defense") in 2012-13, roughly middle of the pack on the San Antonio roster. So far this season, the Parker-Green unit has been a stingy one, helping to hold the opposition to 40.4% on field goal attempts, while Tony Parker ranks 11th in the league for individual defensive efficiency (of players who have played a minimum of 10 games, and average at least 20 minutes per outing). Even if a lot of these glittery numbers snap back to reality -- in one way or another -- the progress of Parker on the other side of the ball deserves recognition. It's the one component of his game that has always been the critic's choice: accountability and consistency on D. As much as anything, this is a Point Guard-driven league, and Tony has amassed these numbers having already battled Ty Lawson, John Wall, Russell Westbrook, and Kyrie Irving, to name a few. Meanwhile Green, who is frustratingly prone to the occasional defensive lapse or gamble, still comes in at fourth in the NBA's individual defensive rankings.

Key factors help to comprise these measures: the quality of opponents, the makeup of the Spurs' units on the floor, injuries, personnel etc. Yet, we're nearly a quarter of the way through the 82-game grind. There is enough available evidence to support the incremental improvement of Parker's defensive efforts. He has boosted his own Defensive Rating from 97.6 this past year to 92.2 through seventeen early-season bouts. Expect Parker's individual stats to gravitate and regress closer towards those of last season, but if he can continue his recent output on the perimeter, he -- and San Antonio as a team -- will be richly rewarded for his sustained advances.

* Neal also registered an average of nearly nineteen minutes per contest in the postseason for the Spurs in 2012-13.

Statistics used are from NBA.com/stats, unless otherwise specified.

Knicks Night #1: New York Does Not Fear the Deer

Key contributor: Tyson Chandler in motion, finishing his clutch alley-oop slam.

New York opened their 2013-14 season Wednesday night, hosting an undermanned Milwaukee Bucks outfit before a lively Madison Square Garden crowd. As noted earlier today, Mike Woodson opted to go small with his starters - matching the Bucks' game plan - placing Pablo Prigioni in the backcourt and Iman Shumpert on the wing, to go with Felton, Anthony, and Chandler. The revamped Bucks squad, who were without reserve point guard Luke Ridnour, looked to run the floor with an undersized setup consisting of offseason acquisitions Brandon Knight, O.J. Mayo, Khris Middleton and Caron Butler, to go with defensive force Larry Sanders up front. Knicks' coach Mike Woodson faced the intriguing proposition of going head-to-head with his former understudy, and the man who replaced him in Atlanta, Larry Drew (whom the Bucks hired over the summer).

The signs were not good early for Milwaukee, as Brandon Knight staggered and stumbled near mid-court on his way to straining his left hamstring and ending his night early. New York unforgivingly exploited the downed man, leaking out on the fast break and easily establishing an uncontested slam for Tyson Chandler. The impending exit of Knight did not make the task altogether easier for the Bucks, either, as he was replaced by fresh-faced rookie Nate Wolters, who earned his maiden NBA minutes. Iman Shumpert inspired the Knicks' defensive effort, smothering the frazzled Milwaukee lineup, swatting the veteran Butler in-close, and displaying stereotypical hustle. Carmelo Anthony did his best to contain Butler, yet his busy hands resulted in him registering two quick, unnecessary fouls, and opened the door for Metta World Peace's MSG debut.

Mike Woodson referred to his depth early in the period, calling on the range of Andrea Bargnani and rookie Tim Hardaway Jr., both of whom were received warmly (at least to begin with, in the case of the Italian) by the home crowd. The bright lights appeared to shine a little too brightly for Milwaukee's motley crew, as the attacking, unrelenting attitude of Beno Udrih and the glass-eating services of Kenyon Martin helped the Knicks to blister the Bucks defensive setup, and create a comfortable 24 to 18 advantage at the end of one.

Andrea Bargnani searched for his offense early and often in the second quarter, to no avail. He sprinkled a handful of clanked jumpers through New York's repertoire, was hastily rejected in a packed paint, and called for a traveling violation - all as part of a zero of four start that drew that frustration of Knicks' onlookers. Nevertheless, Milwaukee continued to put forth a stagnant, stale, overwhelmingly fruitless offense, failing to adequately space the floor and/or find teammates in the painted area. The Bucks' array of offensive issues were confounded by the pressing Pablo Prigioni, whose prodding and pestering of the opposition ballcarriers created a number of chances on the break for New York. The Knicks also exerted a marked advantage at the centre position, where Chandler out-tussled Larry Sanders and allowed him to pick up three fouls early in the piece. Moreover, Chandler's handy work was not limited to the defensive side of the ball, as (much to the surprise of those in attendance) he showed flashes of his summer workouts, deftly netting an 18 foot jumpshot to pad his team's buffer.

Prigioni was seemingly everywhere (eloquently described by announcer Clyde Frazier as the "ubiquitous Prigioni creating havoc"), and all looked lost for Milwaukee when Caron Butler's hard, preventative contact on Iman Shumpert was adjudged to be a flagrant (level one) offence. A potpourri of a prevalent Prigioni, the solidarity of Shumpert, the fast-paced Felton, and the stale, woefully disorganised Milwaukee offense afforded the Knicks a roomy 56-31 lead at halftime.

The plight of the recently-extended Larry Sanders did not dissipate with the change in ends, as he endured a spell highlighted by a missed teardrop and an overly-eager offensive rebounding endeavour, which ended in his recording of a 5th foul in a meagre 12 minutes of court time. The misery was not to be shared, though, as Sanders' squad renewed their focus, established some semblance of an offense, and punished New York's ill-advised shot selection and sloppy ball management in the third period. Neat ball movement and sharp, heads-up passing found a wide-open Caron Butler in the corner, who drilled 3 of his 14pts for the game. Zaza Pachulia, ever the physical force, made his presence known with a heavy foul on Carmelo Anthony, whose verbalised displeasure earned him a technical foul from the officials. Emblematic of the Knicks' underwhelming third quarter, the team grappled with shooting concerns, yet it was Bargnani who was able to net from the elbow, and table his first points as a Knickerbocker. Milwaukee persistently chipped away at the scoreboard discrepancy, slicing the comfortable margin to a much narrower 10pt lead, on the back of a 33 point quarter.

The Bucks continued their emergent, unexpected rampage to begin the fourth, gladly reaping the rewards of errant, misguided passing by Mike Woodson's men, and sweetly transforming it to scoreboard damage - such as Gary Neal's (16pts off the bench) trademark splash from downtown. The sound steadfastness of Milwaukee deemed the unbalanced halftime ledger to be a distant memory, amidst an ugly phase where New York committed more turnovers (9) than they converted field goals (7). Prigioni (7pts, 5 assists, and 3 steals), so positively influential in the opening stanza, had been a primary culprit for the Knicks' blasé ball control, although he eventually fought to make amends by pick pocketing an inbounds pass and assisting Iman Shumpert in getting to the free throw line.

The MSG crowd exclaimed a collective groan in the fourth when the enforcer, Pachulia, eviscerated and annihilated an unsuspecting Felton on a (legal) blindside screen. It took the activity and timely tip-jams of Tyson Chandler - with a line of 10pts, six rebounds, five blocks, and three steals to boot - to spark the Knicks' effort and elicit the energy of the home fans. Chandler's agitation on defense limited the charge of the Deer, and cleared the path for Carmelo Anthony to softly tip home his first points of the period, and solidify his team's edge. Perhaps the possession most synonymous with the constitution of this game arose in the closing moments, when Milwaukee's rookie point guard Wolters looked like a deer in the headlights (pun intended) and had his scoop layup attempt emphatically dispatched by the powerful presence of Chandler.

Blessed by the fortunes of steady play of Felton, Shumpert and Chandler, the Knicks' escaped embarrassment and captured a win on opening night, 90-83. Carmelo Anthony concluded with 19pts and 10 rebounds, not able to discover his usual volume of scoring output, and Zaza Pachulia compensated for the foul-induced absence of Larry Sanders by contributing a valuable 13pts and 11 rebounds off the bench for the visitors. This will not go down on the list of timeless classics, but with both teams holding distinct playoff aspirations it will, at season's end, contribute to the final standings.

New York travels to Chicago for a clash with the Bulls tomorrow night, as the Bucks continue their road trip and venture to Boston for their next outing.

FINAL - New York 90-83 Milwaukee

New York 1-0, Milwaukee 0-1