Was anyone else told 345467 times that “defence wins championships”? That particular phrase is tossed around quite a bit in the world of basketball. However, that phrase is said without examining the deeper meaning. Was there actually a time when defence won championships? Well yes, but what constitutes a lockdown defensive performance is the real question. People toss out examples all the time that statistically don’t really pass the test in my opinion. Lockdown defensive performances in the NBA finals have 2 base criteria for me: whether the stats back up the claim, and if that individual performance can actually be attributed to winning an NBA Championship.
I’ve recently been listening to Bill Simmons’ podcast “The Rewatchables”, where he discusses the most rewatchable playoff games in recent history. The idea of a game being “rewatchable” has to do with effect that game ended up having on the NBA (ex. A player changes teams next season), or it’s literally just a great game of basketball. I want to carry out his ideas of importance here to measure out how much a lockdown performance in the NBA Finals can change the basketball world as we know it. I also want to use statistical evidence to debate some of the more notable defensive performances journalists usually rave about.
We can all go through the details of the NBA Finals series and determine a proper outcome on whether defense actually won a championship, while at the same time determining if it was even an important performance. Although lockdown defense and the overall importance of a game are not as directly related as we think. Just because a players defensive abilities didn’t cause a trade to happen after the finals, doesn’t mean they didn’t lock someone up. However, think about how much weight gets added to that performance if what precedes it is NBA free agency anarchy, or a massive falling out from the opposing team.
The concept of a team defending so well they caused a seismic shift in the league is way more fun to look at. We’re going to keep the sample size of NBA Finals down to just the year 2000-2001 and up. This is mainly because the concept of getting “locked up” became a much more prominent detail people took to be worthy of examining in today’s age. That doesn’t necessarily mean there was a spike in lockups after the year 2000, I just think the term became more popularized in recent years. A quick shoutout to Lebron fans reading, I’m about to talk about him waaaaaayyy too much.
Case 1: 2015 NBA Finals, Andre Iguodala’s Defense on Lebron James
Series Summary: Golden State wins this NBA finals series 4-2 over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Andre Iguodala wins the finals MVP for his defense on Lebron, and for more offensive output than initially expected.
Analysis:
We all love tossing up a middle finger to Warriors fans any chance we get. Cleveland had been bogged down by serious injuries to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving earlier in the playoffs, and Lebron James is left with Timofey Mozgov as his second best player. Lebron can take a bunch of bums to the NBA finals, but actually winning the finals series is nearly impossible for a one man army. The Warriors team defense was outstanding in this season and in that series as a whole. However, this extremely depleted Cleveland team couldn’t be trusted to put up big numbers, and that’s where Andre Iguodala’s defensive performance took the first hit. They really only had to zero in on Lebron, but did Iguodala lock him down to give Golden State the edge in this series? Let’s look:
Lebron’s Finals Stats:
35.8 ppg
13.3 rpg
8.8 apg
40% FG
31% 3pt
8.5% TOV - This represents the time Lebron would turn the ball over per 100 possessions, which is a super important stat moving forward. It really helps delegate how disrupted a player can be on the offensive end. This number is really low for the amount of possessions Lebron had the ball overall, proving Iguodala’s defense to fail.
Let’s take into account how much Lebron needed to do in this series for the Cavs to even come close to winning the finals. Lebron commonly shoots closer to 55% from the field (40% this series), but the 31% 3 point percentage isn’t really too far off if he’s shooting the ball a lot (shot the 3 ball at 35% in the regular season). That’s really the whole point though, he NEEDED to shoot the ball excessively for his team to have a chance, hence why he averaged 35.8 points per game. 40% from the field isn’t really that bad considering their overall situation.
Allen Iverson had to do this exact same thing in 2001 for the 76ers to have a shot at winning over the Lakers, and I’ll be damned if you think Derek Fisher and Tyronn Lue locked up AI. That’s blasphemy. Lebron’s assist to turnover ratio is solid in this series (2.52 A/TO), so Iguodala wasn’t necessarily forcing turnovers, which is important for us to measure whether Bron was really getting clamped or not. The best part about this is that Lebron’s shooting percentage was still 2nd best on team next to Timofey Mozgov…. How is that even possible?? Matt Dellavadova was perceived to have been great in this series but his numbers were HORRIBLE on offense. If the rest of your team is shooting below 37% from the field in the finals, it usually constitutes a sweep. However, Lebron managed to get these guys 2 wins, which is evidence that Golden State’s offense wasn’t really clicking like it had been all season. You could make the argument that Cleveland defended well, but their sheer lack of talent wasn’t able to hold that up.
Importance:
Did this series change the world? Not really. This was Golden State’s first championship, and it started one of the all-time great dynasties of our generation. Although as far as shaking up the NBA, this didn’t really break down any doors. The best message we got out of this finals was that if Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were both healthy, the Cavaliers would have won. That statement is legitimate because the Cavs went ahead and ACTUALLY WON THE NEXT YEAR WITH THOSE 2, one of the all-time vindications for Cavaliers fans. That series in 2016 ended up changing a lot more in the NBA world than this did. Andre Iguodala was consequently forgotten about the next year when Lebron had the most earth-shattering block on him with 1 minute left in Game 7. Iguodala’s defense on Lebron in 2015 was amplified because Lebron literally had the ball in his hand the entire time, allowing everyone to pay closer attention to the 1 on 1 matchup. So as far as importance goes, this defensive performance honestly ended up falling on it’s head.
Verdict:
Golden State winning the NBA finals was absolutely not a lockdown performance. That victory could be more attributed to Cleveland’s overall talent level being low. However, Andre Iguodala was super timely on defense and offense in this series, which allowed him to grab the Finals MVP. I agree with that choice mainly because Steph Curry was hot garbage in the majority of that series, and Klay Thompson wasn’t really a killer yet either. They wouldn’t have won without Iguodala, but more for what he did on the offensive end. There is however an argument that Lebron should have won the finals MVP despite his team losing, but that’s a whole other article waiting to happen.
Case 2: 2004 NBA Finals, Tayshaun Prince’s Defense on Kobe Bryant
Series Summary: The Detroit Pistons win the NBA finals 4-1 over the Los Angeles Lakers, consequently ending one of the all-time basketball dynasties of the 2000’s. Chauncey Billups was named finals MVP.
Analysis:
The Detroit Pistons were a team consisting of really solid basketball players that weren’t yet overly known to be major all-stars. Having them go over an LA Lakers squad with Kobe Bryant almost in his prime, and Shaquille O’neal currently in his prime, was a huge upset in most cases. The best part about this series is the backstory of the Lakers inner collapse, due to Kobe and Shaq’s issues with each other on and off the court. There was beef between these guys even when the Lakers were on back to back NBA Championships, which really speaks to how amazingly talented they were. They were able to get by with ZERO chemistry for 2 whole years. So when the Pistons are pitted up against these animals, most folks say to put this one to bed. However, the inner beef of the Lakers combined with Kobe Bryant’s determination to totally win the series by himself was their ultimate downfall. The nail in the coffin though was Tayshaun Prince, a guy who’s in his SECOND season in the NBA. Let’s take a look at Kobe’s stats:
Kobe’s Finals Stats:
22.6 ppg
2.8 rpg
4.4 apg
38.1% Fg
17.4% 3pt
12.5% TOV
30.4% USG - I’ve included this usage rating in here because it’s actually disgusting how much Kobe did in this series with not a lot of output, he was given the ball more than Shaq, and Shaq DESTROYED in these finals. This basically means Kobe was 30% of the Lakers entire offense, and his output is what you see above. All I can say is WOAH.
That statline hurts my eyes, Tayshaun Prince literally fathered Kobe Bryant in this series, and Kobe kind of let him do it. Prince is a 6’9 small forward with a 7’2 wingspan, and that should explain a lot. The athletic profile of his body is that of an elite defender, and Kobe Bryant famously doesn’t adjust to who is guarding him - he’s going to fire up garbage no matter what. This is exactly what happened, Detroit would even occasionally throw a double team at him because they KNEW KOBE WOULD SHOOT THE BALL ANYWAYS, ARE YOU SERIOUS??? The 17.4% from the 3 point line is outright horrible. Tayshaun’s length allowed him to give a bit more of a gap when Kobe was toeing the line, causing him to think he’s open, until Tayshaun closes out with that condor-like wingspan and tips the shot. Kobe isn’t usually a high turnover player (hence the low-ish TOV), because he’s not really trying to pass it when he catches the ball, he wants to heave up a shot in most cases. Kobe’s stats are glaringly inefficient, and the fact that the lakers were still considered a high powered offensive team makes Tayshaun Prince’s lockdown performance look pretty damn good. Kobe has never been a high efficiency shooter but these numbers are catastrophically low. Bill Simmons talked about Game 4 of this NBA finals in the Rewatchables podcast, where he explains how Phil Jackson (Lakers Head Coach) threw Rick Fox into the game for a 5 minute stint, just so someone would give the ball to Shaq down low. You can see him and several other players gesturing to Kobe after Shaq scores on every possession in that 5 minutes, as if to say “SEE??? THIS IS HOW WE CAN WIN.” Kobe did not get the memo, or did he choose not to get the memo? I love Kobe Bryant but he could be clinically insane.
Importance:
This game was heavily important. Tayshaun Prince clearly outlined every problem the Lakers had, which mostly revolved around Kobe Bryant. Kobe had a weird year in general, he was travelling back and forth between scheduled games they had and the state of Colorado, as he was defending his ever-so-famous sexual assault case in that state. He consistently accused Shaq of being lazy and not committed to getting better as a player despite the fact he couldn’t make the majority of practices that year due to the court case. This created distance from his team right at the start of the season, and he was unwilling to change his play-style to give Shaq more looks and probably make the series more interesting. This was the end of Kobe and Shaq. Shaq went on to Miami and won a championship with Dwayne Wade in 2006. Kobe had to endure several years of hero ball because every single one of his teammates from 2004 really didn’t want anything to do with him anymore, so he ran with Sasha Vujacic and Chris Mihm instead (OOF). If Tayshaun Prince doesn’t clamp up Kobe Bryant, Shaq might not leave the lakers. Shaq was on the way to being out of his prime, and probably would’ve been more open to taking a back seat to Kobe if they won that 4th title. Does Miami win in 2006 without Shaq? Do the Lakers ever get Pau Gasol years later to help Kobe win more titles? These hypotheticals make us realize the importance of Tayshaun’s defensive performance in 2004. This changed the NBA landscape in many ways. They shined a big light on balanced team basketball and had a style of play that was a bit of a sneak peek into how basketball would be played in the coming years.
Verdict:
A combination of Tayshaun’s defense and Kobe’s piss poor decision making makes this a great lockdown performance. Shutting down Kobe Bryant in the NBA Finals is such a big move, no matter how you slice it. This was one of the more important lockdown performances of our generation, because it changed Kobe’s perspective on how to attack a good defender in his next finals appearances. The answer we know, being PASS THE BALL and let guys like Pau Gasol attack weaker areas of the defense (something he never did for Shaquille O’neal). Tayshaun’s impact on defense won Detroit the 2004 finals. He is directly responsible for having Kobe shoot himself in the foot repeatedly, and that’s part of playing defense.
Case 3: 2014 NBA Finals, Kawhi Leonard’s Defense on Lebron James*
Series Summary: The San Antonio Spurs win the finals series 4-1 over the Miami Heat, Kawhi Leonard earns finals MVP for his breakout offensive performances. This consequently ended Lebron James’ tenure with the Miami Heat.
*I ended up talking about a completely different performance in this series. Take this title lightly.
Analysis:
The Miami Heat are looking for the 3peat title, after absolutely ROBBING the Spurs in 2013 in a crazy 7 game series. This was a San Antonio revenge tour from the start of the year, they blessed the basketball world with their obscenely good ball movement on offense, literally making it look impossible for a top defensive team like the Heat to stop them. Kawhi Leonard has a coming-out party in this series, having 2 humongous games on the road that caused Miami fans to leave the arena early in Game 3 and 4 of the NBA finals (fake fans). The spurs offense was such a huge part of the narrative that people completely forgot how good they were on the defensive end. Kawhi was a defensive stopper first and foremost this season, and many sports news outlets claim his defense on Lebron James in the finals was something we had never seen before. This is only half-true, Kawhi makes spectacular plays on the defensive end this series, but did he really lock up Lebron? Let me check:
Lebron’s Finals Stats:
28.2 ppg
7.8 rpg
4.0 apg
57.1% FG
51.9% 3pt
15.5% TOV
Alright so these are clearly some elite stats, and I knew they would be; Lebron has really only one case of an abysmal performance in the NBA finals. 57% shooting is ABSURD, and you could argue that he should have shot the ball more, but you’d be really reaching with that take. His TOV here is a little higher than usual and that’s what Kawhi Leonard does exceptionally well, he forces turnovers. However, I refuse to buy into the fact that Lebron was fully outclassed by Kawhi in this series. The Spurs simply outclassed the Heat, but there is a defensive performance that had a big impact, it’s just not recognized for whatever reason. Take a look at Dwayne Wade’s stats in this finals:
Dwayne’s Finals Stats:
15.2 ppg
3.8 rpg
2.6 apg
43.8% FG
33.3% 3pt
19.3% TOV
27.5% USG
DANNY GREEN ladies and gentlemen. Green did an exceptional job guarding Dwayne Wade is this series, the 19.3% TOV is extremely high for a superstar of Wade’s caliber. That combined with the 27.5% USG rating let’s us know that Wade didn’t produce as much as he was asked to. Danny Green is one of the more underrated defenders in NBA history. He posts super high numbers in blocks and steals for guards, and is now known as maybe the best transition defender in the NBA. 2013-2014 was the year of Danny Green, posting ridiculous 3 point shooting numbers to go along with his excellent defensive abilities. If there was any defensive performance that made a statistical impact, it was this one.
Importance:
Green’s lockdown of Dwayne Wade definitely produced some change in the NBA, Wade was looking like he was past his prime after that NBA finals. This grabbed Lebron’s attention, it wouldn’t have been ludicrous to run it back with the same Miami squad next year. Chris Bosh was still a prominent player who took a back seat to James and Wade on all of the finals runs, he was certainly undervalued throughout his entire Miami Heat stint. However, Lebron witnessed what Danny Green did to Dwayne Wade, saw that he was aging out when it came to being a top talent, and hopped on a plane back to Cleveland. Lebron recruits Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving to join him on the Cavaliers, creating a new super team in the Eastern Conference. How does our world look if Dwayne Wade has an immortal NBA finals like we were used to seeing? Does Miami get the 3peat? What happens to Kyrie and K-Love? I’m willing to say that Danny Green got Lebron’s attention when he brought out the clamps.
Verdict:
So obviously Kawhi Leonard did not have a lockdown performance that won a championship, Lebron definitely didn’t have his regular season numbers, but he was so damn efficient. However, Danny Green had the greatest impact defensively in this series, and he made Dwayne Wade look old. Considering Wade came out the next couple of years and absolutely balled out in the playoffs following that disaster, it’s safe to say Danny Green needs to get some credit. Kawhi gets a no, Danny gets the nod here though. Just think how different that series would be if Wade was putting up his usual 20/5/5. Some of those games would look a little better for Miami.
Case 4: 2011 NBA Finals, Shawn Marion’s Defense on Lebron James
Series Summary: The Dallas Mavericks win the NBA finals series 4-2 over the Miami Heat, Dirk Nowitzki receives finals MVP. This was the first year of the “Big 3” in Miami (Bosh, Wade, James).
Analysis:
Yes yes we’re talking about Lebron James again, when you’re in the NBA Finals every single year, this is what happens. Dirk Nowitzki was absolutely incredible in the playoffs this year, I implore everyone reading to watch highlights of the Dallas Mavericks run to the Championship in 2011. To say this win was unexpected is down-playing it, because it really surprised the hell out of most folks. Miami had issues with their play earlier in the regular season, but they managed to put it together just in time for a finals appearance. The talent level of Miami’s starting 5 was portrayed to be astronomically higher than Dallas’. This was the first mistake we all made in predicting this series, we had just witnessed the Mavs dismantle the LA Lakers in the previous round, who had won the last 2 NBA titles. Dallas managed to build a team around Dirk Nowitzki that could shoot and defend at an elite level, they spread the floor effortlessly. They also completely took Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol out of the series before they played Miami, but most of us remained skeptical of their abilities to do this to the 3-headed beast Heat squad. Enter Shawn Marion, and also enter Lebron stats:
Lebron’s Finals Stats:
17.8 ppg
7.2 rpg
6.8 apg
47.8% FG
32.1% 3pt
19.5% TOV
22.9 USG
Now if you’re looking at the stats LBJ has posted in the other Finals series, you’re probably wondering what the hell happened here. Shawn Marion’s nickname is “The Matrix”, and this is about the most badass Matrix shit I’ve ever seen. Lebron absolutely disappeared in this series, and Dallas’ game plan to make this happen was excellent. Shawn Marion would guide Lebron into the Mavs centre Tyson Chandler over and over, forcing him to make more split decision plays than he was ever used to. This, combined with the fact that he was kicking it out to Dwayne Wade (not a 3 point shooter) and Chris Bosh (Literally shot 0% from 3 this series), did not help his case. This caused an uncommonly high turnover rate for Lebron, also causing Miami to run most of the offense through Dwayne Wade instead. This literally won Dallas the series, nothing else really means more than the defensive effort of Shawn Marion. No one has even come close to holding Lebron to those shooting numbers since then.
Importance:
Shawn Marion’s performance didn’t necessarily change the NBA landscape, but it did have some different levels of importance. This gave Dirk Nowitzki his first and only NBA title, solidifying him as one of the best to ever play the game of basketball. More importantly, this win showed the world that the construction of the super-team Miami had was a bit of a fail, and that having capable bench/role players could take you further than expected. Shawn Marion managed to change Lebron James if anything, he’s never come close to choking as hard as he did in this finals. Showing Lebron that you couldn’t just walk in with 2 other all-stars and win 8 titles (this video is hilarious to look at now). This was huge for his development, knowing how to take an upset like that on the chin and come back better than ever is what great players do. Miami bolstered their bench the next season and handled OKC in the 2012 NBA Finals.
Verdict:
Despite the importance of this lockdown performance not being as high in the grand scheme of today’s NBA, Shawn Marion helped win Dallas the series on defense. This performance gets an emphatic yes from me. Defense won this championship, or I guess you could say, Lebron lost this championship on a choke. Dirk Nowitzki’s triumph most certainly makes this important enough to earn a high rank in the history of defensive performances.
Defense does win championships, but locking down a star player is something that can’t be judged with an eye test because you’re not really looking at the big picture without stats to support your conclusions. Transcendent defensive performances are really fun to look at, especially when the impact goes beyond just the NBA Finals that season. When this happens you have complex web of “what-if’s” to examine. For your entertainment and mine, we’re going to run through some other notable lockdowns in quickfire style to determine their weight:
2010: Pau Gasol/Andrew Bynum’s defense on Dwight Howard
Not really locked up, Dwight still averaged 15 points and 15 boards, not great considering this was maybe the best version of Dwight, but still not horrible. Dwight did however sever his ties with Orlando a couple years after this, and we got the LA Lakers version of Dwight, which I would argue is important for the worst reasons (he was a toxic teammate).
2016: Kyrie Irving’s defense on Steph Curry
Steph shot 40% from the field, but also still shot 40% from the 3. This one is tough because Kyrie regularly got flamed for his underwhelming defense that season, and then was incredible in the finals? Steph hasn’t fully shown up for an NBA finals yet, so it’s tough to say if he’s being defended well or just not producing as much as expected. If Steph starts going loco in the finals one day then this can be a lockdown performance.
2010: Derek Fisher’s defense on Ray Allen
Ray Allen shot the ball really poorly this series more than anything, but maybe if they win this title he stays with Boston for longer? He took off to Miami eventually. So Important? Maybe. To consider it a lockdown? Not really.
2005: Bruce Bowen’s defense on Rip Hamilton
Yeah I’d say this was a lockdown, Rip was a huge part of the Pistons offense and when Bruce Bowen took away all of his jumpshots, it took away a huge chunk of the Pistons identity. The Pistons were never really the same and as a result, disbanded in a couple of years.
2019: Fred Van Vleet’s defense on Steph Curry
1000x yes, long live Father Fred, no stats needed, Go Raptors.
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