Philadelphia 76ers defense tells differing tales

PACE helps team defense, dilutes team offense

The Philadelphia 76ers have the second fastest team in the NBA.  As of January 2, 2018, the team boasts the second fastest pace in the NBA at 103.34.  The fastest team?  The Los Angeles Lakers at 103.9.  So what is pace?  Pace is the average number of possessions per game for the team.  The higher the number, the faster the team plays. So what?

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The use of Team Defensive Rating normalizes the effectiveness of all NBA teams by converting that into 100 possessions.  That gives slow paced teams a bump on offense and a penalty on defense. Likewise, fast paced teams get a bump on defense and a penalty on offense.  But why?

Slow teams better defense

Well, it does fall to reason that a slow paced team has lower scoring games, while fast paced teams score a ton of points.  So a slow paced team like the San Antonio Spurs, which surrenders the fewest points, does so by limiting their opponents possessions.

Conversely, fast paced teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, surrending the most points by giving opponents far more possessions per game.

While the ultimate goal remains scoring more than opponents, rating attempts to neutralize the “PACE” variable in the comparison.