Often lost in the discussion of championship-winning NBA teams is one crucial truth: It’s darn-near impossible to win a title if you don’t have an elite defense.
“Defense wins championships” is perhaps the most overused cliche in professional sports. But overused doesn’t necessarily equate to untrue — in this particular case, it has been proven to be a fact throughout the past two decades.
Look no further than last year’s iteration of the Warriors. Lost in the transcendent defensive performance of the Boston Celtics was the fact that the Warriors weren’t far off behind them — and at one point were themselves on track to become a transcendent defense.