The Top 5 Best Ever Defensive NBA Teams

The best defensive teams in NBA History

In basketball, there is an old adage that says offense sells tickets and defense wins championships.

However, in modern-day basketball- and even going back as far as the 90s- the defensive side of basketball occasionally gets exciting too.

This often comes in the form of monster shot blocks and steals, which turn into fast break points.

In this article, we are going to talk about the end that wins championships!

These are 5 of the best defensive teams in NBA history

As you are reading the statistics in this article, you may want to note that some of the stats that are tracked in today’s game weren’t tracked until later years.

For example, defensive rebounds and blocked shots weren’t tracked at all in the 1960s.

1965-1966 Boston Celtics

This team was right in the middle of the process of winning 11 championships in 13 years.

The main thing to know about any of these teams is that the man who made shot-blocking mainstream was on the Celtics.

This was Bill Russell, and his biggest piece of advice to anybody was not to try to block every shot but to change shots. This means that shot blockers should change the trajectory of the shooter's angle.

Interestingly enough, changed shots is not a part of a traditional stat line in today’s game at any level.

This would be an extremely tough stat to track, as you would have to define what a changed shot is and is not, but blocked shots are.

In fact, shot blocking didn’t even become a trackable statistic until the 1973-1974 season.

While we don’t know how many shots Russell blocked during that season, he did rip down an average of 22.8 rebounds per game!

1987-1988 Detroit Pistons

For pretty much any team in the late 80s into most of the 90s, you could reasonably choose any one of the Detroit Pistons teams. Defense was their staple, and it is what led them to win two NBA championships.

The Pistons most famously contained Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman, both of whom are known for their extremely physical style of play and the ability to get inside your head.

The only downside to that style of play is that they were also a heavily penalised team, as they got called for an average of two fouls per game.

This may not sound that bad, however it was led by Rick Mahorn (3.9) and John Salley (3.3).

While neither of these players did anything outrageous or spectacular, they were still considered the Pistons’ best defenders.

The 1987-1988 Detroit Pistons are also the team that made up “Jordan rules”, meaning that there were specific rules for when they had to go up against Chicago Bull great Michael Jordan.

This strategy was an effort to limit Jordan’s productivity. It eventually worked and helped to lead the Pistons to get past the Bulls and repeat as NBA champions in 1989 and 1990.

Statistically, the 1987-88 Pistons had at least one player in the top 20 in almost every single major defensive category.

This was mostly by Laimbeer and Rodman, but Rick Mahorn and John Salley were no slouches on the defensive ends of the floor either.

1993-1994 New York Knicks

In this era of basketball, the Knicks were the equivalent to the 76ers from the 1980s. At the time, the Bulls and Pistons were dominating the NBA while the Knicks were never really able to get over the hump.

The only difference is Philadelphia did win one championship in 1983.

However, the Knicks never won a championship in that era, but the 1993-1994 season was the one year that the team were at least able to get to the finals.

In the end, they bowed out to Hakeem Olajuwon the Houston Rockets in seven games.

The strength of this Knicks team was their defensive big men, as you had to deal with three physical players in Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason and Patrick Ewing.

While Ewing was the only player who blocked more than one shot a game at 2.7, the three combined for just a shade under 20 rebounds a game collectively.

Ewing had 8.4 while Oakley recorded 7.5 and Mason had 3.7 defensive rebounds.

1995-1996 Chicago Bulls

While the Bulls of this era are remembered more as an offensive juggernaut, they were no slouches on defense either.

Dennis Rodman, who played for the rival Detroit Pistons beforehand, was the one who brought that year's team over the top and led the league in rebounds per game and defensive rebounds.

The Bulls dominated in several other categories defensively too.

They were one of the first teams to effectively turn defense into offense, meaning that they would often steal the ball and then finish on a fast break at the other end or score on a pull up 3.

2000-2001 San Antonio Spurs

Similar to pretty much every other team on this list, one of the main reasons why the Spurs were so dominant is because of two dominant, true big men.

This has become much less of a trend since the early 2000s.

For those who may not be as familiar with players during that era, these dominant big men were David Robinson and Tim Duncan.

This meant that you had not one but two centers to worry about when you were in the paint when you can block your shot.

In a way, the Spurs had it lucky with Robinson. One of the reasons why San Antonio would have found it necessary to get Duncan is because Robinson was in the second half of his career, as during this season Duncan was 35.

He eventually retired at the end of the 2002-2003 campaign.

During the 2000-2001 season, the twin towers combined for 15 defensive rebounds and 4.8 blocks.