Sportradar breaks down the best defense through three games in the BKT EuroCup this season
Stats review: Bourg's lock-down defense has been top-notch
Stats
3 Mins read
A pair of teams remain unbeaten atop each group through three rounds of the BKT EuroCup. In Group B, ratiopharm ulm has set the curve offensively to propel its undefeated start, while Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse has built the league’s best point differential on its defensive efforts.
Allowing 48 points and 56 points in its first two road contests, the French club has been exceptionally stingy. Its bigger-picture numbers are exceptional as it has allowed the league’s worst effective field goal percentage by a huge margin while also ranking among the top teams in turnovers forced and committing the league’s second fewest fouls.
Digging a little deeper, we find a team that has forced teams to beat it in the half-court despite picking up full-court on a near-league high 20% of possessions. Bourg is allowing an outstanding 5.3 points per game in transition — 8 points below the league average and especially impressive for a team bringing defenders in the backcourt regularly. Once it sets its defense, Bourg does a very good job loading up to disrupt pick-and-rolls and give up next to nothing at the rim with only 26% of the shots it subsequently faces coming in finishing situations — a mark on par with recent EuroCup lows. Despite its efforts on the interior, Bourg has still managed to extend back out to shooters on the perimeter at an average rate in the early going.
While some regression to the mean on the perimeter is inevitable, as its early opponents have had a hard time hitting open shots that won’t fail to drop consistently all year, Bourg’s process to this point has been excellent. For a team that often plays small, leans relatively heavily on its starters, and does very little to force shots in the midrange, Bourg ranks fourth in defensive shot quality and has been extremely difficult to score on at the rim despite blocking only 6 shots through three games and getting burnt on occasion, giving up size to some rollers and rebounders.
As it stands, Bourg has allowed just 0.73 points per possession overall — well below the still impressive 0.87 allowed by Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana and NINERS Chemnitz to share second place on the current leaderboards. Head coach Frederic Fauthoux has his team playing as connected as any team in the EuroCup on the defensive end to start the year, but how his group fares as opposing teams begin to find more of a rhythm is a point of interest. Bourg has started 3-0 each of the last two seasons, making a finals appearance two years ago, but missing the postseason last time.