If I asked you to name the top five defenses in the NBA after the All-Star break last season, you'd probably guess the Warriors , Magic and Thunder pretty quickly. The other two? The lottery-bound Raptors and Trail Blazers . Perhaps we should have seen Indiana's trip to the NBA Finals coming, because they ranked eighth in post-break defense, and were neck-and-neck with the Clippers , who were lauded for their defensive improvement last season. Change the parameters slightly and the Pistons were a top-five defense from Jan. 1 through the end of the season.

So, are we witnessing a changing of the guard when it comes to elite NBA defense? Or are we having fun with smaller samples and weak schedules? The answer is going to vary on a case-by-case basis. There are very few t

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