"I think night in and night out, we want to come in and defend more than anything," said Perkins. "Obviously, you've got to put points up to win the game, but I just think we want to defend."
But coach Doc Rivers identified something special in this year's team and challenged them to be remembered like the 1985 Bears: one of the greatest defenses of all time.
"Doc brought it to our attention in the preseason," said Perkins. "We just kind of built from there. Doc asked if we wanted to be the best defensive team in history, like the '85 Bears. I think we've bought into it. We're playing intimate team defense and we just need to continue to do that."
"It's one thing to talk about it and another thing to actually do it," said Williams. "We're striving to be the best defense, but we've got work to do. That's the mindset we have to have day in and day out. We're stressing defense every single play, ever single minute."
Asked what he prefers, shutting the opposition down or shining on the offensive end, Garnett didn't hesitate. "Shutting people down," he said. "Because we work so hard in practice, man. Y'all have no idea what our drills are like. Every day, it's the same thing, same repetitive stuff, if not more. You know, when you shut a team down, that's hard work and effort."
