Brook Lopez and Jrue Holiday named to 2022-23 NBA All-Defensive First Team

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WMTV) - Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday and center Brook Lopez have been named to the 2022-23 Kia NBA All-Defensive First Team.

Holiday received 94 First Team votes and four Second Team votes, while Lopez earned 85 First Team votes and 11 Second Team votes. The Kia All-Defensive Team was selected by a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters.

Holiday has now earned All-Defensive team honors in each of his three seasons with the Bucks, and has been named All-Defense five times in the last six seasons. This season, Holiday led the Bucks in both steals per game (1.2) and total steals (79), helping Milwaukee finish with the fourth-best defensive rating in the league.

A finalist for Defensive Player of the Year, Lopez led the league in total blocks this season with a career-high 193 and finished third in the NBA in blocks per game with a career-high 2.49. In his 15th season in the NBA, the 7′1″ center had an NBA-high six games with 6+ blocks, including a career-high, and league-high for the 2022-23 season, nine blocks on March 9 vs. Brooklyn. Lopez also led the league in contested shots with 1,362 – nearly 450 more than the next-closest player who had 917.

This is the first time Lopez has earned All-Defensive First Team honors in his career and the second time he has been named All-Defense after earning Second Team honors following the 2019-20 season.

Click here to download the NBC15 News app or our NBC15 First Alert weather app.

Copyright 2023 WMTV. All rights reserved.