With us up 5 games on the Warriors and 4 on the Raptors with only 12-11 games to go, and a schedule that eases up a lot after tomorrow, when do our top three start taking games off? Will D'Antoni rest anyone? Or will he stubbornly keep playing cp3 and James after the #1 seed is effectively decided. I say bench half of the damn team when we clinch home court, unleash Joe Cheese!!!
Can MDA do it? I know Morey has talked about “guiding” MDA to use more of the roster, so my guess would be the same with resting in the next couple weeks.
We up 3.5 on the Warriors. But yeah GS has esentially accepted 2nd seed so we should rest James, CP3, and Clint a bit.
For the rest of March we can rest some guys against Atlanta, Phoenix and Chicago maybe even Detroit but I wouldn’t because we still not 5 games ahead. So if we win tomorrow I would rest some guys for the rest of the month. Then on April we should play against San Antonio with everyone but rest them if we have a big lead. And even if we don’t I would sit Harden and Cp3 the entire 4th. Against Washington we should try to even the series. But by then we prob clinch the top spot. I would like us to play everyone against okc and Portland. Just to sweep the Portland series and win the okc series. We can for sure rest the last two at LAL and Sac for the last two. So the last games of March and April we could rest some guys.
Would like to see everyone start to get days off here and there and for our deep bench to start getting serious run. Joe Johnson Gerald Green Tarik Black All getting 25+ minutes against tankers and the last week to week and a half or so.
You clinch the top record in the league. Then you rest guys. Realistically, I think it could happen as soon as April 3 even if the Rockets lose a couple games between now and then(for example, at Portland and at San Antonio). The Warriors have to play Utah, Indiana, and Milwaukee on their upcoming homestand and at OKC on April 3. The Raptors have road games coming up at Cleveland(twice) and Boston. If that happens, the Rockets could rest players in their final 4 games of the season which include home matchups with the Blazers and Thunder. It would be nice to not have to go all out against those two squads, especially since they may still have something to play for at that point.
Harden and Capela both grabbing their hands in the 4th quarter Sunday is a dead message it's time for a day off. taking days off at the end of a season is how you end up rusty and cold going into the playoffs.
You play them in this upcoming homestand. These should be 5 easy wins. Well, 4 easy wins and a tough one against the Pelicans. I actually wouldn't mind D'Antoni resting them tonight against Portland, but we know that won't happen with it being nationally televised and having a chance to break the Blazers 13-game winning streak(not to mention extending their own to 6 games).
keep in mind, GSW did not rest anyone in 2014-15 until the last game of the season, and they clinched HCA really early, too. As a new contender, Kerr wanted them to keep the chemistry going. also, keep in mind a 4-0 sweep of 1st round is another way to gain rest time, even later. So, don't lose an opening game due to rust, by over resting. I'm a firm believer in continuing to build chemistry, when you are a team noted for not having much playoff chemistry from the past. We aren't past SAS teams, current GSW or Lebron, with gobs of Finals experience. Some ppl treat Rest like a video game Manna Power that can be horded. That's not how it works, but we do know Chemistry and Fockass is fragile and often the main culprit of "Rust." Most professionals can recharge with 3 days rest (meaning sit the last 1 or 2 games), like Kerr did in 2015.
People get the wrong idea sometimes Just because we will rest ppl doesnt mean that we will be losing games. The Rockets will begin to strategically start resting players after todays win in Portland.
I'm with HP on this one. Keep playing them hard, ride them like Secretariat!! plus they're not logging tall timber out there.
They have been limiting minutes already and have been cautious with players who are injured. I imagine they won't sit the main guys until the top seed in the league is secured.
We should play cautiously, but no full on resting until we clinch. End of story. We should clinch with about 6-7 games remaining.
