I say whoever can make the 3pt will be the key player for us. It will be between Garcia, Casspi, Hamilton and Troy.
It would be better to give Bev a rest instead. Lin is a shaky player who needs confidence on the court. This game would give him an opportunity to play big minutes without Harden. If he is injured, then it's a different story.
I'm with many of the posters here - Bev and Dwight need the reps. If they're not fully healthy by now, they're not going to be - let's worry about the rust first. You also can't play every game in fear of a freak injury. Harden and Parsons sitting is good because they've been logging big minutes and probably need a break to get their legs fresh. It wouldn't be good if they were already well rested and we held them out just to prevent a Rose scenario. The likelihood of rust/chemistry issues on sitting out is much higher than the likelihood of a freak injury when playing, especially for such a young team that's still gelling. (But again, I think the fresh legs/injury prevention combo DOES outweigh rust/chemistry when you're talking about 40 min/g guys)
Chandler and Harden were obvious given their minutes. McHale has said they wanted to be able to rest some players who were banged up. There was no way for Lin to take a break when Bev was out and we were playing for home court, even if he needed it. Apparently he needed it.
but what's the point of playing big minutes without harden if he's gonna have to play big minutes WITH harden during the playoffs anyway. he's back is probably still giving him issues - as recent as the past game he was still on that bike when he's not on the court. but everyone has nagging injuries this time of season. a little rest is a good thing.
