Somebody please tell me why MDA refuses to play the bench? He went two deep the entire game. Tired people don't jump and make bad decisions late in games. Dekker and Harrell played good minutes during the season. No reason why they can't play spot minutes. Pop played 9 players, rockets played 7. Spurs had 78 bench minutes, Rockets had 60. That's your game folks.
It's not as easy as it looks. You could play someone who is inexperienced or not a good matchup and in a 1-2 minute span give up 10 points. That's not to say he absolutely couldn't find a role for Dekker or Harrell or someone, but they had a game plan. It should have been enough for a regulation win. In OT, a 7-man rotation can come back to bite you and it did tonight.
he is a beta and pops is an alpha you have to give your young guys confidence this is an old Spurs team and you want young guys to wear them out. kevin mchale syndrome
but you know they are going to crash the boards in the fourth quarter, why wouldn't you throw in Harrell? they did it all game/series. In the fourth their plan was to limit us to one shot and get as many second chance points as possible you can return that favor with young guys in Decker and harrell. dekker is a good rebounder
I have said from the beginning that MIke had an 8 man rotation for playoffs including Nene. Those are the 8 guys he trusts to get the job done. Now with Nene out the number is down to 7 You can't just throw in Dekker who is often clueless on D and a bricker on offense. He takes away minutes from your more important guys. Mike AntoniO rightly doesn't trust Dekker
i don't think there's any excuse for what d'antoni did tonite. if he doesn't want to play young guys dekker or harrell, then play bobby brown for 3min to give our guards a breather. brown was making everything he threw up last game.
you got it. i agree. cuz its a stupid business, and les wants to keep harden happy, by letting him play hero ball, live or die by him, literally. that way, it can keep him happy long enough to sign another extension after the current one, so we can make the playoffs and sell tickets. they don't want to risk having dekker come in there and be the man, and take some shots that harden wants...that's my only explanation.
our other guys were so gassed that they weren't moving in the half-court, which led to harden trying to play the hero, cuz no one was moving....he expects, everyone to set picks and then move around while he dribbles...but the problem is, if they are dead tired, they can't, they are gassed.
Bobby Brown might not be young, but he's still inexperienced. And if he doesn't pass it around in garbage time, what's he going to do when a Mills or Green is hounding him on defense?
It's obviously a risk but to play younger guys but when your team is gassed and the other team is too I think it's a risk worth taking. This game was the Rox for the taking but they gassed out before the Spurs did. I think the 7 person versus 9 rotation had something to do with that.
Even if Harrell goes out there and pics up 5 fouls in 5 minutes that's 5 minutes of extra rest for Capela and Anderson. For that matter since Harden frequenty is ending up defending Gasol and Aldrige that lets him conserve energy.
I'm not a fan of the 7 man rotation, but nobody is going to look back on that game and say "The Rockets would have won if Sam Dekker played".
All year .. . . our second unit was nails in the start of the 2nd and 4th We built some leads during this time . . . . but now its the playoffs we don't even try it Rocket River
We have to account that Harden uses STRENGTH when he plays bigs. . . . that wears a person down While he only played 43 minutes. . . how much of that time spent wrestling GasHole and LaMarcus? Rocket River
Why not? Who's to say they couldn't/wouldn't have won if Dekker and Harrell saw the court for 3-5 mins each at least to spell the other starters and give them some time to get their legs back before returning to the court for the 4th and OT?
Honestly, in a one possession you never know who can make a difference. All I know is a seven man rotation will lose more games just off of being tired than anything else.
