Mike D'Antoni said he isn't a fan of rest thinks it caused hardens shooting to go down

out of the 20 teams that won over 65 wins, only 5 didnt win it all.
Nothing can guarantee a championship, for sure resting players that late in season wont

 

67 win mavs
66 win cavs
67 win spurs
73 win warriors
1972 68 win celtics

thats it? Thought It was more.

We might not make it to 65 wins tho, unless CP comes back and we can sleepwalk our way to wins against OKC, LAL, and SAC.

 

I get where D'Antoni is coming from. Resting guys is important, but you can go too far with it and lose your competitive edge and intensity. A good example is the Spurs back in 2014. They had the best record in the league locked up weeks in advance and coasted into the playoffs. They wound up barely escaping the 8th seeded Mavs in a brutal 7-game first round series. They actually trailed 2-1 and arguably should've lost. Now they did wind up winning the title when all was said and done, but they didn't make it any easier for themselves the way they entered the postseason.

Bottom line is the Rockets have not looked good the last couple games. I disagree with D'Antoni that it's been going on for 3-4 games as they kicked the crap out of the Pelicans, Hawks, and Bulls on the last homestand. The Detroit game can be chalked up to fatigue after being on the road for so long(and they did still win in OT). So really they've only been bad for 2 games. But let's nip this in the bud before it becomes a lingering issue.

Play everyone tomorrow night vs the Wizards. Washington is a good opponent and it'll provide a chance for the Rockets to get back in a rhythm with the playoffs less than 2 weeks away. And oh BTW, it's another opportunity for revenge. The Wizards dealt the Rockets one of their worst losses of the season. I would also play everyone vs Portland and OKC as both are very good Western Conference ballclubs and we could face them in the postseason.

After that, I'd rest a few guys against the Lakers and Kings.

 

Quite frankly, Rockets have looked disinterested, rusty, and out of touch. Not tired. Resting players is not the answer to fix that trick. We will probably pull out full squad soon.

What does it do to the team to not be in shape when playoffs come? A lot. Games don't matter now, but conditioning does. We were just on an 11 game win streak, so tell me why we are supposedly losing to teams (plural) and not just a team (singular)?

Play the old man whom is injured? Nice comparison and straw man. Rockets fans whine 24/7 when Harden doesn't get unanimous MVP recognition, but then clamor for him to rest for the remainder of the season. Compare him to his peers: none of them are resting. Can't have it both ways; this isn't "big minutes" but rather comparable minutes to his peers. This is his job; stop acting like he's made of bubble wrap. There would be a bone to pick if MDA was playing Harden significantly above his minutes average. But he is not.

Great contribution. Would read again 10/10.

 

No doubt, the players are letting him down. I want to see players who aren't putting in effort to be benched quickly. Keep a less talented player in there who is willing to put in the effort, even if it's a G-League guy or a 2 way player. McHale was lucky in having Josh Smith, and Corey Brewer played the game of his life against the Clippers to bring us back in the series. We lack real athletes apart from Gerald Green, and Capela. Clint loses confidence when he is up against the big guys...

Give Tucker 3 games off. He has worked very hard. Luc has the same work ethic, he is slow because he is coming back from tendinitis. If Ariza is too tired,then rest him for 2-3 games.

 

36 min in a meaningless game is freaking big minutes, nonetheless for your super star. No less it was against the Spurs who was desperate . If you don’t think there was an injury waiting to happen, you are just here arguing for the sake of arguing. You don’t throw your Porsche in a monster truck race with no prize money. That’s just silly. To be frank with you, I don’t see we were trying to win yesterday. There was no scheme, no set plays against the Spurs. If you think that’s some sort of battle test for the playoff, I don’t see how. Injury risks and not really having a game plan to shock your potential opponent, what kind of preparation is that. Worse, now you have them some confidence that they can beat us because Harden did all he could and we couldn’t win. Why?

 

As I said in another thread, this is an easy problem to solve. You ask everyone that can play to play, and you ask them to compete. But you manage their minutes and don't really play for the scoreboard. Make sure you run some plays. Make sure you tell your guys no bone-headed plays like driving to the hoop to take one 3 defenders. Treat it like a preseason game. It's that simple.

 

I don’t think this has anything to do with rest. With nothing to play for before the playoffs start, the intensity just isn’t there from the team. It’s human nature.

I’m not worried about wins and losses for the rest of the way, but I do want to see the team try to play and execute like they have all season. I’m not too concerned yet.

 

Well that would mean CP3 needs to play. Because he's not really injured right now. That hamstring might be sore, but he's also missed 5 out of 6 games and will have played once in a 2-week span heading into tomorrow night vs the Wizards.

 

yeah says Pops Kawhi and Lebron

what would Pops do in this situation?

I'm not saying flat out rest them.. but at least don't flat out run them to the ground..

there need to be some balance in between

both rhythm and 100% freshness & injury free is key going into the playoffs.. not just 1 of them

 

They lost at the buzzer in game 3 of that series, if that doesn't happen they probably win in 5.
They then punked the blazers 4-1 in the next round, and sonned OKC after that.

I'd play CP against OKC only, thats the only team left that we have a real chance of facing in the playoffs, so it would be good to further dissect their weaknesses. I'd simply do anything in my power to keep CP and Clint healthy, with all the injuries going on everywhere else, I don't want to tempt fate.

 

Did you watch Game 1 of that Spurs-Mavs series? Dallas had a double digit lead with under 8 minutes to go in the 4th before the Spurs came back to win by 5. The Mavs choked that one away. The Spurs were very fortunate to escape that series with a win.

I'd prefer CP3 play at least 2 of these 3 home games. Maybe Washington and OKC and rest him against Portland. But I'm a little uneasy about resting him too much down the stretch. Especially because of the extra burden it puts on Harden who it appears won't be taking much time off.

 

Spoiler

 

The free throws and short threes have been kinda odd. Seems like a disinterested team to me, we played the Blazers not that long ago and it wasn't even *that* important of a game and still walked out with the W.

When engaged nobodies beating us. Not even the Worriers.

 

In their own convoluted way, they're saying there's a lot of pressure on D'Antoni this postseason.

 

I agree with Mike, Dan, and Tony. Clinching early can get us into a funk and bad habits that you'll have to shake. Better for players and rotations to be sharp for 3 quarters and then rest the 4th. Or... miss a game completely. What we're seeing now is starters playing starters minutes and playing like ****. If they keep that up then I would sit their asses down because they are handling it all wrong.

 

This is an unmitigatable basketball fact: You shoot with your legs.

Eric Gordon took an extended break, came back shooting fire.

Trevor Ariza took an extended break, came back shooting fire.

This is a fact. This is how basketball works. Rest. Rest. Rest. MDA is his own worst enemy here.

 

not facts. but people will believe what they want to believe

 

Unfortunately...they're right. Lot of pressure on the Rockets this postseason.

 

I don't disagree. I'm just not sure what Kellerman is going on about. Stephen A can pick the Warriors to beat the Rockets in 7 in the WCF......and still think there's pressure on D'Antoni in the postseason.

And there IS pressure on him. I think his rotations in Game 5 vs the Spurs were horrendous. Only using 7 players was stupid and left everyone gassed in OT. I don't think he'll make the same mistake this year(barring injuries), but he cannot just abandon guys like Green who've played all season because of some arbitrary unwritten rule that the rotations get shorter in the playoffs. Go with what got you here and keep playing 9 or even 10 guys.