Hopefully the Rockets not only get this win, but Minnesota loses tomorrow night at Orlando on the 2nd night of a B2B(I assume they handle Indiana tonight). That would render the Friday game at Toyota Center meaningless for the T'Wolves. They wouldn't be able to catch us and the Suns wouldn't be able to catch them.
probably the surprise role player I most worry about killing us in the playoffs. Probably deserves its own thread.
Huge game for Reed. In his 19 game sample as a starter he has faced 1 allstar guard: Steph Curry. His prior bench minutes were also heavily curated to limit his time on the court vs good isolation hunting guards. This Booker/Jalen game will be an outlier and a big test for him.
He simply has to get better at on-ball defense. He has progressed since the beginning of the season but still struggles with it a lot. I don't even care that much how well he shoots tonight, I just want to see intensity and physicality and him not getting abused by Booker.
I was advocating Reed starting the rest of the year. Now that we have an opening this year with the injuries to Ant, Luka, Reeves, and maybe Wemby, we should prioritize winning and optimizing the rotations based on matchups. When you face a team whose whole offense is built around the perimeter and has no real threat in the paint, then it would make sense to start Josh who would absolutely be able to bully Jalen. Durant or Jabari can easily neutralize Dillon and Amen could concentrate on Booker. The rest of the year, the starting unit should be decided based on matchups.. I have no faith that Ime will manage his rotations optimally throughout the game, but even he should be able to figure it out to start the game.
If Ime wants to prioritize winning, he should stick with the guy who's 15-4 as a starter this season. And let's not kid ourselves. Ime will never go back to starting Okogie. For some inexplicable reason, Josh is now behind Jae'Sean in the rotation. So decide whether you want Reed or Tari starting, cuz those are the only two options with Ime.
