i know mda has been notorious for short rotations but i don't think the tired dead legs applies this season bc of the layoff. even once the playoffs began there was a 3-4 day break in the okc series bc of what happened in wisconsin. and then theres the added bonus of having no travel fatigue/jetlag bc everyone is in orlando. and then when you compare the minutes played with this rockets team compared to other teams... say the celtics or raptors.. are you going to argue that brad stevens or nick nurse are terrible coaches? bc the celtics are basically playing with a 5 man rotation and raptors are playing a 7 man rotation. lowry is logging 40+ every game... harden has yet to go over 40 in this lakers series. even in 2018... rockets and warriors both played basically a 6 man rotation... but no one gave kerr any crap. shawn marion should learn how to shoot properly first before complaining about being tired in a playoff game.
just wanted to add that despite the fact i don't really mind d'antoni's 7-sometimes 8 man rotation... i would also like to see mclemore get more of an opportunity to shoot as well. he was pretty much automatic when open.. and rivers defense last game wasn't really up to his usual standards.
Rivers has been awful throughout the bubble except iirc one 40 point performance. His defense is good. If the opposing team is not packing it in he can drive well. Our offense does not run well if we have another person on the court who can't shoot and they can just dare to shoot. Unless he is having one of his very occasional hot spells I cringe everytime he jacks up one of his terrible form jumpers.
he is mostly shooting off the catch on the kickout with not much time. I feel like he’s better when he’s able to shoot off the dribble. And he doesn’t have as many screens called for him. If he plays as the number one option against the weaker defender( not rondo) with a screen, it’s better than turning the ball over with Russ. He’s a better shooter than Russ.
The team literally got a 3.5 month break, played 8 games (and some of our players even missed some of those), and are now playing every other day with no back-to-backs and no travel (with a mini labor strike thrown in to give a few extra days of rest). "They are tired" seems like a bit of a ridiculous excuse this season. 35-year old Lebron played as many minutes as anyone on the Rockets last night, and played as many as anyone in Game 2 and Game 1 (minus Covington). Anthony Davis played more than anyone else last night. Toronto is routinely playing several players 40+ minutes a night because that's what's needed. Luka played like 46 minutes in that crazy Dallas/LAC overtime game two days after spraining his ankle. It's the playoffs - sometimes, players simply have to step up.
