What game were you watching? Your bar for "decent" is pretty low. I like Lin a lot, and he has been great so far this year, but tonight he really just didn't have it. He was totally ineffective, and not just because he didn't make a shot. He was also passive in his playmaking and slow on his decision making. These nights happen; its not a big deal. But blaming the coach for Lin's play tonight comes off as a bit delusional.
I don't think Lin played badly, I think he DIDN'T EVEN ****ING TRY. Even when his shot is not falling, the effort is generally there. Tonight it was half assed though. Watch out for the trade news.
Mchale doesn't like home run hitters. I thought Lin should have been given time to work himself out of the slump. Bev kept making the same errors lin defensively, which weren't many in the first half. If anything both lin and bev should have been on the bench together and let harden and garcia/brewer give their shot at messing up on the pick and roll defense.
He's always a slow starter. He had his pre-game warm up, then he got cold on the bench, then came out slow, got pulled, played a little here and there... he never got into his rhythm. Some players can be an immediately impact off the bench, but Jeremy is not one of them. He could have led the 2nd unit, but the 2nd unit wasn't really let him lead. McHale has not much use for him on a night like this.
Imagine if Harden were benched for the rest of the game if he missed a few shots in a row. Imagine how "inconsistent" he would look, not being trusted to revert to mean over the course of a game. Would people preposterously say "dude, Harden sucked tonight" or would they assume, correctly, that judging someone on a tiny sample of minutes was extremely stupid and that his continued play would probably end up looking like normal? Before today, Lin was in the top 5 in several points per play categories on Synergy. In the top 5 for points created on drives to the basket by Sport Vu. Top 60 in PER. He deserves to be treated like it, not have his record distorted by cutting his minutes during random cold streaks. Every player in the NBA would look bad if you did that.
So with Lin regressing back to his average, I guess that means we're going to go back to blaming it on everyone else.
Did you just call "Not-even-once-an-all-star" Cedric Maxwell a Hall of Famer? Jesus Christ man, at least look up basic facts before you post poop like this.
He's not a guy who can give you instant offense. He needs to warm up a bit especially with the ball in his hands. Idk if he was injured or what but he did not look to be even trying out there.
Now lid1013, you and I both know Jeremy just didnt have it in him tonight. Im glad Coach McHale didnt force the issue and pulled him before he lowered his pretty FG% even more with all them bricks lol And to be fair he did put him in for the most crucial last seconds! He put him in over Garcia, showing more trust in Jeremy's 3 even with his awful shooting night. I thought that was a cool.
I'm fine with the minutes Lin played tonight, he wasn't affecting the game in a positive way. But I thought his defense was fine, and Bev's defense wasn't that much better.
