absolutely horrible idea. what do you mean cold? do you know we were up 11 pts? do you know who were on the court when the lead was disappeared? do you try to tell me you want mchale to put back players who were much colder than starters? those cold hand starters did much better job than those backups who just gave up our 11 pts lead. they at least didn't allow lakers to increase their lead. even with poor offense, our starters maintained the catchable distance to make the game interesting. had mchale kept his backups, the game might have been decided a long time ago. different from alot fans here, if i were the coach, i would bet on my starters. it's the reason coach selects them as his starters not backup.
I'm a little surprised that he said that he would have stuck with Bev in the 4th. I agree with that since it turned more into a defensive struggle and nothing was being created by anyone during the closing stretch and OT.
I feel Lin and Beverly wouldn't be much of difference the way we played late in the game. Some of Lin's 4qr attempts were contested desperate shots after Harden wasted 20 second out of shot clock. I wouldn't exactly say he was that cold. Beverly would be in the same situation. All in all whether McHale benched or put back Lin, the game would've been lost. The 2 biggest mistake from coaching were Harden ISO and Delfino on Pau.
He meant either you bring Lin back earlier or stick with you bev choice! Don't bring someone sitting on the bench for 10+mins and want him to be a savior! Just like that Pacers game! If you think Bev can win you game , stick with it.(no disrespect Bev)
Jeremy wasn't cold per say but it was a completely off game. I might go as far as say it was one of his worst showings for the most part. I don't hate Jeremy by the way. I really want him to grow and get better with this team. I would have gone with Patrick more so with his defense and he seemed like we was going to score in the lane regardless of Dwight being there. He was going in strong and not getting caught in the air (ala Chandler, James and Jeremy). We really need to work on our execution and spacing. Everything was great that first half and then we were even botching fastbreak spacing.
McHale should have had all the starters in to start the 4th. Asik, Jones, harden Lin parsons. Dantoni had all of his starters in & Lakers had all the momentum. That was when that ame was lose to begin the 4th.
the mistake made by mchale is he left his backup on the court too long to the point lakers tied the game. from that point, it was anyone's game. he should see our backup had trouble to compete with lakers when the lead was shrunk to half of 11pts. had he substituted his starters earlier, the game might have had a different outcome. think about, our starter didn't give up alot after back on the court. they kept fighting to maintain 2 or 3 pts difference. uphill battle and maintaining lead are different type stretagies, especially with this group of young players. mchale has been doing "keep backup in the game for long time" for many times. you may argue they play well and deserve minutes. it is not an auditing process. we are trying to win games. you have your starters for reason. otherwise, they don't be called starters.
