The quicker we beat a team in the first round, the more rest we get for the next. The loss of Howard has me kinda spooked, but we can be a contender under the right conditions.
You never put a team on the floor and tell them to lose. But thats not the same thing as not fielding your best players (who could stand a little recovery time).
It doesn't matter who we play. If we want to go deep in the playoffs, then we have to play good teams eventually. I think this team has a chance to win it all. Look at the way we played in January-Feb. We have wins against the Heat, the Spurs, the Suns. We have 2 superstars that can be unstoppable, and with that we can beat anyone.
I do not see the point in losing so that we can play the sonics the first round. We will eventually have to play good teams, and intentionally losing is just a loser attitude. It just shows that you are not confident in the team and just want temporary satisfaction.
Champions shouldn't give a hoot who they draw in the first round. They should believe that they can beat anyone. I hope the team doesn't think like many of you, sweating over one matchup over another. Kill whoever comes our way!
lol. this REALLY reminds me of that asian championship game in the early 90s... after china unexpectedly lost to philipines in the group stage, north korea and some other country played a 0-0 game trying to avoid china in the elimination round. I think the asian basketball association had to "award" north korea the victory based on "on court performance" or something. anyone remembering this please tell me what penalty did ABA handout to the two teams... lol
That's exactly what I would do. I don't think having your players deliberately tank a game is a good idea but I think getting some needed rest for key players so they are fresh later down the road is wise.
I'm not for that ["intentionally lose"]. However if we must (or prefer) rest our MM, then let our bench play, win or lose, I don't care.
Maybe I'm alone, but I don't see the value of getting to the second round just for getting to the second round's sake. I definitely think that the value of having a winner's mentality and champion's mindset is worth more than losertalk that gets us into the second round. Woo-hoo, you gamed the system. Is getting to the second round good as a moral victory? To me, that's losertalk--it's about championships. Is the value having more playoff games? I guess that's not very convincing to me. I'm sure TMac, Yao, and Sura will all play around 20 minutes in the last game anyway. Vin Baker, it's your One Shining Moment.
