I think it’s about the prospect of diminishing returns if you overplay Horford. If you know Al is playing every other night, you have to be cautious about playing him too many minutes.
I agree you have to be aware of Horford's minutes but the last regular season game where he played full minutes was Apr 7. It will be 42 days since then by the time of ECF Game 1. In those 42 days, he will have played a total of 11 games (16 min in a regular season game and then the 10 playoff games). That is 31 days of rest, 11 days of play.
Worst case, Horford has to play 14 more games over the course of 33 days, starting with ECF Game 1 on May 21. More realistically, ECF doesn't go 7 games so it is probably going to be 12 or 13 games over the course of 33 days. Even with Porzingis out, they were able to keep him to about 30 min/gm on average for those 6 games.
I don't really see the concern with Horford's minutes. It seems more like a knee-jerk "Joe is a bad coach" kind of comment. I don't see anything at all wrong with how they have utilized Horford through the playoffs to date. And Al had his best game in a while in the last game so there is nothing in his play indicating he was worn down.
Topic: Cavaliers (1-3) at Celtics (3-1) Eastern Conference Semifinals Game #5 5/15/24 (Read 12254 times)