Doc and his trust on the bench

[BudweiserCeltic]

Just wondering, how much trust do you guys think Doc has on his bench?  I think he's giving them a ton of trust.  When the Hawks were closing in the second quarter he stayed with the second unit, didn't panic.  He kept our starters fresh for the most part throughout the whole game in my opinion.

So, how are you guys viewing this? No trust? Too much trust? Just about right trust?  All I know is that all the other teams are burning their starters this playoffs, let's see if Doc can do a good job of keeping them fresh while still winning.

I think the way he handled Powe shows a bit of the trust he's giving the players.  He started quite poorly, but Doc stuck with him and didn't put him in the doghouse. In the end, he started producing like we expected him to do so.

While we are at it, I thought Doc used the time-outs quite well, and the team responded to the messages given during the time-outs in a positive manner.

[Who]

It's easy to trust the bench when you're playing Atlanta

The test will come later. How he treats Atlanta isn't a good indicator. Might be good for Doc though, to see who's handling the increased pressure well or not + feeling like he can trust his bench because they have had some success against Atlanta before, you know, they play a real team.

[BudweiserCeltic]

You know, but that's partly true... let me give you some examples:

LeBron played 39 minutes tonight in a blowout.

Lakers were handling Denver quite easily, and they blew a comfortable 4th quarter lead with the starters on the floor, and they ended up playing:
Kobe 37 minutes
Pau Gasol 45 minutes
Odom 39 minutes

Orlando had a comfortable 4th quarter lead, and they kept it that way throughout the whole quarter, and yet:

Dwight played 44 minutes.
Hedo played 38 minutes.
Lewis played 42 minutes.

I know these are the playoffs, and you're not going to gamble with 10-14 leads in the 4th.  But I think there was room to give some bench players some run in the 4th for Orlando and the Lakers, but they kept their main guys in anyways to make sure they secured the win.

Jazz pretty much the same, they've been playing Deron Williams a ton even though they've been controlling the Rockets, especially in the first game.  Huge 4th quarter lead, and Deron played it completely... ended up playing 44 minutes.

I think under the conditions of the 2nd quarter, when the Hawks closed in on us, Doc would've been easily tempted to play our starters through most of it.  Especially when this is the first game of the series, and I know they wanted to win this game very much... yet he gave the bench some run despite of it.

[Who]

You know, but that's partly true... let me give you some examples:

LeBron played 39 minutes tonight in a blowout.

Lakers were handling Denver quite easily, and they blew a comfortable 4th quarter lead with the starters on the floor, and they ended up playing:
Kobe 37 minutes
Pau Gasol 45 minutes
Odom 39 minutes

Orlando had a comfortable 4th quarter lead, and they kept it that way throughout the whole quarter, and yet:

Dwight played 44 minutes.
Hedo played 38 minutes.
Lewis played 42 minutes.

I know these are the playoffs, and you're not going to gamble with 10-14 leads in the 4th.  But I think there was room to give some bench players some run in the 4th for Orlando and the Lakers, but they kept their main guys in anyways to make sure they secured the win.

Jazz pretty much the same, they've been playing Deron Williams a ton even though they've been controlling the Rockets, especially in the first game.  Huge 4th quarter lead, and Deron played it completely... ended up playing 44 minutes.

I agree with you to a point (and I think we're similar ground)

...... but Atlanta are just so bad they're in a completely different category from everyone else. Not a single one of those teams is as bad as Atlanta. There was never any doubt about the win and there very likely won't be in any of the four games.

The Laker game, they were up in the second quarter, lost their lead before the half, had a 6-0 run in the final two minutes to finish up 58-56 or something like that. Atlanta were never that threat. Atlanta never had the firepower of a Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, etc.

Orlando had a great first quarter then got outplayed for the next 28 minutes as Toronto outscored them by double digits during that period, I think they pulled a 23 point lead back to 5 at one point early in the fourth (around the 8 minute mark).

I only saw the end of the Cavs game so I can't say about that. But I don't think they can ever rest LeBron, I'd be surprised if he doesn't play 44-48 minutes most nights the rest of the way.

Atlanta are garbage. It's not just that they're bad, they matchup up horribly with the Celtics. It's the worst matchup they could have had. And it's the best matchup that the Celtics could have. It's just cruelty, that's how one-sided this series is. No other series is like that.

Utah and Houston come close but Houston make Utah earn everything. Both those games have been close the whole way despite Utah being in control. Atlanta just offer it up on a plate. It's a slaughter.

Can anyone think of a recent playoff series that was more lobsided than this one? I'm struggling to. Although, that probably has a lot to do with the fact you don't remember these types of series clearly if at all.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Can't think of any myself.

But as for the Cavs, they were blowing out early 3nd quarter. LeBron was getting knocked around time and time again, even took a very hard flagarant foul.  This guy they should've sat for most if not the whole 4th quarter with a 23 point lead. They're asking for him to get injured.

[BASSTHUMPER]

doc been trustin the bench all year...posey powe house and davis got plenty of minutes....doc was gettin them ready for this moment.

[TrueGreen]

Sing the song that got you there. Doc has used his bench all season. The C's were 66-16. Why change now? The C's sometimes get away from what they should be doing offensively and defensively. A timeout or half-time corrects this. They don't do anything different, just up the intensity or focus better on what they should be doing. There's some flexibility on who may be first off the bench, or which starter will come out first near the end of the first quarter, etc., but they basically play the same. That's why they can be consistent.