Doc and the bench (merged)...

[star18]

Especially last year with the Phillies. Matt Stairs came in to pinch hit against the Dodgers in Game 4. Honestly, I raised my hand in the air before one pitch in the NLCS. It was the pitch before Stairs hit it out.  I didn't do it again because that is all we needed. That pinch hit HR turned the series around, now we are World Champs. I am currently a double World Champions with my Phillies and Celtics. I wasn't like "Oh my God Matt Stairs is coming in the game he sucks, why can't Ryan Howard bat every time" Instead I was like "Yeah here we go World Champs!!!" Because I wanted Stairs to get involved, just like I want my boys esp. Star involved. That is how some of you people are you are like "Oh my God here comes Star again, why can't Pierce take 100 shots a game". Trust your players=World Champions.  Trust your team=World Champions.  Trust your bench=World Champions.

[vagrantwade]

How do we expect our bench to produce, when the coach is sending them a message that he has 0 faith in their ability?

I mean I understand, you guys love your Rondo. He was brought on by the Celtics, he was the PG last year during our first title of this gen. Really, I understand.

But in case you didn't notice, the big blow out came before the half when Rondo had gone in. He missed some awful looking shots and made like 4 turnovers that all ended up being Magic points.

And I also understand that some of you think Marbury is the big scary creator of all forms of Cancer because the New York Times told you so, but he has better career numbers than most PG could hope for. My point being, he knows how to ball.

[wdleehi]

Rondo attacking the basket jump started the Celtics run.



Marbury has not played anywhere close enough to take major minutes away from Rondo. 

[CoachBo]

Playing your bench because it's there is something you quit doing in junior high school. Minutes are an earned commodity, and the quality of play off the bench - largely with the exception of Scal - has been very poor.

[CoachBo]

Against my better judgment, I'm going to reply to this string of analogies.

Uh, no. Bench players earn minutes. They're not given them by a trusting coach - at any level of the game. Ever.

It's been quite clear what happens to this basketball team when Tony Allen's on the floor, for example - bad things. Mikki Moore has one brief stretch of acceptable play - in the last six weeks. Marbury, OK, especially if Rondo continues to play stupid basketball.

But no, bench play in this game does not begin with "coach trust" and it never has. And it never will.

[Roy Hobbs]

You do not blowout teams with 5 guys, you do not blowout teams by playing only 7 players.  You blowout teams by getting 9 or 10 guys involved.  We should be blowing out some of these teams, Bulls, Magic, Cavs whatever. We only won 1 game big so far, Game 3 against the Bulls, because of our bench play.  Any game with all 5 starters playing 40 minutes is going to be a struggle, give us an easy win and rely on our bench a little more.  I'm not asking for 50 minutes from Mikki, but get these guys involved more.  We have 10 quality players and we should be using all of them.

The problem is, we *don't* have ten quality bench guys.  Scal played excellently, and was rewarded with minutes.  I would have liked to see Eddie and Marbury get some extra minutes tonight, absolutely.  However, Tony and Mikki add less than nothing.

As for the theory (mentioned in another thread) that we should have mass-substituted when we were on a 24-4 run...  I disagree strongly.  You should ride a hot streak as long as you can.  The coach should watch for weak links during that stretch, but he needs to do everything he can not to break momentum.  It's a cliche', but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[CoachBo]

Exactly. We don't have 10 quality players on this bench. Some nights we don't have seven.

As for the mass substitution, never. You never break up a run like that until someone's performance breaks down - as Rondo's did when he reverted back to yo-yoing the basketball and making Tony Allen-like decisions with it.

[Roy Hobbs]

We are not going to win playing only 7 guys, like it is 1987 all  over again. 

It worked in '86, though. 

I do agree, though, that this season is an up-hill climb, due partially to a lack of depth.  However, I disagree that there's quality depth sitting on our bench that is being under-utilized.  Again, maybe Starbury or House could see a few extra minutes here and there, but overall, Doc is playing the players he's been given.

(Mikki and Tony are essentially D-League all-stars, and don't belong on the roster -- let alone in the rotation -- of a contender).

[BillfromBoston]

Exactly. We don't have 10 quality players on this bench. Some nights we don't have seven.

As for the mass substitution, never. You never break up a run like that until someone's performance breaks down - as Rondo's did when he reverted back to yo-yoing the basketball and making Tony Allen-like decisions with it.

Hate mass subs - always a bad idea...that being said, Rondo played about 10 minutes of effective basketball last night and Marbury was clearly feeling it.

Considering that we will need the bench and that the wing/guard positions could use some playing depth, I thought it was a terrible decision not to get Marbury back in the game.

Even if Doc wanted to leave Rondo out there, Marbury should have come instead of House at the 2 during the stretch where Ray got a rest.

The team was offensively inept for most of the game and after that big run its Doc's job to see when the team on the court is spent and in need of some new legs/life.

Kudos to the 5 who staged the comeback, but there were 7 empty minutes to close the game out and we had a player we've been waiting to find it offensively making high degree of difficulty dribble-penetration shots and set-ups....

...can't imagine Steph was super happy after the game having finally broken out and still getting benched for eternity while Rondo played a quality of basketball that made me want to break my TV.

[CoachBo]

Exactly. We don't have 10 quality players on this bench. Some nights we don't have seven.

As for the mass substitution, never. You never break up a run like that until someone's performance breaks down - as Rondo's did when he reverted back to yo-yoing the basketball and making Tony Allen-like decisions with it.

Hate mass subs - always a bad idea...that being said, Rondo played about 10 minutes of effective basketball last night and Marbury was clearly feeling it.

Considering that we will need the bench and that the wing/guard positions could use some playing depth, I thought it was a terrible decision not to get Marbury back in the game.

Even if Doc wanted to leave Rondo out there, Marbury should have come instead of House at the 2 during the stretch where Ray got a rest.

The team was offensively inept for most of the game and after that big run its Doc's job to see when the team on the court is spent and in need of some new legs/life.

Kudos to the 5 who staged the comeback, but there were 7 empty minutes to close the game out and we had a player we've been waiting to find it offensively making high degree of difficulty dribble-penetration shots and set-ups....

...can't imagine Steph was super happy after the game having finally broken out and still getting benched for eternity while Rondo played a quality of basketball that made me want to break my TV.

Totally agree. I thought there were spots where House and Marbury could have offered some help, especially during the last seven minutes when Rondo reverted back to the kind of point play that got us in trouble in the first half.

[BillfromBoston]

On a side note - is Orlando the worst 2nd half/4th quarter team in the playoffs or what?

If Boston can just keep the game a game going into the 4th quarter I have little doubt that they an win this series.

We've seen Orlando blow huge leads against Boston 3 consecutive games now - the bad news is they build those leads - good news is they can't close.

If Boston can make some adjustments and figure out what they want to do offensively, I like the chances of beating this team...but they gotta figure out how to score the first 30 minutes of the game first.

[CoachBo]

Aggression and ball movement offensively. Attack the rim, drive and dish, and get the basketball moving. Make Dwight Howard make plays. He'll block some, but we'll get to the line, too.

Johnny Most used to call it "fiddlin' and diddlin'" with the basketball. We've got to stop it in the half-court, and get the basketball moving. Ball reversal, sharp curls.