brad play it cool

[gift]

I haven't read a single person suggest rolling over for the Cavs. They could rest guys and still win the game. No one suggested not showing up.

[Surferdad]

No.
No.
Hell no.

You don't play the games to lose. You don't send the message it's ok to give up when times are difficult and the odds are against you. This is a team whose identity is that it's a tough, scrappy team. You want to send a message that they're not tough, good or scrappy enough to play the Big Bad Cavs and they just roll over and play dead? You might as well rip the heart out of the team.

The next game isn't until Sunday night at home versus the Nuggets. That's plenty of time for any non-injured player to recover (and time for Horford to come back). If there's a high risk of injury to someone like Bradley then perhaps he sits. But if it's just soreness that's no worse than it has been you play him and you play to win. Because if you do manage to win a game like this - shorthanded, on the road, 2nd night of back to backs then you make true believers that they can achieve anything. This would pay off massively in the playoffs against the Cavs.

There's a difference between playing dead and resting players. Ask Popovich. The players who are out there play to win.

My other thought about tonight's game is inspired by Mike Gorman's comment last night that the Cleveland crowd would either be really happy or really sad (depending on the outcome of Game 7 of the world series). Maybe a dead crowd helps us?

I see no reason for there to be a dead crowd.  Gorman is mistaken. I bet they will be cheering, perhaps even harder as a way of putting the Indians loss behind them.