Hollinger literally marked us as one of the greatest teams of all time, especially defensively. If Doc is smart, and plays the starters 40+ min each, I can't see us losing more than 1 game each series. Phoenix and most of the other elite teams teh past few seasons, achieved their gaudy records by playing their stars big minutes in the regular season (San Antonio was the only exception to this trend). Doc Rivers has done the impossible and kept their minutes down. Now if he changes course and lets our Big 3 domintate every contest, we will coast all the way to #17. If he rigidly follows the pattern from this season, we might lose a couple. So as fans, we have to ask ourselves, cheer accordingly for. . . #1: Lose a couple, but keep our stars fresh throughout. . . or #2 play our studs 40+ min each and roll through this thing with 1 or 2 losses like the '02 Lakers. Personally I'm leaning towards choice 2, because it seems like the surer thing. But maybe I'm just being paranoid?
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All I know is, for the last couple years, Rivers' inability to manage-a-bench versus win-a-game has been a bone of contention. Has he suddenly cracked the magical formula for success? Or is our bench/staff good enough to compenstate for his mistakes? I guess we'll find out soon enough. But personally, I'd rather he plays Paul, Kevin and Ray 42 mpg each, just to be sure. They can handle it. And I declare this with extra adamance because they've rested excessively for the last 2 months. If we can sweep each opponent between now and the Lo'B trophy, then we need to pull out all the stops to do so, even if it means big minutes for our warriors. What say you?