The way our guys played tonight, they just looked completely flat. I don't want to believe they weren't trying, so I think it was exhaustion finally catching up to them. We've been playing without a bench this whole post season, playing almost every other day, and I think it finally caught up to us.
It sorted of reminded me of how we looked against Houston - Roy/Aldridge's first playoff series. They kept commenting how exhausted they were, where every possession took something out of them. It was probably more mental this go around. Hard to ramp up any confidence for a relatively young team playing a dissecting team like the Spurs.
Playing fewer games than in the regular season. That was just bad basketball. The Nets put up a better fight.
Tired or tight, or the Spurs turning the screws? Who knows, but this team definitely needs more depth and probably has to think long and hard about some of their role-players; this team isn't quite built for a deep run yet and it isn't just a matter of letting things gel.
I grimace every time I hear how young we are and that we should take consolation from it. We're not THAT young. 3/5ths of our core or starting lineup has played 4 seasons together. Lillard and Lopez have done a great job of blending in, but I'm skeptical just how high a ceiling this unit has with a few more years of seasoning. Of course, they've surprised me before.
This team shot their wad in the first round. They just weren't there mentally this series. Didn't help when SA drained everything for entire quarters at a time.
Whatever happens this team has to get better defensively if they're serious about competing for anything beyond "feel good" playoff moments.
I was surprised when I heard that eight of our players are in their first or second year in the league. That means seven bench guys and one starter. That's pretty insane. It's not the starting five that's our limiting factor. Even if they don't get any better than they were this year, if we get league average bench performance, we can be a 55+ win team with rested starters.
Everyone forgets that we got by Houston through pure luck, and didn't deserve to face the big dog, San Antonio.
I'd like to see the bench play more next year, even if they are struggling. Especially on back to backs and road trips. Stotts stuck with the same rotations regardless of those circumstances. LaMarcus doesn't need to play the entire first and third quarters. Get him a quick breather. I'm not sure if this is the reason for any of our playoffs losses, but it was a small factor. Playing the bench more will prepare them for when they do have to play. I think this was a big reason for the team fading down the stretch of the season and at the end of a number of those close games.
We threw last game to close out at home(more $$$) and so that we wouldn't have too much time off with the CLippers/Thunder going 6 at least. Good series, you guys have a promising future.
