So, I guess now we control our own destiny. Hopefully the Grizzlies and Mavs drop another game so we can rest our starters on Wednesday.
Well great to see Clips beat the Mavs Id rather face them from everybody I'm not gonna lie I thought Dallas would win
Remember that time you said your predictions are never wrong? Haha I just had to throw that out there
Yeah. I'd kind of like it if our final game that mattered was a loss too. Think that gives the team an extra bit of hunger and focus during practice. If Dallas losses at Utah tomorrow we will finish above Dallas. If Memphis losses to the Clippers we will know if we need a win before tipoff of the Denver game. The tricky situation will be if Memphis beats the Clippers and Dallas drops a game. We will expect the Warriors beat Memphis and our game won't matter; but as their game is the same time as our Denver tipoff we won't know for certain if we need to win.
Pretty simple to me. If we can't beat DEN (especially when they are ready to go fishing - it being the last game of the season) then we don't deserve the 5th seed anyways.
Our rotation is fairly new with Harkless starting at SF and Aminu at PF. And our bench rotation is also a little different. The result has been positive, but still I would not say the Blazers are a running like a fine tuned machine. My point? I still don't think they need to rest any players on Wednesday. 1 game in 1 week is not too taxing. I prefer they all play and work on their cohesion.
We're in the playoffs, that's all that matters now....I don't think Will Barton ever wants to go fishing..they have guys with something to play for..I expect them to bring everything they've got...our bench needs to dominate that game. A lot of upsets here in the home stretch across the league and surprisingly few teams resting players
Not a bad argument. Lillard has been the only one who looks fatigued; if he is healed up now we could play everyone against Denver even if we don't need the win.
I wanted us to wrap up the 5th seed so coaches and the team would have extra practice time for this young inexperienced squad to gameplan for the Clips. Now the earliest we can clinch is Tuesday; so it's not as big a deal anymore.
I would love to be able to start Roberts/Pat/Montero/Alexander/Kaman for that game. Would probably play Harkless, Crabbe and Vonleh off the bench in limited minutes.
We should be careful for what we ask for, opponent wise. I don't think any opponent really favors Portland more than any other does.
The players will get plenty of rest this week. Resting players would leave them rusty and slacking off would cause them to lose focus. They need to play that last game like a playoff tuneup and finish the season with a win.
I think the most underrated aspect of playoff ball is swagger....you want to beat the best and fear no one along the way. Every boxer wants a shot at the champ for the title..if you don't, you're in the wrong game
