Was the 12 point 4th quarter in the Feb 25 Rockets game a record low in the NBA? In what other NBA games has a team scored 12 or less points in the entire 4th quarter?
Wow! Thanks for the quick answer. The fact that the Blazers had only 5 points in the 4th in the Mar 15, 2006 New Jersey Nets game makes the visit to Basketball-Reference.com informative. The burning question is why not make substitutions to get fresh energy late in the game? Are there any stats that report on frequency of substitutions in the 4th quarter? I haven't found any.
There are WAY too many factors at play as to why they happen, so substitutions isnt the end all-be all. And you've never been to BR?
Maybe substitution frequency is not the most incisive question, but what analysis would approach the strategic challenge? Why wouldn't the coaches want to respond to seeing the Blazers being locked down and flagging by sending in fresh energy?
I like a lot of what Stotts does, but his rigid substitution patterns always bug me a bit. He's done well at spreading the minutes around for everyone and keeping CJ and/or Dame on the floor at all times, but when you've got a Harden playing the whole second half and lanky wings (Ariza/Brewer) being put on your only two create-for-themselves scorers, coach has to be willing to try something different. It's not like it's an approach he's never seen before, because he did it to opposing PGs all the time with Batum! On the one hand, our players know their roles. On the other hand, the opponent knows our roles, too. I think it's good to mix it up a bit even when things are going well, just to keep the opponent guessing. No one does that sort of thing better than Poppovich.
That's a question for Stotts. Besides, at that point, the only fresh energy is the end of the bench guys or the guys that failed at some point during the game and found themselves there.... so sometimes, you just have to roll with who you trust... and they may or may not come through for you... that's the game. It happens somewhat rarely though.
Stotts gives his regular rotation guys plenty of rope to shoot out of slumps...more often than not, they do but when they don't, he's willing to live with the result. Baseball does the same often with pitchers...let them pitch themselves out of trouble. In the long run, they become better pitchers. I have no problem with his rotations this season.
When we look back at a historically bad quarter of course we can say the coach should've done something different because we know what he did didn't work. At the time the coach doesn't have such luxury.
