Don't play starters Thursday in Chicago. Do a Popovich, Doc

by JR99 on Feb 12, 2012 8:27 PM EST

We are playing Detroit in Boston on Wednesday night, then flying to Chicago for a rematch with the Bulls the next night. The dreaded Road-2nd-of-Back-to-Back. The guys will get to bed at about 5am (if they're lucky). Everyone will be ragged. You're probably not gonna win anyway.

So give Stern and Co. the finger and sit all the starters. You've got another road back-to-back on that Sunday/Monday, and more coming fast and furious after that. So don't run em into the ground. It probably won't work anyway. Let them rest once in a while, so that they can survive this absolutely-ridiculous regular season schedule.

Yeah, I know they're pros, etc., etc.... but this schedule is brutal for any human.

Be respectful and keep it clean. Thanks.

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start the subs, rest the starters...

Then in the Chicago game the starters will be fresh…

by greensince72 on Feb 12, 2012 8:34 PM EST reply actions

start Wilcox, Bradley, Pietrus, JaJuan, Pavlovic

make them play hard and tough, and give the starters about 10-15 mins

I don't follow rules, I let the rules follow me.

by relja111 on Feb 12, 2012 10:17 PM EST reply actions

And probably lose

Better to play the starters decent minutes in the Detroit game at home and win it then struggle in Chicago and probably lose than probably lose the Detroit game by not playing your best talent and then still have a battle on your hands with the best team in the east on their grounds the following day.
Playing the starters against Detroit will probably give us a net 1-1 in the coming 2 games. Not playing them will probably yeild a 0-2 result.

by AussieGreen on Feb 12, 2012 11:52 PM EST up reply actions

i think you are over estimating how good detroit is. they are still a pro team but they have a lot of holes i think a team of moore bradley piertrus JJ wilcox sasha is as good as detroit and sprinkle in the vets and it will be an easy win

by JuJuan some moore on Feb 12, 2012 11:59 PM EST up reply actions

detroit scored 77 at home...

In a loss to wizards…well, the wizards are a defensive juggernaught…LOL… seriously though, we could start our bench & Rondo, limit the big 3 to say 15 minutes each and come away with a win…

by greensince72 on Feb 13, 2012 8:57 AM EST up reply actions

i concur...

I really think our backups with Rondo playing 25-30 minutes CAN steal a win from Detroit. Then our team at mostly full strength would have a fighting chance against the bulls, especially if rose is still out with back spasms…

by greensince72 on Feb 13, 2012 12:25 AM EST reply actions

Well

Won’t the starters be rusty coming off the bench playing fresh basketball on a new day? But I do agree with you.

by SparzWizard on Feb 13, 2012 3:59 AM EST reply actions

the starters would love to be rusty VS tired...

It’s a loooong season..

by greensince72 on Feb 13, 2012 9:00 AM EST up reply actions

I can see now the post was not written clearly

I meant to say that the starters should sit when they play in Chicago, because they’ll all be so tired and sleep-deprived and a win against the revenge-seeking Bulls is unlikely anyway given the circumstances. Note: The sleep deprivation will apply to everyone on the team, whether they played the night before or not.

by JR99 on Feb 13, 2012 4:30 AM EST reply actions

But you know what, your ideas are probably better

…because the Bulls game on Thursday will be on TNT, and I don’t think Doc has the gonads to flip Stern off on national TV. So if the starters are gonna rest, it’ll probably have to be Wednesday.

But boy, I would LOVE it if they did sit Thursday. Let chaos reign!

by JR99 on Feb 13, 2012 4:44 AM EST up reply actions

This has been doc's problem...

He has no idea of how to manage the minutes of his vets in back to back games. Its maddening because I believe the bench of JJJ, Steisma, MP, Moore and Bradley should see good PT and not burn the big 3 to the ground. Heck even Popovich has the guts to sit Duncan an entire game if he wants to .

by bopna on Feb 13, 2012 5:58 AM EST up reply actions

the is the problem with this team...

i think the mentality of doc is that…what the heck, the big 3 OR the not so big 3 anymore is getting about 70 percent of salary cap so we might as well get the most out of them and burn them to the ground every single game!!!as i said before doc is not the right coach for this team as of now!!!

by true_celticsphilippines on Feb 13, 2012 8:01 AM EST reply actions