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Originally Posted by Dumars4Ever  Inconsistent game through the first three quarters...a 9 point lead at halftime shrunk all the way to 2 at one point in the 3rd, thanks to some surprisingly bad D with Bargnani and Calderon getting wide open looks almost every time down, with Rasheed's long bombs being the only reason the Raptors didn't take the lead. Stuckey brought a huge spark at the beginning of the 4th to push the lead out to double digits--steals, fastbreaks, getting into the lane, even hitting a jumper. CB kept it going after he came back in, and that was it. Rip stayed super hot from the floor, 8-11, and the scoring was balanced again with 5 guys in double figures and two more with 8.
Lots of complaining about the minutes for the starters in chat, but it didn't look too bad to me. Rip did play 39, but "the best conditioned player in the NBA" can surely handle that every now and then. The other starters played between 34 and 35 minutes, Tay a little closer to 36. |
I wasn't in the chat, but i think the complaining stems from the fact (at least for me) that the starters played unnecessary min. Jarvis was on but Tay still played 36 min. No Afflalo in the 2nd half. And we desperately need a 4th big b/c Amir isn't going to play or Max needs to play more min. Why he gets so little is beyond me.
The bench is supposed to play every game, and come in at regular intervals; not just when there is a double digit lead/blow-out. That's the whole point of having a bench. We were ahead in the 2nd quarter w/ the bench sorta grinding it out. Flip doesn't seem to have the stomach for that though.
This could all be made better by the bench getting major PT in the BOS game especially Afflalo who i think it would be a huge mistake not to play, but i'm not going to hold my breath.
Also look for Ray Allen to go off tomm (he shot awful against MEM), and only around 29, 34 (close to that) for Pierce and KG respectively <- I take that back, just checked the updated boxscore.
edited to add;
Does anybody know if Lindsey is active tomm?