It was a 2nd of a back to back. And the coach seemed to forget this. The subs were doing just fine in the 2nd quarter, but he took them all out for the last five minutes of that quarter. Big mistake. Sure, we got a lead on some rediculously good shooting by Sheed, but the starters had nothing left for the 2nd half.

And then to compound things, Flip went back to his starters too early in the 4th quarter.

Go with the bench. If a particular individual blows an assignment and makes the whole bench look bad, take that player off the floor. Not all the bench players with him. What I see is over-reacting by Flip. Too worried his starters have to be out there. Like some kind of security blanket. Let the bench play. Let them flat out fail on occasion. Tinker with the bench. Work it. Get some use out of it.

This two game set was a good start for Flip. He did indeed go to his bench a lot in the first game of this back to back set. Just failed to carry the theme forward. We got more back to backs coming up real quick. Indeed, the next few games are all at minimum the 3rd game in 4 nights. In one case, it will be the 4th game in 5 nights. Flip is going to have to trust his bench. And play every last one of them until he finds something that works. He simply can't afford to keep overplaying his starters.

By the way, a thought occurred. We may have simply gotten off to such a great start because Flip played the bench so extensively in pre-season.