CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Tonight Plus 1

[worldK]

I remember adelman used to try to win the first game of a back to back at all cost. Even once playing love 41 mins when we have a good lead to ensure the W.

Personally, I'm all for minutes management. But tonight, with the game very winnable and a loss would be devastating, I wanted the win badly. Still we won the game and the starters didn't get run to the ground so win win for us.

My problem with Sam this game was more on him not doing anything when the hawks went on a huge run in the 3rd.

Well, were 4-2 (4-0) on the road. I'm thrilled about this.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

(Rubio played 27 minutes. I'm scratching my head as to why Mitchell didn't just go right to him).

That and KAT on the bench so long is the difference between questioning Sam and congratulating him on a great game!

Well, it could be genius. Rubio will have something left in the tank for tomorrow's game and so far so good on the injury front with this team. May be he's really playing the long game here and is willing to sacrifice an L or two in order to keep minutes down.

Is that you Gregg Popovich?

I think a lot of teams are starting to take a page out of Pop's book. Look at what Golden State has done with Curry. They dialed him back to 32 MPG last season in the prime of his career and he's on a similar track this season.

I honestly think part of what's going on here has to do with longer term injury prevention, not just in-game tactics.

To be fair, Steph's minutes were low last year because he didn't even play in a lot of 4th quarters they were blowing teams out so bad. That tends to happen when you have the top offense and defense in the league at the same time.

[Monster]

I hope getting subbed out for Andre doesn't hurt Lavine's confidence. Hopefully he and Mitchell just remember that first half he played. Guy was getting whatever he wanted when he went to the rack, he was basically getting whatever shot he wanted. Of course it all went downhill quickly in the 2nd when we needed a floor general in there but that's not his fault, he's not one. I would love to see Ricky and Lavine playing together.

He only had one turnover, but I really don't blame Sam for putting Miller in there. We needed a steady experienced hand in the game and he didn't want to come back with Ricky so soon. I really didn't see it as an indictment on Zach, I just saw it as time when Sam felt development could take a back seat to winning the game. Zach was exactly what I hope he will be tonight.

The irony was Miller was terrible, there was no steady experienced hand in his minutes.

He looked like he was old and had hardly played any minutes yet this year! Oh wait.....

(Rubio played 27 minutes. I'm scratching my head as to why Mitchell didn't just go right to him).

Here is one possible theory.

Rubio because he is coming back from injury isn't quite in game shape completely yet. Combine that with the fact that he plays balls to the wall when he is in there maybe Sam doesn't think he can play him big minutes and would rather keep him more fresh.

To be fair Atlanta turned it up big time and that lead evaporated absurdly quickly. I was behind watching the game and so I had seen the score so I knew the lead was going to dwindle and I kept expecting it to happen sooner than it did.