RealGM

Do you guys buy into the belief that too much time between series can be a bad thing? The pessimists will say that we'll lose our edge and focus. We will be a little bit rusty and forget that we're in the playoffs. One can counter that more time is a good thing to let our guys rest, especially all our injured players. However we have a pretty young team so rest is not as important as it was during our three peat dynasty. So are you guys rooting for an extended series from Utah/Rockets? Or do you want it to end already so our guys can stay focused?

Phil will get the troops ready for the game

its time to get everyone healthy, which would be good

Remember game 1 2001 NBA finals against the 76ers? Lakers had 10 days off between games.

yes, to much time off is counter productive towards the fist game. I have seen it many times. it affects the first and second quater, but then teams get back to their old self in the second half. sometimes it is to late to make a full come back and win that game. (see our first game against the sixers in the 2001 finals)

I am not too worried about our situation right now, because
a) we could use the rest
b) gives us time to heal (Kobes pinky finger, Paus ankle, Fishers foot) and
c) it buys us time to get Ariza and Bynum back.

snaquille oatmeal wrote:yes, to much time off is counter productive towards the fist game. I have seen it many times. it affects the first and second quater, but then teams get back to their old self in the second half. sometimes it is to late to make a full come back and win that game. (see our first game against the sixers in the 2001 finals)

I am not too worried about our situation right now, because
a) we could use the rest
b) gives us time to heal (Kobes pinky finger, Paus ankle, Fishers foot) and
c) it buys us time to get Ariza and Bynum back.

+1

+2 Pau still had swelling the other day.
The only problem is the longer they wait the more pressure it puts on the team and they might come out average in game 1. But this is where the difference in this team is the veteran leadership of Kobe and Fish will not let that happen. The way Kobe was closin out those Denver games, look out Kirilenko.

TommyTheCat wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



+1

+2 Good Post Sanq ....................

Lets just say that I heard it from a close source that ( Take my word for it ) , Kobe has been setting up meetings both at his pad and at the staple center with the team and they have been spending a lot of time watching films on both the Jazz and the Rockets . A LOT OF TIME and Ariza has been active in those meetings .....

I definetly wouldn't mind seeing the Utah Houston series go 7 that's for sure.

Ah, the age old question of REST vs RUST.

I like to be somewhere in the middle.

I'm not against rest when it's needed, which it is for the Lakers right now. Kobe, Fisher and the gang played more minutes than Phil wanted for the home stretch of the regular season.

Flip Saunders was able to limit the minutes of his big four, keeping them to 18 minutes per game for the last couple of weeks. Obviously, it has a short term effect in terms of getting them back to game tempo.

However, what's the alternative? This is the playoffs. If you can win a game, you do everything you can to win it. Dealing with too much rest is a nice problem to have.

The coaching staff just have to do all that's possible to keep them from getting rusty.

Long term, it will prove to be a good thing.