Why are conference finalists using 10-man lineups?

[Brinbe]

it's hard to second-guess a coach from the couch. he knows his soldiers way better than we do. let's give the COTY some due and respect that he knows best.

because personally, i'd say from afar that he possibly has a blindspot for this thing, as he overtrusts his vets and is too harsh on his young guys.

and it's not like our bench wasn't a big part of why we were able to weather so many injuries to key guys. our bench was a strength and could match up with who boston threw out there, at least when they had some of their bench guys out there. it's not like we can't stagger our starters a bit.

and the thing is, and i'll use the rise of alejandro kirk for the jays as a recent example, is that you have nothing really to lose if you give someone a shot. you never know what someone like a davis, thomas, boucher, or even a watson could possibly give you. it paid off for the nuggets with dozier the other game.

but you know what, i'll defer to coach. at the end of the day, if pascal even shoots a wee bit better, we win that series.

[vulture]

Lol the heat and Celtics both played 7 guys last night.

The kids on this board don’t really watch the games.

[visionquest]

Lol the heat and Celtics both played 7 guys last night.

The kids on this board don’t really watch the games.

Boston played 10, Miami 8.

Only 1 player on each team hit 40 min.

[BBallG]

I like Nurse more than any other coach we've had by a long shot, but he was riding our starters hard from the very beginning of the regular season. It got to the point where many people, including myself, were saying someone needs to remind Nurse we're not in the finals anymore. It seemed like the only reason the bench guys got playing time was because of injuries.

I trust his judgement, but from the outside looking in, that's really the only subjective criticism I have of him.

[Chandan]

It wasn't how many men we played. We just lacked the single most important personale you need to go deep into the playoffs.

I dont think any of the guys we had on the bench were a game changer (TD isn't ready)

[StopitLeo]

Lol the heat and Celtics both played 7 guys last night.

The kids on this board don’t really watch the games.

Boston played 10, Miami 8.

Only 1 player on each team hit 40 min.

We have to look at the actual minutes and whether they are meaningful. For example, Boston played Grant Williams for 45 seconds to end the 3rd quarter.

Also, using a hard 40 minute mark is a bit misleading. Tatum played 39:27, Dragic played 39:07, and Butler played 38:33. Depending on when the mandatory timeouts come could easily push those over 40 minutes.

[StopitLeo]

I like Nurse more than any other coach we've had by a long shot, but he was riding our starters hard from the very beginning of the regular season. It got to the point where many people, including myself, were saying someone needs to remind Nurse we're not in the finals anymore. It seemed like the only reason the bench guys got playing time was because of injuries.

I trust his judgement, but from the outside looking in, that's really the only subjective criticism I have of him.

I think the first month was to establish expectations. He literally called the new guys out about how they practiced and how they play defense. I can see Nurse needing to set an example with playing only his main guys.

In the next few months the minutes were more spread out with RHJ being healthy and both he and TD cracking the rotation.

Injuries really affected things. For example, when Lowry was hurt you had to play Fred more. Guys like Boucher, TD, Thomas, and (ugg) McCaw were getting minutes by November-December. But seriously, we are talking about the 8th-9th-10th man off the bench. I don't think any more minutes would have made a difference to how those guys could have contributed in the playoffs.

[visionquest]

Lol the heat and Celtics both played 7 guys last night.

The kids on this board don’t really watch the games.

Boston played 10, Miami 8.

Only 1 player on each team hit 40 min.

We have to look at the actual minutes and whether they are meaningful. For example, Boston played Grant Williams for 45 seconds to end the 3rd quarter.

Also, using a hard 40 minute mark is a bit misleading. Tatum played 39:27, Dragic played 39:07, and Butler played 38:33. Depending on when the mandatory timeouts come could easily push those over 40 minutes.

Bigger point is Nurse had our starters playing 40+ minutes and even 50+ in the OT game. That's alot of pressure on those guys with no "blow".

[SurgeIblocka]

I think what makes me mad is that Pascal was playing worse than a bench player for many stretches, to me thats a signal you should play a bench player in his place to see if it can give you a spark, or at least Play Ibaka more who is really a starter on the bench and was playing well. This just came down to Nurse not wanting to hurt Pascals feelings, but I say fk that! If your not living up to what is expected and the series is on the line then changes need to be made. If your going to cry about being benched your not a team player.

We lost the series by a couple of plays, using some
Bench players more could absolutely have helped. If it didnt no loss, its not like Pascal wS giving you anymore for the 7 games!

[Kevin Willis]

As a coach benching your star players that quickly could make those players resent you very quickly. Especially if the ones coming in are not any better. Matt Thomas is not the answer. Boucher and RHJ are not the answer.

Pascal was historically bad offensively but very good defensively. Gasol was disgusting on offence but he anchored the defense well. Coaching is such a tough job. You're managing egos, plays, time management. You have guys like Lowry and FVV who came come up big for you in the past. Lowry would play the whole game if he could. If OG was a little bit better offensively they could've beaten Boston too. Then as a coach you have to deal judging after the fact. You kept so and so out there for 2 min too long or in this play you needed this, why didn't you bring in that. Or why didn't you ride your stars. I am sure Nurse doesn't care about all that right now, probably off somewhere playing his guitar, looking at his championship ring.

[douggood]

Boston played 10, Miami 8.

Only 1 player on each team hit 40 min.

We have to look at the actual minutes and whether they are meaningful. For example, Boston played Grant Williams for 45 seconds to end the 3rd quarter.

Also, using a hard 40 minute mark is a bit misleading. Tatum played 39:27, Dragic played 39:07, and Butler played 38:33. Depending on when the mandatory timeouts come could easily push those over 40 minutes.

Bigger point is Nurse had our starters playing 40+ minutes and even 50+ in the OT game. That's alot of pressure on those guys with no "blow".

top 4 players on both teams in minutes played in the boston series

tatum 293
kemba 281
brown 276
smart 275

fvv 297
lowry 294
pacal 285
og 263


it was a close series and both teams shortened rotation.

[StopitLeo]

We have to look at the actual minutes and whether they are meaningful. For example, Boston played Grant Williams for 45 seconds to end the 3rd quarter.

Also, using a hard 40 minute mark is a bit misleading. Tatum played 39:27, Dragic played 39:07, and Butler played 38:33. Depending on when the mandatory timeouts come could easily push those over 40 minutes.

Bigger point is Nurse had our starters playing 40+ minutes and even 50+ in the OT game. That's alot of pressure on those guys with no "blow".

top 4 players on both teams in minutes played in the boston series

tatum 293
kemba 281
brown 276
smart 275

fvv 297
lowry 294
pacal 285
og 263


it was a close series and both teams shortened rotation.

Yeah, once Stevens was asked why he didn’t sub more and his answer was that Nurse didn’t either; I’m sure Nurse’s answer would been similar. Basically, both coaches recognized they needed to play their best players and couldn’t afford to concede playing any of their bench against the opponent’s starting lineup.

[WaltFrazier]

Our bench guys were fine in the regular season but not ready for the playoffs. I wish Masai had acquired one veteran scorer who could have helped in the playoffs, The vets on our bench (outside the top 7 rotation), RHJ and Stanley Johnson, weren't good enough, and Matt, Davis and Boucher were too inexperienced for the playoffs. One more vet who could actually score would have given us an 8 man rotation and would have been enough to beat Boston.

[RaptorsNorth]

I’ve figured Nurse out from this playoff run. Dude went full Tommy T and overplayed certain guys because he doesn’t actually know how use guys like Thomas. You need to actually make adjustments to hide those guys on defense and Nurse likes players that he can just throw out there and they do the work on both ends. Those guys make his job a lot easier where guys like Thomas need to be in certain system on the floor and not all coaches know how to coach players like that. Guys like OG, Lowry, Norm ect.. those guys play on both sides of the ball. Lowry is a coach on the floor and calls more shots than some of this fan base thinks. If gasol wasn’t a future hall of famer that’s well respected around the league best believe he would haves benched him. His reputation is what kept him out there while being pretty much irrelevant.

You know I’m no homer and always call it how I see it and to be truthful I think Erik Spoelstra and Stevens are both better coaches than Nurse.