esqtvd wrote:rocketsfan100 wrote:Can anyone explain why harden was benched for almost the entire third quarter when Russ and George were awful?
PG was getting a blow. He still played 36 minutes. Harden left at the 7:36 mark with the Clippers down 4. They were down only 6 until Mann came in for George with 3:26 left.
Then the spit hit the fan. OKC went on an 11-3 run to close the quarter and we never recovered.
Harden started the 4th quarter and would have played the rest of the way [33 minutes total] but Ty waved the white flag with 3:53 left and subbed him out.
Not sure Ty could do much else. Basically the problem was defense and Beard is not the cure. OKC got 30 fast break points and we got 10. The problem was too many cheap baskets.
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ADD: I'm getting a ton of heat on Twitter/X from some dude blaming Ty for not trying PJ. LOL.
Look, I think the time might be coming, but a) tonight was not the night b) you have to get everyone onboard like when they benched Russ, that this ain't gonna work with these young teams like OKC and MINN and c) I don't think PJ's gonna be any better. He's worth another go, but he's already played himself out of the rotation once.
And what happens when you hit the panic button and it doesn't work?? It's even harder to go back to Plan A. Look what happened when they yo-yoed Mann in and out of the starting line-up.
[Which might be part of Plan B too, but that's another can of worms!]