Rest players in the home stretch and match up with Washington?

[DJ_RnC]

Why not both? Gain momentum heading into the playoffs but also keep 4th seed. Bulls are playing well too so they're getting closer and closer to locking up the 3rd seed.

[BramptonYute]

Rest the players. They're gonna have to give max effort on the defensive side, so the rest is important. Lowry isnt even 100% right now, so specifically him.

[Hero]

They're so vague with Lowry. Does he need 1 week rest? 2 weeks?

Could be a scenario where he needs to play the last 2-3 games to get back into it.

[S.W.A.N]

Get healthy. That is by far biggest concern...

[deeps6x]

All I know is, whatever the best course of action to take, Casey will do the opposite.


Kinda like when he kept leaving Alan Anderson in a few years ago when we should have been trying to out tank Portland, GS and the Cavs. But hey, Casey didn't, we got Ross instead of Drummond or Barnes or Lillard.

Thanks Dwayne.

Now go ahead and make sure we get Washington and a first round exit instead of the Bucks and a first round win. G'head. I know you are going to. (but I hope it costs you your job)

[Rapsalot]

Bucks would be better option but ChicAgo playing fairly well and we are not. They hold tie breaker since we got swept by them. So we are 3 games back with 9-10 to play. They would have to collapse.

[knickerbocker2k2]

Would much rather face Bucks than Wiz in the 1st round. Wizards on paper have much better team than us and its surprising their struggles this year. 6/10 we beat Wiz, where as its probably 9/10 with the Bucks in 7 game series.

Where its beneficial is 2nd round match up. I think we can take Hawks to 6/7 games, where as Cavs we would be lucky if it weren't a sweep.

[Snooch]

Looking at it strategically, it's clear that Washington is a better matchup than Milwaukee or Miami.

Right now Hollinger has us projected at 48-34 (4th) and Washington at 45-37(5th). If we are 4th then we will play Washington. If we are 3rd it's a little less certain but it looks like it will be Milwaukee. The Bulls are projected to finish 1 game ahead of the Raptors.

So we could see 4th and homecourt being clinched with 3-4 games to go in the season. Would you prefer the Raptors to then rest some of the main guys like Lowry, Derozan and Amir or gun for the best record and 3rd place?

Both 3rd or 4th give home court in the first and not in the second round. At this point it's all about the matchups and I see value in resting so there are no excuses when the first round of the playoffs are here. Amir is always banged up. Lowry seems run down. Some rest could help.

I think washington is a terrible matchup.

Who can contain Wall?, out pgs have been defending horribly for over half of the season, so once wall gets inside that is going to require our bigs to step up to help which allows for wall to dish of either to NEne or Gortat for an easy 2 or out to Beal or Pierce. Our bigs will have a hard time defending such a large area and will get tired which leads to.

Our wings feeling like they need to be the "men" on offence, and we all know that sub 40% shooting on over 75% of the teams offensive possessions is not a formula for any success in the playoffs.

Finally our wings are going to need to defend Pierce. PLayoff Pierce is a different animal than regular season PP, and only guys who can slow him down dont get played by Casey. Also Pierce will absolutely bully Demar making our highest usage, piss poor efficiency top guard be even less efficient.

I would be surprised if this team made it to a game six against Washington with or without rest.

[Danchan]

lol yeah let's play against Paul Pierce!

the way Lowry has been playing defense the last 1/2 season, i wouldn't want him anywhere near John Wall.

[qwikdraw]

But wait isn't TRoss the John Wall stopper???

[DJ_RnC]

RealGM mentality:
"Play the Bucks and Casey gets outcoached by Kidd again. Play the Wizards and Paul Pierce sends the Raptors home early again. Seems like a lose-lose. Should have tanked."

[dublo7]

But wait isn't TRoss the John Wall stopper???

Not sure if you're serious.....

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGAu_DeKckI[/youtube]

But we didn't beat the wiz 3-0 this season by accident; I'm sure some of those 12 quarters meant something. Back to the film room.....

[dublo7]

RealGM mentality:
"Play the Bucks and Casey gets outcoached by Kidd again. Play the Wizards and Paul Pierce sends the Raptors home early again. Seems like a lose-lose. Should have tanked."

[per MJ vs MJ commercial]

... Sam Mitchell walks in "Who got next?"

[BigShotBob13]

Amir needs to be rested prior to the playoffs for sure. I think Lowry will get his forced rest given how the schedule plays out but definitely need him to have a couple of games under his belt to shake off rust.

I'm all for rationing minutes prior to playoffs but this is Casey. He doesn't even pull guys in a blowout win, let alone strategy prior to playoffs.

Oh and FWIW, Patterson just needs to find a way out of his slump prior to the playoffs. He was money earlier in the season, now he can't hit the side of the barn for 3.

[Son Goku 25]

TBH, Wizards are a scary team and if we aren't focused or play the way we usually play during the regular season vs them... they could "upset us".

Key is always stopping Wall from penetrating or letting Beal get hot by getting open looks, we can contain Nene/Gortat and Pierce doesn't scare me as much as before because as long as you don't leave him open or make Amir/pp chase him off the dribble, we'll be fine with him. He has that clutch gene but that won't be necessary if we take care of business.

I'd be furious if JJ isn't playing vs them

[BigShotBob13]

TBH, Wizards are a scary team and if we aren't focused or play the way we usually play during the regular season vs them... they could "upset us".

Key is always stopping Wall from penetrating or letting Beal get hot by getting open looks, we can contain Nene/Gortat and Pierce doesn't scare me as much as before because as long as you don't leave him open or make Amir/pp chase him off the dribble, we'll be fine with him. He has that clutch gene but that won't be necessary if we take care of business.

I'd be furious if JJ isn't playing vs them

You'd be furious... But would you really be surprised?

[DJ_RnC]

I feel like a lot of people here haven't watched the Wizards play except for against the Raptors. I've tuned into the last couple of their games, their offense is more random than ours. Seriously their crunch time play today was a contested 3 by John Wall (this was out of a timeout, unlike like the Lou against Detroit shot). When they played the Hornets, Wall essentially carried them alone.

Beal has never been a danger against the Raptors, their bigs haven't performed defensively. We arguably have the better bench in Vasquez ever decides to show up. If Wall isn't killing it every game, Raptors stand a chance.

Of course they're still a good team and still dangerous and by no-means a guarantee for the second round, but I still think the Wizards would make for a more entertaining series and storyline than playing the Bucks.

[Anticon]

A lot of Wizards fans want to lose against us so their coach will get fired.

It will be an epic series of confusing coaching moves. Wittman is worse than Casey.

[Hero]

Looking at it strategically, it's clear that Washington is a better matchup than Milwaukee or Miami.

Right now Hollinger has us projected at 48-34 (4th) and Washington at 45-37(5th). If we are 4th then we will play Washington. If we are 3rd it's a little less certain but it looks like it will be Milwaukee. The Bulls are projected to finish 1 game ahead of the Raptors.

So we could see 4th and homecourt being clinched with 3-4 games to go in the season. Would you prefer the Raptors to then rest some of the main guys like Lowry, Derozan and Amir or gun for the best record and 3rd place?

Both 3rd or 4th give home court in the first and not in the second round. At this point it's all about the matchups and I see value in resting so there are no excuses when the first round of the playoffs are here. Amir is always banged up. Lowry seems run down. Some rest could help.

I think washington is a terrible matchup.

Who can contain Wall?, out pgs have been defending horribly for over half of the season, so once wall gets inside that is going to require our bigs to step up to help which allows for wall to dish of either to NEne or Gortat for an easy 2 or out to Beal or Pierce. Our bigs will have a hard time defending such a large area and will get tired which leads to.

Our wings feeling like they need to be the "men" on offence, and we all know that sub 40% shooting on over 75% of the teams offensive possessions is not a formula for any success in the playoffs.

Finally our wings are going to need to defend Pierce. PLayoff Pierce is a different animal than regular season PP, and only guys who can slow him down dont get played by Casey. Also Pierce will absolutely bully Demar making our highest usage, piss poor efficiency top guard be even less efficient.

I would be surprised if this team made it to a game six against Washington with or without rest.

Not saying I disagree but I would take my chances with Whittman over Kidd.
Kidd completely outcoached Casey in the last series.
Washington doesn't have the record they do by fluke. They simply are not good. This is why they've lost so much this year and why they have lost specifically to the Raptors.

[Volcano]

lol yeah let's play against Paul Pierce!

the way Lowry has been playing defense the last 1/2 season, i wouldn't want him anywhere near John Wall.

People are overrating Pierce..that series was all Joe Johnson. Raptors were too dumb to feed their big men and take advantage of Pierce at PF. Dude is more a liability now. What we should be more worried about is the P/R against the Wizards with Wall and Gortat..and if Nene gets to be 100%, he'd give us some trouble in the post.