Logo
The Ticker
11 hours ago

Game 6 Will Be Wednesday Night at 8pm on ESPN

After the Thunder finished up their series by routinely dismantling the Lakers last night to send them packing in five games, a time has been announced for the C’s-Sixers Game 6 on Wednesday night. It will tipoff shortly after 8pm on ESPN. Looking ahead in the postseason, if the C’s do win Game 6, and [...]

0
23 hours ago

Highlight: Rondo Leads The Break

I love this decision-making from Rajon Rondo. While leading the break, you can see him eyeballing Ray Allen, who runs the wing and spots up on the arc. The Sixers have a 1-2 disadvantage but are mostly concerned about Allen’s three balls, which allows Mickael Pietrus to make an unmolested baseline cut behind the defense. [...]

2
2 days ago

Celtics-Sixers Game 5 Tips off at 7pm

A note to all you local C’s fans out there that may be attending the game tonight at TD Garden. The game will start just after 7pm and will be broadcast nationally on TNT. However, unlike most TNT regular season games during the season, the tip will not come 15-20 minutes after the scheduled start [...]

4
9 days ago

(Video) Rajon Rondo Continues To Dominate In Postgame Interview

Rajon Rondo is a tremendous player, but he tends to have a little bit of an issue scoring the ball late in games. I won’t go as far as saying he is scared, but he does pass up shots and defer to teammates in crunch-time….well a lot. Last night though may have been his coming [...]

3
10 days ago

Video: Full Kevin Garnett Reaction After Game 1

Garnett followed up his season-best effort against Atlanta in Game 6 with a new season-high in points and another sensational double-double, as well 60 percent shooting (12-of-20) from the field. Over his past two contests, Garnett is averaging 28.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, two steals and four blocks a game. After the game, KG was candid [...]

3
10 days ago

The Enemies List: Philadelphia, Part II

Before every playoff series this season, we’re doing some rundowns on the opposing roster for each team. Now that the Hawks have been dispensed with, we’re onto the Sixers. Here’s Part II. Players are listed in alphabetical order. Andre Iguodala: There are five guys in the league who have a claim on the title of [...]

4
Browse Archives by:

This is not last year: enter the bench

As I wrote here last week, at least one member of the Big Three was on the court for every second of every competitive game during last season’s playoffs. Only at the end of seven blowouts (among 26 games) did Doc leave five back-ups on the floor. 

That coaching style is out the door immediately here in Game 1. 

With 2:02 left in the first quarter and the C’s up 23-19, Doc subbed Eddie House in for Paul Pierce. For the next 1:44, Rajon Rondo played with a rotating cast of Mikki Moore, Leon Powe, Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen and House. 

The Bulls tied the game at 26-26 in that span. (Doc brought Pierce and Allen back in for the last :18 of the first quarter).

Doc started the second qurater with an all-bench line-up–unthinkable last season–of House, TA, Moore, Powe and Marbury. He stuck with that line-up for a full 4:49, and the bench played the Bulls exactly even over that span. (The score was 36-36 when it ended).

Ray Allen and Big Baby re-entered with 7:11 left to go in Q2 (replacing TA and Mikki Moore), and the Bulls outscored that line-up 6-2 over the next 1:53. 

The rest of the starters (Pierce, Perk and Rondo) re-entered at the 5:18 mark with the Bulls leading 42-38 and got outscored 11-6 through the remainder of the quarter. 

So you can’t solely blame the bench for the 53-44 halftime deficit, though they did fail to sustain some early momentum.

In any case, this is yet another consequence of the KG injury–a deeper rotation, with more responsibility for less experienced players. Something to watch as the playoffs move on.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>