Quote:
Originally Posted by bballguy
lmfao wtf are you talking about; how does that relate to Stern in any way whatsoever?...Oh, the Spurs come back and beat the Grizzlies in a big way, that'll show Stern!!........right....
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Really? Pop rested his players for a reason. Look at the Spurs' schedule for the past week. Back to back games twice for Duncan, Parker, Ginobli. Five games in 7 days. The Miami game would have been the fourth game in five nights for these aging stars. The extra days of rest and relaxation showed that Popovich made a good decision in the win against the Grizzlies.
It's about making decisions to manage player minutes.
That's how it relates to Stern. He looks at the league rulebook and decides to levy a big fine. A commissioner, who's never coached a NBA game, who thinks that a coach makes a bad decision in benching the players. Pop's the coach, Stern, not you.
With what Pop did, the NBA fans witnessed two great games. One was a Spurs team played by reserves testing the Heat’s mettle till the end, and the second was a rejuvenated Spurs team making a comeback in the 4th to beat the top team in the West. If Pop didn’t do what he did, the fatigue might have resulted a blowout in Miami, still the same fatigue on key players might have resulted another blowout in Memphis, and worst case one of the Spurs’ 3 might get an injury.
This writer seems to think Stern was heavy-handed in the fine against the Spurs:
David Stern shows leadership fatigue with crackdown on Spurs - NBA - Sporting News
Those guys would have had more fatigue if they played the five games in seven days. San Antonio may not have had the energy to come back and win against the Grizzlies if the big three played the Miami game.
Perhaps this was Pop's rationale for the decision:
Why risk injury to your aging star players by playing them through all those games? -give the bench guys a chance to show more of their game.
Another thing I want to bring up about the league. WTF is going on with the scheduling??? What kind of league makes a team play their fourth game in five nights on national television? A tired Spurs team playing a Miami team that didn't play a game for four straight days? Really Stern?