(05-28-2024, 03:41 PM)Chicagojk Wrote: I feel like I am in a tricky spot tonight.  Sort of thinking about the finals but knowing we still have business to take care of.  This should be another battle. 

If Maxi is a go, I wonder if we should pair his minutes up with Powell?  Give them 15 or so minutes.  They have years of experience playing together and playing with Luka.  May be a way to steal some minutes and then let PJ and Gafford play the majority together.

(05-28-2024, 03:41 PM)Chicagojk Wrote: I feel like I am in a tricky spot tonight.  Sort of thinking about the finals but knowing we still have business to take care of.  This should be another battle. 

If Maxi is a go, I wonder if we should pair his minutes up with Powell?  Give them 15 or so minutes.  They have years of experience playing together and playing with Luka.  May be a way to steal some minutes and then let PJ and Gafford play the majority together.

(05-28-2024, 03:41 PM)Chicagojk Wrote: I feel like I am in a tricky spot tonight.  Sort of thinking about the finals but knowing we still have business to take care of.  This should be another battle. 

If Maxi is a go, I wonder if we should pair his minutes up with Powell?  Give them 15 or so minutes.  They have years of experience playing together and playing with Luka.  May be a way to steal some minutes and then let PJ and Gafford play the majority together.

(05-28-2024, 04:27 PM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: I thought about the same thing.  Maybe you get a few minutes each half doing this.  You probably need 18 minutes of non-Gafford time and maybe 8 minutes of non-PJ time (which is what Maxi is doing if he's in there with Powell).  That 26 minutes might be too much to ask of Maxi.  So, maybe Maxi gets 18 (8 with Powell and 10 at center) and Powell gets 8 (all with Maxi).

The negative of playing Powell and Maxi together is you have two guys playing who haven't played any meaningful minutes in quite a while.  Another option is bumping Green's minutes some more and moving DJJ up to the four in the non-PJ minutes.  That would eliminate the need for Powell and Maxi could get all of  his time at the five.  

All you are really trying to do is survive these minutes.  It is similar to using Green to survive the minutes one of PJ and DJJ are out and using (THJ/Exum/Hardy) to survive the non-Luka and non-Kyrie minutes.  Green is holding his own in this series but we haven't found an answer between THJ, Exum and Hardy for the non-Star minutes.  In what has been a close series, anything that isn't Lively is a problem plus you start to see the cumulative effect of too many dings to the lineup to be able to survive when any of the starters sit.  It puts a ton of pressure on the starters to be really good and avoid foul issues.

(05-28-2024, 03:54 PM)OBX Maverick Wrote: They have years of experience together, but we remember the results! Let’s pair them up for about 5 minutes lol. The other 10 can be anyone else except for DP. Just need enough from Maxi to keep Gafford fresh and to keep him from fouling out. 

Hopefully Gafford plays smart tonight. I noticed he made an effort to do so after the dumb foul right before halftime in game 3.

(05-28-2024, 04:48 PM)Chicagojk Wrote: It is an interesting matchup.  Initially I thought you match their minutes up when Gobert goes to the bench.   Then I thought, you really want to attack the non Gobert minutes when he is on the bench.  Minny is more versatile but Dallas uses this time to really attack the rim.  Not sure a combo of Powell and Maxi gets the maximum benefit here.

(05-28-2024, 04:58 PM)Knutsen Wrote: I think you want to play Maxi when Gobert is on the floor. He‘ll get every rebound as soon as Gafford sits anyway, so why not play five out with Washington and Kleber and maybe Jones and Washington for a couple of stints and put Gobert on skates. We‘ll need a very good offensive performance tonight with consistent shooting to not fall behind too much and then end it in crunch time like the last three games. Only way we lose is if fall behind by 20 or more.

(05-28-2024, 05:21 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: Amy Hockert (@AmyHockert)
.@JonKrawczynski⁩ telling ⁦@DanBarreiroKFAN⁩ what Mike Conley said to him after gm3 is the only thing you need to hear today. “Jon, you’re gonna have a hell of a story to write. We’re gonna make history.”

(05-28-2024, 05:32 PM)Knutsen Wrote: It would be history if they win tonight to end Kyrie‘s undefeated streak in close-out games and lose in 5, wouldn’t it?

(05-28-2024, 05:41 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: How about they lose in a hysterical 50 point blow out?

(05-28-2024, 06:13 PM)BigDirk41 Wrote: Someone on ESPN today was saying, Lively can't turn his neck yet so hopefully we close out tonight and he gets plenty of time to recover. I think it was Windhorst, but I might be incorrect.

(05-28-2024, 05:21 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: Amy Hockert (@AmyHockert)
.@JonKrawczynski⁩ telling ⁦@DanBarreiroKFAN⁩ what Mike Conley said to him after gm3 is the only thing you need to hear today. “Jon, you’re gonna have a hell of a story to write. We’re gonna make history.”