LeBron James Speaks On NBA Coaches’ Choices To Bench Key Players

“And then you don’t play the next night after”.

Silver’s suggestions could lead to teams making up injuries to get their top players the time off they need. But there was coffee. After shelling out more than a few shekels for parking and refreshments and souvenirs, you finally get to the seats that you had to pay through the nose for.

Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue may have won the game, but he said his team had coasted for three quarters before launching a rally in the final period against the Los Angeles Lakers. It was referring to the Golden State Warriors’ decision to sit out their key players during a recent game against the Spurs.

It’s all in the name of rest.

The fans paying for high-priced Staples Center seats, or tuning in for a national television game between title contenders? The Memphis Grizzlies are a game back of the Clippers.

“But coach’s job is to figure out a way to get a team to compete for a championship, and not compete for a game”. It was the Knicks’ fourth defeat in five games and the second time they fell to the Nets in the past week.

Take the 1992-93 Suns, for instance. As a note, the Warriors fly back to San Antonio next week – again during the second night of a back-to-back (with a game against the Houston Rockets the night before).

Dan Majerle played in every single game.

Extrapolating this for the rest of the playoffs, the Cavaliers would have a 41 percent chance of reaching the NBA Finals as a member of the East, compared to an 18 percent chance if they had to navigate their way through the West – and that’s assuming the toughest possible matchups in the East as a No. 1 seed compared to the easiest road in the West as a No. 4.

“No. It’s not the minutes, it’s the games”, James told ESPN.com.

He wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“I mean, it’s stupid”, Lue said Sunday when asked about the league’s reaction. “I never wanted to come out of a game”. I hate it for the fans.

“Their team chemistry is off the charts”, Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell said. Eight of them ended up in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He ultimately believes that benching star players is not an issue, but something that must happen in the league every so often. The transition games were lethal (hint: do a YouTube search on Magic Johnson and James Worthy).

Then there’s the expansion Suns of 1968-69. “We’ve still got to be better in other games as well”. As for who takes the responsibility for that – it could be just the home team, or a shared expense by both teams playing that night (since it’s usually the road club’s stars who are the ones sitting), or it could come out of the league’s piggy bank. Hopefully from this point forward, all sides will start working together to make sure that the sport’s best players are on the court for the biggest games, which is ultimately what everybody wants.

Clippers: Travel to Dallas to meet the Mavericks on Thursday for the third time this season.

There are also more stats to judge how valuable a player is. That’s a great question. “I don’t understand why it’s become a problem now, because I sit out a couple games?”

“(The Lakers) played well against us, but I know our team and the way we are”, Lue said. Marcus Morris had 16 points and Reggie Jackson 14.

“There’s owners that are not even around the teams”, he said.

I realize that these options (especially the season-shortening one) are pie-in-the-sky.

But, judging from Silver’s reaction and the amount of talk on the subject, this is a growing problem that needs swift action, flexibility and out-of-the-box thinking to curb.