khandor’s sports blog

Thus far, Stan Van Gundy is being out-coached by Doc Rivers

Orlando is now down 0-2, heading to Boston for Game 3.

Q1. How come?

PLAYER USAGE, GAME 1
Orlando Magic			Boston Celtics
Pos	PLAYER	MP	Pos	PLAYER	MP
STARTERS
PG OG	Rondo R-Allen	46 40	PG OG	Nelson Carter	38 41
SF	Pierce	42	SF	Barnes	15
PF C	Garnett Perkins	34 26	PF C	Lewis Howard	42 39
KEY SUBS
G	T-Allen	17	PG	Williams	10
			OG	Redick	19
			SF	Pietrus	20
PF	Davis	15		?	?
C	Wallace	20		Gortat	14
RESERVES
PG	Robinson	DNP	PG	Johnson	DNP
G/F G/F	Finley Daniels	1 DNP
PF	Williams	DNP	PF	Bass	DNP
			PF	Anderson	DNP

Game 2, Box Score

PLAYER USAGE, GAME 2
Orlando Magic			Boston Celtics
Pos	PLAYER	MP	Pos	PLAYER	MP
STARTERS
PG OG	Rondo R-Allen	45 39	PG OG	Nelson Carter	38 26
SF	Pierce	40	SF	Barnes	21
PF C	Garnett Perkins	35 15	PF C	Lewis Howard	41 40
KEY SUBS
G	T-Allen	15	PG	Williams	10
			OG	Redick	34
			SF	Pietrus	16
PF	Davis	28		?	?
C	Wallace	18		Gortat	15
RESERVES
PG	Robinson	DNP	PG	Johnson	DNP
G/F G/F	Finley Daniels	5 DNP
PF	Williams	DNP	PF	Bass	DNP
			PF	Anderson	DNP

A1. Similar to what happened during Boston’s series vs Cleveland …

Thus far, Doc Rivers is significantly out-coaching his counterpart, in terms of how he is using his personnel to best advantage.

The choice going forward for Stan Van Gundy is actually quite simple:

OPTION 1
Keep doing exactly what the Magic have done to this point … and get swept, by losing 4 straight “close” games to an equally strong and championship calibre opponent;

or,

OPTION 2
Stop giving extended playing time to inferior players like Matt Barnes [SF] and JJ Redick [OG], over someone like Mickael Pietrus [G-F] – who is a much btter all-around player – and stop completely sitting out players like Brandon Bass [PF] and Ryan Anderson [PF], in favour of using only Dwight Howard [C], Rashard Lewis [PF] and Marcin Gortat [C/PF] – in an exclusively ”3 Bigs” rotation – when Boston is going with a “4 Bigs” rotation, involving Garnett [PF], Perkins [C], Davis [PF] and Wallace [C] … and, in the process, turn “close-but-no-cigar” losses into out-right W’s.

This is what the “individual Match-ups” have looked like to this point:

No.	Pos	Orlando Magic	vs	Pos	Boston Celtics
1	PG	Nelson/Williams	à	PG	Rondo
2	OG	Carter/Redick	ß	OG	R-Allen
3	SF	Barnes/Pietrus/Carter	à	SF	Pierce
4	PF	Lewis	=	PF	Garnett
5	C	Howard	ßß	C	Perkins
6	G	Redick	=	G	T-Allen
7	PF	Lewis	à	PF	Davis
8	PF/C	Gortat	à	PF/C	Wallace
9			=	G/F	Finley
10	PG	Johnson	=	PG	Robinson
11	PG	Bass	=	G/F	Daniels
12	PF/C	Anderson	=	PF/C	Williams/Scalabrine
13	HC	Van Gundy	à	HC	Rivers
		+3			+5

If, however, SVG shifts to ”individual match-ups” which look like this, instead:

No.	Pos	Orlando Magic	vs	Pos	Boston Celtics
1	PG	Nelson	à	PG	Rondo
2	OG	Carter	ßß	OG	R-Allen
3	SF	Pietrus	à	SF	Pierce
4	PF	Lewis	=	PF	Garnett
5	C	Howard	ßß	C	Perkins
6	G	Barnes/Williams	=	G	T-Allen
7	PF	Bass/Gortat	=	PF	Davis
8	PF/C	Anderson	=	PF/C	Wallace
9	G/F	Redick	=	G/F	Finley
10	PG	Williams/Johnson	=	PG	Robinson
11	PG	Johnson/Barnes	=	G/F	Daniels
12	PF/C	Gortat/Bass	ß	PF/C	Williams/Scalabrine
13	HC	Van Gundy	=	HC	Rivers
		+5			+2

then, Orlando would still have a have a solid chance to win this series in 7 games.

The choice is up to Stan.

Tags: Boston Celtics, Doc Rivers, Orlando Magic, Stan Van Gundy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 11:19 am and is filed under Analytics, Basketball, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Thus far, Stan Van Gundy is being out-coached by Doc Rivers”

Scott G Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Interesting that you think Lewis is even with KG… to me, Lewis has been close to useless against KG, and that matchup is a big reason why BOS is winning this handily at the moment.

Why SVG doesn’t play Anderson against Sheed is beyond me… it’s a perfect matchup against a guy that will otherwise be hard for the ORL bigs to cover at the 3pt line.

Lastly… did you see what happened to Wince Carter? I watched the replay, and I’m still not sure what happened to his left wrist for him to be close to tears. That guy has all the talent in the world but IMO he’s too soft to take a team to the promised land without a LOT of help.
khandor Says:
May 19th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Scott G.,

1. When Garnett is 100% healthy is is significantly better than Lewis, IMO. When Garnett is not 100% healthy, however, then Lewis can hold his own vs the “Big Ticket”.

In Game 1 and Game 2 of this series both players were largely ineffective.

In Lewis’ situation – at least, in part – this is because he is also being asked to play additional minutes vs Glen Davis … who is a very physical player.

Either Bass or Gortat should be playing vs Davis, IMO. This would then provide Lewis with some badly needed rest and give Orlando a totally different look … which Boston would then have to game-plan against, in order to stop effectively.

2. SVG is making a big mistake not playing Anderson vs Wallace.

3. As badly as Orlando’s played in these 2 games … if Wince Carter:

i. Doesn’t go for the step-back jumper – on his drive going left through the lane, in the last few minutes of last night’s game – which he missed, instead of continuing his drive toward the basket, either, for the bucket or the foul;

and,

ii. Doesn’t miss both of his FT’s in the final minute of last night’s game;

there’s a very good chance that this series would be tied 1-1, heading to Beantown.

4. If Orlando can manage to win Game 3 … which is very doable, if SVG just makes a couple of the necessary adjustments … there’s a very good chance that there will be, at least, a Game 6, in this series, back in Boston next week.

5. It’s fortunate for Orlando, and for Wince, himself, that he DOES happen to have a LOT of help with this year’s Magic team … provided that SVG uses it properly.

Thus far, Stan Van Gundy is being out-coached by Doc Rivers

2 Responses to “Thus far, Stan Van Gundy is being out-coached by Doc Rivers”

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