Deron Williams and Others Want to End the Season

With the playoffs creeping by and the Eastern Conference standings pretty much set, coaches typically have the dilemma of playing their star players or not. The risk of injury looms over the heads of many, especially after the recent stumble that has Kobe Bryant sidelined for six to nine months. Is it worth playing your star players for a couple of more games?

Deron Williams and others in the locker room wished to play in hopes of somehow grabbing that third seed. Coach P.J. Carlesimo granted their wish.

“The sense from the other day is they’d rather continue to play than rest,” Carlesmimo said. So we’re not going to play them 39 minutes and we may not play all of them in back-to-backs. Their sense was not, ‘I’m banged up let’s rest for a couple days.’ Their sense was, ‘We’re playing good right now, let’s keep it going.’

“They will have a lot of input.”

 As for concerns about injury, Carlesimo addressed those too.

“Guys get hurt in practice. It’s an unfortunate thing. The one that really hurts is late in the game, that’s the one you agonize over. How big a lead is a safe lead? When do you get guys off the floor? That’s the one you can’t afford, is to have people in there when it’s unnecessary." 

“When you’re playing for a playoff position, particularly when you have a guy (Bryant) who’d play 48 minutes if you’d let him. I think there’s been a lot of unfair commentary directed toward Mike. The only way you get Kobe off the floor is you pull him off the floor. It’s just very, very unfortunate for them and him playing as well as he’s been playing. It’s bad for us. He’s one of the best players in the game so that will detract a little bit from the playoffs if L.A.’s in. With what we’re dealing with right now, if you shut somebody down and don’t play them at all, it probably increases their chances of getting hurt the same way.”

The Brooklyn Nets are currently 47-32, a dramatic increase in wins compared to the last few years. If the Nets win out and the Pacers lose out, the team will hit 50 wins and grab the Eastern Conference 3rd seed as well. It may not be probable, but its something the players want to chase after.
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