Washington coach mulls lineup shuffle
Down 2-0 in playoffs against red-hot Raptors
WASHINGTON • Scott Brooks has a big decision to make before Friday night. With his Washington Wizards down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors, should the coach keep the status quo and start 6-foot-11 centre Marcin Gortat (6.5 points and four rebounds in the two games)? Or does desperation call for a more radical approach, shaking up the starting five with 6-foot-8 forward Mike Scott (17 points and 3.5 rebounds)?
Tuesday night after the Game 2 loss, Brooks alluded to the possible change by responding to a question about Scott’s success in the backup centre role. “Who knows? (Scott) might be in the starting five,” Brooks said.
Scott started only one game this season, replacing the injured Markieff Morris as the power forward in a Dec. 13 matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies. Gortat has been the one constant in the Wizards’ starting lineup over the last two seasons under Brooks, not missing a single opening tip. So, changing the starting lineup to go small would be massive, though not unprecedented.
If, in fact, Brooks’ declaration served as a preview for a Game 3 shift, rather than something blurted out in frustration following a loss, then he can look to recent NBA playoff history as a guide.
A bold lineup change worked for the Golden State Warriors. During the 201415 season, the Warriors set the NBA ablaze by lofting 3-pointers in heavy volume and running up a leaguebest 110.0 points per game while anchored by 7-foot centre Andrew Bogut.
But when the Warriors met the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2015 NBA Finals, the team fell into a 2-1 series hole. Coach Steve Kerr responded by moving forward Andre Iguodala into the starting lineup to replace Bogut in Game 4. Though Iguodala had not started a game at all that season, his presence created a small lineup that forced Cleveland into mismatches.
The Warriors won the last three games, taking the championship and laying the foundation of their NBA reign. Bogut played less than three minutes for the rest of the series while Iguodala was named Finals MVP.
Golden State didn’t give birth to the small-ball trend and Kerr wasn’t the only coach to make a high-stakes change in the Finals. In 2011, the Dallas Mavericks similarly had fallen into a deficit against a LeBron James-led team. In Game 4 against the Miami Heat, coach Rick Carlisle started diminutive guard J.J. Barea in place of the bigger, traditional shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson.
Barea’s playmaking skills combined with Jason Kidd’s passing mastery caused problems for the Miami defence — Dallas played a heavy point guard rotation with another small guard, Jason Terry, coming off the bench and logging more minutes than Barea. The move made Carlisle look like a coaching genius, as the Mavericks also overcame a 2-1 deficit and won the next three games to take the title.
But not every starting lineup change in the playoffs ends with a championship.
In 2007, the top-seeded Mavericks, then coached by Avery Johnson, never got close to hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy. In the regular season, centre Erick Dampier started the thirdmost games on the team as Dallas posted an NBAbest record of 67-15. Then, the Mavericks opened the first round against the No. 8-seeded Warriors, a hightempo team with an aversion to defence but an affection for 3s. Ahead of Game 1, Johnson chose to combat the Warriors’ strengths by sitting Dampier in place of the 6-8 Devean George.
The decision backfired. Dallas lost Game 1 and the team nicknamed the We Believe Warriors went on to take the series in six games, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.
These current Wizards are not the 2015 Warriors nor the 2011 Mavericks and one lineup shift will not cure their problems.