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The Brooklyn Nets are on the verge of making the Eastern Conference Finals after taking a 3-2 lead over the Bucks on Tuesday night in an epic comeback victory. Brooklyn will get the chance to advance to the conference finals in Game 6 on Thursday, but TNT analyst Reggie Miller floated a bold new plan: What if they lost instead?
I’m just going to throw this out there to see what the responses will be.. If your Steve Nash and the Nets, would you sit James Harden AND Kevin Durant in Game 6 because of the heavy minutes tonight, and push all your chips to the center of table for Game 7??
— Reggie Miller (@ReggieMillerTNT) June 16, 2021
Miller idea comes after Kevin Durant played all 48 minutes in one of the greatest performances of his historic career. James Harden also played 46 minutes on one leg as he returned from an injured hamstring. Miller doesn’t want to see Durant or Harden get hurt in Game 6, but this is still a wild idea.
The only logical explanation I can think of for this scheme is that Reggie has a stack on the Bucks in Game 6 — because my goodness, this is some weird reasoning. I mean look, there’s logic to the idea of resting your star players strategically to keep the run going, especially how grueling the Olympic-shortened NBA season has been, but taking a mulligan in Game 6 for a close playoff series? What?
Make no mistake: Resting Harden and Durant would give Milwaukee a W. It just would. Yes, it would give the team four days of rest before Game 7, which would take place on Saturday — but you know what else gives them rest? Just winning Game 6.
The Hawks and Sixers are locked at 2-2. They earliest a possible Game 1 in the Eastern Conference Finals would be Sunday, and that’s assuming either team wins two in a row.
So, under the Miller plan the Nets throw Game 6 by resting its stars, then win Game 7 on Saturday — then return to the court for Game 1 on Monday. By playing everyone on Thursday the Nets would give everyone a POTENTIALLY just two days off, but as many as four if Sixers vs. Hawks go to seven, and then you have an incredible edge of everyone being well rested for the Eastern Conference Finals.
Wait ... why am I even trying to logic this out? Intentionally losing a Game 6 to put every ounce of pressure on one game is just dumb. No Reggie, bad idea Reggie.