Another example: On Tuesday night Portland, a slow team, played super fast Memphis. Portland's starting point guard is Andre "not as fast as I used to be" Miller. Was Miller going to get back and stop O.J. Mayo and Mike Conley on the break? Not so much, it turned out. Instead, he abandoned that task much of the game to crash the offensive boards like the center Portland doesn't have. Heroically, one of the smallest players on the floor, who prefers not to jump, grabbed a whopping ten rebounds, five at the offensive end.
But as Miller was seeking offensive rebounds, he was busy not slowing the Grizzlies in the open court.
Was that a shrewd move on Miller's part? Were the rebounds more valuable than getting back on defense? I don't know. Blazer fans certainly cheered his grit.
But Coach Nate McMillan acted less impressed. He benched Miller for almost the entire fourth quarter, only inserting him when Juwan Howard fouled out with eight seconds left. (That also could have been because Miller is one of the team's elder statesmen who had been playing really hard for two straight nights.)
