We will find ourselves extraordinarily busy for the next month. In the course of the 30 days of November, we will play 17 games.
We will play 8 games at home in Philips, and 8 more games on the road (we already beat Charlotte Sunday) — including trips to Western Conference cities Minneapolis, New Orleans, Memphis and San Antonio.
The NBA took steps to reduce the number of back-to-back games as well as the number of times that teams face a schedule of four games in five nights. No team plays the 4-in-5 gauntlet more than twice this season.
We have two such sets of four games in five nights this season, and both take place in November.
Head coach Mike Budenholzer will find himself tasked with figuring out appropriate workloads for each of his players. In back-to-back wins over New York and Charlotte, Budenholzer chose to sit Thabo Sefolosha and Kyle Korver on opposite ends of a back-to-back set of games. Coach Bud is taking a comprehensive and long-term view of the season, prioritizing player health over the 82-game season as he works Korver and Sefolosha through the challenging schedule.
Budenholzer said of the tactic, “I could see where this won’t be the first or only time we do it.”
Budenholzer also said that even though Korver and Sefolosha are both play on the wing, the extra minutes could be spread around to players like point guard Dennis Schroder and center Tiago Splitter.
“Yeah, that is something we looked at in the preseason,” Budenholzer said. “Playing Jeff (Teague) and Dennis is something we’ve done in the past and plan to use in the future, and playing the three big guys together (Splitter, Al Horford, and Paul Millsap) is something we did in the preseason and I think we plan to use it in the regular season.”
With Korver resting Friday, Schroder started and played 33 minutes. For the season, the 22-year-old is shooting 47% from the field and averaging 13.3 points per game in 24.5 minutes played
Maybe November’s 17 games will turn out to be a good thing. The last time we played as many games in one month, our starting five was named as the co-Eastern Conference Players of the Month, and we went 17-0.
Story by KL ChouinardTwitter: @KLChouinard
