I apologize if this is covered elsewhere -- I try to do my homework, but I don't recall this specific question being considered:
I just found out the relationship between Taking It Easy and increasing enthusiasm. With increasing enthusiasm comes better play. My question is: how much of a hit in performance does Taking It Easy do to a team? Do the starters coast, but the bench play hard? Is everyone off 10%? Is this one of those questions where there are too many other variables (home court, opponents' quality and tactics) to answer?
To put it another way -- I have been winning games by an average of, say, 15 - 20 points a game. Would TIE have resulted in none / a couple / several / all of those games becoming defeats?
I've got some tough opponents coming up, and it would have been nice if my boys had had some extra enthusiasm for the matches.