No, his implication was that in blowout wins the bench was “piling it on”. Read the quote again:
”There is something a little disconcerting about how hard the backups play in garbage time, but at same time it's hard to ask them to play poorly.”
Ok I'm resolving the confusion in my brain gradually. It takes time sometimes.
I made the comment about how it felt to me watching the team playing extremely extremely hard up 70.
Then you said that the backups playing hard in a 70 point blowout prepares them for playing in a future tight game, which was a separate point. I meant to say that I did not see the two situations being very similar. (Aside: if anything it might teach bad habits like overplaying for steals vs a defeated opponent that would probably be fouls in a tight game.)
You responded that I had just been "bitching about the bench players playing hard" which didn't make sense to me as it seemed like you were saying the two things were inconsistent. Bitching about bench players playing hard (I wouldn't call it bitching) wouldn't be inconsistent with saying that playing up 70 is not really good preparation for playing in a tight game.
So I thought you must be saying I'd previously made an inconsistent statement questioning the effort of the backups. I misunderstood your second post.
My apologies. I think I understand now.