214. Carlisle: I want to coach the Bad Boys... Legion!_3

…

Bickerstaff continued the practice of going toe-to-toe with the stars, actively relying on his own stars unlike Saunders who was forced to depend on them.

Who says Jeff Van Gundy's approach is useless? It's just that the Rockets' lineup wasn't up to par. Look at them here; with a few capable players, isn't this strategy quite effective?

Zhang Yang continued to play.

In the first quarter he played less than 8 minutes, just over 6 minutes in the second quarter, and 10 minutes in the third; for the first three quarters, he only played 24 minutes. Plus, his defensive role was similar to a greatly injured McGrady, mostly taking care of Prince and Delfino who lacked ball-handling abilities and had a single scoring function, so he was in good physical condition.

Through the arrangement of defensive roles and lineup rotation, Bickerstaff created the conditions for Zhang Yang to play the entire final quarter.