Houston Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni puts a lot of faith in his players. So much so that D'Antoni often opts against calling timeouts in crucial junctures, and instead just lets his players play out the possession.
Speaking to Michael Pina of Sports Illustrated, D'Antoni shed some light on his thought process during these types of instances:
“What am I gonna do, say ‘Oh, let me take the ball out of James's hand, then take it out, call a timeout, put it back in their hands in the exact same spot they were?'” D'Antoni says. “We just go with it.”
It's hard to argue against D'Antoni's logic here, especially when he has the reigning MVP on his side. Then again, this has always been his style in his 15-year tenure as an NBA head coach.
One other trademark for D'Antoni is his refusal to call timeouts when opposing teams go on scoring runs. The 67-year-old actually believes that this is not a good tactic:
“There are no analytics that really proves that if you call a timeout, it stops the run of the other team,” he says. “Actually, there's evidence that doesn't support that.”
D'Antoni is definitely not your typical NBA coach, and he will need to pull out all the stops on Saturday as his team faces off against the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of their second-round playoff matchup. With the Rockets in a hole after losing the first two games of the series, D'Antoni and company will need to be at their very best if they hope to upset the defending champs.
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