One All-Star weekend, becoming the coach of the Western Army, being confessed by Swift, and being praised by Maddie for a while, Tang Tian did nothing, and became the absolute focus of the entire league.

On this night, the media reported that he was endless, with the New York media describing him as a genius coach, the Los Angeles media calling him a talking coach, and the Houston media even praising him as the godfather of a new generation of basketball.

Domestic fans are even more envious of Tang Tian, who was promoted and raised at the age of 23, and looked like he was going to win Bai Fumei and go to the peak of his life!

However, Tang Tian himself did not have much mood swings, and after the press conference, he flew back to Houston with Thibodeau that night.

For him, the All-Star Game doesn't matter, the second half of the season is what matters.

A week after the All-Star break, the season's trade deadline approached.

However, compared to previous years, this year's movement is much smaller.

Iverson was traded to the Nuggets, and Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington were traded to Golden State, and these big trades were completed long before the deadline, and the trade deadline was mostly a few small fights.

The Rockets' roster tends to be basically complete, there is no better point guard on the market than Blake, and the veteran Rockets with a big contract don't want it, so the lineup basically hasn't changed.

However, unchanged is not necessarily a bad thing, and when the lineup remains the same, the team's tacit understanding is getting higher and higher.

On February 24, in the first game after the All-Star break, the Rockets challenged the Lakers away, and all seven of the team scored double-doubles, defeating the opponent 106-93, and Kobe Bryant scored 51 points.

On Feb. 26, the Rockets sat at home to meet the Bulls, and Blake had a season-high 11 assists and hit 16 three-pointers as the team won 121-87 and the team won two in a row.

On February 28, on the last day of February, the Rockets went to Detroit to challenge the Pistons, and in the face of opponents who had previously lost badly this season, the Rockets played a classic game, the team handed out a full 41 assists, defeated the opponent 116-97, won three consecutive wins, and almost broke the record of 47 assists in a single game set by the Suns in 91.

……

Throughout the game from late February to early March, the Rockets showed the state of a championship division, winning consecutive games, with an impressive record of 8 wins and 2 losses in 10 games, and the record continued to lead the league.

In the new edition of the power rankings, the team finally beat the Mavericks and the Suns and came to the top of the list for the first time.

It's been less than a month since the start of the playoffs, and the Rockets are ready for the playoffs.

But just then, the unexpected happened, it was a game against the Warriors, Maddie stepped on Stephen Jackson's foot while breaking through and fell to the ground in pain.

The moment Maddie fell to the ground, the entire Toyota Center was silent, and Tang Tian also stood up from the bench suddenly.

The Rockets team in the previous life was destroyed in the hands of injuries, although there is a system in hand now, but honor points are very valuable.

Fortunately, Maddie was finally helped to the sidelines by the team doctor, and insisted on sitting on the sidelines to watch the whole game, and it didn't seem that the situation was too serious.

The post-race MRI showed that Maddie had only broken his foot and would recover after a week of rest.

There was a false alarm, but after the game of this game, Tang Tian already had an idea in his heart, so he went directly to Dawson's office.

"Rotation?" When he heard Tang Tian say these two words, Dawson was full of surprise.

Tang Tian nodded.

Rotation rest, NBA teams have had it back in '06, when the Suns were not injured Nash and Bell, and the team gave them a break in the name of a rotational break.

But in his previous life, it was Spurs head coach Bo who really "carried forward" the word. Povich.

Tang Tian remembers that it was November 2012, when the Spurs challenged the Cavaliers away. Povich had Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, and Green all fly back to San Antonio after practice, which ultimately led him to a $2w5 fine from the league.

Of course, according to the timeline, it will be five years later, which is why Dawson is so surprised, after all, this kind of thing is still very rare, and in a sense, it is a very hurtful behavior for fans.

"Yes, there are a lot of games in the NBA regular season, but the time is short, the schedule is very dense, and the players are already very tired at this point in time, and T-mac's injury is a warning." Tang Tian followed.

"You can cut down on their playing time a little bit? Or expand the rotation? Dawson said after a moment of deep thought.

"I'll do that, but in some necessary games, like back-to-backs, or three games in five days, I still recommend a rotation."

Dawson stared at Tang Tian for a while, saw Tang Tian's determined eyes, and finally nodded in agreement.

"I'll figure it out with the management and the fans." He finally added.

This is his last year as general manager, and he originally just wanted to retire peacefully, but Tang Tian led the team to play an unprecedented result, which gave him new ideas, and if he could bring one more championship trophy to Houston in the final year, it would definitely be worth it.

Therefore, Tang Tian's request, he will do his best to meet it.

After all, he has been the general manager for more than ten years, and has brought two championship trophies to the Rockets, and his vision is still very accurate.

On March 13, the Rockets challenged the Celtics at the bottom of the East, Yao Ming missed the game because of "personal affairs", but the difference in strength between the two teams was too great, even if Yao Mai was absent, the Rockets still won 98-86.

On March 14, the Rockets faced the Cavaliers, Yao Ming returned, but the team's starting small forward Battier sat off the court for a whole game because of the sudden discomfort before the game, and the Rockets finally lost 96-101.

On March 16, the Rockets challenged the Mavericks, the archrival in the same region, except for the injured Maddy, the team played all the players, but Yao Ming, Battier and other key players did not play more than 25 minutes, and the team finally lost to the opponent 90-116.

……

Throughout late March and early April, when the Rockets encountered a dense schedule, some people on the team were absent from the game for some strange reasons, and the fans were not stupid, and probably guessed that the Rockets were doing a rotation.

The league also noticed it, but because there were no specific regulations, and the number of games the Rockets took off was not much, they did not pursue it in the end.

Before you know it, the time has come to late April, and after a full 82 regular season games, the door to the NBA playoffs has finally slowly opened.