Houston Rocket Coach Kevin McHale is beginning to show more confidence in Jeremy Lin and last night it paid off. McHale has made it a habit of benching Lin in the fourth quarter of games, reports the Ultimate Rocket. The fear was that Lin and Harden weren’t clicking on all cylinders and it was important that Harden get the ball in the last quarter.
But the Rockets showed a lot of confidence in Lin when they traded his back up Toney Douglas, who had been replacing Lin in the fourth quarter of many games.
The Ultimate Rocket says many Lin fans thought the same thing would happen after the Rockets resigned Aaron Brooks last week. But last night Lin was left in the game as the Rockets game from 20 points down to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-100.
McHale singled out Lin after the game, praising his defense on Ricky Rubio which McHale says was as important as Harden’s 37 points.
Of course, the fact that Lin scored 24 points and added 8 assists helped as well. You can see highlights of last nights game on ESPN.