Dean Vickerman has drawn inspiration from the Boston Celtics and former mentor Andrej Lemanis in his bid to steer Melbourne United to an unlikely NBL finals appearance.
United have recovered from a horror 5-10 start to remain in top-six contention heading into the last round of the regular season.
But they must thrash the Adelaide 36ers by about 40 points on Sunday - or hope other results fall their way - in order to reach the play-in tournament.
Vickerman has urged his players to adopt a "super aggressive" approach at both ends of the floor, showing them tape of Lemanis' Brisbane Bullets belting Cairns by 36 points under similar circumstances three years ago as an example.
The three-times NBL championship coach has also referenced the NBA powerhouse Celtics' first-quarter rampage against division rivals the Brooklyn Nets this week as proof it can be done.
Boston led 46-16 to tie their best points differential for any quarter in the shot-clock era - which began in 1954 - and were ahead by 49 points during the second half of the 139-96 hiding.
"The only result that gets us in right now is to win by 40 and certainly there's been chatter about how you do that," Vickerman said.
"(Boston) are up by 30 because they hit seven or eight threes in the first quarter and the other team misses early three-point attempts, and you're able to get out there and run and create space.
"There's part of our defence where we're really trying to force bad shots and there's a component where we're actually going to give you some early (looks) and dare you to shoot some of those to try to increase the pace.
"We change our structure defensively to have more aggression in a lot of different areas."
The ongoing absence of experienced duo Shea Ili and David Barlow through concussion makes United's unenviable task even harder.
But they are riding a hot streak and are full of confidence, having gone 9-3 since mid-December to get to this point.
"We're really just going to play the best we can and do us, and that's what we've been doing this past month," American centre Marcus Lee said.
"This has been a great ride and we're trying to push this a little bit longer.
"Our job is to fight like hell each game and that's what we're going to try and do."
Vickerman called on Canadian guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes to step up and lead United's scoring in a time of need.
"We've seen 'X' flourish when he's got a real licence to go ahead and be aggressive and shoot the basketball," Vickerman said.
