Ok well basically anyone that says this is not only out of their mind, but should go ahead and look at all the factors rather than Rockets doing better right now. Some points: 1) Rockets ran that SUPER slow offense because TMac was either unexplosive or not there at all. Um TMac has turned into a HELL OF A POINT FORWARD, and when Yao gets back I fully expect TMac to run show and not that Yao post and takes 15 seconds to get ball into him. 2) Deke is a very good rebounder and blocker, but lets be honest does anyone think he can keep this up for more than 25-30 games. He has alot of heart but those legs will wear when we get to a critical time. 3) Yao Ming may have no other purpose than to be able to be HUGE matchup problem for Dallas and San Antonio and for me in those 2 PLAYOFF series, yea Yao will dominate. Without Yao we can't be those 2, with Yao those 2 have to be scared of us. 4) The less turnovers, more boards. Ok 1) Less turnovers is cause Rafer isn't controlling show, but rather TMac + Yao doesn't touch ball as much when he isn't required to (Tmac being around). 2) The more rebounds are so insignificant it isn't even funny. Sure Deke is better boarder, but Chuck Hayes/Yao combo > JHo/Deke combo overall. The problem there isn't Yao but rather Chuck Hayes not getting into stupid foul trouble (6 fouls in 15 minutes, he can at least last 20 minutes I hope ). 5) TMac needs help on his off nights. Tonight was great got alot of help from Battier, but what if Battier has an off night. You can 100% of the time depend on Yao. He is freaking 7'6", you just go to that slow offense in worst case and you know you will get 20+ points out of him. Honestly I think people are making too much of our records, it isn't cause Yao is out but people need to understand its because TMac is back. This is the TMac of old and he is SCARY good. He was good enough to lead a TERRIBLE magic team to playoffs, what can he do with Average team (we are seeing now), just wait till we are VERY GOOD team (when Yao returns). Just scary honestly.
When Iverson played in Philly, everytime he went out with an injury the team would magically do good. People said they were better w/o AI but we all know the results when AI left. It's not fair that Tmac's back all of a sudden fixed itself when Yao got injured, it was just bad timing on Yao's part. If Rockets are so much better w/o yao, trade him and watch us lose every single playoff game against dallas and spurs. Tmac is on and off, on his off nights he can contribute by playmaking, but it's not going to be enough to carry the team past mavs or spurs. Heck, even a HOT tmac without Yao can't carry the rockets past spurs or mavs. Oh yea, with Yao we beat the spurs. I think our win over spurs means more to me than any of the other wins.
Yao lost because hes ppl couldnt score wide open. T-mac wins cause he can create for other. Yao cant create, he can just pass it out to rafer and hear the sound of *clank*
The Rockets are playing well right now but we're not winning a championship without a healthy McGrady and Yao. Guard play equals wins, but in today's NBA you also need a very good post game to advance deep into the playoffs unless you get favorable matchups. With the current team, and the addition of Yao, Bonzi and Snyder we match up with any team in the league and cause matchup problems ourselves.
uh, what about that 2-5 record the yao in, mcgrady out rockets posted? i think the record now speaks for itself. obviously, without yao the rockets are not going to win it all. but then again, judging by the record, without tmac the rockets are not going win at all.
I feel that we have returned to Earth and need Yao more than ever. If anyone thinks we can compete against the best now that Tmac has returned to form is kidding themselves. Deke can only do so much at his age. We have done better than I could possibly imagine without Yao but damn. I hate being negative after a win but don't feel we are going to repeat our dominance that we have shown lately. Thank God we don't have Gay right now!! We would be looking at lottery(sp) ball numbers.
I thought it should be 2-4, Yao went down with 6:17 to play in the first quarter against Clippers. Not surprisingly, the Rockets wound up losing the game to the Clippers, who snapped a six-game losing streak with a 98-93 victory before 18,246 fans at Toyota Center. The Rockets just trashed Spurs before this game and the roleplayers look like they were rolling with Yao but misfortune befalled on Yao. Credit should also be given to Yao for holding the fort when McGrady was in a shooting slump. Your statement saying that the Rockets is not going to win at all without McGrady is not accurate basing on the fact that the position left vacant by McGrady is very thin since Kirk Synder and Bonzi Wells are injured at that time (still injured). Well, at least when Yao is out, the veteran of Juwan Howard and Deke Mutombo were playing out of expectation. What was actually missing was a PG when McGrady was out because Alston wasn't doing his part. If you still remember, during crucial moment in the 4th quarter of some the close games Rockets lost, Alston made some silly turnovers when bringing the ball up. I'm not really blaming Alston because every player had their moment of bad play. What I am trying to say is you can't really blame the lost on one player and you can't give credit to only one player. Basketball is a team game or else McGrady would have won the Championship in Orlando. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2006_4252566
Without a good ball handler who can shoot and pass, the team is not a team yet, without a good post in the paint, you can't win the title. T-Mac is a good finisher, he can shoot and pass at clutch time, so is Kobe, Wade, but Yao can only wait for the ball passed from our guards, he can't creat so many good chances, neither does Oneal. No need to discuss who is better, they are both important.
Was it just me, or did tmac look REALLY slow on the court during the denver game? It almost looked like he couldn't break into a sprint.
The whole team was slow. Both teams were slow. The LA game drained us. Thank God Denver sucks. Shane B was our saviour.
Even though we won, I thought yesterday's game vs. the Nuggets showed just how much we need Yao. Without Yao in the middle, Denver's defense (zone?) was able to concentrate on the perimeter, especially McGrady. If Yao was in there and Denver tried to play the defense they did yesterday, the big fella would have had a field day. Also with Mutombo as a starter, the defense of our second team frontcourt has looked shaky on more than a few occasions. Oppsing teams are much less afraid of taking it to the rim when, say, Hayes and Howard or Hayes and Novak are in the middle. The backup frontcourt players are doing admirably while Yao's out, but they are nowhere near enough for a playoff run. It's great that we're winning and the role players are getting the chance to shine, but this team isn't going anywhere without both Yao and McGrady.
its a simple "back against the wall" responce. the team knew they needed to pick up thier play and they did. also, the easier schedule doesn't hurt.
it isnt hard to deal with the misguided fools that believe this kind of crap. it is obvious to any fan of even limited intelligence that having Yao is a MUST if we expect to win when it counts. To say that adding a highly skilled big man to a team that learned how to win without him doesnt make that team better is just ignorant and as such can be ignored. Dont even dignify it with a serious thoguht towards responding....you cant have a discussion with such people.
This is all just from people who refuse to give credit to Yao and his improvement. This is very similar to the Suns of last year. They lost Amare, and learned to win and did very well, but no one believed they could win a title without him. Same with Yao. The Rox have done great, but if he was out for the year no one would think the Rox could win the title. Credit really needs to go to the role players on this team. With Yao out, they have been able to hold their own when Tmac goes to the bench. That to me is the huge difference. With only Yao playing, it seemed the Rox would go up by 5-10 points, and when he had to sit it would suddenly be a tie game again by the time he got back. Now they need to keep it up until he gets back and then into the playoffs.
