Is it me or did we go away from re-posting Yao a lot last night against the Mavs? The couple of times we *did* repost him, he had 2 or 3 baskets in a row. We know double teams are coming and we know that reposting will work - even against a pesky team like the Mavericks. Why can't we do it more? Are the guards really that stubborn or was it JVG's idea to "surprise" the Mavs by beating them with our perimeter players? I'm totally confused here.
You are correct. But there was a noticible change in Yao Ming's mind set about this game, it started to creep in during the previous game. It's almost like Yao Ming suddenly decided that he shouldn't shine through his own performance but through making his buddies look better! Possibly it's all JVG and the Ewing influence. I just wish they would go back to NY.
I guess you missed the part when Craig Seger was on after he interviewed JVG at halftime and he said JVG didn't think Yao was aggressive enough against the double and triple teams Dallas was sending at him and he wanted Yao would to go for a career high in shot attempts.
Yeah, we're in a bad loop: center (Yao) plays aggressive -- creates space -- guards can not shoot -- center plays more aggressive -- creates bigger space -- guards still can't shoot. I think Yao just some how gave up trying and JVG asked him not to. Both made sense to me.
I was about to start a thread on this very topic...WHY have we regressed? I thought we now knew that this was the most effective way to beat the swarming defenses...it was there so often against the Mavs and we just didn't make the pass....instead our perimeters would just pass to another wing, drive to the basket w/o even looking back and seeing that Yao had his man sealed deep, or shoot bricks. We made Avery look like a friggin genius when all we had to do was something we HAD been doing. I'm beginning to think some players are looking to pad stats or just get theirs now that the season's over (Alston, Head, Bogans)...in which case VG should be coming down hard on their asses.
It's obvious. T-Mac isn't on the court. Whether he's full strength or not, he makes so much of a difference. That, and we are in a tough section of our schedule.
No, I'm talking about even after TMac was injured...our offense was working when we would repost immediately after kicking out and not rely soley on 3pt shooting. In the last couple games, it's like we completely forgot about that play...and it was not the defense dictating things....the play was there several times against Dallas, but Rafer, Head, Bogans just didn't make it for whatever reasons.
It is hard to repost Yao because after he passes out the ball, that 2nd defender does not leave him. In previous games, that 2nd defender stay with Yao only after Yao had scored again and again. Mavs asked the 2nd defender not to leave Yao from tipoff. Here is the situation: we'd like Yao to be close to the basket, but this means opponents can swarm him AND defend the driving lanes in the same time. What they give up is open looks from perimeter, which are now quite useless to us anyway.
There has been little change on how we play. This is more about how they changed. During this stretch, Yao almost always had better performance in the first half than the second half. Why? Defense collapsed on him more in the 2nd half, especially in the 4th. Remember the last mavs game? Yao scored 27pts in the first half and we were in the game, but in the 2nd half the defense collapsed on him and he scored 10 pts and mavs pulled away. This time, Avery just made us play the whole game the way we played 4th quarters in previous games. I pointed out before the game that is was the surest way to beat us. I cannot see why any team doesn't try the same strategy from now on.
Yao was less agreesive in the last mavs game. Will this be the new trend? maybe. He cannot shine with 3 guys drapped on him all night. He tried to force some shots off but he was missing them badly. What else can he do other than kick the ball out and watch the bricking show? I wonder if this also has something to do with his knee.
So many people jumped on me when I brought up an idea of my own. Now this is a thread asking for your intelligent input, and nobody is posting anything. Why am I not surprised? Dozens of people said Yao will learn to play against this kind of defense and improve more. So, why don't you guys shed some ideas how Yao can overcome the problem present here? Spend 1/10 of your energy on this than on attacking me personally, the board would be much better.
Why cant Yao shoot over the double teams?? With Yao's fadaway, he can easily shoot over them and probably will have a better % than passing out to his teammates.
Because opponents also study Yao's moves. Yao need room to take that fade away. In the mavs game, Yao even had touble finding room to put his feet down.
Seriously where has the re-post gone. That was probably the biggest factor in Yao getting high percentage shots, and going to the free throw line during his monster run. But this game against the cavs, I'm not sure I saw the repost even once. I'm glad we're shooting better and making quicker decisions with the ball, but this is a weapon that the Rockets need to go back to.
