I mean how many times in the fourth did you see Alston standing there doing nothing while Yao wrestled for position inside? Drive to the basket? Call for a pick from Scola? Pass the ball around the perimeter? Or do the same thing over and over, stand there with the ball over your head and watch Yao fight for position? Is that going to fool anyone? Excellent play and decision making. Alston has brain farts once every few games. He just needs to ride the bench until he gets it back together.
Man..... and you judged that based on some of his inept guards who could not make simple entry passes to the Big Man (resulted in numerous turnovers due to untimely passes) and resorted to rely on attempting ill-advised bricks? And like in this loss versus the 76ers, when these guards had only less than 35% on the shots, and had shot attempts of 17 or 20, much more than the shot attempts of Big Yao who was making 70% of his field goals (8/11 FG%), that ALREADY spoke volume of the problem/issue on hand......and WORST was that Rick Idleman still did not make timely time-out, made necessary on-the-fly adjustment/substitutions......gave abundant play minutes to that dumb Rafer Alston and dumber Luther Head......all constituted to the loss. There is NOTHING Big Yao can do or can be attributed to and be responsible for this loss under the circumstances....cos the Rockets should never have to be in such clutch moments if his team mates or the head coach were playing their part right in this game versus the 76ers early in 4Q. Inexcusable for the 4Q collapse for the team in this loss versus the 76ers. It should have been a win !!
Maybe you're not, but the title of this post is kind of sarcastic and it's obviously towards one person...
Whether Yao is a clutch player or not depends on different context, e.g. how many minutes he has been played, how frequently he can get touches of the ball and gain shooting sense... FOR TODAY's GAME, he even can not get the passing ball in the last few minutes, how you would expect he can shoot the damn ball out of sandwiches... Anyway, more important is our current offense system is built on Yao-shooter/cutter inside-out, that explains why they are sticking on pass the ball inside.
Ok, Yao is unclutch, but was Shark clutch? Kobe was the Mr 4th quarter. Shark dominated the first 3 quarters and Kobe dominated the last quarter. Yao is not as great as Shark was, T-Mac is not as great as Kobe was, we will never be a great team with both our superstars. We must trade one of them, eiher Yao or Mac.
The whole team is not clutch. We very rarely comeback and win games but we often blow leads. It is not just Yao. It is also McGrady, Alston, Head, Battier and Hayes.
you do not understand the concept of team ball.... with a team like the 76'ers coached by a terrible coach Maurice cheeks that should be coaching some middle school rather then the 76er's there shouldn't be a situation were yao must be "Clutch" the game should have been over during the 3rd quarter. The rockets guards could have not given yao the ball in the post because of the triple team and double teams sent at yao with or with out the ball.
If you're relying on a post up player without a face up game to be your exclusive go to guy in the fourth quarter in today's league, you're pretty much screwed.
Now the Lakers traded away Shark, the Center. So, I think we should trade away Yao and keep Mark just like the Lakers kept Coby.
Not making excuses for Yao, but he just cannot play 40 min a game. When he does, he is no longer effective in the 4th quarter, and becomes a liability. Coach is to blame, and so is Yao. Coach should know Yao can't play 40+ min effectively, Yao should tell the coach that he can't play 40+ min effectively. Everyone should know their limit and work within it. Nash knows he can't go the entire game, and hence there is a routine for him. Rest early second quarter, and rest early 4th quarter. He would play on average about 33 min. It is that simple. It doesn't matter if the other team makes the run while Nash is out (they usually do). They stick with it. Hence Suns have the best record of the West (maybe 2nd after today). For this game, I blame the coach mostly, although the players as well. When he is seeing that the team is letting up, he should have called timeout and told them to play or got benched.
Yes, of course. But it is not reasonable to expect the center to hit the game winning shot. So much pushing underneath the basket, and the refs tend not to call the last second foul, even if it was a superstar who will usually receive favorable calls.
In some level, I agree with you , because Yao have the best ability in rockets. Although sometimes it is not his foult, he should take the responsibility still. On the other hands, Your second view is not support by fact.
It's wierd that has been the case this season. In previous years Yao was generally money late in the game, but I've seen several games this year where Yao was left with one guy on him and he just missed shot after shot. Sometimes he had been really efficient up to that point. I don't know what it is this season, but he's been choking big time.
choking is not the right word. "un-clutch" lately? maybe. but i think this has to do with the fact that your 7'6 giant center is leading the team in minutes while facing double-teams all night. if he didn't have those games where he's in foul troubles, yao'd be averaging an unheard-of 40 minutes. even though his stamina has greatly improved, adelman might want to think about that.
no, i say let him play 40+ min, he needs to get used to that because in the playoff, he will have to play just as much and even more physical... but i say rather than let Yao go ONE on ONE down the stretch...maybe we should run some good plays.... guys remember the game winner in Orlando? where rafer drove with Yao's great pick, rafer with a left-hand layup, Yao followed to get the rebound( didn't need that, but still, that's good offense). that 's a better option always i think rather letting your super star go 1 on 1 or 1 on 2.
