I didn't recall Dallas fronted Yao aggressively in the third quarter. No, not at all. They're up 14 and lost focus. They didn't go to Yao and failed to execute.The Mavs turned confident and got back into the game. That's the turning point in the game. I do blame Yao for picking up that stupid 4th foul, though.
First, I did watch the game. Second, I wasn't debating the mere fact the Mavs fronted Yao. Teams do that all the time. I was talking about the deciding factor of the game. In my opinion, the momentum turned the Mavs way in the third quarter. Up 14, the Rockets stopped involving Yao on offense. Fronting wasn't an issue at that time. When the lead disappeared, the Mavs gained more confidence and got the crowd into it. The Mavs' shooters run the tide and blew the Rockets out in the 4th. To me, in the 4th, the problem isn't even Yao being fronted. It's lack of poise and execution. I do think if Rafer were still here, the situation would have been better.
I missed the first half, so I can't comment on what they changed defensively. I think that's the key thing, though. Its easy to forget that there are two teams on the floor.
Don't you get it? You don't get to start the thread with some stupid remark and when that did not work out so well, you can decide the primary argument is something else. Your argument does not weigh a whole lot since it can change with the next little thing. Do you understand that? What are you going to say when we next win a game?
His argument hasn't changed: Yao is an unreliable fourth quarter option, and we need to add another player to be the main guy down the stretch. That's what he was saying from post #1, and that's still what he's saying.
Force feeding Yao???? How about actually trying to get him the ball instead of looking once into the post and then jacking up a dip-sh&t three? Amazing that professional guards can't handle this. Swing the ball, run PnR, so many ways to do it and we do NONE of it when it really counts.
They lost focus because the Refs called 5 off fouls on Artest and Yao in 8 minutes. No, the refs did not lose the game, but the Rockets never got their minds back into focus after that.
Its not that Yao is unreliable, its that its hard getting him the ball off fronting defenses. He fights the front which looks good, but you don't fight the front, you walk it. If they are battling you on the front, you get your spot and stay. Once the dribbler see this, he either reverses or drive to the rim which gives yao a chance for the offensive rebound.
You give the ball to your best player so they can create/score. Teams try to deny you the opportunity to do that. It's called defense. There are 29 other NBA teams who would like to "force feed yao." Yes I'm being facetious, but we're going to live with Yao and we're going to die with Yao at this point. Our offense runs through the big fellah and makes all those other things easier when he's properly set. Our points need to set up the offensive sets effectively, whether high screens or ball reversals, set him up. The playoffs are here and we're healthy. Let's do this.
I see what you're saying. We got to this point playing a certain way. But here's what sticks in the back of my mind. Yao is a very efficient offensive player, individually. High FG%. High FT%. Draws fouls. But because the Rockets struggle to get him the ball, and because he's turnover-prone, and because there are limited ways in which he can be used, I'm not convinced a Yao-centric offense will ever be an elite offense. Morey said in the beginning of the season that if we're to be a legit championship contender, we need to have a top 10 offense. We're not close to that -- only 15th last I checked. That's mediocre relative to the entire league, and just bad relative to playoff teams. People might think that the Rockets have been a much improved offensive team since McGrady left, but if they care to check the numbers that's not the case. Our offensive efficiency, on the whole, has not improved in the last few months. It's the defensive numbers that have improved. Here's fact of the matter. The only time the Rockets have played at a high level offensively for a significant stretch of games is back in the 04/05 season when McGrady was the primary offensive option, and last season in the middle of our 22-game win streak when, again, McGrady was the main guy. That's just how its been, and it remains to be seen how good our offense can ever be with Yao as the center-piece. I'm not saying we can't be a very good team overall, but "championship-caliber" could perhaps be out of reach.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6375612.html Yao's, Adelman's, and Battier's comments after the game: Yao "We really struggled all season against the fronts. We have a plan how to play against the front defense, but we didn’t do well tonight," Yao said. "The second half, I only caught a couple post-ups, early in the third quarter. And then, I’m just running up and down the court. That’s a ball movement problem and also I didn’t hold my post well. The good news is we’ll have two days to fix that." "In the second half, they were still looking for me, but the Mavericks changed their defense," Yao said. "They fronted. We didn’t play well against the front. That doesn’t mean they weren’t looking for me. "Things changed so quick, huh." Adelman "It was the same thing," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "They ratcheted up their pressure a little bit and they fronted him and we did a very poor job of moving the ball. We have to move the ball and take advantage of what they’re trying to do and we didn’t do a good job of it. "We’ve got to make better decisions. We’ve got to see what is happening." Adelman had another issue, however, with Yao’s lack of scoring. "I’m afraid to say too much," Adelman said. "He played a lot of minutes (35) and touched the ball a lot and shot one free throw. I don’t know." Battier "We got away from him, which is probably the dumbest thing we can do, especially when the big fella gets it going," Shane Battier said. "We started to look elsewhere. We started to launch jumpers. They got a couple 3s, got back in the game. After that, it was tough to slow them down."
that is very interesting. then again mcgrady was a very efficient scorer back then and shot about 45% from the field. yao is an efficient scorer too, but when you compare the efficiency from 04-05 t-mac to current yao's efficiency, the only difference has to be the turnovers. the turnovers are whats keeping us from being an elite offense.
Where did you find the efficiency stats for the team in 04-05? this brings up an interesting point. i think the general consensus is that the team we have right now is better than our team in 04-05. but is it really? if what you say is true, our offense was better in 04-05, and has been our best offense in the past 5 years, that should raise a flag. it would mean centering our offense around Yao has failed. the Mavs are worse than they were in 04-05, yet they just beat a team that is supposedly better than they were in 04-05. i'm gonna go before i confuse myself, but the point is, Yao has not made our offense any better than T-Mac has.
Yao is just way too fatigued by the time the fourth quarter rolls around. Every team throws atleast 2-3, if not 4, bodies on him every game. There is only so much pounding a guy can take. Adelman needs to device a plan to keep Yao fresh for the 4th quarter somehow, someway. Otherwise I'm afraid we will not be seeing the second round if we are unable to play our inside out game down the stretch.
i thought you're a highly educated, experienced and reasonable fan. i'm surprised to see those highlighted comments coming from you. so our team offense being in the middle of the pack (as opposed to being "elite") is all because of yao? our poor execution late in the game was all yao's fault? i say the opposite. our offense is not elite because it's not a true yao-centric offense. never has been. YAO IS UNRELIABLE AND WE NEED ANOTHER MCGRADY. this is the whole point of this thread, eh? got it... (and it seems this is only valid when we lose a game due to poor execution late in the game. wonder why the op didn't bump this thread after we won in san antonio.) wade is the scoring champion this year. i bet he's highly "reliable". what's miami's seeding in the east?
Bottom line, defense wins championships. The Lakers had a great offense until they met a championship caliber defense in the C's that did enough to stop them. And they have some reliable scorers. KG came in and set that tone. This team is what it is. We're not the most athletic bunch, but we man the hell up on defense and in the end that's what will get you through in the long haul. In the playoffs it's about those key possessions down the stretch and running a half-court offense when things slow down. We have a back to the basket guy, one of the best if not in his position. I could care less if it's 120-119 or 85-84. You give Yao the ball, either he finds a guy like Scola against the Spurs, or we live with his shot like when he should have hit that game winner against Portland this year before BRoy hit that questionable turnaround with 0.8 left. Defense. Rebounding. Free Throws. Half-Court basketball. That's the Playoffs. And we do all those things well, free throws being a huge improvement this year. We have 2 guys who can give you 20 a night. Good role players, a solid bench and we're healthy. I don't see why we shouldn't do well at all. One game at a time. Nobody gets a ring yet.
