Yao needs to concentrate on Defense and Rebounding

might as well, so the refs could've given him an early day off. Having said that, yao's performance is absolutely horrendous, 8 points is absolutely unacceptable for a big game like this and from a guy who is supposed to take us all the way! Yo Yao, you need to wake up man.

 

Jesus

 

When I was refering to coaching, I was implying RA's decision to keep god awful players in lineup when they were perfoming pitifully. Yao got blocked multiple times by the rim and other players, his confidence was shot and he was a liability on offense, defense and rebounding. He should not of played in the fourth because he was getting torched. Also Brooks was outplaying Rafer, yet Rafer finished the game...why? Poor coaching.

Yao and Rafer should of been benched for the final 6 minutes of this game, plain and simple. Thats poor coaching.

Artest was brought here to be a third scorer, his defense was an added bonus. He was 3-16 tonight, but his defense was good. He rarely drove to the rim, and took a plethoria of Tmac esque outside jumpers.

Unlike the vast majority of posters here, I am not an "only" fan. His performance tonight was unnaceptable, and he should not be immune from criticism.

Oh I want a championship team, but your diluted "everything must be this way or we will fail" vision is just too much for me to agree with. I watched the game and then rewatched the game. I saw a team that took the reigning NBA champions to the end. I saw two of our superstars have some of the worst games of thier careers, yet were in it till the end.

Tinman, I can appreciate your passion, but some nights, against some teams we just don't match up well. The Celtics are one of those teams. Thier length, superior defense, and insider info (TThib) made it extremely difficult for Yao tonight.

Yao is what he is. Just like last year, I won't panic. Battier drives this defense and has been described as the "floor general". We will see how the defense plays out, once he is back. To sum up, it was only one game, and with questionable calls, it really could of swung either way. Give it time friend.

 

Why the fuss?
I agree Yao had a bad game, both offensively and defensively. But remember it takes five. Defense also calls for team work. The team's bad defense gets Yao exposed to too many layups from Rondo and Pierce. As a result, he lost his position.
I say improve the team defense and rebounding, especially Yao.

 

well its a valid question

how on earth did he let Big Baby box him out and then out rebound him on two very obvious posessions, these aren't even the utah type rebounds we were talking about. These were straight up rebounds for himself.

 

tinman I think you need to show some respect to other posters in this board. You are a 1999 poster, good, you get the respect you deserve, but that doesn't give you the right to go around trashing other posters.

We make points and we don't, there is no need to tell a guy to screw off cause he didn't register in 1999 so he can't make a valid point.

Bottomline is, Yao was horrible, no question. Artest made bad shots, but he was focused on defense. McGrady did a terrific job, he should've drove to the rim more instead of taking jumpers. Our big 3 weren't meshing well this game.

This game just shows why we need Battier. Battier is not only a hustle leader, he holds our defense together and makes open 3s that we need. It also shows why Brooks will become such a problem to other teams as he develops.

 

It's easier to ask Yao to score 40 a night than to ask him to change his personality. Nobody can change that.

 

Where do you say he trashed people? I only see him talk about basketball from his point of view. What wrong with that?

 

that is only some examples,just like @Pacer and Bucks last season.i only cant live with this example comes so quick

 

Rebounding was horrid. I saw Big Baby and Perkins grab rebounds they had no business getting.

Defense was gawd-awful. I saw way too many layups, mostly uncontested. That was a team issue though, but Yao gets no pass on his defense either.

 

Yao had rebounds poked away all night, He was soft and a step slow........

 

I agree completely.

Yao got out rebounded by Big Baby.

He needs to get the ball and secure it. His tip ins were good this season, but obviously not last night.

He likes to protect the paint, but you can't do that against Perkins or Garnett. I don't know if this was a coaching move or not, but it looked like Yao didn't go up there because he didn't want to. (could be of tiredness)

And then, when he does protect the paint, talk about not making a difference. He usually affects the player's shot. Not last night. Eddie House would go in and go around Yao for a lay-up. Ray Allen would shoot lean ins and reverses. Yao needs to learn how to stop those. He could have easily blocked some of the layups Allen and House shot, but Yao was too unprepared. Rondo would also shoot lean in or pull up jumpers, but I'm blaming that on Rafer for playing HORRIBLE defense. Same with Brooks on Eddie House.

 

Read again. Calling out people for being Yao only fan and newbs because they are not a 1999. There is nothing wrong with him expressing his point of view, but he has no need to call other "newbs".

I do hope you've read the last few pages.

 

I'll say this for today's game. Without Artest we would have lost by 15+...

 

You're in the wrong forum rookie. The Yao forum would be a better place for you. Who cares about Ron's offense? This thread is obviously about defense, which Ron brought in spades. Defense is about desire and passion and mental toughness - things Yao lacks as was painfully obvious tonight. And you know what? It's only gonna get worse. Yao is no spring chicken and I don't expect things to get better. If Yao doesn't know how to deal with the mental aspect of the game after SIX frickin years, he'll never know.

 

Indeed it is troubling, especially the mistiming of jumps so he doesn't get the rebounds and the not so much blocking. The Dream or Mutombo should have a talk with him because he could get 4-5 blocks per night easily, he just has to put his mind to it. It looks like Yao is thinking too much out there instead of reacting quickly. He's too worried about fouls at times too. For instance, when Ray Allen went baseline and past Yao like he wasn't there. Yao is not intimidating enough these first 4 games and not focused enough on D, though the whole team isn't really focused on D. It's not entirely his fault because
T-mac & Rafer just let Allen & Rondo blow past them like they weren't there and we know Yao doesn't have the speed to come from the weakside and block it like Olajuwon used to do. That's a disadvantage we have to live with but he needs to work on his reaction. Read situations better, anticipate and time his jumps better.
With regards to rebounding he just needs to go up stronger and take that ball with intensity, instead of tipping it or just going up soft.