Meh, I was one of the first to say that yao's interior defense is underrated, but I will also tell you that Utah used his lack of mobility to get high % shots. Now, you expect a guy like Yao to have trouble in space,but alot of his trouble was from indecisiveness. He was either too close,too far,and out of balance. Every good team that play the rockets know when they need a shot, put yao in pick and roll. Your arguments about the offense failures are part true,but the rockets were giving up a high fg% and pts after say game 2. Also, thats when Utah found out the can single cover yao.Utah killed the rox with pick situations and yao. Now, you can pull out all the numbers you like,but i beliece my lying eyes.Against boozer and okur,yao had no one to guard and it cost them.
Okay, I've self-derailed this thread too much. I guess every Rockets fan believes in their own heart that Boozer was a scrub who couldn't shoot worth a damn. That he sucked against other teams, but beasted against Yao because Yao can't guard him. It's weird that at this point, the only people who can back up my claims that Boozer pretty much destroyed everyone that season are Jazz fans... I won't bother going there. Whatever, I give up. Happy New Year everyone!
I feel for you. Boozer wasn't very effective when Yao was first put on him. But he changed a little in 2nd game and started to hit those high arch shots. There was nothing Yao could do because he had to leave Boozer a little space. He was not mobile enough to catch Boozer if Boozer passed him. Boozer is a foot shorter than Yao. Asking Yao to defend him is like asking Shaq to defend AI. It's not gonna work. On the other hand, Boozer has no chance to defend Yao one on one either, luckily all he has to defend was Chuck Hayes, and he could save a lot energy just because of that.
I appreciate him being 7'6". He never really blocked a lot of shots and was slooooow. I bet he still decreased Opponent FG% by 2% just with his presence. Miss the guy tremendously, but I like watching us consistently put up 110 plus. Its working so far. We'll get killed defenisvely with 2 midgets at point and a broom at SG in the playoffs, but without Yao having to catch up to play offense in the regular season, run, run, run, score, score, score!
Great breakdown, and that's definitely one of the main causes. It's irrelevant, however, to how Yao played man-to-man with Okur and Boozer. I seem to remember getting frustrated with Yao (and Landry/Scola) dozens of times due to their defensive positioning. If it wasn't 2 AM i'd look up Boozer/Okur's shot percentage and efficiency in the Rockets series vs a team like, say, Los Angeles. You seem to be taking the Yao vs Boozer thing personally. It's alright, Yao has his weaknesses... a lot of weaknesses, actually. But I miss having him for what he is - a team player and an intimidation factor. Boozer isn't Stromile Swift, but he isn't Dennis Rodman, either. The way he was rebounding and picking his spots at will against the Rockets was frustrating and was, IMO, one of the top 3 reasons Utah toasted us twice. The other reasons being HORRIBLE shooting on our part and the inability to close out games when it counted.
The corrupt referees can. All they have to do is call a bogus offensive foul call on Yao. Happened ALL the time.
I like your analysis of the team and players. However, I have some different opions here. I agree that Yao had tough match-up on Utah's front line. But I think you are implying that it caused us the series (you didn't say it directly, but my understanding is that what you mean). And I totally disagree on it. You see every team and player have weakness and advantages. When we play the Lakers, AB is tough match up for Fisher. When Yao was healthy, he was a tough match-up for Howard. But a good team adjusts, minimizes their weakness and amplifies their adavantages. In the Utah series, everyone knows that Boozer and Okur are tough match-up for Yao. But the team didn't make enough adjustment to bring the win. You guys watch more years of basketball than me and may know more ways to defend pick and roll. But for me, one adjustment should be taking out the ball of Deron Williams' hand. The defender of Deron should be more active on fronting him and deny the ball to him. Another adjustment might be put a double team on Deron once he has the ball so that the pick and roll will never happen as all of us know all the pick-and-rolls start from Deron. Basketball is a team sport. It is not solely anyone's fault when the Rockets loss. I think it was the totall match-up and lack of adjustment caused us the series.
I don't think it is fair to judge Yao's defense based on what Utah did. That to me would be like judging Dream based on what Seattle did. Sometimes one team has another player / team's number but that shouldn't take away from the overall.
Also Yao guarded Boozer but Okur guarded Yao and Boozer relaxed and guarded Hayes. Boozer spent all his energy on offense. Also it's noteworthy that Okur's offense was non-existent in that series because he was too tired from guarding Yao. Okur didn't have the legs to shoot all his 3s and long rang jumpers like he did the next year when Yao didn't play in the playoffs. Yao had to bring it on both ends - offense and defense. 25 ppg/10 rpg and keep Boozer below his regular season FG%
Haha, our role players had one of the worst playoff series in league history and people still think the main reason we lost was because Yao couldn't guard Boozer or grab a rebound. If we had a Scola, even AB on that team, there is no doubt in my mind that the series would not have went to game 7. Juwan Howard...Luther Head...Chuck Hayes....Alston....Padgett But nah it was all Yao.
