Do you guys remember that we lost to Bucks in same way in previous season? Toni Kukoc fronted Yao from getting ball in last minutes. Rockets turned 3 over, gave up feeding ball to Yao, and finally Rockets lost. This strategy is so effective that every team in NBA will use it We will see the "shorter-but-fast-fronted-Yao" strategy works again and again till JVG find a way.
Guards and Yao need to practice lob pass. When Yao is fronted, only leave one on the same side as Yao, so Yao won't be sandwitched and he can catch the deep lob and do his job. In the game tonight, when Yao was fronted, his side was often clustered and that made a lob pass hard. But in any case, other Rox have to knock down wide open shots, and finish easy layups. They must missed 15 easy layups in this game!
You are right. Beside your gameplan, we still need one high enough to pass ball inside to Yao. Steve, Cat, and Moochie are too short to do lob pass. Mo Taylor has no range shot strength and Yao may be sandwitched. (Moochie has none either.) Who can do it?
The Rockets' guards need to learn from the Lakers. Ask yourself why Kobe/Fisher have been able to deliver the ball into Shaq's hand. Everybody wanted to keep the ball out of Shaq's hand, but with very little success. Reason? Lakers is a much much much better passing team and they always can find ways to deliver. And oh, the Lakers don't have the habit of over-dribbling the ball.
Besides Yao and the limited offensive capability Cato who can shoot high percentage, the rest of the Rockets pretty much just lousy shooters.
Though you might not be happy, I'd like to say Yao need to learn how to hold his position. If you really watched tonight's game, you should be able to see that Yao's positioning was a big problem and this made his teammates extremely difficult to pass the ball to him.
Hehe... Yao was 7/11 from the field, including the last play where he fought thru 3 Grizz defenders for a lay-in plus a foul. Besides he shooting over 50% from the field, which other Rockets did shoot over 50%? Do tell, please.
I saw lots of Lakers' game. Almost no team is trying to front Shaq, because Lakers will do lob pass. They only double Shaq. No one in NBA can one-on-one Yao/Shaq except Shaq/Yao. Rockets need to learn how to utilize Yao like Shaq before they can get a ring.
I am just confused. Did you really watch the game, on TV or in Toyato Center, whatever? I watched the game and I don't need stats to let me understand the game.
Yep. That's right. This is such a big problem (weakness exploited) that we'll have to address it promptly! Last year, most of Yao's worst games were due to teams fronting/denying Yao the ball.
I see the problem as guards not confident lobbing the ball to Yao and after runing up and down the court countless times due to our turnovers, Yao gave up asking for balls when he was fronted. Even the lob pass is hard, you have to do that. With Yao's height, he should be able to catch it. Also, it was a physical game tonight, refs were not calling those shovels. You pass the ball to Yao and he doesn't catch it, he will get the call. You don't pass the ball to him, he will not get the call.
i sorta watched 60-70% of the games, in & out of the kitchen. i saw yao score in the paint. let me tell you this, the scores (both teams were below 80 points) do reflect that both team's strong defense. the major difference was in the offense. the rest of the rockets just shot the ball terribly with the exception of the big fella. the rockets did the defensive work, but its the offense that killed themselves, similarly to the situation of the miami heats.
Hi, keep_rudy and djunior, Cool down. I watched the game. Both Yao and the passers didn't do the right job. After turning several ball over (I guess 3) in first half, finally, everyone (including Yao) got little afraid to try again. Rockets need to pratice different kind of passes (including lob pass). Or I believe that we will see fronting-Yao in every game.
Piatkowski is supposed to be good at passing into the post, right? Maybe things will improve when he's back in the rotation.
Beating a front into Ming is quite easy if you have good spacing, movement away from the ball, and timely ball rotation. Unforturenately for the Rockets, the BB fundamentals for Rocket guards are just nonexistent and JVG's offensive sets are stagnant(Knicks aren't known for the flowing offensive prowesses). JVG pointed out that the guards get frustrated easily by ball pressure and the offense breaks down into iso. Then everyone stands around and wait for something to happen. Hence the high amount of turnovers. Rockets should watch Shanghai Shark tapes and see how they use Yao in different offensive sets creating better offensive flow and continuity. I saw Yao play in Shanghai and he is extremely effective in highside pick and roll, and hi-lo post. These sets are perfect for Yao to use his mid range jumpers and creating spacing for the guards to drive and kick out for the three. Rocket offense is just like last year and seem to be content running the low block post for Yao 80% of the time, which is extremely predictable and allows the defense to sag on him. I don't care how good Shaq or Yao are, zone defense can shut them down if you ran the same sets over and over again. Bring Yao out to the hi-side creates spacing and allow guards to penetrate more effectively. I am going to skip the bash Moch Stevie Mob routine here. Rockets struggles will continue without a good point to ran these sets. Rockets should coax Stockton out of retirement and let him run the offense with Mobley as the 6th man.
