ClutchFans Game Thread: Sonics @ Rockets 12/29/2003

I don't know what you guys want. OK Yao blows at rebounding and I personally prefer he improved it, but do you guys have any idea what he's up against? Let's forget about all the other times and only consider tonight.

1. His 1st foul was a BS call (which counted as a turnover)
2. His 2nd foul was a flop therefore BS call as well (turnover)
3. His 3rd foul was legit.
4. His 4th foul, boy if that was legit then I must have lost all my sight.
5. His 5th foul, questionable as well
6. The fastest offensive 3 seconds I've ever seen called against him

My point? What the hell do you expect him to do when he gets called an offensive foul every time he tries to go tough, especially when he's foul trouble by BS calls on the defensive end as well. And it's not just this game. Remember the Lakers game:

1. His 4th foul, he and Derek Fisher got to the same spot at the same time but Yao got called for the offensive. If anything it was a blocking foul on Fisher because he stepped behind Yao go try to draw the charge and GOT THERE LATE.
2. His 5th foul, he grabbed the board, got tugged on both arms by 2 different players before Kobe took the ball away and a phantom foul was called. I first though he fouled Kobe but on the replay I didn't see anything.

So my question is, how the hell is he supposed to dominate when he gets called fouls for what 99% of the rest of the league gets away with?

Oh, and I won't even go into how he got 6 freakin' shots all game.

 

Blasphemy.
You can get banned for that type of talk. I may take you out to the wood shed and beat you my own damn self.

 

1
I don't know why officials hate Yao so much!! - Well, I agree with many people who complain about his softness, but I have a problem with officials!!! They call too many fouls on him, even if it was offensive foul situation. Sometimes nice blocking was counted as a foul....I don't know why

2
Since Lakers game I think the ball movement has been better than before. I think that's a good sign. But while SF is reducing his dribble and shooting, we need a go-to guy who can get at least 20 pts per game and dominate atmosphere of the game. We expect Yao can be the one, but...I don't know if it is possible. I just hope that he can meet our expectation.

3
I think that Mo is doing his job and right now he is a very good 6th man...If we consider about his stats, can't he be a nominee for 6th man of the year?

 

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that very few centers who go through the U.S. college system improve much after the age of 23. US colleges provide excellent training; people who graduate from there to the NBA already know pretty much all they need to know about basketball.

This does not apply to Yao. He did not go through the U.S. college system, so he probably has more to learn than, say, the average graduate from Duke University's Blue Devils. He has the potential to improve enormously.

Fortunately, Yao is already pretty damn good -- he is after all the guy against whom all other teams in the league focus their defensive strategy. Ask yourself: if the Rox were to offer to trade Yao, how many teams would line up eagerly? Damn near all of them, I would say. Yes, even the Lakers, because Shaq will be retiring soon.

 

Didn't see the game. Just a thought.

It is not easy to get a rebound from 3pt shots and Sonics shot a lot.

 

I wish Yao could toughen up. They repeatedly showed a clip where some player on the sonics (I forgot his name) was only 6'5" went and took the rebound away from our 7'6" Center and then shot it right in "Yao's grill" for the 2pts.

I don't understand this team.

I hope Yao can improve and become our great center some day. I am just not sure if that day will ever come.
....Don't get me wrong, I want to see Yao dominate. I just don't know if he will ever change his technique in the game. So Fragile.

 

To follow up my last post, today I wouldn't trade Yao Ming or Steve Francis. They are the core guys that we need to build our team around. Give it a few more seasons then something might come up in the works if nothing changes. But I want to see these guys play ball side by side and show us all their "potential".

 

i was watching nba fastbreak and it was ray allen. He just grabbed the ball out of yaos hands. People on the show were saying the same thing for yao to toughen up.

 

A bad start for 4 game home stretch!

Sonic are trying to push yao out the low post,double-team Yao because they know
other 4 rockets would just stand there waiting for Yao pass.So they can neutralize our dominant player and force him create turnovers. We Rox should move around when Yao was double-teamed.yao can pass to the open man and if necessary, the ball rotated around the arc until someone was wide open. That last man would hit the open jumpshot. But I didn't see that in the game.

As everyone konws,center is the last protective screen of the team which completely reverse in Rox games at times! In other words,nobody before yao when other side break into low post.that's what sonic are willing to see of course. Without your teammate supporting you, you are nobody and you go nowhere.Did all Rockets really keep it firmly in mind???

It's unwise to Push Yao 1 on 1 against a guard near hoop(e.g. R.Allen today)which give more chance of falling into foul-troubles.I'm NOT a yao-only fan.But I have to point out honestly Yao has great importance to Rox because he can change the way you play both offensively and defensively. The more time we keep Yao on the court the more chance we win the game so long as Yao's physical power allowed. Yao played for only 28 minutes today because of foul troubles. So what happened?

 

Bad loss considering this is the first game of our homestand. My god, I checked the standings and the Rox are 2nd to last in the division behind Utah and Denver. Man, I thought this team finally understood what team ball was after the Lakers game. I thought the Rox were gonna be a lock for the playoffs this year, but instead it looks like it's gonna be a power struggle yet again. I kinda feel tricked now.

 

Finally, it's time for me to write something. Since I've been busy for a while, I didn't contribute for this board much. But I did have a quick look-through of the posts after each game. Here's what I have got to say.

First, Yao's softness has more to do with his mindset than his body. I sort of got the feeling that Yao wasn't much involved in the game against Seattle. The foul trouble which limited his time on the court might have something to do with it. But while he was there playing the damn ball, it's up to his teammates to get him involved! Can someone tell me how many times Yao touched the damn ball in the Seattle game? When a guy didn't get to touch the ball much, how do you expect him to be more assertive? I'm sick and tired of seeing Yao looking like a freshman trying to fit in on the team. And I'm pissed everytime he didn't get the ball and had to run to the arch to do the Pick-and-roll. THESE GUYS HAVE GOT TO TRUST EACH OTHER MORE! I see eye to eye with Jeff Van Gundy here. The rockets don't have faith in each other. When Yao fail to score on a possesion, give him two more chances.You've got to trust the guy. Can you blame a 22 year old boy being so tentative and timid after someone simply ignored him after he make one or two mistakes? A lot of times I still felt Yao was trying to fit in. Maybe it's the cultural shock, or maybe it's the language. Anyway, the rest of team got to trust Yao more and trust each other. Yet, this is even harder than basketball itself. It might take some time definitely......If I talk this way, I don't know how long it will take to finish the post.
So, here are my other points:

Yao need more opputunities to shoot and his teammates still need to trust him even if he doesn't have a high percentage in shooting. Give him some time, maybe one season or two. If given ample chances, he doesn't live up to expectation, trade him.It would be good for both the team and YAO himself.

I agree with some posts, Yao need shoot more jumpers while developing a post-up game.

So far, I see What Yao can become in the second quarter in SAN ANTONIO against the Spurs when he played real agressive and help the Rockets cut the deficit. The Rockets were defeated miserably in that game. BUT nobody just care to mention it. I bring it up here so that Yao can learn from that......

Ok.....I don't feel like writing any more.

 

Your right. The ball was like 2 feet over Mings outreached hands . Steve is the worse passing acccuracy EVER. Poor Ming. More games like this and all hell will break loose(steve or ming gets traded)

 

IMO, Francis' ego will prevent him from ever being a winner (unless he is a role player on the team). As I've been saying since the beginning of this season, he needs to be moved in a trade.

 

The ball was lobbed over becasue of Francis lack of concentration. I noticed Francis is always like a eager kid when he brings the ball down to the offensive end. He is always looking for a big home run. The guy is not patient, not a leader.

 

Two of you can start the process to trade Yao for Bradley.

 

YALL CAN'T BE F'IN SERIOUS! YAO COULD HAVE GOTTEN THAT BALL IF HE TRIED, THEY SHOWED REPLAYS. IT WENT JUST PASS HIS FINGERTIPS AND ALL HE HAD TO DO WAS JUMP AND MOVE A LITTLE FASTER. YEAH IT WAS A BAD PASS BY STEVE BUT YOU HAVE TO SAY YAO COULD HAVE GOT THAT. MOST PF/C WOULD HAVE WENT FOR THE BALL AND NOT ALLOW THE TURNOVER. SO YALL CAN'T JUST BLAME IT ALL ON STEVE, IT WAS A 50/50 TURNOVER. BUT IF I WAS TO BLAME THE LOSS ON SOMEBODY, IT WOULD BE YAO. HE COULDN'T HOLD ONTO A REBOUND TO SAVE HIS LIFE. EVERYBODY JUST NEEDS TO GET OFF YAO's PENIS BECAUSE HE AIN'T THE SAVIOR...........YET!

 

Cap everything (no matter how tempting) doesn't help you make a point. I know I know, your mom said that. Hey, what can I say? I'm sorry to burst your bubbles. OK, let's assume the ball was barely out of reach of Yao's finger tips (which it wasn't). Let's also assume that Yao's got VERY long fingers at, say 12 inches. Let's also assume that every 7'6 guy can jump AND react fast enough just to get to the ball. Let's just plain out assume he put his hand on the ball. He would still have to be the ONLY player in the NBA to be able to reach AND catch a bad air pass while stretched out. Even if you ASSUME all of the above, the most he could have done is get a hand on the ball and knock it to the floor. The he would have to BEND OVER his 7'6 frame and pick up the ball off the floor AND do it faster than all those guards out there, ASSUMING the ball doesn't bounce all over the place. So yeah you make a great point.

 

I can't read this.

 

Why is that guy yelling?!?!?

I know im pretty frustrated with that loss and im tired of this love/hate relationship im building with the Rox. Since I've had some time to simmer down things dont look as bad as I originally thought. The turnovers killed us, but were a turnover prone team anyways.. who cares who gets the final blame? We lost as a team and everyone should carry that burden together.

I've been pretty disappointed in the Rox this season, I expected better ball movement, cutting, passing, inside-outside game and the emergence of Yao. I wonder if I had too lofty of expectations for this lottery team.. I know everyone hates to admit it but we are considered a lottery team by the rest of the NBA.. we've been out of the playoffs 4 years running so that makes us a lottery team. For some reason people always expect more from this team but maybe we are just expecting too much?

If we take a step back we have been doing decently, not really good but not horrible. Look at our record for a team that played alot of road games we came out pretty well. We beat some tough teams on their home courts so the potential is there. The potential to be great but we lack something, I cant put my finger on it. Some people think we lack size, or a decent PG or whatever.. Not many teams can be as stacked in every position as the Lakers/ Dallas and Minnesota. I think we have the talent and personnel to win and WIN big but we lack something else. I want to call it poise, sense of urgency, maybe the right word is leadership? SF is the leader and rightly so, I dont think Yao will become a leader anytime soon and he doesnt have to be. Not all stars are the leaders on the team but IMO I think we need more leadership. Someone to get on other people for not hustling, for not rebounding hard enough, for not putting in the effort. Other than the coach I mean a player that leads by example. SF works hard so does Cat maybe they are not pushing everyone else to step up and play.

I dont know exactly what it is.. but I do know when our team clicks and plays hard we can beat any other team we are a force.

J

 

You people make me sick with all this Yao bashing. He's played barely a year and a half of NBA basketball--and you consistently try and turn him into a bust. I tell you what..ol Stevie must have that shield wrapped around him because you people are totally overlooking his piss-poor passing and constant turnovers. He's our max player who hadn't improved one LICK..but hey, that's probably Yao's fault. too. Right?