I don't get it. Watching these fouls last night and the previous games, it's like he isn't reacting/thinking properly. It sucks to see him sitting next to Ewing instead of him being out there to help the team.
Its a combination of fatigue, his size, and dumbness. To expect any NBA player to avoid all contact is asking a lot... but what the refs normally call Yao for is when his hands/arms make contact with the opponents hands/arms/face. The refs aren't out to get Yao every time, but when he physically slaps a guys arms, they have to call something. Yao has actually developed the bad habit of slapping down, and then holding his arms straight up... when we see it in real-time on TV, it just looks like he's holding his arms straight up, but the refs actually are calling the slap or reach before that. I didn't mind Yao getting called for all those fouls on Shaq, but when he picked up two against Dwayne Wade... the guy has to learn how to play good defense, while avoiding contact. In the end... this just may be one of the downfalls of having such a mobile guy who is 7'6. He's smart and skilled enough to try and play all over the court... but unfortunately, his body and his reflexes won't allow him to react quickly enough.
From one game to another it seems as though you never know which Yao is going to show up. Sometimes he is a lion and sometimes he is a lamb. I hope we can chalk it up to fatigue, inexperience, or immaturity because those are curable. If not we are just continuing to worship his potential with a blind eye to the reality of the situation, Sir Charles was right all along. He is good, but will never be great to match with TMac.
fouls 1 & 2 were normal fouls fouls 3 & 4 were Yao's fault - not fatigue, just sloppiness foul 5 - completely BOGUS ! foul 6... petty - come on refs its Shaq, he's huge - there will ALWAYS be a little contact - he scored, so let them play on !
The last foul, Yao was completely beat on the play. Yao just smacked Shaq on the head. Obvious, but lazy foul by Yao.
Hey, I watched half of the third quarter and the entire 4th quarter on TNT (after my Lakers lost). This team is a great defensive team and does not need Yao. Mutombo played like 26 rather than the 36 he claimed himself or "46 and maybe 56" as his coach mentioned ... They had Wade in check and challenged every drive Wade tried ... The Rockets will be the team that no one wants to play against in the playoffs ...
I don't want to find ant excuse for YAO, His foul--> his fault. But what's why I think he still has a lot of space to go up
There was also a point in the game where he made a move to knock the ball out of Shaqs' hands from behind after Shaq had gotten a defensive rebound.....I was surprised he didnt get whistled for that either. Hopefully he grows out of it because he is slowly becoming a magnet for cheap fouls in the refs eyes
Years ago, when I played ball regularly, I noticed that some players just had bad habits. Reaching in and fouling is one of them. We had a guy on the team that kept commiting those stupid fouls, we told and told him about it and he understood it perfectly after the fact but the next time he saw the ball, he couldn't help but slap at it. I think Yao has had this bad habit since he was very young. With him being taller than all the kids around him, he must have been used to blocking every one's shots for years and years. It's similar to his habit of bringing the ball down low. It took him 2+ yrs to break out of. It will take him time to break out of this one.
The careless fouls (ie leaving his feet vs a jump shooter) are all on Yao. In the bigger picture, I think JVG struck gold when he started leaving Yao in with foul trouble a while ago. He didn't do that last night. He tried to "save minutes" and protect Yao. What ended up happening is that Yao came in late in the 4th quarter with no rhythm while the other 9 players on the court were lathered up and going 110 mph. I hope this isn't the strategy JVG reverts to in the playoffs. It's been proven you get less, not more, out of Yao when you play him conservatively with foul trouble.
I thought they might let that go, since Shaq scored (sometimes they do that) but foul 5 - was still bogus (unless the TV showed something we didn't see in TC)
2 additional points: 1) Yao does not have the rhythm of the American game completely down. Anything that breaks that rhythm during a game is when he will go Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Yao on you. 2) I love Deke. What a luxury it is to have him while Yao is developing.
I agree that Yao slapping down is a big problem. When you got a 7'-6" bringing his hands and arms down to slap its almost impossible to avoid a reach in foul. I was hearing an analyst saying that when players slap down its generally a sign that they're not quick enough to front their opponents or lack the confidence to stay in front. This is probably the situation with Yao where he is getting beat by more athletic and explosive players and is slapping to compensate. I'll say it again Mutumbo is one of the all time greatest defensive centers and right now Yao should be soaking up as much as possible from him about playing D by getting position and timing to block shots. Yao's D needs to be up not down.
It was a foul. Yao clearly made solid contact against Wade with his body. It wasn't a hard foul, but it did qualify as a normal foul call IMO. The foul that was bogus was the one on the "T-man" (as Van calls him, lol) where Eddie Jones was fouled on that 3 pointer. There was very little contact, maybe a brushing of Jones' shoulder against McGrady's jersey, and Jones jumped sideways into McGrady in order to draw that. Terrible call. All in all, I felt that the refs missed 3 or 4 calls that went against us, the one making me the most mad was when Wade hung onto the rim and they didn't call a Technical, nor did they count the basket that Mutombo shot. I can understand them saying that he was protecting himself, that's a judgment call on their part. But to not count the basket is flat out a mistake. Sorry for the rabbit trail about officiating... Back on topic: Yao made a couple mistakes last night, but all in all, he's been much better about stupid fouls over the last 2 months. I think we've also been getting lucky that the refs don't call him more often for a blocking foul when he steps out to help on the pick and roll plays.
Did you guys see that after the 4th foul, Yao was pointing to his own head on the bench. Then he came on the court, promptly commited the stupid 6th foul. You were not thinking Yao!
He's 7 FOOT FREAKING 6. How many of those fouls were on Shaq? He should be focusing on fouling Shaq if he is too close to the basket. Instead, just some silly fouls.
Too often, when someone is taking the ball at him, he leaves his feet, but doesn't try to block the shot. He just jumps with his arms straight up, but doesn't try to avoid contact. I think if he tried to block shots with his arms, and avoid contact with his body, he would pick up less fouls.
Yao needs to STOP JUMPING on pumpfakes. Especially from a guard. He needs to take a page out of Mark Eaton's book and simply hold his hands up. For a good shotblocker, more than 70 percent of the blocks will come from weakside help. He gets burned when he jumps almost every time. He can distact the shot enough by using his 7'3 wingspan. Save your blocks for weakside help, big guy. We need you in the game!!!
