dammit i missed this game and i was up while it was on too! oh well hopefully i'll be able to catch the next games. i think the next game tomorrow is at 9am our time. i will try to capture it and post it here if i can.
Well, according to the box score, Yao had only 2 TOs yet it was reported that he had 6 TOs. Another report has it that Yao had 17 boards instead of 13. My only issue with him is the 6-15 (40%) shooting from the floor. I do know that he is not 100% and is constantly double teamed, though.
He seems to be getting bigger every year, but is this actually a good thing? How much more dominate can he get with just added muscle alone? To be honest, I wouldn't want him to get any bigger then he is right now just for the simple fact that he will lose his quickness and mobility like how he once had in his rookie year. Big muscle is not the key, especially for a person that doesn't have the killer mentality(Shaq), but hes rather build with finess in mind meaning he must have the perfect balance between speed,muscle and mobility(lateral movement) to be effective...unless of course he began to possess that killer instinct then he could get as big as he wants.
that's the row after the 6-15, where it showed 0-0, so no 3 pt attempts. The stats seems so off compared to the other article at the beginning of the thread.
About the percentage, in a different article, someone complained that the score keeper actually counted those faulted attempts.
At least my home team made it a decent fight lol...Basketball is not of big importance in Iran... haha
I don't see any downside in building up Yao's strength. You can still be agile, quick and trim while possessing big muscles. Male gymnasts being the most obvious example of this. Added upper body strength is going to help Yao a lot, especially with scoring and rebounding in traffic. And the biggest reason that Yao can't play the power game like Shaq isn't due to lack of killer instinct. It's because Yao has a high center of gravity, and can't back people down nearly as effectively as Shaq. In order to hold his position, Yao often has to scrunch down and lower his center of gravity. This sometimes means that he's off-balanced, especially when he's trying to run around a front at the time. Shaq was so big in the waist and behind that it was practically impossible to move him off the block, and he was so wide that it was difficult to get around him in order to front. More so than any amount of aggressiveness, Yao being immovable on the low block would guarantee his dominance. The best thing for Yao is for him to build up his strength (upper and lower body) while also improving his conditioning, quickness and lateral mobility.
I watched the entire game. Iran's big men were no match against Yao, and rightly so considering Yao is soon to make 15 mil per and those people still play for cigrates. Having said that, I will say by no means Yao's were dominant. Yeah, he wasnt a brute force inside against Iran stiffs. Now the China guards flat out sucked, several TOs of Yao were partly to be blame on them. But Yao wasnt Shaq in the low level competition. The stamina of his was still a problem. It annoyed me to see he played almost entire game(except for a 1 minute breather in the 2nd qtr), and he was a walking dead in the 4th qtr. All I can say if you are looking forward to seeing different Yao with some mojo the next season, prepare for the sameness folks.
This is only his third game back from injury in almost 5 month, plus I heard he was sick prior to coming to Qatar, so I would give him the benefit of the doubt. Despite the inferior competition, his score line aren't too bad. -G'day-
I think this is the best-looking body posture of Yao that I've ever seen. The muscle and in a very nice motion. Do you not agree?
I hope he was being sarcastic as that was Yao's only 3rd game back after surgery and he even admits after the game that he's playing at 70% health wise.
