I think Jackson is the only coach makes this choice. Shark does not let his teamates help him guard Yao, that understandable, he is Shark. But this is not coach's choice. To be honest, I like Jackson, his choices are always unique and convincing. But I can not get what he did on guarding Yao. Can you guys help me out?
First.. I think ur talking bout Shaq. and Second they opt to not double YAO and the paid the big price.... 39 pts and he almost foul out everybody on the team
Well if you don't double Yao, what else can you do to stop him? Fouling him seems to be the only remaining option.
They didn't do it all game long, but they certainly did concentrate their defense on Yao later in the game. Yao is unstoppable offensively if he's playing one-on-one, any team that doesn't double or triple him and dare the rest of the Rox to make outside jumpers is a team that's doomed to failure. If it comes down to Yao or McGrady, I would always double Yao and force McGrady to take outside jumpers, which can be done with just one defender on him. Yao is the only reliable offense every single night on this team, because he won't only score but score efficiently, McGrady is the de facto distributor/facilitator because that's his best asset, along with his defense when he puts his mind to it.
the thing that is hard to understand is that Shaq(shark) doesn't play for the Lakers anymore. So what does he have to do with it?
I think he meant that when Shaq is in lakers, they can defend Yao with Shaq solely. But now they should double Yao instead, for Shaq not here any longer. The question is why they still made only one player to cover Yao?
They didn't double Yao because the refs were actually calling fouls. He's fouled damn near every time he touches it, double teaming him would only double his chances of getting to the line cause they would have 2 people fouling him instead of one. Had the refs did the usual and turn the other way when Yao is fouled, Phil would be triple teaming him.
I saw double teams thrown at Yao on several possesions. i think Yao did a good job of making his move and getting the ball up before the double team came..
I think Kwame Brown actually defended Yao alrought on one on one. The most important thing was Yao got calls last night. 21 FT attempts, I don't know if it is his career high. Normally he won't get half of it on any other games. Kobe and Lakers don't get calls like they are used to.
You have it backwards. If the refs had let the Kwame & Bynum hack Yao without a call, single coverage might not have killed the Lakers. The fact the refs called the game closely BEGGED a double-team against Yao, which St. PJ didn't do. A double-team would have taken the ball away from Yao and forced other Rockets to score, which they weren't doing very efficiently. St. PJ royally blew it by not double-teaming Yao. After the 1st half, he should have made the adjustment to take Yao out of our offense, at least for a few minutes at a time to see what would happen. Having big men like Bynum & Kwame and other players like Odom, Walton and Kobe make it easy for them to deny Yao shots. If you ask me, this huge blunder by St. PJ was one of the keys of the game. I guess he's not so perfect after all.
