Yao played nearly the whole game - 44 minutes - and looked reasonably fresh and remained effective late in the game. I am guessing this is close to a career high in a non-overtime, regular season game. I like RA's strategy to let him play through the tired spells. It will really benefit us in the playoffs (knocking on wood) when starter's minutes go up considerably.
We may not be an 'elite team' but I think we are passed the point of knocking on wood to get into the playoffs
I hope you are right. but if it ended today we would be the 9th seed in the WC - aka a lottery team. I have every faith we will move up in the standings, but I am still knocking just to be safe.
...and i hate it. i hate that rafer played the whole second half. i hate that yao played the whole second half. i hate that tracy played the whole second half. we were playing memphis!
The only we he can stretch to play the minutes and remain effective is to actually do it. What better time to do than playing against a cream puff? I worry less that he can big minutes and more about his effectiveness when playing big minutes. This is no different than an extended workout in a real game environment.
And he went there 1 hour earlier than every other Rockets and sweat it out on his shootout/drill practice...... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=3297388&postcount=85
Hakeem won his 1st ring, when he averaged the highest minutes in the history of his career in 1993-94 by playing 41.0 minutes. Coincidently, the next year he played his 2nd highest avg minutes in his career and got his 2nd ring Shaq played a career high of 40 min/game in 1999-00 and got his first ring. The next season, he got his 2nd ring and averaged 39.5 minutes. Before his first championship ring, he was averaging around 37-38 minutes a game. It's important for Yao to increase his stamina and endurance to the championship caliber of Shaq or Hakeem. Shaq and Hakeem have 5 rings between them. Who am I to question Hakeem?
Both were overtime games by definition. I am wondering if this is highest minute total in a regular season, non-overtime game. I am betting it is because both Rudy and Jeff were more conservative in their use of Yao.
he probably would've got the same production in under 38 mins under JVG. he was one of most efficient guys in the league under JVG. not so much now. one of the reasons is JVG didn't play him as many minutes as RA.
