Yao didn't shy away in the last few minutes of the game. Instead he demanded the ball, got it and made the shots he needed to. True, he didn't make everything and true he had a bad turnover, but he made a few big hoops collected a couple of big boards and three FTs. Had he done that in the playoffs last year in game 7, he and TMac would have gotten the monkey off their backs. Hopefully, Yao learned something tonight.
Yao was out there, grabbing rebounds, slamming the dunk and pushing the defenders away. If you watch the game you can tell his body sign is different than before. he is more lively and active. he really reach out for some of the rebounds.
yao is tough. but he is slow,and mechanical. the trick is to find a player that is tough and athletic. For feigen to bring up swift is rediculous. Lets see Feigen bring up Dwight Howard after december19 and see if he thinks Yao is tougher than Dwight. Tough to be is getting rebounds. Yao had rebounds last night, but its rare. Thats why he never averages double digits. Yao is on the decline and nobody sees it. Last year was Yaos peak, now he is declining.
Feigen was referring to Yao's heart. He is tough from the heart because he has been working hard and wanted to win badly, etc. This has been true all a long but recently Yao is having problem with his usual scoring. He miss shots and fade away that are near which he normally score. I hope it's a confidence problem and hopefully he'll get it back soon. A lot of ppl think "toughness" associated with rugged, rough and hard play i.e. dominate ppl by brute force, athleticism or sheer power. Those players are should be known as dominating player. They create fear and antagonise their opponent which usually cause their opponent to lose confidence and worry. That's my opinion or 2 cents.
Yao played very aggressive tonight, something he doesn't always do. During the last 2-3 minutes of the game, DET started getting very physical. Throwing elbows, shoving people, ect. Yao stayed with it and attacked right at him. I liked that hook shot where we just over powered Sheed and shot over him.
OMG, and he didn't even use protection. 10 to 1 Feigen's agent is shopping the latest book proposal on "Yao, the inside story." I do like Yao's rebounding, though. He's doing a much better job of positioning, grabbing, and wrenching the ball. And that's real toughness, unlike this hagiographic garbage.
At least he likes Yao for all the right reasons, like work ethic, passion, dedication, etc...all the things that the other "superstar" on the team doesn't have.
This was the first game I could really remember Yao being so aggressive at trying to block shots...I remember a couple of times when he ran from near the free throw line toward the basked and JUMPED trying to block the shots. I like that.
Am I the only one that liked the game last night? I enjoyed it because no matter how badly we played, at least we showed effort and intensity. Everything has to start with heart, and that has been missing from this team lately. For that, I have to tip my hat to Yao.
Thacabbage, y r u qouting a response my response to why Tmac cannot dribble effectively anymore. In order to blow by your man u must be able to bend over and excelerate past a defender. Tmac was very good at this in the beginning of his career
Yao works hard and he does "try"...but there are still sometimes when he is too mentally and physically weak.................
Yao came to the court two and a half early, and can play 44 mins, that only should be an indiction for a toughness. Tell me another 7 and 6 man who is doing that?
