RA should just play freakin' Mutombor more!! Mutombo is such a defensive presence and is JVG's only mistake last year aginst Jazz. We will need him in playoffs (if)!! Well. but that's for another thread..
Hmm...so from I've decuded teams all teams could or should counter the rockets by just putting in another perimeter guard or forward because the rockets should play to their style and pace by benching Yao? So should teams do the same for KG/Duncan/DHow and every other big man in the league? Put in another guard because these big men can't match up to the guards (I know you can't compare players), but essentially that is what some of the people in the forum are saying teams should do. No, you do not bench Yao...do not bench Yao; just wanted to reiterate. Against the suns we actually don't match up too badly because Amare isn't a consistent outside threat, we have more problems stopping Nash from penetrating. Against the warriors, if they decide to play small by limiting Biedrin's minutes (which they sometimes they do but other times it's because Biedrins gets in foul trouble when defending Yao) then put Yao on Barnes of Azubuike (they are not as efficient at 3's as Jackson or Harrington nor do they take as many) and play off of them.
without Yao, it's hard to find open shots for others, but T-mac's penetration could have done the same for the rox tonight...but he didn't do that (mostly he was jacking up bad shots, even though Novak was hot, and he could have passed the ball to him more in the 4th quarter)
I would much rather let teams beat me with a jump shot instead of a lay up. Thats what JVG stressed last year. He would not let teams get to the paint with ease. The only teams to do so were the Suns, Hornets, and Jazz, because of their remarkable point guards. A lay up is too high a percentage of a shot to give up all game, and in NBA games, perimeter defenders will not be able to keep their man in fron of them all the time, there are too many talented scorers in the NBA. Therefore we gotta use good help defense, to take away as many drives to the basket and layups, as possible. Now who is the last man of that help defense? That would be our 7'6 center who is averaging 2.6 blocks per game and changes many more, and averages 10 rebounds per game as well. There is no way you could bench Yao on a constant basis. He is too important offensively and defensively. Today's game vs. the Jazz, you saw how Williams was uncontested on his layups. I'll live with Okur and Korver hitting 3's, but not with Williams making layup after layup all game long. If Yao is having a bad game, and there is a better matchup we can go to, then I'm fine with Landry or Scola playing center. Against Golden State would definetily be one of those games, IF he is struggling to score. That does happen. It happened on Friday in Portland, so when neccessary, I'll say okay to this idea, but that should be very seldom.
I would bench him for the last two minutes of one game since he runs out of energy and can't contribute efficiently at the defensive end and it's risky to hand him the ball. but he is a very consistent player at the offensive end and before Tracy keeps aggressive and not quit the game unexpectively, he is the best choice to make the play whenever facing small or other kinds of teams.
Truth that Our first win against Warrior this season speaks for itself~ this thread could be closed with the definite answer, Yao and whole teamplay is the key to win, no matter what style of team we are facing
yeah, in most cases like that you are right, but tonite we don't have tracy and YAO is our MAN! keep it up YAO, you can be our clutch!
The Rockets withstood the storm in the 4th quarter, and in the last couple minutes we switched to a zone which got us a couple crucial stops. I don't think our zone defense can be used successfully against them for a significant stretch of time, but thankfully it worked this time around. And I don't know what the Rockets were doing differently this time around (I missed most of the game), but they were finally able to get the ball into Yao near the basket when it counted down the stretch. If that's something we can rely on the rest of the way, it will be HUGE for us.
From what was seen in the GS game, use Yao to punish the team on offense, then pull him out when the opponent goes to a 3 point shooting center. We will have this issue also against Utah, because their center stays on the perimeter. Adelman did a good job with the offense/defense switching off Yao against the Warriors. He will only have to worry about this against teams like Utah and Golden State that have perimeter centers.
Yao looked at his stats in his previous Golden State games and was pissed and wanted to make a statement in this game.
Scola wasn't draining 16 footers against them at that time. Also, in the 3rd/4th quarter when the Warriors were cheating a bit off of Scola(not as bad as in the 1st quarter) and disrupting Yao, Adelman brought Novak off the bench to stretch that defender all the way to the 3 point line.
Using a shooting PF helps the offense... a quicker PF also helps on the defensive end... Scola, Novak, Bonzi or Battier can all fill this role... With T-mac around, it should be even easier to get Yao the ball (even against fronting defenses)
