LOL The only time yao won't be able to stop them is on a fast break.Let me tell u something.The reason the Rockets win against the spurs most of the time is Tony parker can't peneatrate witjh yao in the paint.Go look at gms where we played them.He misses so much.Yao averges 2 blks a gm.yao+tmac+laundry and scola 12 in a row with post presence and we could of started playing MT anyways.Rick said he would right before yao was injured.Even if we won the chip this year we will even be greater next year with yao in there.82-0 next year.LOL
Without Yao and the way we are passing, I doubt you will see any kind of zone Defense with T-mac in the game.
That's what I'm saying. Will some team be using the zone against this Yaoless team? Spurs and Lakers just might.
actually we've seen a lot of zone. the hornets tried the zone for 2-3 possessions tonight but we just busted it w/ 3s. the first few games without yao we saw some zone too but our shooting is so good right now, no teams dare to try it for too long.
jonathan feigen and luis scola provided some insight on this topic. worth reading. Buoyed by the confidence that comes with a winning streak that had reached 12 games, the Rockets were defiant in the face of the doubts. The announcement was made that center and leading scorer Yao Ming would miss the remainder of the season, and the assumptions were immediately made that the Rockets' chances were over, too. Their despair was replaced by indignation at the presumption. But there seemed every reason to believe the offense would suffer. Yao had not only led the Rockets in scoring, but much of the scoring around him, particularly in the 2008 turnaround and first dozen games of the streak, was built around exploiting defenses designed to stop Yao. Take out Yao and the Rockets not only were losing his scoring, but it seemed they would also lose the scoring that fell to those in his orbit. Instead, the Rockets' offense has soared, not only despite the loss of Yao, but, they said, because of the experience of playing off him for so long. "It's a change of course," Luis Scola said. "He's a big part of our team. He's 60, 70 percent of our team. He's so big, so good. Everything is based on him. He changes the whole game. He is a 7-6 guy, so you change the whole defensive system. "Now, everything changes. But what we've been talking about, what we've been working on the whole season is to make a real solid team so that whenever someone plays bad or gets an injury, we'll be able to win anyway. We've been doing that. When Tracy (McGrady) got injured, we won. When Yao, was injured, we won. Guys have a bad night and we win." Specifically, they have continued to score, usually by playing off McGrady and the double teams and help defenses he draws, just as they had the double teams and fronting defenses that were sent to defend Yao. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5603071.html w/o yao, we've become a smaller but much faster team as we don't have to wait for yao to get to the front court and get into position. that, combined with our brand name defense and the recent hot shooting, gives you continued winning streak. but there will be times we will absolutely need/miss yao's huge presence at both ends of the floor (mutombo only plays ~20 minutes), incl. the playoffs.
There is no arguing that when Tmac plays the way he has been playing...hi is the guy for the Rockets. But what about the cy babay we saw at the beginning and mid season? If that guy shows up we are toast. I still think we are better with Yao...in certain situations especially. Can you imagine how unstoppable the Rockets would be with Yao on the court right now?
I thought that was Yao who was crying about the team is like a sinking ship and the whole team is soft.
I wanna talk about the differences between the Rockets with and without Yao. With Yao we have an interior presence we can go to. However, an offense that relies on Yao every time down the court will reach a ceiling. Our offensive ceiling was noticeably reached last year. We simply rode Yao, but riding Yao wasn't good enough. Without Yao, instead of relying on one player, we now have 4-5 guys that can step up any given night. The lane is never clogged, and most importantly, there are significantly LESS terrible turnovers from the inability of Yao to catch a pass or from a bad post entry pass. The reason we are winning so soundly is because we're now incredibly more efficient offensely. With Yao, there were at least 2-3 times a game where Yao would get picked off and the opposing team would get an easy two points. In basketball, momentum is everything, and those types of turnovers are serious momentum killers. I havn't even talked about us defensively, but did you know when Deke is in, the opposing team's FG% is around 30 something percent? I'm bringing this up because its becoming apparent how better offensively and most obviously defensively we are without Yao. If we actually advance past the first round, i expect there will be a lot of "Trade Yao" chatter.
How can one pile up that many words without thinking? I just need to figure out one thing: The rockets are going to miss Yao's offense badly when opponents defends tighten up in the playoff.
so um....whos going to stop bynum, shaq, duncan...or even box out big guys like dampier, chandler, camby..... this streak is unbelievable, but its marred by so many astericks (NO with no west, Mavs with no dirk)...the only legit win we had - against new orleans with yao, and maybe against denver ( but their game is a little sketchy) but other than that i hope you guys will brace yourself for the Lakers game.
I was surprised to see these numbers. The number looks good, but somehow I remember Yao looked miserable against Sun many time in the past few years.)
With Yao, Rockets is the contender team..it doesnt mean that current team cant win a championship, they just not convince anybody yet..with this already tell, with Yao Rockets surely a better team! The team have to change w/o Yao and keep winning..but still with Yao, they are better period!
The numbers may look good but for anyone watching those games he hasn't really done that well against fast pace teams with atheletic and quicker guys guarding him.
Not when he was the one who destroyed the Suns and Golden State (without T-Mac). And your rationale is WRONG. Sun's and Golden State's strategy is to DOUBLE Yao always. They are daring the other Rockets to beat them. If the other Rockets can get their shots to fall, then the opposing defence will have to be honest, and Yao can get to work on the one on one coverage. On the other hand, if your shooters fail, Yao cannot be effective due to the double teaming (who can?). And frankly, who is going to be your low post presence now that Yao is out. Dikembe? Some dumb fans really love to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
Nah, you gotta understand that when T-Mac is on fire we can win any team, and that's the reason why we defeated hornets. If you can recall the match, and imagine T-Mac just have his "normal" shooting touch...we would be screwed definitely. Yao is the most consistent performer in our team and he must be missed once the run ends. T-Mac is for matches, Yao is for playoffs. That's the rationale.
