Instead of wasting shots on tmac, i'd rather let yao take those shots. Tmac is just too inconsistent, who the hell takes a tough jumper in the crunch time? what a horrible ass game imagine if gininobili and parker were back, we'd be blown out. houston rockets sucked big time tonight.
especially the most crucial play, just give the damn ball to either yao, tmac, or artest, instead of brooks missing a 9fter
I learned one thing by watching the Rockets this season. They only show up and play hard against good quality team. And they only turn on at their own wishes. In LA, they show up and were by 16pts and they took a vacation afterward. In the Spurs today, they play around and not show up because they know the Spurs aren't the same quality team with some of their players missing. So i mean it's really how hungry and desire do these guys have in winning. It's not that they can't beat them but more like how much do they want to win. Because if they do.....i have no doubt their records are much better than it is now.
My post in the other thread; --------------------------------------- The thing with Yao is that when we are running the offense through him, there needs to be so much effort to get him the ball within 10 ft of the basket for him to be effective. This makes the offense very predictable. Unlike Amare and Duncan (though both are PF) with decent handles and steps for a big man, Yao with the ball at 15 out is not that effective even though he has a good shot. Defenders can just close in on him because Yao can not drive past his guy. Yao must get the ball near the basket and he is deadly when he just need to make one move before takinga shot; however, without the ability to seal off his man and/or explode to the pass, it also makes fronting Yao and defending the Rockets very easy if we intent on getting him the ball. This is why there are stretches after Yao gets going that he doesn't get the ball, because unlike a wing that can get and initiate the offense from anywhere on the court, Yao can be taken out of the game by the defense. --------------------------------- Don't get me wrong I still love the big guy, the very fact that defense have to focus on taking him out speaks volumes about his threat as an offensive player. To use a football analogy, Yao is like a WR and a good wing is a like a RB. If the defense centers targets both, the WR can have games where he gets no catches in a game but still help out the team buy drawing the attention and hope his teamates will help him. A RB back would also have an unproductive game and hope that the rest of the team helps out, but he'll still get carries even if he doesn't do much with them.
Problem is, even if this were true (which I doubt, from what I've seen, Yao has really received pretty loose defense...in fact I haven't seen a team front him 24/7 since last season), no one is capitalizing on this "attention"...
In 2006, Yao caught the ball all the time, without Scola, Landry, Artest, Brooks. Fire RA and get JVG back!!!!!!!!!!
Spurs didn't front Yao, and Rox didn't even attemped to give him the ball. Look at the fact: Yao 9 shots in almot 40 minutes for 13points, some of those were from offensive rebounds. Brooks took 17 shots for 14 points, Tmac 12 shots for 7 points, Artest 16 shots for 18points. Scola 6 shots for 4 points. Every starter got way more shots than Yao per minutes wise with a much lower efficency, No matter how you slice it, No matter how you slice it, it's not going to win Rox many games playing this stupid way. Everyone is so selfish on offensive end.
there were numerous times late in the game where after the pick and roll Yao was near the basket with Tmac's defender on him and Tmac at the top of the key and he doesnt pass it in...instead he takes a couple of slow dribbles and they switch back defenders...and then he throws up a contested jumper...dumb...numerous times...why?
Look at the other big man (the one not guarding Yao) when we get the ball on Yao's side of the court. Think of how many time we are able to swing the ball from one side of the court to the outside on the other baseline with a magically open person. When other teams do this, it usually requires some one breaking down the defense from the outside and getting to the basket. With the Rockets, I see that happening even in instances where no one is getting completely to the basket. Outside of the Lakers game, three of our losses where just one or two bounces of the ball can mean victory for us. Yao does draw the defense in, allowing more spaces on the outside where some one can get an open shot.
One time it happened, I think T-Mac thought was that if he missed the shot, Yao would have the advantage on the offensive board. It so happened that the Rockets got the ball back after the Spurs batted it out of bounds.
With the speed and athleticism of NBA players, no one has to fully committ to a spot in order to defend it. It's like forcing a pass to a zone defense, there areas that look open that might not be. Not to say there weren't times when Tracy should have tried a pass, but that it's not just he didn't want to pass.
