the difference is whether we set him up EARLY and OFTEN. and i've said this a thousand times. first quarter, the majority plays were called for mcgrady and other guards, yao never found his rhythm; 2nd quarter our 2nd unit played well, and yao wasn't subbed in until 3+ minute mark. only touched the ball 2-3 times; 3rd quarter was yao's worst quarter. his teammates were trying to set him up. not sure if adelman said something during halftime. but he missed some shots (2-3 dunks?). it looked like he didn't have any legs tonight; in the 4th he played a lot better and got most of his points there, even though his teammates failed to give him the ball when he really had good positions down low a few times. he also played a few really good defense possessions. compound that with ref issues, this resulted in a c+ game for yao and nail-biter game against a bottom team. just another game that shows YAO NEEDS TO BE ESTABLISHED EARLY AND OFTEN in this supposed yao-central offense. repeat this a hundred times and everyone will agree with me on this one, and then we as a team will be able to blow away bad teams and win against good teams.
TMac is not in his right mindset. Atleast he was trying to break his defender down tonight. In past games he would settle for the long jumper or pass it off. I think he had like 8 free throws in the first quarter, thats vintage Tmac. Overall he is our best playmaker, without him it might seem we play more as a team but i believe without him we cant beat any of the good teams in a 7 game series.
rafer playing 34 minutes when he sucked beyond suckage? that's why the damn game was close. had he not played at all in the first half, we blow them out of the water. rafer has been TERRIBLE right now
I'm not sure about Tracy's part. Watching him bringing up the ball to the front court is like watching a slow motion movie.
couldnt agree more, Rafer is by far the worst finishing point guard in the NBA. Hell i would even say the worst finishing player in the NBA. His floater is not even a floater its just a push shot. He doesnt penetrate the defense. Im 6'6 and if rafer asked me to play 1 on 1 for a lot of money i wouldnt hesitate.
Showed improvement from Philadelphia, I thought. When he and Wafer are out there as SG and SF, they still seem to get their signals mixed up once in a while, but he was moving and defending better.
The Bone-Head Play of The Game Rafer is out of bounds, and he throws the ball........................................... back OUT OF BOUNDS?!! The Rockets bench look at him, like WTF?????????????????
lol unless you're one hell of a defender he would probably embarrass you with his and 1 skills....and then brick the shot
I'm a big yao fan. But I'm very frustrated for his rebound skill. that's so easy for him to lost the ball. especially in the end stretch of the 4th quarter. Is anybody doing the research for that? Is the coaching staff help him working on that. what's the reason? still remember the game 7 with Utah 2 years ago. the same reason we lost in the last minute. If yao can control the paint during the stretch, we will win a lot more games. it could be the most critical thing for playoff. So guys, why don't we do some research for that, helping yao to figure out the problem. any suggestion might be helpful.
I like Tmac. But to be honeat, Tmac is healthy, the only change is that he is too fat to jump high now...... A reasonable guess is that he dislikes Adelman, Artest..., and he disrespects Alston and other rockets players. No future for Rox.
We've had this discussion a million times before. I don't think Adelman wants his offense to center around anyone. I think he wants it to run and not get bogged down. Like we've also talked about is yao has to be aggressive on both ends. Just because he's not shooting the ball, he has to continue to make a way for him and the team. Rebounding and defending also helps the team. Not getting blocked by Joe Smith would also help a lot too. Overral, they won and like I've said, I don't care who is the hero in a win.
you have to establish your stars in EVERY game. that's the basic point of basketball and that's why you acquire stars. tonight's was more yao's fault b/c he always got position way outside the perimeter, but when the team saw that, they ignored him many times. i'm sure when everyone gets healthy, it'll be better. tracy struggled in the 2nd half, and if yao had it going, he would have picked up the slack. if not, artest would. time will come. spreading the wealth isn't good if rafer still gets 34 minutes a game.
if this is the case, then until one of adelman and yao is kicked out of the team, this team is deemed to fail.
