I dont think the Lakers were sending hard doubles in the 4th, not much different than the 1st 3 quarters. I didnt see them front him, which gives Yao problems. I didnt see them double him w/o the ball, which some teams do (Lakers couldnt cause we were hot from 3). I saw Yao able to get such good position that they didnt even have to set him picks, I believe for a stretch Alston just brought the ball up and gave it to Yao. Yao, on the other hand, waited with the ball, sometimes for almost 3 seconds, almost waiting for the double to come. And as soon as he heard foot steps, he passed it out. Now I dont mind him doing that in the 1st 3 quarters, to get teammates involved. But you know what, Yao had done that already. Wafer, Landry, etc already did their part. Now it was time for Yao to finish the game off. To me, yesterday, the double teams in the 4th were not strong, Yao could've taken more shots. He was just simply, and again, not aggressive enough.
That is a different argument all together. If you want him to shoot more of those 10 footers...fine, but he is not going to be able to get into the paint late because of the other ZONED defenders there. He passed it to the open guy, who needs to nail a shot and make them pay...it is basketball 101. DD
Don't agree with you on that. Brook was semi open on the corner. There was a guy standing right next to him between AB and Yao. I think it was Ariza. Had Yao forced that pass it would have been swat it away. I do agree with you on the lost of the game was due to brick-fer missed FTs and Kobe just being Kobe man. He's one of the best.
I was at the game and that is what I saw too. First I was surprised Yao was even in there because we needed a three and second I was surprised Brooks dumped it to him. I saw both Yao and Adelman talking to Brooks after the botch play. I think they need to spend some time in practice on more end of quarter/game plays so that they can execute better. I was very proud of the team last night and Yao played angry. He was definitely sending a message but it's just one game. Do it again on Saturday Yao cause there's a lot of people rooting for you.
There is always a bandwagon for injury. Remember all the "kill Yao" and "Yao is no franchise player" threads and posts last 2 years. Yao will need to step up, and I believe he will. Houston Rockets Fans are 2 sides of the same coin. Drop it on the floor and only one side will ever face up. The day the coin lands on the side is the day we win a championship. What are the odds?
I dont have the game taped, but it seemed to me the double teams were lazy, and seemed like Yao had room to operate, he just never made his moves. And yes, if Kobe can take 30 footers, I wouldnt mind Yao takin a couple ill advised 10 footers. Basketball 101 usually goes out the window in the 4th. Its superstar's time. What triangle did the Lakers run in the 4th? Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. Again though, if the doubles were just nasty, I dont mind him passing it out. From the first look, it seemed Yao was passive.
They had a guy in the lane to help come over if he got into the paint, and a guard diving down if he put the ball on the floor...3 guys..... They were not going to let Yao beat them....it is good defense. DD
What??!??! 30 footers??? Yao, 10footers !??!?! I sure hope Yao never ever takes 10-15 footers in the late game, not only are the chances of him missing high (as evident), but the last the we need is Yao getting the McGrady treatment. Yao needs to get deep in the post and grab the ball and just lay it in. The Refs are more aware of where their whistles are in crunch time. Defensive fouls are likely, offensive fouls are less likely. If Yao gets deep, even a foul won't stop him.
Dont teams do this to him all game anyways? But my point is, Yao still usually dribbles and tries to go to the middle. I dont really remember him trying this much. Maybe I'm wrong?
DD, the last shot was rushed. the ball was poked out when brooks passed to yao. yao had to stepped out a couple of steps to pick up the loose ball so his back faced to the basket. i believe yao knew not much time left when brooks passed the ball. after picking up the loose ball, he knew he didn't have time to pass the ball so he immediately turned around and shot. yao shot at about 1 sec left on the clock. i really don't know what would have happened in about a sec if yao had passed to brooks. did brooks has enough time to get rid of the ball before the red light on? you can see what i am talking about. i am more concerned about rox overall performance of the last shot in each game which was decided by the shot. so far we didn't do very well this season. rox never got the position what ra was planning for the last shot in all those games. i am not sure whether ra's plan didn't work or players didn't execute perfectly. for example, in the last night game, how the hell the play came down to post yao? we needed a 3. yao should go out to screen for our 3 pt shooters instead posting.
Kobe's 3 was a 30 footer dude, and he was putting up jumpers all night, even though he was bricking, but he still kept shooting in the 4th. And Yao can make 10 footers. He made about 3 last night in the 1st 3 quarters. He even had a couple nice fadeaways. My question is, y cant he take these shots in the 4th?
Yao's last play: he was NOT triple teamed, 3 guys did not go at him. Gasol bumped him, Yao lost his position, only one guy collapsed on him and never effected his play. Yao just didn't (have the strength to) go hard to the hole. He was one on one against Gasol, and Gasol got the better of him. Evan
Where in my post did I say Yao is the reason we lost the game? We lost because Kobe hit an amazing shot, and Rafer bricked his FTs. Yao missed an open Brooks at the end, but I'm not pinning the loss on him. Yao was AWESOME until he went out with his 4th foul. The point of this thread is about Yao playing like a superstar. He did for 3 quarters, BUT, Yao had virtually no impact on the offensive end in the last 6 minutes. 0-3 and a turnover. None of you guys would give McGrady a pass for that (ok most of you guys wouldn't) and that would be fair. I don't think Yao gets a pass either.
Completely agreed. I believe Yao's inconsistencies in the 4th quarter of this whole season get overlooked cause of the TMAC saga.
Well I rather have Tim Duncan leading the Rockets over Yao Ming any day. Plus, the Manu and Parkerless Spurs sure beat the Rockets with only Tim Duncan. I'm saying this is because Tim has more talent, agility, skills, and much higher basketball IQ than Yao. Thats why Tim has those championships and MVP and Yao don't have crap.
The difference between Yao and Tmac is "clutch". Tmac has done it many times in the final seconds of a game. Yao hasn't. OTOH, I find out hard to blame Yao for last night's loss. He played his heart out despite his 4th quarter collapse. This is the lesson we all learned last night: without Tmac, this team won't go far.
that was the lesson you learned. not me. so it sure is not "we all learned". what i learned is, w/o mcgrady, this team can still hang with the top dogs and should've won if the refs weren't high. another lesson i learned is we actually played better this season w/o mcgrady. the thing is, no one is really irreplaceable. with mcgrady, we didn't go far either.
you really don't think we would have gone far last yr? really? we got better as the series went along v. utah last yr and utah got worse. it took deron's greatest half in his career to seal the deal for us in game 6.
ibm, are the rox better this season without tracy because he's still hurt or are the rox better with out tracy even if he's healthy? Also does that include artest also?
