Did Anyone Else See This Big Problem After Tonight?

Give me a name of any other center that the team offense totally rely on him and he gets the ball no matter how other team front him or double him.
The problem is just our team rely on Yao too much.

 

Guys, why are you blaming this on Yao. A center can never be a reliable go to guy late in the 4th. Especially not a 7'6 guy. Shaq couldn't do it in his prime, he relied on Kobe. Yes, there are a lot of clutch "big men" but those are all power forward builds like Malone, Hakeem, Russell, etc. Even Garnett relies on Pierce late.

You can't blame the lack of late game execution on Yao, its all on Adelman. Fronting takes two maybe three people's full attention, a good coach would use this to his advantage and not try to force the ball where it should not go.

 

We must live in a world where basketball is the same as a fantasy basketball league.

If Yao averages 25/13/3 we win, if he doesn't we lose? Why? Uhh, I hope he is able to produce but even if he doesn't, the concept of a strong defense and a balanced offensive attack means we don't have to live or die by the performance of one superhero game after game. Aggressive defense means our offense doesn't have to execute to perfection, and having an offensive system where anyone can produce on any given night means if there's a mismatch or a hole in the defense, you exploit the heck out of it.

I like it that Artest, Brooks, Scola, Yao -- any of those guys has potential to put up the numbers on any given night, and that we can win when that happens. That's a good thing.

 

i don't think it is fair to blame yao, because he is what it is.

but REALITY is that yao is a LIABILITY for us at times. when portland threw aldridge as the center at the end of the game, they destroyed us with the pick and roll. yao CANNOT defend pick and roll, especially against a good pick and pop shooter like aldridge. we really had no choice but to use chuck hayes to pull this one out defensively.

on offense. yao is a liability when we make him our primary offensive choice, when an athletic big man is fronting yao. it's not yao's fault that he's slow, nonathletic, the refs allow plenty of contact at end of games, and the league is geared so that this strategy can be used against him. regardless, when the team is told to feed the ball to yao, we will use up a good 16 seconds on the shot clock trying to swing it around for an entry pass to no avail. then we need someone like ron or aaron to do something in about 6-8 seconds, which often results in bad shots.

it's really unfortunate, but it is what it is. yao is a liability at the end of games if teams want to take him out of the game, and our offense tries to make it blatant that we are trying to feed him in the low post. too bad he is our best % option on offense, but we really need to figure something out, maybe benching him when the other team goes small near the end of a ball game.

 

Man chill dawg. We won. Its over. Maybe Yao was just having a bad game. We're 4th place now in Playoffs standing? Only the Spurs/Lakers/Denver are better than us. You can't keep expecting so much.

 

Wow, the previous 4 games Yao did well and all the haters were no where to be seen.

Then one bad game and they all come out... it's like they were saving up all these comments just for this moment...

 

I disagree. I don't think the Rockets can beat anybody in the Playoffs. My reasons are pt. guard play and Yao stepping up big in crunch time.

 

Im not sure, am i the only Rockets fan who noticed Yao getting the living crud beat out of him? And Joel P is now nothing but a flopper which translates to CHEATER!!

Quite harping on the negatives, the bottom line is, we battled and battled and came through with a gutsy win over a good, young, athletic Portland team...

 

solution: dont go to Yao in crunch time. dont play Yao if he is tired.

 

No, it was because Yao was getting TORCHED by Aldridge on the high pick and Roll and Chuck was shutting it down.

Settle down, Y O F

 

No. I made similar comments after the win in Dallas.

Yao's offensive numbers in the fourth quarter during the 5-game win streak:

Against Sacramento: 5 1/2 minutes, 1-4 from the field, 1 turnover, 2 points
Against New Jersey: 4 minutes, 2-2 from the field, 5 points (played well, in a blow out)
Against Dallas: 8 1/2 minutes, 1-2 from the field, 3 turnovers, 2 points
Against Charlotte: 5 minutes, 1-1 from the field, 3 points (another blow out)
Against Portland: 11 minutes, 2-3 from the field, 2 turnovers, 6 points

Only two of the games were close down the stretch (Dallas and Portland), and in both those games we struggled getting him the ball, he was turnover-prone, and he was exploited on defense. Scola said that he thinks Yao more than makes up for his defensive weaknesses on PnR with his offense. That really hasn't been the case in the fourth quarter against the two good teams we've played over the last 5 games.

 

It's not on Adelman in my opinion. Execution seems to be really poor following timeouts. I kept wishing last night McGrady was healthy to at least get others better shots if not himself.

Depending on Yao down the stretch is a roll of the dice. He's a high percentage shooter and great FT shooter, but down the stretch, defenses really pick up their intensity and that gives Yao's problems. Partly because of his own limitations, and how he's officiated doesn't help.

Brooks will learn to make better decisions during crunch time. Wafer has been less than stellar and defenses aren't even really worrying about him it seems.

Right now, I'd like them to go to Scola down the stretch. He's gained a crapload of my confidence this season.

 

Yeah we have a big problem. Yao can not lead this team in the last mins like Shaq or DH because he is on the court while they are on the bench.

 

Yao was only on the bench during defensive possessions at the end of the game...and for good reason...Chuck is a MUCH better high pick and roll defender and his presence on the defensive end disrupted Aldridge's wide open jumpshots

 

Quit b!tching! We are winning!!

 

I think we rely too much on Yao unnecesary, we rearely post up Scola, Artest and Battier, and the 3 or them are valid offensive options.

I don´t know if it´s Yao or the teams fault, but if we have to ignore Yao for 10 straight posesions and score via any other players so be it. Is not that Yao is a killer or anything else, so i don´t see the point on all our end of games offense going through him.

Draw more post up plays for Scola, Artest and Battier sometimes and you´ll have more options, the other team will have to choose if they want Yao out of the game or they are going to defend the ball, the path to Yao will open alone if the other players suceed to score, what happens now is that we are using 15 seconds on trying to position Yao, then all the other options became more complicated.

I think the key is not going to Yao as a must at the begining of every posesion, but more likely try other options and circunstancially Yao will get open.

Scola has proven to be a good scorer and Artest also, so we can ride them if it´s necesary to do it, Adelman just needs to give them the green light to do it.

 

hopefully you all will realize now this is why we need tmac...so obvious, no one can make a play off the dribble, but him, yao isn't athletic enough to do it all at the end.

 

We only need T-Mac because he is an expiring contract and he forced us to by going public on needing surgery closing all trade scenarios for us.

He having not said that, maybe we end with a (or many) players that can contribute right away.

 

Mr. Sour Grapes just because the team is looking like it will be getting better without TMac you come on with the assertions that the team will not beat a certain team get over it this team will be able to beat any team in the playoffs.

 

I agree with this 100%. Yao cannot lead the Rockets to a championship, but depending on matchups he can dominate against some teams. AND with some matchups he's a liability and needs to be on the bench. He was useless tonight when Aldridge fronted him, and was getting burned on the defensive end. Chuck Hayes should have came in much sooner for defensive purposes.

With Yao, its great that he shoots a high percentage, but he has way too many turnovers for someone who is not primary ball handler. If he cannot get open they need to sit him rather than wasting 16 seconds off the shotclock just looking at him. Last night the offense stalled in the 4th quarter, and Artest or Brooks kept having to jack up bad shots.