There's always so much talk about Yao's inability to defend the shooting big men of the Jazz but that isn't a big issue imo...IF Yao can punish them on the offensive end, but he hasn't. In the 5 games Yao has played the Jazz, over the last couple seasons, he has shot a combined 40.5%. The Jazz don’t front often, they don’t have premier defenders, and the main defender they use on Yao, Okur, is not particularly quick. So, how the heck do they bother him so much? During the game, I took a look at how the Jazz were defending Yao on each of his field goal attempts. Spoiler The main issue seems to be that they use their big bodies to wear Yao down. They body him up, push him out of his comfort zones and knock him off balance, particularly on his turnaround fadeaways.* He’s been money on those turnarounds all season but he didn’t make one last night. They were playing him so close that Yao beat the much quicker player, Millsap off the dribble twice. But, that’s what they prefer, get him out of his comfort zone and the result was two missed field goal attempts. We can even go back as far as the 2006-07 playoff series and see that Yao had an uncharacteristic 44% field goal percentage. Spoiler Comparing his shot chart from the 2006-07 season to that of the 2006-07 postseason shows me they had the same strategy back then. They played him close and his baseline turnarounds were less effective. *Personally, I feel Okur is fouling Yao on his turnaround’s. He’s pushing him with his body, similar to the way Bruce Bowen does.
Yao needs to learn how to abuse these guys when he is single covered. Otherwise we will always have a hard time against them.
yup, the truth hurts.....Yao Ming cannot beat okur one on one consistently. he should obliterate him.
when facing white meat body defenders (Okur, Gasol, ...), Yao needs to move a lot to get team open. it does need extra effort.
Yao's biggest weapon is his size, he needs to use it more often against the jazz. he doesn't turn and shoot enough, he puts the ball on the floor and tries to back okur down, for some reason okur absorbs yao's contact well and just keeps his arms high when yao turns for his shot, and that is enough to keep him out of his rhythm. As Yao did against Kurt Thomas, he needs to just turn and shoot the 10-15 foot face up jumper, he has been shooting that with high efficiency lately. My only real issue with Yao's game these days, is that everytime he backs into the lane and the other team sends a double team his way, instead of just shooting the ball from within 10 feet of the basket, he passes out to the man at the 3 point line for a much lower percentage shot. Yao has to want to dominate. He should pass out when they double early, but when they double late he should just turn and shoot. It is frustrating watching Yao play passively when we all know he has the ability to dominate a game offensively. Overall, Yao is playing quite well this year, but there are always things to improve on.
Yao used to get a ton of FTs against Utah because of those contact. So his TS% against Utah is still not bad. Now refs no longer blow whistle.
it called physical. that's always Jazz play or Sloan's play. Rockets problem against Jazz or any other real contenders is the execution. But Jazz did have the worst match up against Rockets. Their two big men who can shoot outside even Yao's offense and they had very good pg to run offense very effective, maybe the most effective offense in the league. Because of the offense effectiveness, they are hardly to be blew out. In coach JVG time, Rockets simply didn't have enough offense weapons to catch up with theirs, That's why they lost. This year rockets have many offense weapons, definitely can match jazzs. So the result will be always decided to the last few possessions. Rockets defense probably is good enough to stop lakers/cavs/spurs. but i feel that their defense can't stop Celtics/Jazz offense. Without Rafer/Tmac, Rockets offense executions in clutch time is really bad. AB/Ron can't give the ball to yao effectively. I don't want to say they are selfish. I think they are just not good at it. But it will cost Rockets WC. I believe even though Rafer is below-average pg. He is a good fit in Rockets system. Rockets will miss him in playoff.
Nice work, pmac. The Jazz are one of the few teams in the league that generally don't double Yao. I know they did it last night, but usually they just let Okur go at Yao one-on-one. Mind you, Okur's physical defense results in at least one borderline foul on nearly every possession but his defense on Yao seems to be pretty effective for the most part. They also badly cheat off of Lowry and Hayes when they're in the game to flash another defender at Yao to try to fluster him and make him kick it back out.
IMHO the biggest issue with Yao is his conditioning. Guy always looks gassed by the 4th quarter. Yes, the NBA is a too-physical landscape, lots of banging and other abuse that Yao might not be used to. But he should be working on his cardio endurance in the offseason because it's not like it's going to get any less physical in the Western Conference. Part of the reason the Jazz are effective against Ming -- in spite of Boozer's very weak defense -- is that he's out of juice by the 4th quarter and can't keep up.
As I remember, since two years ago's playoff games, Yao Ming cannot beat Millsap one on one too. We really need to avoid the Utah in playoff.
I don't think of okur as this 1st all -defensive center who can stop yao anytime he wants. Yes he is a big body, a good post defender, and plays yao physical. but there is another guy who is just as big and just as physical his name is tyson chandler and whenever yao plays chandler, he does well. The difference between chandler and okur is that chandler does not have a perimeter game which yao has to GUARD. He can rest on the defensive end against chandler and concentrate on the offensive end. Jazz have two big men that have shooting range 20ft or higher(okur and boozer). Every time yao is in the game he has to guard okur or boozer(mainly boozer)on the perimeter, play help defense when the guards get beat, rebound, block shots and of course score the ball. At 7-6 that is too much to ask of yao. Yes he has improved his stamina since he has been in the league but he is still the most easily TIRED player in the league. How many times have you heard the TNT guys say i.e the pace is fast for yao, or yao never crossed halfcourt on the break. Other teams that have done this to yao are dallas, phoenix(pre-Shaq), and pacers. dallas when desperate put dirk at center and go small. Dirk fronts yao on the defensive end and shoots jumpers with yao guarding him. Reason we lost the dallas series. Phoenix(pre-shaq)- started amare at center and marion at the 4. before this season phoenix mostly owned us. Pacers- Troy murphy fronts yao and shoots threes with yao guarding him. We are 0-2 against them this season. We should avoid these teams in the first rd. lakers, spurs, utah, The absolute best matchup are the HORNETS. chris paul is the only offense and they just have one center while denver and portland are not bad for first rd matchups, they are not cake-walks either. Both those series could be atleast 6 games. But, I really believe we can take the hornets in 5 GAMES.
This is what pisses me off the most when Yao plays the j*zz. It's understandable that he'll have trouble on defense cuz Okur's pu$$y ass stays in the perimeter and he has to guard the quicker Boozer and Milsap. But how frustrating is it that Yao makes Okur look like a 1st defensive team player Okur is the big slow center(on defense) that Yao typically has an easy time with on offense. UGH
It's sad Utah doesn't front yao. Usually teams don't front yao because they don't have to. This year more teams front yao, and that's a good sign showing yao&rockets are better. Until utah has no choice but to front yao every time, we don't really have a chance to beat them regularly.
The main issue seems to be that they use their big bodies to wear Yao down. They body him up, push him out of his comfort zones and knock him off balance, particularly on his turnaround fadeaways.* He’s been money on those turnarounds all season but he didn’t make one last night. They *Personally, I feel Okur is fouling Yao on his turnaround’s. He’s pushing him with his body, similar to the way Bruce Bowen does.[/I][/QUOTE] Agree 100% I stated this on another thread
