Yao is every team's first target when planning defensive schemes, so its no surprise that he gets taken out of his game against some teams. However, it is very rare to see that ron artest 5/22 7TO, lowry 0/7, barry 0/3, wafer, brooks all have super bad shooting nights during the same game when defense is yao oriented...
I think he meant DH. These days JH gets abused on a regular basis. It is no mystery why Yao does not perform well against the Jazzholes. They use every dirty trick in the book to bother Yao before his shots and they have AK47 to block Yao's shots from weak side. Last night we couldn't hit our 3's. I recalled Barry had three straight open looks from 3-pt lines and he missed on all of them. For Yao to be effective, our perimeter shooting has to be working. Hopefully RA will learn from last night's debacle.
Like i said before, Yao have no confidence when playing these Jazz due to the mental psychological edge that the Jazz have over him through the year of beating and losing. That is why Yao keep taking jumpshots instead of backing them down and play aggressive basketball. Even when he is wide open blank hook shots and he still miss them...this is nothing more than lack of confidence and the mental edge Jazz have imposed on him.
Also, when single yao, it effects scola also. Scola doesn't get any open shots when the single yao. Now its about who can break their man down and finish. The rockets don't have a lot of basket attackers or finish. That's why they struggle with utah.
I think its a combination of the altitude and that he dribbles too much once he establishes position. He missed shots early on but I liked his approach at the start of the game. He had decent midrange position and just picked and popped. The more Yao dribbles the more likely he is to get stripped or get bodied (fouled) knocking him off balance. If Yao took quick fade aways once he had decent position he'd perform better. I think the other thing that makes Yao less effective is the long bodies that provide good weak side blocking when he is near point blank range. Kirilenko and Brewer murder him in this department, and the Jazz are simply more athletic than the Rockets. The loss of Landry didn't help since he is a great finisher and helps create space for Yao to work inside the paint. It doesn't help that our slashers were missing lay ups all the time.
Guys they are not going to call that a foul when Okur does that. If you fade away and are being pushed while doing so...then stop fading away. Watch Chuck Hayes and he does the same thing to Dirk. It's just good defense, Yao should have hit those point blank hook shots right in the paint.
Agree 100% I stated this on another thread[/QUOTE] Sadly. . . I hate to say it. . but . . . .Yao may have to flop Rocket River . . but don't!
yeah i think you're right, when you look at okur and boozer, you don't think individual defense. it has to be something else, and extra effort on the defensive end may explain it.
I agree. I think Chuck Hayes vs Kevin Garnett is another good example. Yao is dominant against certain teams but he will always struggle against some, like the Jazz. He needs to develop other ways to play against those teams. High screens and pick-and-pops come to mind.
YAO MING IS NOT SINGLE TEAM VS THE JAZZ Ppl think he is because they don't double him early he is single team they wait for him to put the ball on the floor then double or crowd the paint. One on One Yao will eat Boozer, Okur, Millsap etc. Houston need to make they open shoot because Utah will let you take 50 wide open shoot but not a layup or easy bucket in the paint. In the playoff ppl talk about, they Jazz never defend Hayes and Kirilenko never guard anybody in particular just try to block on the weak side and play the passing lane and Rafer pls. it was basically 2 vs 5 every single time. Until we make our open shoot at a decent rate we never going to beat them on their building with Yao. And I don't see the Utah changing their defensive approach any time soon vs Houston and there is no reason to do it until Houston show they can make shoots. Last game every time we made a few shoot we made a run and they couldn't score, once we start bricking everything and missing layups their confidence rise and now every player was scoring on the Jazz.
I agree the Jazz did a great job with their double teams. Very well-timed and varied so that Yao couldn't anticipate it. At the same time, you have to hand it to Okur for his defense on Yao. He didn't try to physically overpower Yao like some teams do, but kept his body on him and put a hand in Yao's face when he shot. And like a lot of the Rockets, I don't think Yao was having a good shooting night, either. Another thing that hurt Yao, IMO, was that the pace of the game was way too fast, especially in the second half. We usually take a little less than 100 total shots per game, but against the Jazz we had 118 shots. Instead of slowing things down and being more methodical, we tried to match the pace and intensity of the Jazz. This wore down Yao and made him less effective down the stretch.
There is nothing wrong with the Rockets or Yao's game. The shots weren't falling. Hence the lost. Bastketball is a really simple game.
Yao needs to watch how Shaq handles the Jazz D on him. Yao should take his time and not rush into what the Jazz are doing D wise.
