More Adelman quotes (from here): [rquoter] “Usually it happens – it just is going to happen. This is one of the best home teams in the league and they had the ability to come at you. I think the key for us was that I made a lot more calls, tried to be sure that we were getting things that we wanted. We executed it well. We ran a lot pick and rolls, but different looking pick and rolls… The main thing was don’t lose your focus defensively. We had to continue to defend them. Don’t put them on the line and rebound the ball. They are the best offensive rebounding team in the league so when you continue to defend and you start picking your offense up, I think that separated it. By the end of the third quarter, we were pretty much in control.”[/rquoter] [rquoter] “....He just got going. He was on a roll. He was making turnaround jumpers, jump hooks, face-up jumpers. He did everything. Teams mix it up, they let him catch it, they double him, they front him. I’m sure we’ll see different things in the next game. What I really liked about the second half was that Yao didn’t score but we maintained control of the game. We found other ways to score when he got in foul trouble and was out of the game.” [/rquoter] [rquoter] “Aaron has had success against this team, but more importantly we needed to spread the court. We get stagnate sometimes offensively- the more that we can flatten the defense out, the more we can get those guys the ball in their hands, the better off we are. When Aaron shoots it like he did, they are in trouble. They’ll make adjustments, but we want to continue to keep attacking.”[/rquoter] Notice that he's not talking about needing to get Yao more invovled. He seems pleased with what the Rockets did in the third quarter to increase the lead. He wanted to spread the court and "flatten" their defense.
Thanks. As long as they are doing what the coach wants them to do, it's fine with me. What I and perhaps some other posters worry is that Brooks is bound to cool off and hopefully he won't keep dribbling and chucking when that happens.
Your concerns are valid but I am sure the team will look back and see why Yao was getting the ball in the second half but it is better that the team can create without having to go to Yao all the time. I also believe that this will help the team as the series goes along.
Remember when T-Mac would dribble alot and try to create alot and we would complain about a lack of movement from all the other players becasue they were standing around watching him?? This still applies even when Aaron is trying to run a PnR. If nobody is moving he doesnt have much to look for once he comes off the pick. Quit whining about Brooks dribbling too much when the only passes that are available to him are swing passes to Battier/Artest 26 feet from the bucket. In case you guys missed it they did try to throw the ball in to Yao early on in the 3rd, it was tipped out of bounds and almost stolen by the Blazers. How hard is it to realize that the Blazers changed their defense to begin the 3rd quarter??? Remember that Scola guy?? He was perfect early on in the 3rd quarter as well. So apparently Yao can shoot perfect from the field every time, but the other Rockets are actually crappy shooters who all got lucky last night that every one of their shots were going in.
Yao is being fed. Anyone else see this from Hollinger? Maybe I missed it, but I almost started a thread about his Player Efficiency Rating - All Positions - the Playoffs. Yao is #1, Scola is #8, and Artest is at #14. The numbers are amazing. Maybe someone else can post these so they are easy to read. Yao's PER is 55.69, Scola's 28.16, and Ron is 23.45. WOW! 1 Yao Ming, HOU 1 24.0 1.031 0.0 7.9 21.9 17.4 27.5 24.3 55.69 16.2 0.5 2 LeBron James, CLE 1 41.0 .726 21.1 0.0 30.2 0.0 25.3 14.4 46.34 21.9 0.7 3 Brandon Bass, DAL 1 18.0 .778 0.0 10.0 23.6 8.1 19.5 14.4 38.92 7.4 0.2 4 Josh Howard, DAL 1 29.0 .606 12.2 4.1 33.2 5.0 12.1 8.9 37.23 11.6 0.4 5 Greg Oden, POR 1 22.0 .856 0.0 0.0 16.6 8.6 28.5 14.7 36.89 8.6 0.3 6 Aaron Brooks, HOU 1 35.0 .755 26.0 7.4 26.4 6.0 8.1 7.4 35.30 12.7 0.4 7 Rajon Rondo, BOS 1 44.0 .637 22.8 3.3 20.4 4.5 18.7 11.1 28.86 11.7 0.4 8 Luis Scola, HOU 1 35.0 .816 7.3 7.3 15.4 6.0 18.8 14.8 28.16 8.7 0.3 9 Tim Duncan, SAS 1 37.0 .552 7.6 0.0 28.9 6.3 27.5 15.8 28.09 9.7 0.3 10 Jason Maxiell, DET 1 9.0 1.000 0.0 0.0 9.7 14.4 19.0 16.4 27.36 2.1 0.1 11 Derrick Rose, CHI 1 50.0 .741 27.3 12.4 22.7 2.4 6.0 4.3 26.11 11.3 0.4 12 Michael Finley, SAS 1 32.0 .950 0.0 9.1 14.6 0.0 18.2 8.1 24.15 6.5 0.2 13 Kwame Brown, DET 1 16.0 .868 0.0 25.8 10.6 32.4 53.6 41.5 23.51 3.1 0.1 14 Ron Artest, HOU 1 31.0 .683 22.9 5.7 19.9 0.0 3.0 2.1 23.45 6.0 0.2 15 Zydrunas Ilgauskas, CLE 1 28.0 .466 23.7 0.0 22.1 12.2 37.1 26.4 23.27 5.3 0.2 http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holl.../insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics
Come on Deckard, dontcha know that its as simple as choosing to throw the ball into Yao?? The Blazers won't do anything to try and stop that, so we should just go to Yao all the time and put that wonderful 55 PER to work more.
How many point did he score last year in the playoffs? Thats what i thought. This is why i really dont like discussion like this because when you say something, the yao ming faithful take it the wrong way. a person can try to be reasonable, but it never turns out that way in their eyes. This is the Houston Rockets. Theyre in the playoffs because they have 12 players on the team with a coaching staff. The team wins games and loses games together. Yao is a good player that can be effective when the environment is just right. he is not a great player that can come out 15 ft from the basket and still make plays consistently. The goal last night was to not bog down when the blazers made adjustments. Yao didnt bog down because he freed shane up for drives, brooks up for drives, and he got offensive rebounds. He did what was needed to win the game. If the blazers come out and front Yao early in the game, the rockets should move to plan b like last night. If any of you dont like it and the rockets win, go back under your rock and take up following another team. this is the Houston Rockets!
Yeah, I noticed that while watching today's Orlando game. Damn we're lucky to have the MOST DOMINANT BIG MAN on our team. They flat out choked an 18 point lead because Howard has NO inside post game what-so-ever. On top of that, the Magic was too scared to give him the ball in the last few minutes cuz of his sub-60% free throw shotting. If Yao is only a good player then Howard is average at best.
The Magic have been better in close games than the Rockets throughout the season. What does that tell us?
Yeah, even though we won, I found out a little disturbing that he didn't take any shots in the minutes he played in the 2nd half. Hell, I thought he should have had more touches in the 2nd Q. I believe it was 7 shots in the first and 2 shots in the 2nd quarter.
It tells us that the Magic lives and dies by their wing players and doesn't rely on it's Center. They TOTALLY IGNORED Howard in the last few possessions on today's game. That's what it tells us. And the regular season is irrelevant when it comes to the playoffs. Weaknesses are magnified due to the multiple adjustments between games. Today just shows how lacking Howard is compared to Yao in the last minutes of a REAL BALLGAME. SCOREBOARD BABY!!!
Hedo, Nelson, Rashard. Especially Nelson ... he wasn't voted an all-star by the coaches for nothing. You would think it's because of Howard because he is the superstar on the team but it's not. Their go-to-players are their guards/forwards late in games.
If regular season is irrelevant, point out the playoff games where Yao was dominant in the last minutes of a close game in contrast to Dwight Howard.
Yao isn't exactly the go to player in the final minutes of the game. The Rockets used to throw it down to Yao to finish off games but it always resulted in loses because he kept turning the ball over or taking bad fadeaway jumpers. Now the Rockets don't even really go to him anymore to finish games and sometimes even replace him for defensive purposes.
It was kinda funny that we complain that Yao doesn't get the touches at the end because HE FORCES the other teams to adjust there defense towards him. That fits the definition of DOMINANCE by the way. What's funny is that Howard's team is the reason he doesn't get the ball not the opponent. After watching today's game, I would say that Howard is just an upgraded Ben Wallace. Good for defense and rebounding, but not much else.
