Don't tell me you can't see how Yao was a no factor last game when fronted (teammates stopped looking to him and he stopped trying). He fought hard and did everything he could, and the team also tried all they could to involve him. Portland focused on taking him out, and the team responded much better. They used him as in PnR, they looked in his direction almost every time (even if they decide it was not the best course of action), and they even took two risky passes where they tried to lead Yao with the pass away from the fonter (unfortunately didn't work). To me, that shows a ton of effort by everybody to get him involved. And he made an impact on this game.
Remember when I made that comment about fronting being defeated after we beat the Spurs? You aren't going to get the ball if they are putting two guys on him (essentially its what they are doing). We are beating them because they are making plays and taking advantage of the fact that that second guy behind Yao can't rotate because that gives Yao an open layup since his guy is behind him. And we weren't just jacking up 3s. 40 points in the paint, only 9 three pointers attempted. You gotta feel real good about the Rocket's chance of winning. The more they play this defense, they more we can adjust to it and find ways to score.
You can argue Yao's merits offensively all you want, but the truth is that we are not going to win the next series and might not even win this one UNLESS Yao becomes MORE of a presence on that side of the court. But we all know he's not the type of guy to assert himself by dishing out the same physical beating that he's been receiving from Pryzbilla and Oden.
We tried two leading low floaters away from him tonight, just didn't work completely, the timing didn't work and led to turn overs. But I see people trying.
Very good post!!!! You are right on, most people won't see what he did since its not on the stat sheet. Credit to the other players for stepping up, cause that's the only way we are going to win. Yao played great D, he was a force, he changed the way they had to attack the basket. We will win this series in 5 games.....BOOK IT!!!
Yao not forcing things, like Ron did today. No prob, rox win. I bet its a blowout of portland next game
The only good thing I saw was that Yao was grabbing the boards. Sometimes, when he can't get into an offensive rhythm, he just shuts down. I used to get frustrated when he can't score or get rebounds. Today, even though he barely touched the ball, he did grab some boards and got some blocks. That pass to Scola or Battier (forgot which one) was good too.
are you saying great players never face tough defenses? yao has GOT to find a way to solve this (midrange J) b/c we need him to dominate if we want to become an elite team. big man's game is over? dwight just put up 35 and 10 on the sixers bro, after a subpar game. the big man's game may not be as good as it once was, but a great player should not be easily negated offensively.
Surprise. Dwight 2 monster night Magic Lost. Dwight sub-par game Magic win. Magic: Let Dwight get his and stop the 3 point shutting great chance to win. Rockets: Stop Yao great change to win the game.
Yao shot 40 % and only 14 PPG in regular season and we won 2 out of 3. Yao struggles previous season vs Portland vs the small offense and Houston won all the games. We can win if we keep exploding their aggressive double team all game.
Why is everyone so concerend about Yao? We won the game and thats all that matters...enough of these threads
yao seemed frustrated when oden dunked on him twice and aldridge once but yao played okay today. didn't score much but he grabbed offensive boards, dished to battier when open, managed his and Oden's fouls and was defensive stopper on roy and twice on oden in the 4th quarter. the reason why they had to go to jump shooting in the waning minutes is because Yao had shut down the middle the reason why houston won is because they had built a lead. they built that lead because scola and others were able to capitalize on Yao taking a double and opening up lanes for people to drive and pockets for ppl to shoot yao played okay this game. not a strong offensive production night but he did enough, just as houston did enough to win not sure what you people want to hear. versus this team, what Yao did tonight and what the team did is enough to win versus portland because Houston is a much better defensive team and can put up as many points as Portland going through yao and scola or with the 2nd unit. it's not pretty but this is enough to win the series versus LA that might be another story but Yao did enough tonight. he did fine and they won the game
I am almost certain that Yao will work on his mid-range games in the Summer. That being said, it's not like he's Hayes out there. He hit 2 jumpers in game 1, and 1 in game 2, 0 in game 3, out of 5 mid-range jumper attempts. 3-5, not too shabby, I think we could give him 2 or 3 shots through PnR, just to mix things up, bring Oden or Przyilla out. Yao is no Brad Miller, but we did see him hitting cutting slashers in regular season. I am glad he did great defensively tonight. If he had done something similar in game 2, we would have been 3-0. Then again, everything is interrelated in a basketball game. The key word tonight is Shane. He defended Roy well, not letting him to get a good start. Shane also knocked down some huge shots. Shane is the biggest contributor of Yao played a great defensive game. He stayed with Roy, much better than Ron did in game 2. So Roy couldn't just jump into Yao, and Yao could actually be the interior defender to secure rebounds, and block shots.
I thought Yao had a great first half, even if he only had 7 points, but in the second half the offense wasn't as sharp. Hopefully the Rockets adjust to whatever Portland changed for the next game. They need to win two games in a row at some point.
Actually, the meaning of the term "fool's gold" indicates that it's not gold. It was coined for the mineral pyrite, which, to a fool, looks and feels like gold. Regardless of that, our win wasn't fool's gold. However, Orlando's regular season record certainly is.
