No one is saying it's easy by any means,but there is no way that we can rely on Luis and Co to get the job done every night.
how has he had a quiet role? they haven't just been fronting him with one guy and rendering him useless like we saw in the regular season. they have been guarding him with two guys before he even touches it, sometimes both being 7 footers. it's the wrong strategy, but it's been an awesome sight to see. now of course this could all change if portland switches their gameplan as i expect them to do tonight, but up to this point, the opportunities yao has presented for his teammates, the literally terrified focus portland has put on him defensively, and yao's complete defensive dominance completely controlling the paint have been THE stories of this series. again, how can you not be in awe that a team is guarding a person with two 7 footers before they even touch the ball - that's called being a dominating giant. yao has been terrific thus far and if anything, if things continue this way, and we avoid a sweep against the lakers, this is what will put him on the map as the undisputed best lowpost player in the NBA.
14ppg, 10rpg, 1.67bpg. those aren't bad #s. and yao isn't hurting us when he's not scoring. but i think the media will be more enamor with howard's performance even if he loses (26, 12, 3).
Who cares about the media? If they chose to look with blinders on at the games, that's their problem. thacabbage is right. Yao, even without the numbers, had a huge role in Houston winning game 3 and almost winning game 2 on the other court. I love the fact that, unlike previous years, we have an outstanding bench, and excellent starters not named Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. I don't want to jinx them, but as long as the other guys keep making shots, we have a better than good chance of winning the series, and if they leave Yao to cover them, Yao will make them pay. The best thing that could have happened was that first half by Yao in game one. It's governed how Portland has played since then. They are terrified that he's going to do it again if they give him half a chance. You can't give Yao enough credit for that and how he's played the rest of the way. As Coach A said after the last game, who cares who's taking the shots? It's all about getting the win.
yes it's all about getting the win. but the playoffs are about trends and rhythm and consistency if you want to get better every playoff series. we're better than portland top to bottom, from the starting lineup to the bench to the coaching. so yes, we can get by without yao dominating offensively. but would we be saying this if we played the lakers? i'm sure phil jackson would see these tapes and make his own fronting style defense. add to the fact that the lakers have more athletes, longer, quicker, faster...
He's had a quiet statistical role other than the first game, but his impact his huge by drawing double teams and leaving someone open.
I don't think we should force the Yao issue if we're getting wins. Trying to get a rhythm at the sacrifice of close games or losing is not worth it. We haven't gotten out of the first round in years. If we play teams where we are obvious underdogs, that's when we have to fit square pegs into round holes. But we outclass Portland, so they have to pick their poison. Beat Yao or the other 4 guys? And neither way is very effective. Conversely, we just have to take the path of least resistance. They want to stop Yao? Fine, our 4 guys will find a way to win, and it works. If it didn't work we'd have to refocus, but why fix something that's not broken? When we face LA, that's when we will have to force an issue. That's when WE will have to pick our poison. But let's just win this series before we get ahead of ourselves.
My concern is that this strategy will beat the Blazers, and lose miserably to the Lakers. If the Lakers can deny Yao with Bynum or Gasol, the remainder of our roster may not cut it against the Lakers. Ideally, we should practice strategies in the regular season and early playoff series that maximize our chances of continuing in the playoffs. The problems with this ideal strategy and the reality of our situation is: 1) There may be no way for us to get past the Lakers, so we should focus solely on getting past the Blazers and building some confidence for next year. I would hate for us to be talking about the 1st round curse next year as well. It is getting REAL old. 2) This strategy may be our best chance of getting past the Lakers because shutting Yao out is easy without McGrady dishing. Getting Aaron as much 4th quarter playoff experience may be the best thing we can do.
There is only one way to make the Blazers honest with Yao... A Rocket blowout win with Yao scoring in single digits. That will confuse the heck out of Portland and I bet they'll go back to guarding Yao one on one. Simply put... everybody else needs to step up.
if you watch Yao's body language before, during and after the game, you can tell the only thing he cares about is WINNING....he does not seem to care if he scores 5 pts or 25 pts...he is the first one congrtulating teammates during timeouts when he is on the bench...he comes on the floor to high five all his team mates...he jumps up from his bench seat whenever they score...he has so much pressure on him to get past the first round that i don't think he CARES how the heck they do it as long as they do it....it will be a big monkey off his back..... he looks so stressed before games when he is meditating by himself on the bench like all the responisiblity is on his shoulders...but when they win it helps him realize, they can win without him...I think the "very frustrated" part was just a translation thing....he never looks frustratd to me, as long as his teammates are getting the job done...just my observation from being at the games....
You guys are basically saying you want Yao to be frustrated, but how would you react to him saying that he's frustrated despite his team winning? Gimme a break...frustration and competitiveness have two different meanings. First time I heard someone say, "Man, I wish that player was more frustrated on the court!" I guess you guys are right, frustration wins games. All superstars should be frustrated.
I have a different interpretation with Yao's body language after Game 3.. Yao's smile was very different than Game 1, his reaction is more like, "I am happy for the win, but they did it with me, the supposely franchise player, only scoring 7 points.."
