SuperSuperstar Shaq was easily taken out of game by Rockets, with fronting defense

I agree. I've been saying this for a while. People shouldn't panic about the fronting. If there is a coach who can find ways to beat the fronting, it is Adelman. But Adelman's offense needs smart players. There were times when the Rockets did not play smart when fronting happened. But overall, I am satisfied. I feel pretty good about this series. Game 3 wasn't really that close. Portland just hit some unbelievable 3s at the end to make it interesting.

When we get to the second round against the Lakers, that will be another story.

 

Portland is a horrendous defensive team and that's why the Rockets role players were able to take advantage so often.

 

Sort of, what is happening is that they are playing the defense their coaches gave them and it leaves them exposed by focusing on Yao.

Scola and Landry in particular are getting WIDE OPEN shots.

DD

 

Interesting, though Shaq really wasn't the old dominant Shaq in that season. In fact, he actually scored more points per minutes this season than he did that year.

 

Wasn't that the year of the feud with Kobe got really bad?

 

I think so. It was his last year with the Lakers.

 

people will never front Big Z...

 

lol u can only bring up ONE GAME. we're talking numerous games over a 3-yr period with yao.

like i said, tmac struggled mightily with zone defense when it was fully implemented in the 03-04 season to start and he had a 4pt game. it took him 3-4 games before he got back into his groove.

every superstar will struggle against some type of defense, but the great ones will figure it out.

btw, he bounced back with 25 pts the next game despite missing 9 fts. overall, though shaq played subpar in that series. but it wasn't like, "hey, fronting shaq will slow him down. let's all try that."

but u do know what was shaq's kryptonite: free throw shooting. again, if he could have solve that, he would have dominated even more despite the hack-a-shaq.

 

and he also came into training camp fat and kobe called him out on it, which only made it worse.

 

True, but it must not have taken Shaq long to figure out a solution. He went for 25 and 11 in game 3.

 

Uh,

The rockets lost the game shaq was shut down I doubt the rockets used the same defense, the losing team generally does the adjusting.

DD

 

May be the Piston should try that.......lol
but wait... It is really a good point!!!!!!!
What would CLE offence like if Big Z got fronted ????

 

you really don't change your defensive game plan if you shut down the most dominant player in the L at the time.

just like i doubt portland changes their defensive game plan much despite losing in game 3 b/c they did slow down our best offensive player for the past 2 games. if i was portland, i think just make shots.

 

blazers would figure out double team on yao is unnecessary, fronting is adequate to shut yao down. if they do that in game 4, adelman will take risk for his inflexibility.

 

Thanks for enlightening me. I look forward to seeing Yao operate against single coverage tonight.

 

if the blazers are stupid and do not adjust, then would you complain about the rockets continuing to win?


It baffles me that some people don't think the losing team would adjust, wait check that it is exactly why the jvg type of coaches get fired. Whereas the pops and rudy t type of coaches make big adjustments like putting horry at the of position or starting elie or chucky brown. The great coaches adjust, let's hope Nate does not and the rockets win!

DD

 

you don't adjust what you did right. you change what you did wrong. defensively, they did great. why would you adjust any of that?

he has to adjust offensively though against our defense.

just b/c you lose, you don't adjust every damn thing b/c it's a loss. portland's a young and inexperienced. it takes time for them to learn how to execute in the playoffs.

 

Exactly, with Yao the adjustments still hasn't been made for his entire career.

 

great find.
So even Shaq at his prime couldnt solve this fronting really,
that sort of relieves me

 

The main reason was that they were trying to work Payton as a traditional PG into that lineup. They finally figured it out, by the end of the season, that Payton was over the hill and the best way to run that Lakers offense was still thru Shaq.

The team had a drastic makeover from the previous year. The regular season was a work in progress. Interestingly, for Lakers offense to work that season, Malone had to be in the lineup. Ball would usually stop to a halt unless Malone kept moving it.

Shaq was same old Shaq. He teared it up against Detroit in the finals. It's just that Cato had a history of keeping Shaq under control (not only fronting but behind him as well) and with Yao coming from the weakside, it made things much harder for Shaq. Rockets also had the luxury of putting Yao on Shaq, who too has done well against him defensively.

As far as drawing up analogy of Shaq fronting and Yao fronting, this is a classic case of cherry picking. Shaq did not dominate like he usually does because Rockets interchanged two big bodies on him who had a history of success against him defensively. Even then I dont think he was completely shut down.

Yao gets shut down regularly by fronting defense by big or small player. Fronting stops Yao. Period. No ifs and but. You dont need to double Yao when you are fronting him. Blazers are just stupid for doing so. The size of the fronter does not matter either.

There is absolutely NO WAY you could get away with fronting of Shaq by smaller and leaner players even if you had weakside help from the other side. And even with a bigger player fronting him, you had to have someone from the other side with size coming over. Shaq was incredibly mobile, had great balance, and had strong hands, so a lob pass was always good with him. Yao lacks in all these departments, which is why he struggles against lob, which is the main way to attack fronting defense.

Let's stop cherry picking and making excuses for Yao. He has his limitations and teams exploit them.