Based on this pic, we could see Yao is really pissed off. I bet Yao would bash and yell at AB and Artest in locker room post-match. I hope we could see certain change to come in Game 6.
great pic by the picture taker. captures so many expressions. yao - angry scola - shocked battier - confused ron - guilty feeling? idk. wasn't a good moment for the rockets.
I would say for Yao to pull the seat on Pryzbilla and Oden fronting/sitting on him, but... NO FOUL??!?!?! If you complain about the refs you get your way.
The biggest adjustment needs to be to take care of the ball man. You can't win a game with that many turnovers and those more than bad shots by Brooks or Artest cost us the game. I know a lot of y'all are blaming Brooks for not getting the ball to Yao but frankly Yao didn't establish that much dominance and missed a bunch of shots early on. A lot of Yao's points came from outside shots. Also too often Yao got sealed off by Pryzbilla and Oden and couldn't get an offensive rebound. To put it simply Yao himself needs to do more. The biggest adjustment can't be game planned for and that is that the Rockets need to match the intensity and desperation that Portland has. Consider how many loose balls and second chance shots the Blazers got. They basically outhustled us when we had been doing that in games 3 and 4.
man i can't agree more with your last statement...these noobs are getting so psyched out about the Blazers trying to take Yao out that they dont' even look at him as a first option....how many times last nite did you see Yao working intelligently in the post and securing position and th ball did not get to him? or how he sealed his man up top and direct artest or shane to dribble to the baseline and make the pass and again they didn't...the Dude was on fire get him the DogNabbing ball
Honestly, Yao wasn't getting the same calls he was in game 4 with all that reaching and grabbing by Flopzilla and Olden. He WILL get those calls in Houston, that should open up Yao. Once Yao opens up, we have everything, 3 point shooting, great passing to the basket, and of course Yao Ming's offense. The biggest adjust though, has to be attacking the basket and drawing fouls. If we shoot more FT's than them and play some defense (sorta like how we did in the 2nd half of game 5), we should likely win this game.
you must be hypnotized by the aaron brooks show. Yao worked and was open plenty of times. Elbow J's, post, you name it
Yao was 3-5 FG for the first half, and finish the game with 7-12 FG. How the fark you came up with Yao missed bunch of shots early on?
Brooks doesn't like Yao because Yao was "surprized" by the Alston trade. Being a fly without a head, he thinks Yao is a slow elephant.
Send that pic to Brooks. Those three on the right are the most intelligent players on the team. Pass them the ball, and your job is done.
Hell yes, pulling the chair out is one of the oldest, yet most effective tricks ever against an aggressive post defender. People used to pull that on Dream back in the day.
I like these suggestions - A couple of times, Brooks just gets the deer-in-the-headlights look when he goes P&R and seems to just dribble in a circle - or to the exact wrong spot on the floor - and to allow his man to come off the screen AND for the screener to get picked up and basically waste the possession. I wish he would just hit the screen and go to the basket or shoot immediately, not dribble around waiting to see if the other guy is open (hint, if you have to wait and see - he won't be aaron..) Steve Smith (surprisingly) made a fairly accurate observation that, when Ron made Roy work on defense (even just by bulling the ball into the lane and then tossing it back out) it tired out Roy a bit and took some air off his jumper. Running Roy into a couple of screens may cause him to lose a few steps when he's on the other end.
I say don't let Roy kill us anymore. They are taking Yao away by fronting and double teaming him, how bout we send a double team to Roy? If he drives to the basket, give him a hard foul. I think more physical play by the Rox might rattle them. Who knows, we might get the home court foul calls on Thursday. On offense we need Lowry and Wafer to drive it in and draw a foul or free up Yao for a dunk or offensive rebound/tip in. We can't let them beat us in our house...
I just checked the stats and my mistake. I think his two misses seemed more magnified as he had good position whereas a lot of his second shots were from outside.
The thing is, the poor shootings by Brooks and Artest lately are not much better that outright turnovers. If the turnovers are the result of the starting guards trying to create high percentage shots for their hot shooting teammates, the team will be more than happy to live with those (turnovers). It looks like you were typing the above from a preconceived mindset. Nobody can seal his fronting defenders all the time. But whenever Yao has the position down low, his teammates need to pass him the ball. If you watched the game like others did, you would notice Yao was ignored in plain sight multiple times by Brooks and Artest. This bears rebuttal. Did Yao really miss a bunch of shots early on (so much so his teammates felt disgusted to pass the ball to him later on, as you seem to to imply)? What game were you watching? It's one thing to be biased, it's entirely another if you can't even get the facts straight.
Obviously, AB is unable/unwilling/too timid to make a good entry pass into Yao from the perimeter, even in the instances where Yao is able to seal off his man. However, I don't see any way that anyone on the Blazers, especially Blake, can possibly keep up with AB off the dribble, so AB needs to do one of two things: 1. PNR, drive the lane and dish off to the inevitably open player in the paint/on the baseline (AB needs better court vision in this respect - too often he feels like if he gets a step, he NEEDS to try and lay it in, even if an incredibly long Aldridge is in his way), or 2. Stop and pop about ten to fifteen feet from the basket. (AB's greatest asset is his SPEED, far and away. He's a decent shooter if he gets some confidence, and the defender is ALWAYS going to be a step ahead down the lane just in anticipation. I am pretty confident in AB hitting a high % of 10-15 footers in the paint)
Brooks needs to be benched. That's also good for him. Though I am in the "start Lowry" wagon since day 1, I didn't really hate Brooks. Like I said a zillion times he is what he is, a short guard who doesn't know how to pass. You have to live with that if you decide to leave him on the court. Basically I blame Coach for playing him as a starter. Adelman put him in a position he's going to fail. When you are the starting PG with the best scoring front court (Yao+Scola) in the entire NBA, you cannot be looking for your shot first. Compare to Game 3/4 he plays much better in Game 1 and 2 (though most of the points he scored are fool's gold anyway) because he didn't look for passing to anyone. In other games, when he started looking to pass the ball, he is very confused, hesitant, hell he even passed quite a few wide open looks when Yao kicked out the ball from double teams. He will be much better playing with the 2nd unit because he could focus on scoring instead of passing. Plus for a guard who is afraid of contact, there will be less chance for him to get blocked.
