Turn off the lights and go to bed.. It has been a long day.. You're tired.. I'll tuck you in and read you a story in a sec..
It was a good game. Too bad we lost. I think we played well enough to beat most teams, but Boston showed why they are still a true championship contender, and why we're not without Yao's inside presence.
Not really too bad. At least we saw Hill doing better than big baby. Not draft big baby seemed to be smart.
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This. I didn't think we play that poorly either. Boston is just better (now). ps. Brooks was being being chased to the death by Rondo. How come nobody set hard picks on Rondo to free up Brooks?
Our bigs never set hard picks but Brooks is usually too quick for most guards in the league to keep up so that's not a big problem on most nights. You have to give Rondo credit on the defensive end. Aaron struggled big time against him. I think Rondo is the best defender at PG right now. He also leads the league in steals.
I agree irt to Rondo, but Yao used to set jaw-breaking picks. I don't see why a like guy Hill couldn't set a couple, unless instructed not to.
Their reward would be a first round series with the Lakers in all likelihood. It would be a bigger miracle if they managed to finish 7th to avoid them and play Denver instead.
What would have happened in last night's game if Yao was playing? So, the Celtics come out with an obvious defensive emphasis on the perimeter, specifically Aaron Brooks. Everybody was cheating a little bit off their man to help Rondo when Brooks got by him. Secondarily, they were taking away Kevin Martin, playing him up close, and denying him the ball as much as possible. Hence, Scola went off in the 1st quarter. They then started converging in the paint, not worrying about letting Hayes catch the ball, because they could get block his shot even if he wasn't defended until he jumped. It worked really well. The key to the game was the Celtics shutting down our offensive thrust. They got back defensively after their shots, with a high emphasis on tagging and chasing Brooks early and cutting him off as soon as he got over halfcourt, and forcing him to go somewhere else (Ariza, Battier, etc.) except Martin. So, what happens in this scenario with Yao planted in the middle? The Celtics have great defense. You have to put them up with the best defenses in the NBA. They get back and they force most teams to play their tempo, the halfcourt game. If we got into a halfcourt game with very limited fastbreaks and we have to come down and execute offensively in the halfcourt set with Brooks/Martin/Ariza/Yao/Scola with a team talking away Brooks and forcing him to give up the ball early, and denying Martin the ball, then what do we do? Yao is left in the post against probably Perkins. We already know he is going to be fronted and overplayed. What is the strategy that Adelman employs that gets us high-quality shots and gets us to the FT line? Does he bring Yao up into the high post and let Yao look for cutters? What is the obvious halfcourt set in the scenario where the perimeter is being overplayed and the ball is taken out of Brooks' hands? What does Adelman do when teams decide to converge on Brooks and force him to get rid of the ball way up high and another defender is draping Martin, not allowing him to catch outside? What does Adelman do this season without Yao to counter it? What does Adelman do different next season with Yao to counter this strategy combined with Yao being fronted down low?
Which Yao Ming are we talking about? If its the JVG Yao Ming then we would have won this game, as Yao's combination of strength, weight and speed (for his size) would have been too much for Boston. However if you're talking about RA Yao Ming then we would still have lost this game. Boston's front line is the RA Yao killer. Every single one of their fs and Cs make Yao their beeyatch on a nightly basis, they just shut him down via fronting, make him tired by leaning on him and fighting him for position, steal the ball from him and make him take horrible shots. One of my most hated memories of watching NBA games was seeing Perkins abuse Yao during a game last year, and I doubt it would have been any different this year.
well this is the big quest i think the Rockets have never been tested this season like they were last night but don't forget that Boston's defense is the toughest one IMO they play too physical and converge to the key player in the team (ie vs Kobe in 2008 finals) so to me we need: 1) to be faster in moving the ball and setting the screens for AB and Martin 2) to be physical, i believe that we could've made a much better job defensively especially Battier and Ariza 3) to have with Yao a versatile PF or center to help him ala Olajuwon Thorpe, so Scola can be the one with that said there is still much work to get to the level of contenders but it is possible
