I was never with that prevailing thought of Hakeem "dismantling" Robinson, Hakeem "owning" Shaq, Horry "stopping" Barkley and Malone. They'd still usually get pretty good numbers. Or maybe they'd more stop themselves cuz they didnt get enough sleep who knows. But when you contain them to their median level without them outright torching YOU, then against Hall of Fame types you can say you stopped them from beating you. Therefore kinda "owning" them. There's also approaches of letting some players get their numbers and stopping everyone else. But thats too difficult to look back on way after the fact... Wish I'da seen this first before I went B-R exploring for the same stuff If Lebron has A games against 30 teams, and against the other 2 teams he has B games, as good as that is for Lebron to do those 2 teams are most deserving of making the "own" claim. I want to count Lebron's first 3 years because he's had good performances against teams where he can say he's "owned" them. So his bad games should count too
What is your problem? This is a Rockets fan forum, and this thread is about players owned by the Rockets. Why are you trying so hard to prove Yao gets owned by other players? If you really want to do that, please start a new thread.
Really? Howard got Orlando the finals. Yao got us no where. I don't think Yao's strengths make up for his weaknesses, while Dwight Howards strengths more than make up for his weaknesses. Yao is not really great at doing anything, he's good and above average in almost all categories, but Dwight howard just single handedly owns the paint. The magic can play Rashard Lewis at PF and not worry about getting outrebounded because Howard is a freakin beast. He may not be as polished offensively, but if he gets the ball under the rim you can bet its going in or he's getting a three point play. How many times have we wanted to pull our hairs out when Yao misses a pt blank layup, when he should just be throwing it down. H2H Yao is better than Dwight. But we need Dwight to win the other 80 times we play a team other than Orlando. The chances of them ever matching up in the finals is slim to none.
That really can't be used as an argument to prove Howard better than Yao. Otherwise Rafer Alston should be better than a lot PGs in west conference, and both Rockets/Denver had a great chance beat Orlando with a healthy roster last season. Had Rockets played in East, they might got to the final as well. Rockets had great records against East top teams until this year. There were several years that Rockets could really got far if they played in East.In one season of JVG era, Rockets were 25-5 against East conference teams. I'll list Howard over Yao for his ability to stay on the court longer though.
But that's exactly my point. The rockets team was better than the Orlando team, but Orlando made it to the finals and we didn't. Yao has never even had to be the lone star to carry a team. He's always had Francis or Mcgrady. We'll see what he does next year. It'd be different if Yao elevated his game in the playoffs. But with Yao you always know what your going to get. A consistent 20 pts 10 rebound effort. He jsut doesn't have the ability to take over games like Dwight can. Even in last years playoffs he only dominated for the first half of game 1 vs Portland. Then he was taken out by officials or fronting and that's why I would take dwight howard. No way you can front that man. he'll catch alley oops all day. On that note another player the rockets have usually owned Kevin Durant.
Howard doesn't take over game either. Sometiems he lost games by missing FTs. It was Hedo, sometimes Lewis who took over games in the end. Nelson too before he got injured. Because of the rule change, this is an era that taking over a game from peremeter becomes so much easier than taking over a game inside. So "Howard taking game over" can't be used an argument over Yao either. He didn't.
I see exactly what you mean in some cases, but in other cases the Rockets (or Hakeem Olajuwon really did dominate the opposition). Example #1: Patrick Ewing in the NBA Finals. For the season, Ewing was a solid 24 ppg and 11 rebounds. 22.8 ppg (on about 53% FG) , 12 rebs vs. the Bulls (defending champions). 22.2 ppg (on about 42% FG), 10.4 rebs vs the Pacers. Against the Rockets, Ewing shot under 40% for series... .385, .368, .310, .286, .524, .300, and .412. Only one really good game in the series, Game 5 (25 point, 12 reb, and 8 blks). 18.8 ppg (on 36% FG), 12.4 rebs, and 4.2 blks. Have not ever seen superstar player perform this poorly in the NBA Finals, outside of maybe Karl Malone (97-98) and Kobe Bryant (03-04, 07-08). http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/e/ewingpa01/gamelog/1994/#stats_playoffs It is fair to say Olajuwon shut Ewing down, at least in the NBA Finals (when it mattered most). Example #2: The Phoenix Suns, the Suns have never beaten the Rockets to win a 5 or 7 game series. Strangely, they had the chance to win many times, up 2-0, after two opening road games (93-94) and being up 3-1 (in 94-95). Also, they had a 15 point half time lead in game 7 of 94-95 Western Conference Finals. You can say that the Rockets have own them in the playoffs (and some regular season meeting over the years). OT: Dwight and Yao, head to head is another good example, since the Rockets have won nearly all of the meetings, while Yao has played like HOF against Dwight Howard (as well as Andrew Bynum, a great number of other good defensive centers, and most of all, a still fairly good Shaq). That does say a little something about him, as a player (since they are players out there who are the opposite, play great against weaker competition, but falters against a player who is equally as good or on a team that is great defensively).
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It's funny how we use one game to judge who owns who. In that case, Nate Robinson owns Yao. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/svsHlH-IvbY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/svsHlH-IvbY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
It was not only one game. Check the thread - the full stats for Yao's and Howard's head-to-head matchups were posted, and Yao wins this matchup by a landslide.
Are you counting the first two years Dwight was in the league? Again, I don't call having slightly better stats owning.
Yao dominates him in almost every way, the most obvious being Dwight Howard's low post moves are awful. Yao destroys Dwight in the low post every time they match up while Dwight can't even get a good shot off against Yao.
Yao is averaging 10 more points per game than Howard is... I wouldn't call that slightly. Yao is also containing Howard to under 10 trb per game...
Since when can Dwight take over a game? All he has is alley oops and dunk. Other than that, he has no offensive capabilities. He can't shoot, he can't post up. If Rockets was in the Eastern Conference, we would be playing the Lakers in the Finals or even getting into the playoffs this season. Dwight is lucky to have a really good cast of players to support him. W/o Nelson and Lewis, he would just be another "average" center.
http://www.basketball-reference.com....cgi?request=1&=m&p1=mingya01&=h&p2=howardw01 From 2007 onwards (using an Excel spreadsheet to calculate). 5 games, Rockets go 4-1. Yao Ming- 24.8 PPG (55.8% from field, 80% from line), 12.6 RPG (8.6 defensive, 4 offensive), 2 BPG, 1.8 APG, 1 SPG, 2.8 TOPG, 4.2 FoulsPG Dwight Howard- 15.8 PPG (49.1% from field, 60.5% from line), 10 RPG (8 defensive, 2 offensive), 2 BPG, 1 APG, 1.2 SPG, 1.6 TOPG, 4 FoulsPG 9 PPG more on better shooting, 2.6 RPG more, rest are a wash. Rockets go 4-1. Yes, Yao does own Howard. You need to watch Rocket games before trying to make an argument.
