that play was intended, he was WAY too close to miss by as far as he did (he was about 3 feet from pau but was about 2 feet over his reach) yet hit the other guy perfectly.
The thing that frustrated me was Martins technical...then seeing the behavior of Gasol down the stretch...disrespecting the refs IN THEIR FACE and drawing no T. I guess the offseason had me forgetting NBA double standards
Scola & Brooks are two of the better players in the NBA at their positions, I'll live with their mistakes because they have far more pros than cons.
I would agree on most expect I would give Yao a B- because he missed way too many point blank shots but rebounding and defense was fantastic As for Brad Miller an A? he was by far the worst defender on the court, he allowed easy paint points, when he could allow Gasol to earn them at the line, didn't rebound well, and was an overall poor defender on the court I would give him a B-
they owned Miller on the glass and on offense. at least 3 lightly contested baskets from missed assignment or slow rotation I can think of 1 offensive board that Gasol got that owned Yao but it also looked like Gasol might have come in with some contact on that play that wasn't called. overall they did their damage mostly 1)when Yao was out or 2)by having the whistle called on Yao. Yao held up better than expected with 7 defensive rebounds and a number of blocks. Yes he was slow but that's to be expected and something that'll get much better as the season goes on
you posted the same time I was posting but you saw what I saw. Yao is a B-... he was pretty nimble on offense including one nifty move on Gasol but he missed a number a shots near the basket that he'll eventually make as he gets up to speed... however he's always going to be a little slow and have some turnovers. Just having Yao on the court helped on defense and at 60% Yao still cleans up on defensive boards and shot alterations Brad got burned badly a number of times... no swipe at Brad, obviously he's been out as well in the preseason and he'll get better as well on defense. But at the same time there's a reason why Odom and Gasol are a handful for guys all around the league not named Yao. Even in top form they'll be a bad matchup for Brad Miller like other centers
I think Yao in his limited minutes in his first game in a year looked pretty damn good. Very good sign.
Since when does Justin Bieber have the star power to borrow Phil Jackson's ring?!? Seeing him there was almost as disgusting as the Lakers winning. Also thought it was funny during the ring ceremony how Lamar Odom only talked about himself instead of introducing the next guy like he was supposed to. I doubt Shanon Brown will go off like that again against us. We should have won that game and i'm sure we will beat them next time
This is my first post and all i have to say is that I'm disappointed. We had them , but the offense wasn't the problem in my opinion. My only problem is rebounding rebounding rebounding because they had so many second chance points. Just put a body on every player next time and we'll be find. All in all we did good.
Positives: - Yao looks great considering he has play a real game for a long time - Kevin Martin is the kind of player that is not flashy but will give you great production, someone that is a piece of championship puzzle - Courtney Lee looks great - Aaron Brooks has progressed very nicely. Still need to work on his ability to control the game - Brad Miller doesn't look like he's old, doesn't he? great solid backup job - Buddinger should be a very good rotational player soon. He is something to be excited about with all the young guys we have on the team Negative: - Focus, the team plays with discipline most of of the time, just need to consistently bring that energy and keep pushing even though you might be up for a while. - Defensively has been great, except a few lapses. Everybody needs to play D with intensity I think we will give Lakers a good run for the money, but we're not there yet to be able to beat the Lakers soundly. We definitely have the pieces, we just need some time and experience. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, with Yao back. Yao looks like he's fresh, almost like the Yao of two years ago. Where he was in contention of MVP. Looking at the sidelines and other things on TV, looks like Yao also has becoming the team leader, the guy that brings everybody want to work hard and have fun.
I was wondering about Jordan Hill. Chuck was great defensively, Hill looks to me have more energy running around and chase loss balls. (in the pre-season)
