Overall he played decent for his very first NBA game. He showed off some of his skills shooting, free throws and runs the court well. Plus, he was a presence in the paint on defense. However, two things stood out for me. On offense, Yao Ming looked a little lost, but I think that should be expected after just two practices. As he gains more experience, I think he will set himself up better to get scoring opportunities. On defense, he seemed to be out of position a lot of the times. I think this is due to the fact that he is not used to the quicker game of the NBA. Hopefully as time passes, he will adjust and anticipate better to achieve the good positioning. Also, I liked the way everyone was trying to help Yao Ming and be supportive during the game.
for all the people saying hes foul prone, i dont think it had anything to do with his lateral movement. his fouls were more because of this reason:
Wait until next year. You will see more explosiveness! BET ME! Once the strength trainers get a hold of him they will turn him into a man of steel! They have a lot of exercises that work different types of muscles. Once you get explosiveness like this, you are able to recover on over-plays and help defense. You can get to "your spot" faster. Even if your man beats you at first. You can recover.
Yao played great in the first half. His lack of stamina shows in the second half. He has to spend the whole next summer in Houston to work on his stamina and upper body strength. Texas steak certainly will help. He will be great next year.
I think the second half we just played ISO ball, messed up the whole offense. Anyway, I think his offense is fine. Once he gains more confidence and feels more comfortable with the other players, he won't be as hesitant. I saw a couple of plays in which his defensive awareness "slipped up", but that was due to him trying to go directy to his area(paint) to defend. He does need to improve his rebounding. He does an above average job of boxing out, but it seems to be his lack of quickness that prevents him from going to get the ball after the box-out. I think his shot-blocking abilities are fine, and will improve as he matures, remember, he's still a very young player. Thing is though, he automatically brings that defensive pressure to opposing teams once he's anywhere near the lane. He won't be attacked as much as the average big man. The less people that attack the lane means the less blocks he'll get. Either that, or his presence will lead to maybe a teammate getting the steal or block......enter Eddie Griffin. Reason Eddie gets the blocks that he does is not only because of his timing, but his athletic ability which is above Yao's. All in all.......Great 2nd game for a young rookie who hasn't practised with team for more than a couple days.
Hopefully, Ming doesn't have anything to do for China this summer because I think a trip to Big Man's Camp could do him wonders.
not possible. they have asian tournament coming up next summer which is very important since they will need to win the title in order to be in the 2004 olympic.
