ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Blazers @ Rockets 11/12/2002

from yaomingmania.com(haha)
Detailed Yao analysis


1st quarter
3:30 Yao checks into the game.
2:07 Steve Francis goes up for a jump shot just beyond the free throw line with only four seconds on the shot clock, but at the last moment zips a pass to Yao, who is standing at the right baseline all alone. He takes a big step toward the basket while Dale Davis comes over to defend him. Yao does a BEAUTIFUL pump fake to get Davis in the air, who flies by Yao, then pivots and easily slams it home! This is one of the best fakes we have ever seen a man of this size do. It will definitely be on Sportscenter and surprise some of his pundits.
:57 Yao jockeys for position under the rim from a high offensive rebound, stretches his arm out behind his head to snag the ball, and quickly zips the ball to a wide-open Glen Rice for a three. Score an assist for Yao, and for smart play. With as few shots as he gets, he could have been selfish and try to shoot a low-percentage shot in traffic. Moreover, give Yao credit for his hustle. He's always working hard for great positioning on rebounds.
2nd quarter
11:48 Yao cuts across the lane and gets the ball from Glen Rice and shoots a fadeaway jumper from the baseline, but is fouled by Arvydas Sabonis, and goes to the free throw line and makes two beautiful shots. Yao's got the sweetest form from the line.
11:04 Yao again gets great position under the Portland glass and starts to get a grip of the defensive rebound, but Maurice Taylor accidentally knocks it out of Yao's grasp since Taylor was also going for the loose ball. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE HOUSTON ANNOUNCERS on this play--they said Yao lost the ball and needs more strength, but if they were more detail-oriented they would see that Taylor knocked it away.
10:28 Bonzi Wells make s a nice spin move on Glen Rice and appears to have a clear layup, but Yao comes from behind to make Bonzi pump the ball before shooting, and replays show Yao blocks the shot (even though it doesn't appear he got credit for it) and grabs the airborne ball.
8:03 Moochie Norris passes the ball to Yao on the right baseline, and quickly draws a double-team. Yao steps out of the double-team and passes the ball to Cuttino out by the 3-point line and in front of the Rockets bench, but passes the ball high which makes Mobley accidentally step on the out-of-bounds line. The thing this play shows is how much opposing defenses respect Yao and his size by quickly double-teaming him.
7:42 Yao again establishes great position underneath the Portland glass by putting his big body against 7'2" monster Sabonis, and easily gets the rebound. Yao shows very impressive use of his lower body strength by leaning hard on Arvydas and putting him out of position.
6:32 Yao receives a pass just beyond the free throw line, takes two steps (not three) to break out of another double-team and passes the ball, but is called for traveling. There is no way this was a travel! The refs need to get accustomed to how much ground Yao can cover in two steps. It may look illegal, but it's not.
6:15 Yao again has great position under the defensive glass, and is fouled by Ruben Patterson who goes over his back.

Kenny Thomas checks in for Yao after 9 very productive minutes. Portland leads 35-29
4th quarter
12:00 Yao checks into the game with the Blazers leading the Rockets 64-63. We have to give Rudy T. some credit for putting Yao into the game while it's still close. If Cato were in uniform, though, he probably would have gone with the 'safe' option, even though we feel Yao holds his own...and then some.
10:34 On a drive that shows how lethal Yao is, he receives a pass from Francis just inside the 3-point line above the Rockets logo on the court. Sabonis comes out to defend Yao, to whom he gives a wicked pump fake, gets Sabonis in the air. Then Yao takes two giant steps toward the hole (which is legal and the refs get right this time), is met by Ruben Patterson, and goes airborne and easily lays it in, and is fouled! Yao proceeds to hit the free throw. This play alone proves Yao is ready for more minutes now.
7:27 Sabonis gets the ball in the middle of the paint and steps backward to make an awkard shot as he's leaning backward. Yao comes by to swat the ball back in Sabonis' face as Sabonis falls flat on his back to the floor! Sabonis looks really foolish on this play! Bonzi Wells recovers the loose ball and shoots up an air ball, Rasheed catches the airball and misses a point-blank layup, which Yao rebounds. Total intimidation is shown by Yao on this play by the missed shots of all three Blazers.
6:28 Kenny Thomas checks in for Yao with the Rockets trailing 75-72. It appears Rudy is thinking that Thomas can provide more offense since they need more points, even though we think Yao could not only provide offense as well, but also key rebounds in what looks like a game that's going down to the wire.
2:23 Dale Davis tips in a missed shot to give the Blazers an 81-80 lead. We've got to think this would have been an easy rebound Yao could have snared if he had been in the game.
1:05 With the Blazers down 83-81, Maurice Cheeks outcoaches Rudy by putting Sabonis in the game after a timeout. The Blazers throw it down to Sabonis in the paint, and he easily scores over an outmatched Eddie Griffin, who fouls him. We can't believe the Rockets didn't get Yao ready to insert into the game in case Sabonis was put into the game.

Unbelievably, a few minute later Sabonis is in the game on a play that could tie it for the Rockets with only a few seconds left on a point blank shot, but luckily Sabonis is blocked by a smaller Griffin. Do the Rockets really want to continue playing percentages like this that are not in their favor, especially when Yao proved he could defend Sabonis?

 

Thanks prlen for the recap. I particularly like Yao Ming have no PF in this game.

KH

 

Yao blocked Sabonis once - Griffin blocked Sabonis twice. Do the Rockets really want to play Yao ming at all when Griffin has clearly proved he's a better rebounder and shot-blocker and scorer at Center?

I like Yao, but this sort of account of his play is very 'pro-Yao anti-Rockets'. Kinda makes me hope the big guy fails.....

 

Man, and I thought we were homers.

Anybody else know if that was a travel or not?

 

Not sure if it was touched on yet...but, did anyone happen to notice Collier's aggressive play at the beginning of the game? Im being serious...for the first time, I saw the Jason Collier that played at Indiana and Ga Tech.

 

Nice win Guys!! These are the kind of wins that are going to get us back into the playoffs!

Lovin it,
Chris

 

By the way...did anyone catch the slip up by Worrell when he said to Calvin "Thats why you are the color guy" (sounded like "colored" when he said it...Calvin was hysterical.

Just wonderig if anyone else caught that

 

Read the website address. At least they all admit they r homers. Cant say about us all here.

 

Yao is coming along nicely and we do not need to argue over playing time. His time is coming. Unfortunately he is not playing on the Miami Heat where there are endless minutes going around and the expectation level for the team is not as high.

 

Griffin cannot play center for extended periods of time because he doesn't deny position well enough. Thats why the blazers had so many easy put backs. Did you see sabonis's and Davis's stats. They killed us.

Right now, Cato is our starting center because he is stong enough to handle anyone in the league except for Shaq(did I just say that). Ming will play other team's second stringers and build confidence. By playoff time, I see Ming getting some major minutes. Next year he will be a stud after a year of good strength training.

 

Great Pic from last night

 

Yao did travel imo..it wasn't a big deal..he took what looked like two steps without putting the ball on the floor..

that being said, I think he did a fine job with the time he had. He looked much smoother and not quite as lost as he has in past games. The baseline move to the bucket was particularly sweet.
There is no reason to give him large amounts of minutes with 4 other guys capable of playin the 5. I see him gettin about the same amount of minutes he is getting now for the first half of the seaon unless he just absolutley starts dominating in the time he gets..

I was impressed with this game..the Rox got down early..and Steve tryed to get everyone involved..until the 4th..
Then he put the team on his shoulders and carried them home..kinda like a certain Nigerian center used to do..

What say the doubters now? Team Defense and Ball movement...and its just gonna get better as everyone gets on the same page and as long as we stay healthy..I see a great season coming..

 

The alley oop from Cat to Steve in the fourth was the sickest play I have seen all season. Steve is looking deadly this year.

Wind and Sea is Chinese and did some translating and picture taking of Yao Ming all summer for us here on the board. The reason everyone here likes Yao is that he is a freaking amazing player and will become much better as he progresses through his rookie season. DON'T FORGET HE IS A FREAKING ROOK YOU IDIOTS!

 

Haven't seen anybody answer this yet. The officials call one or two time outs per quarter (can't remember exactly) to ensure that TV stations get enough commercial time in. I know the first one comes at the first dead ball after the 6:00 mark of the first quarter. If you watch the game, Bill will usually say, "There's a time out on the floor" for an official time out

Anyways...I noticed that Eddie Griffin got called for a double dribble in the second quarter? DOUBLE DRIBBLE? There are like, TWO of those called during the entire season! Next thing you know, he'll be getting called for lane violations...

 

That was his shot late in the game right? I think I saw it on SportsCenter. Glad they did not call an Offensive Foul there, Steve with the left arm guarding off Davis. I think that's Steve there getting some respect from the officials.

Chris

 

Does anyone have the picture of Yao's first basket?

 

WOW, what a great win for the Rockets! I did not see the game, just some highlights and read the recap. My thoughts.

1) Why the hell did Collier start? I know earlier that day Rudy said because he was familiar with the team...but he only started the game, played 5 mins and never returned! Seemed odd to me. They should have either started Yao or Taylor.

2) What can you say about Francis, the guy just knows how to turn it "on" when he needs to and take the game over. A sign of a great player. He is still averaging a sick 30ppg and still shooting an awesome 50% from the floor. Great start this year for Francis. You can really see the effect of NOT having those headaches are doing for him.

3) For the Rockets to win this game in the fashion that they did was huge for them. They needed a tough, grind it out close win against a solid opponent. They came from behind to win and most importantly it sounds like they executed down the stretch. That seemed to be a problem for them last year.

4) Yao Ming. He looks like he is getting more comfortable out there (the fact he hit all his FTs shows his level of comfotability). This was his best game of the year. I loved the fact he didnt get any fouls / stayed out of foul trouble. Rudy just needs to make an effort to keep giving him minutes. He will probably get minutes in the first half but getting some bonus minutes in the second half would be nice too!

5) Taylor and Rice. They both look rusty. It may take a few games for them to get into the groove. I hope it is sooner rather than later. We could use that offense to ease the burden on Francis.

6) Griffin. What a great game for him tonight playing great defense on Wallace and blocking some key shots. Griffin should still continue to shoot and hopefully in time his FG% will improve. If he does that, he will be deadly!

All in all, great win for the Rockets! Hopefully they can keep this momentum up against the Suns on Friday. I am really excited about this game since it is a nationally televised game and the first I will see this year on the Rockets.

Chris

 

Doesn't look like an offensive foul to me. Dale Davis is far too strong to be pushed off like that by a 6' 3" guard. Steve's left arm is kinda just in the way of Davis trying to block the shot. That's a non-call, if anything...

 

If his hand was higher, they would have called it. It does seem like the hand is there for balance and after the fall, it was good to see him get the benefit of the doubt.

 

You are way off. Eddie blocked the shots, but he is not a center. Center does more than block shots.