The Rockets won the game and Yao hit the big shots that won the game. Why are you obsessed with criticizing him? As for Hakeem looking like a defensive liability, remember the Seattle series? Everyone has a bad game or two. The great ones find a way to win. Yao found a way to win this game.
Yeah, Boozer dominated Yao alright! Just ask yourself this question: where would we be right now without Yao? Will we be 3-2 or 0-3? Some of you here never learned, why are you guys keep on doubting Yao and call yourself Rocket fans? Yao answered everything thrown at him so far and it's still not enough for some of you. Have you been watching the series so far? Utah players beat Yao up every chance they got, Yao's toe is bleeding again, he got fresh cuts and bruises everywhere and tell me what his stats are again? Is it 25-26pts and 10-12rebs , yeah Yao sucks alright!
I'm not mad at Yao for not being able to keep up with Boozer on the perimiter. He is a slow dude and we all know that. But it does piss me off to no end that he doesn't keep folks out of the paint....
Rockets defense is not designed to let C defends C and PF to defend PF. Boozer is assigned for Yao to defend. So why blame Rockets PF?
JVG is fooled by Sloan. In the last regular season game JVG put Yao on Boozer and Boozer played a ****ty game. It fooled JVG and allowed a Monster series for Boozer. Yao should guard Okur and can switch to Boozer on weak side. Hayes should guard Boozer with help from Battier. Fire JVG!
I think Jeff should put Yao on Okur and Chuck could play Boozer because Boozer penetrate more than Okur.
No...he didn't. McGrady carried us the whole game and Yao just happened to be there at the end. Giving him credit for the win is preposterous. If he had played an ounce of defense, we would have won handily.
Personally I think we ought to play some zone to screw them up some and throw them off their rhythm. Just some zone and switchup looks on defense. That's all I ask. A little Zone would allow some help for Yao.
I think the general consensus before this series even started is that Yao guarding Okur is very bad as Okur will be camped out at the 3 pt line and the last thing we need is him going off since Yao cannot get out there. Besides the fact that rebounding and interior defense is going to suffer with him out there. Yao is having a hard time guarding Boozer, but this is the lesser of two evils IMO. If Boozer's 10-15 feet out, he should play off so Boozer can't drive and try to recover and get a hand in his face when he pulls up. If Boozer is just on fire shooting jumpers, switch up matchups temporarily or play closer, send help, and hope Boozer can't make those pinpoint passes to the cutters.
it happened in the first game rox played jazz, and it wasn't pretty. Boozer will always get his, no matter if chuck or juwan guard him. the last person who needs to get hot in this series is okur. when yao guarded him, he was free stroking. so no way!
Exactly. I'm a super Yao fan, I know there is a mismatch, but excuse is meaningless, I do hope Yao could figure it out. We can not afford to take the risk to lose...... If a pre-injury Yao can show up tonight, it can not be a close game, we would have blown them out clearly.
It's called team defense. Boozer is making 3 dribbles and getting to the rim. I can't believe no one has stepped in and got a charge or ripped him from behind. Yao is tired and needs a little help on D. It would be nice to know JVG scheme for checking him. It appears that we're forcing him left with no help
That's a bit of a misconception. Normally the Rockets DO place Yao on the defending center, and place PF on PF on defense. However, the defensive assignments changed in this series because Okur's 3-point abilities would take Yao far out of the paint, which is not Yao's comfort zone. If Okur were to get rolling on three point shots, that spells trouble. So the Rockets took calculated gambles/mismatches with the Hayes/Okur and Boozer/Yao matchups, to mixed success. That said, you could try to put Hayes on Boozer for key periods or for stretches, because Okur hasn't gotten the 3 to roll yet. But I wouldn't stick Chuck Hayes out there if Okur got hot.
