What frustrated me was Yao still having problem holding onto the ball in the low block. The guards did suck bad, the passing angle was ofter pretty bad, and no cutting after passing. But on Yao's part, several times, he caught the ball, the ball would be stripped or taken away by the Iranian guards from blind side or in a swarming defense. We are talking about local YMCA level basketball game. I can understand he was rusty all that, but this type of TOs has more to do with habbits and strength. So far I didnt see a improvement. Also he was laboring pretty hard after 10 to 12 minute of play. Again, the game was 2x slower than an NBA game, and Cs can park under basket. Looks like there will be whole alot needing to be done once he's back in the States.
If you picture him in that pose, all by himself without the ball, you'd think he was flexing at a body building competition.
He was the sole reason that China beat Iran. Without Yao, China would have probably lost that game. But you expect to see Yao dominates inside against who? Sorry I didnt see it.
Here is the sarcasm: Yao made Zandi(?) look like he should be worth 5 mil per in the NBA in this game
Here is the link to the bittorrent of China-Iran game: http://bbs1.btbbt.com/attachment.php?aid=320433
At this same point last year, Yao was neutralized by these Iranian stiffs. http://nbadraft.net/jaberstory.asp Jaber Rouzbahani has been playing basketball for less than four years. He played Yao Ming in an Asian Tournament last year and held him to 15 points. (About half of what Yao was averaging in the tournament.) To come back a year later come back with 29 and 17 clearly shows he is making progress.
That was 2003 iirc. The kid was 17 then. I remember there were posts here about the kid that time. Anyways, the kid mostly were in foul trouble entire game. Of course Yao destroyed him one on one left and right, but Yao's problem was he couldnt onto the damn when 2 or 3 Iranian players swarming him. At least he should make them foul him. I can careless how many points he got in the game. It wasnt as impressive as the stats would suggest. He went to the line 23 times, because Iran went over the foul limit in early minutes every quarter. Actually the Hadi or Zandi, the other tall Iran dude were more active agaist Yao. He scored 2 or 3 times on Yao, and show up Yao once by waving his fingers at Yao after score on him. Yao wasnt dominant. Now I read Sina, Yao said early morning game gave him troubles, but those are Division III oponents!
All right, we get your point. But the proof is in the pudding. I'm not going to make a judgement on Yao's play until actual NBA games come around. And even then I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he will turn things up in the second half of the season like he always does.
Yi was in foul trouble too. He and Mo Ke splitted the 4 spot PT in the game. The hightlights I can remember is that Yi had 2 very nice blocks, and made a couple 15 footers. However on the defensive end, the Iran #15 could post him up and score on him at will, and that was why he was in foul trouble, which was the only way to stop it. Yi is still pretty raw. A Garnet comparison seems appropriate, of course not saying he will be even half of Garnet. The kid is lanky and quick. If he can have a post game and improve his defense, definitely he will have a career in NBA.
