[Chron Wizards Game Story] Yao Ming demands more Head

Carl Herrera · Jan 9, 2008

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5439252.html

Interesting take from Yao Ming. Statistically, he is right, I guess. If Luther Head can make about 38%+ of his somewhat open 3s, that's a very high expected value in terms of points per possession compare to what NBA teams-- and the Rockets in particular-- usually gets per possession. It's probably gets as high a rate of return than many Yao post-up possessions (depening how teams are playing him).

So.. unless another Rocket has a wide open layup, why not let it fly?

I think this is also in line with what Adelman is trying to do-- getting guys other than Yao and McGrady to take more initiative. If these guys are covered, cut, drive, attack the weakside, fire it up rather than trying to force it to the stars.

WASHINGTON — For months, Yao Ming had been in Luther Head's ear with direct orders: Shoot the ball. Pass if you must. Try not to dribble.

And when in doubt, shoot the ball.

This is what Head does best and at least as well as Yao gives orders.

Any time Head shot the ball Tuesday night, the Rockets had one fewer possession in which they could turn it over. So he followed his instructions to score a season-high 24 points, and the Rockets took care of the ball often enough to handle the Washington Wizards 92-84 at the Verizon Center.

With that, the Rockets had found another source of offense to win their third consecutive game, their longest winning streak since November and longest with Tracy McGrady hurt.

After losing their first three games this season without McGrady, they moved to 5-2 since McGrady went out Dec. 23 in Detroit, with Head their fifth leading scorer in those seven games.

But Head's sharpshooting night (8-of-13, 4-of-6 on 3-points shots) typified the past two weeks in that it was keyed by the Rockets' improved ball movement and a renewed confidence to fire away.

"Whenever you see Yao, our No. 1 option is to try to get him the ball," Head said. "Sometimes I try to get him the ball and sometimes I get a little hesitant on the shots.

"He gets on me about it. He's been getting on me about it ever since training camp. Hopefully I can continue to have confidence to shoot the ball and not depend on Yao so much.

"He still thinks I passed up a couple. It's just that when I see Yao, he's a target I feel like should get the ball any time he has somebody on his back. I'm going to try to have more confidence and try to do what he wants me to do."

There was a lot of that going around. Yao averaged 31.5 points and 12.5 rebounds against the Wizards last season, including a 23-point fourth quarter in Verizon Center.

Tuesday night, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan rushed far more double teams to swarm him. That left far more opportunities to attack the weak side.

Yao had 21 points with four blocked shots, though he made just seven of 16 shots.

But Rafer Alston, even on a night he made just one of six 3s, made six of nine shots inside the arc to score 15 points with a season-high 10 assists.

Cleaning the glass
The Rockets dominated the boards, outrebounding the Wizards 46-28, the fewest rebounds any team has had against the Rockets this season.

And Chuck Hayes and Shane Battier hounded the Wizards' Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler, the NBA's top-scoring forward tandem, into a combined 9-of-29 shooting.

"We're confident in our game," Alston said. "We're sharing the ball. We're defending the ball. And the big thing is we're rebounding the ball so we're playing 'D' and finishing off with a rebound. We're getting four and five guys in double figures consistently as of late. And we're getting 20 assists a night (24 on Tuesday) the past few games.

"We felt we had it under control. We just know we had to find a way to take care of the basketball."

The Rockets so outplayed the Wizards, they overcame their numerous mistakes. They committed 22 turnovers, one shy of their most this season.

In the games they had 23, they were blown out by Philadelphia and Golden State. Against the Wizards, they trailed for just 46 seconds, and led by as much as 14.

"I was really happy with the way we played all the way through the game, except for turnovers," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "We just turned the ball over so many times. But defensively, we were solid and offensively, we controlled the game. The movement was good. The ball movement was good.

"The only thing I really had a problem with was the way we turned it over. Whatever list of turnovers you can name, we probably had all of them. You can't do that. We're not good enough. We don't have that margin for error."

Shots prevent turnovers
But the Rockets did build enough of a cushion, with an offensive performance that began with a sure-fire turnover prevention strategy — shoot the ball.

But Yao was not satisfied with Head's performance.

"I was surprised he took only 13 shots (Tuesday)," Yao said. "I thought he had at least 15. Pretty good. He should have more."

Yao can save that for today's marching orders.
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Classic · Jan 9, 2008

Funny title seeing as Yao just got married

Bottom line, when the role players make 3's/open shots, the rockets win

Angkor Wat · Jan 9, 2008

"Try not to dribble." Is the best advice anyone can give Luther Head.

robbie380 · Jan 9, 2008

great title! it actually made me smile. hopefully the knicks will get a lot of head tomorrow night.

jlwee · Jan 9, 2008

Is funny nowadays if you noticed when all rockets players talked to the mediam they always this word "SHARE THE BALL", are all of them taking shots at T-mac indirectly?

JeopardE · Jan 9, 2008

Good to see Yao saying the same thing I've been thinking. Luther is a much better shooter than even he seems to think sometimes -- his 3 point shot is always a high percentage shot. He's one of those guys whose shooting abilities are actually better than their career percentages indicate -- he can make that shot at a pretty good clip even with a hand in his face. As aggressive as he was last night, he should've shot even more. Less dribbling, less passing, more shooting.

I thought he could've gone off for 32+ points if he had shot more instead of forcing some of those passes, and the game would've been over much earlier.

King of 40 Acres · Jan 9, 2008

Jonathan Feigen does a great job covering the Rockets - always offers good analysis and insight into the team.

Rox_fan_here · Jan 9, 2008

"I will get right on that"

Kwame · Jan 9, 2008

Luther Head is serviceable against average and less than average comptetition, but he is not somebody that you would want to give significant mins to against elite competition. He's just not that good.

oneonepyopyo · Jan 9, 2008

I like how we are playing right now.

But by sharing the ball, we need:

1. less turnovers

2. consistant 3pts shooting percentage

3. overall consistant FG

4. Confidence but not overconfidence, especially when we are against the elites.

Are we able to do those?

tsunami · Jan 9, 2008

jlwee said:

Is funny nowadays if you noticed when all rockets players talked to the mediam they always this word "SHARE THE BALL", are all of them taking shots at T-mac indirectly?
Click to expand...

Cause they wanna set a model for TMAC when he comes back.

Asian Sensation · Jan 9, 2008

Luther's jumper is so unorthodox it looks like hes going to come down and fall on the defender's foot and break his ankle. I'm glad their droppin though.

Riz · Jan 9, 2008

Well since everyone is taking turns to score 20+ pts a night as of late I want to see Luis get in on the act and maybe go for 30+ and show them how it's done!

...then Bonzi's turn!

ydqkang · Jan 9, 2008

with Yao inside ,the other should score open-shooting,or penetrate with Yao's cover,that's simple

DeAleck · Jan 9, 2008

Asian Sensation said:

Luther's jumper is so unorthodox it looks like hes going to come down and fall on the defender's foot and break his ankle. I'm glad their droppin though.
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I think he learned that shot at Illinois along with Deron Williams. If you watch Williams' 3 point shots, they look EXACTLY the same as Luther Head's.

YallMean · Jan 9, 2008

Sorry. This Rocket team will sure go crazy if the opposing team has a play maker or two, can shoot, and has a qucik big to box Yao out. I just dont feel comfortable when Luther hold onto the ball for too long. However we should run some plays for Luther to catch and shoot. Luther shooting outside while Yao has his man pinned is probably not a good play.

cujo · Jan 9, 2008

Riz said:

Well since everyone is taking turns to score 20+ pts a night as of late I want to see Luis get in on the act and maybe go for 30+ and show them how it's done!

...then Bonzi's turn!
Click to expand...

i really like how this team is playing now. It's not about just one guy scoring all the time and getting his numbers. We have players now that can step up when others are struggling. So one night Brooks scores 22, then Head scores 24, maybe Scola's turn tomorrow. This is definitely a good sign for the Rockets.

eck_snoop · Jan 9, 2008

"yao ming demands more head"

ummmm you may want to re look at that sentence and put in a luther before his last name.........................

JeopardE · Jan 9, 2008

cujo said:

i really like how this team is playing now. It's not about just one guy scoring all the time and getting his numbers. We have players now that can step up when others are struggling. So one night Brooks scores 22, then Head scores 24, maybe Scola's turn tomorrow. This is definitely a good sign for the Rockets.
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I think this highlights even more just how impressive Rafer has been over this stretch. He has become so good at identifying who has the hot hand early and feeding them repeatedly. The previous game, it was Brooks, last night, it was Head.

mac_got_this · Jan 9, 2008

cujo said:

i really like how this team is playing now. It's not about just one guy scoring all the time and getting his numbers. We have players now that can step up when others are struggling. So one night Brooks scores 22, then Head scores 24, maybe Scola's turn tomorrow. This is definitely a good sign for the Rockets.
Click to expand...

So your saying he should play tha Peja role in Adelman's offense?

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[Chron Wizards Game Story] Yao Ming demands more Head

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