ClutchCity.net Game Thread: Cavaliers @ Rockets 11/19/2002

Good to see better effort on the boards tonight. Everyone expects teams to counterattack when they are down but we were unsettled by it. Keeping up the pressure when we are in the lead is very important and even if the shots are not going down,solid defense can lead to easier opportunities to score as well as restricting the opposition from building up pressure.
A lot of hard work is still needed but a win is always welcomed.

 

Griffin is looking good...Steve, Cat, Yao, etc....

What impressesd me is that we are starting to get good overall contribution and becoming more of a winning team.

 

This was a good game for the Rockets. The motion offense was working really well and the players were not forcing hard shots but working for the easy one. Granted this is easy to do against the Cavs. I also liked the fact that Moochie is seeing less minutes. One other thing I would like to see is all of Rice's minutes go to Hawkins. I pretty sure Rice would throw a fit but the team is noticably better when Hawkins is in the game. Other than that the team looks to be gelling and coming together.

 

I am happy to see Yao is getting more and more comfortable with the offence. When he is not getting the ball, he is trying to set picks. He may still need some improvement his pick setting skills, but he is getting better. I can remember he set at least two picks for Cat to get the ball in the hole. Also, there is a good play where Yao set a pick for Steve, and then he split to the basket, catches the pass from Steve, and resulted a reverse dunk. This Rox team has so many weapons, it seems some body will set up on day or another. This reminds me a lot about the team that we had in the championship years. Next, we will stop the Mavs on Thursday.

 

Yao had some dunks which upped his FG%, but those were not lucky dunks. He worked hard to get them. Seems to me that he's getting better at cutting or sneaking in to the hole. I didn't see Collier getting one dunk. Good game for Collier though.

 

Detailed Yao analysis

yaomingmania.com




1st quarter
3:06 Yao checks into the game for Jason Collier, who has surprised everyone with 7 points in nine minutes. Collier is probably fatigued because he's not accustomed to playing these types of minutes.
2:46 Yao gets a defensive rebound by grabbing an air ball.
2:20 Yao quickly comes over to help out on a driving Palacio (a guard), who double pumps about 3 feet from the basket, but Yao easily blocks the shot. However, Carlos Boozer easily picks up the loose ball and lays it in.
1:48 The Big Man does a great job of cutting off Palacio at the baseline. He's so big, there wasn't even a crease for him to get around him.
:54 Yao gets the ball along the right baseline just outside the paint. With his back to the basket, Yao dribbles left toward the baseline and his man holds good position. Yao picks up his dribble, pump fakes, and jumps into the air. As he is coming down, he gets a shot off with his right hand, which goes in. The crowd loves the graceful ballet-like move. Unfortunately, Yao shuffled his feet slightly before jumping, and is called for a travel.
2nd quarter
11:40 From the right baseline, Rocket Maurice Taylor delivers the ball to a wide-open Yao, who is standing 2 feet from the basket. A Cavalier comes over quickly and jumps to try to block Yao's shot, but Yao does a great job of hesitating to shed off the man as he flies by, pivots directly underneath the basket and hammers it home easily with one hand. We've noticed in the past two games how unselfish Taylor is in passing the ball to Yao. We like Mo. Heads-up ballplayer.
11:11 On the next possession, Yao gets good position underneath the defensive glass. A Cav shoots a long jumper, which bounces high off the rim. With his right hand, Yao grabs the ball and controls it while holding off a Cav with his left arm. Although Yao has short arms, his hands don't appear to be too small to palm a basketball.
7:53 Mo Taylor does it again! On kind of a helter-skelter quick-passing sequence, Yao drives the lane from the free throw line, but is cut off by 7'3" Ilgauskas. Yao dishes to Taylor who is out on the left wing. Taylor mishandles the pass as he tries to drive to the basket. The ball goes up in the air, and there's a scramble for the ball. Mo snags the ball out of the air over a Cav, brings it down and dishes to Yao who is about 3 feet from the basket in the middle of the lane. Yao quickly jumps as Ilgauskas tries to block his shot. But Yao's height and 'touch' on the ball are no match. Score the bucket. After this play, Goukas the announcer backtracks on an earlier statement and says, "Tonight he is very comfortable in traffic."
7:02 On the next possession, Ilgauskas receives the ball in the right post after Yao plays great defense to keep him from getting deeper position in the pain. The defensive intensity continues by Yao doing a great job of making him shoot a tough fallaway jumper, which Yao tips, and catches nothing but air. Unfortunately, Jumaine Jones catches the air ball and lays it in. Great D by Yao, though.
6:41 Next possession: Yao gets the ball in his favorite spot--the left block. With his back facing the basket, he dribbles, pivots left, and without hesitation goes up for that beautiful jump shot of his. Yes, Mr. Automatic delivers once again. Score it. At this point, over the past several games, Yao has made 20 of his last 21 field goals! It's apparent this man plays a game with which we're not familiar. Last time we saw this type of shooting consistency was from a North Carolina man wearing #23 on his jersey.
6:01 Yao works hard to get position in the paint and receives a bounce pass on the run about 3 feet from the bucket. He has a clear path to the basket and it looks like he's going to have a massive dunk, but Cavalier Carlos Boozer comes over from the side and makes a great block on Yao as he brought the ball up in dunking position.
4:31 Yao checks out of the game during a timeout. Jason Collier replaces him.
4th quarter
12:00 Yao checks back in. Rockets are up by six, 69-63.
10:43 Out high by the 3-point line, Yao has the ball. Francis runs by him to get the ball and immediately starts to drive the lane. Yao runs parallel with Steve, who delivers a perfect bounce no-look bounce pass through traffic to Yao, who receives it, fakes out flying defenders coming over, and from underneath the basket dunks it home--this time behind his head! Beautiful play!
10:24 Ilgauskas, who had been red hot in the 3rd quarter because no one could match his height, gets it down low in the post. As Ilgauskas turns to try to get closer to the bucket, our man Yao is there to give him all kinds of fits by keeping good position and keeping his hands up. You can tell the 7'6" pressure flusters Ilgauskas as he puts up a quick brick, which clangs off the rim and bounces to the Rockets.
9:56 Ilgauskas gets the ball down low in the paint, and he tries to back it in on Yao. Yao is there with good position behind him, but Ilgauskas bulls his way backward and pushes Yao back, but Yao is called for the foul. Total B.S. call. It's not a shooting foul, though.

On the inbounds play after the foul, Ilgauskas gets it down low again, and by hooking his elbow against Yao as he quickly pivots, is able to spin free and get a layup. No offensive fall is called. Instead, Yao is called for a foul as he tries to swat at the ball. Ilgauskas hits the free throw, and the Cavs trail 66-72.
6:56 Maurice Taylor is double-teamed out near the right baseline about 12 feet from the basket, and bounces a pass as Yao penetrates the middle of the lane. Yao catches the ball, stops on a dime and goes up for a scoop shot as Ilgauskas gets there too late and is called for a blocking foul. Let's give a hand to Mo! This is the third great pass to Yao this game. They are becoming a nice frontline combination. Give credit to Yao for playing like a small forward and finding an opening in the lane while the defense went to sleep. Yao makes 1 of 2 free throws. Rockets lead 79-72.
5:28 Yao shows his quick passing skills by running to a loose ball on the defensive end and lobbing a pass to a streaking Juaquin Hawkins. Hawkins races to the offensive end on a fast break and gives it to a trailing Cuttino Mobley. A couple of men converge on Cat, so he lobs an alley-oop pass to a trailing Yao, who can't hold onto the laser-like pass. Yao tips it a couple of times before it goes out of bounds. Although Yao couldn't hold on, he seems to smile a bit, realizing just how spectacular that play could have been if he had been able to hold on to the pass. A timeout is called, and Yao runs over to Cat and gives him a high-five. They both laugh at the prospect of Yao almost getting his first alley-oop dunk in the NBA, and becoming part of the club in which every other Rocket seems to be a member.
4:41 Yao checks out of the game for Eddie Griffin. Yao heads to the bench and puts some ice on his hand. It doesn't look serious, though. Guess when you have as many dunks he has had over the past few games, your hand is going to be a little sore. ;-)

 

Collier had a vicious slam on a fast break.

 

This is exactly what I wanted to say.

 

WTF are you talking about? Selfish play by the guards, yet this is as close to team basketball as you've seen?

Defensive problems? We held the Cavs to 80 points on 41% shooting! Lay off the malt liquor during games...

 

Since I was sitting like 5 seats away from them, and walked right next to them after the game..I can tell you for sure...

His mom is my height (6'2") and his dad has at least 4 or 5 inches on me in height.. I think I may have got a pic of them also..Ill have to wait till the pics are developed and see if I didnt screw too many of them up. Overall, a sloppy game..but we won, and thats all that matters to me.

 

Great post.......lets be nice when this happens guys.

 

A couple of things I noticed,... Rockets didn't look so good when they didn't have a true center in the game. As mentioned before, Yao came out immediately after Z did in the 4th. Maybe it was coincidence. If not, what about taking advantage of mismatches. What not let Yao attack the rim in that situation?

Yao did not get the benefit of any calls against Z. Even Matty Goukas was pointing out many times how Z was hooking Ming and not getting called. He was also charging and not getting the call.

One last thing... After Yao was out in the 4th and MoT was guarding Z, Z made that move across the lane and put a shoulder into MoT the way he had Yao. MoT hit the deck with a big "unhhh" and got the charging call. As MoT was shooting his free throws, I just happened to notice the Rocks bench. One of the assistant coaches was demonstrating to Yao how to flop, by throwing his arms out to the side and exaggerating the blow. You could see Yao laugh when the coach did it. It was like "here's the way you get the call, Yao"

 

I was wondering about that...

You have to wonder if Yao knows to only do that when he's guarding
BIG centers, and not those "small" powerforwards and centers (below 7 foot).



"Z" was a big one though... 7'3", me thinks.

 

Griff was attacking the boards, i was hoping just one time he would really attack the rim and have nice slam on one of those boards. I've just realized that i've never seen Griff do that yet. (I'm sure has at least once in his career just haven't seen it yet)