ClutchFans Game Thread: Cavaliers @ Rockets 12/2/2006

The Cavs bring all they got for last night's party, nothing left for tonight's game against the Rockets.

 

I think you are bit exaggerating. Given the decline in his minutes, Juwan's per minute rebounding rate is rather stable. I can see he is adjusting his role with this new team, and putting his priority on getting the boards. I've been saying several times and I am going to say it again, Yao can learn quite a lot from Juwan's rebounding -- the positioning, the anticipation, and the one-handed "snatching" technique, whole package.

 

yao was getting fouled in the 2nd half and wasnt getting the calls..thats why he shot poorly in the 2nd half..

 

Dude Wnes,

I will be spending all night tonight cleaning up puke off of my laptop. Please tell me you DID NOT say whole package.

Otis Thorpe just called me. He is pi$$ed off that you confused him with Juwan!

 

LOL ... I was talking the whole package of rebounding. Take it easy, Zboy.

You gotta change your sig every once in a while.

 

Hmmm... so.... a player is supposed to know in advance that they will miss a bunch?

Anyway, in this instance, he would have to know that he's going to get no-call hacked.

 

guys can be concussed and be ok in their movements, speech, thinking with the doc having to rely on dilated pupils to make his diagnosis.

 

first ... Mikeylu, just had to give props to your signature.

Back on topic...

In my first post I didn't mention Shane, or Chuck for that matter, I think because what they do I take for granted. You pretty much know what you are going to get when you see either one of them on the court. Occasionally, you are going to want Shane to shoot more or Chuck to foul less, but overall. What you see is what you get with those two.

Nice to have that stability I think.

 

So Tmac was out, Yao is in a mini slump, and we still won big tonight?
Wow, go Rockets!

 

Brass tacks:

TMac could not leave the floor unassisted. That's serious, regardless of how much hair-splitting goes on over symptoms, grades or terminology.

Fortunately, according to <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap;_ylt=AhMJ.iEVZ6qfX4hN9AsMdRZ.0bYF?gid=2006120210&prov=ap" target="blank">this article</a>, he's feeling much better.

Considering LBJ got a cheekbone broken by Deke not long ago, he knows <a href="" target="blank" title="Deke's Greatest Hits">how serious Deke's elbows are</a>. Deadly weapons, they are.

 

Juwan isn't as athletic as Otis, no? Yao isn't known for his leaping ability either. So that's why I am saying Yao can definitely benefit by taking a page or two from Juwan playbook on rebounding.

 

Wrong! Deke has always been a better rebounder than Yao. Yao got less rebounds than Deke doesn't mean he was loafing. It simply means Yao's rebound , well, sucks.

 

Nope.... a player can't know in advance. But the chances are Yao would probably get more calls and hit more of his shots if he post up or attack the basket instead of taking those 15 ft jump shots.

It's like what we've been complainting about Tmac, not that he can't hit those shots, but the % usually much lower.

 

But that's a very general rebounding technique.

I dont think Yao needs Juwan to teach him about rebounding. Juwan may have the technique right but he gets outworked most of the time for the rebounds. Tonight he got them because he was *actually* working for them. I think he had taken his starting position for granted, especially after last year. You could tell from his comment at the start of this season when he said he is not worried about getting playing time. I guess he is worried now. Bwahaha....

Yao's problem on rebounds comes from lack of balance. If Yao is going in one direction for the ball, and the ball bounces off to the other end, Yao will not recover fast enough to react to it and grab it. Same thing if he mistimes his jump. Owning to his size it takes him longer to recover. There really isnt much you can do about the lack of balance and reaction time. You just have to play the % and hope most of the time the rebound wont force Yao to change direction.

 

In the first half of Nov., Yao had 4 games scoring over 30 pts, 5 games with 10+ rb. Since then, no game scored over 30pts, 2 games with 10+rb. That's why I wonder if he is eitehr hurt, or in sort of a slump now.

 

The best effort that we put on the court is rebounding. we gain our 2 digits leading in board.

 

That's the beauty of having a deep bench.

 

Yao's low rebound stat doesn't mean his rebounding sucks.
Just look how Yao defends the paint. His biggest advantage is his height and He's been using that to try to block/alter shots. That's his first priority.
It takes much more time for him to react to rebound than his teammates. Oftentimes, when he reacts to grab the rebound, some teammate already gets the ball.
I'm pretty sure Yao can get much more rebounds than Chuck/Hayes, if not Deke, if he makes rebounding his first priority.

 

I really LIKE this idea.....make it so!

 

I agree lack of balancing is an important factor for Yao's deficiency on rebounding. But there are more to that. Often you would see Yao is out of position on rebounds that come his way. That's because either he is pushed out by opponents or he didn't anticipate well enough. My other observation is Yao almost never grabs rebounds with one hand. It is like he is picking an big apple from a tree with two hands, and delicately at that. Sometimes opponent can easily poke the ball from his hands, and this happened once tonight. He needs to grab or snatch the ball (better using one hand) with authority, and secure the ball until he passes it out to a teammates.