ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Cavaliers 12/29/2004

I'm sure Van Gundy was hoping for another elbow from Deke on a Cav.

 

Hey fa7999, where did you find these stats at? If true, they are indeed very telling. Of course, with everything going on lately, the fact Deke played so many minutes and Taylor was out on the court during crunch time, I wonder if they are next to go.

 

Yao was benched when Rockets gave up 10 points lead and the game was tied. It was under 6min mark at 3rd qtr which was much earlier than Yao's routine rest. U cant argue with the move because Cav never took the lead afterwards and actually Rox led as many as 11 pts. Yao re-entered the game under 6min mark again at 4th qtr when Cav rallied again and Rox led by 3 only. So actually during Yao's 12 mins rest, Rox was +3. U may argue that Rox would have blown them out if Yao was there, but the ACTUAL end result showed that the move was the right one. At the same time, the move also showed how much confidence JVG has in Yao when things go wrong.

 

Any torrents yet?

 

Dragon167,

You made some good points. My gut feeling tells me that Yao is gone after 2007 if JVG is still our coach. Even if Yao does not mind, Yao team probably will make a strong push for him to leave.

Anyway, actually I made some mistakes in my original stats comparison, Z's stats when he was playing against Yao and Deke:

Against Yao, 4-14 from the floor, 6 boards, 4 TOs. 2 shots blocked by Yao.

Against Deke, 3-3 from the floor, 5 boards.

Yao matched against Z for 26 min, Z played Deke for 9 min.

 

I forgot to set my tivo and only caught the last of the 3rd qtr and the 4th qtr.

Two things that jumped right out at me. 1. Wesley was playing the best defense from a Rocket guard (excluding McGrady) in a long, long time. I have to say that Cat plays very good defense, but in the part of the game I watched, I was impressed.

2. I thought T-mac absolutely decided he personally would not let the Rockets lose that game. At the risk of having his teamates stand around on the offensive end, it looked like a sheer display of will. I know we gave up a lot of depth to get him, and it has definately hurt us in the first part of this season, but for anyone who can actually think long-term, I think it was an incredible move to get him.

On another note, you YOF are a bunch of mental midgets. You whine about Yao not getting minutes or not getting touches, but the Rockets won the game because McGrady decided to put the team on his shoulders and not allow them to win. If Yao ever decides to do that, great. Until then, STFU!

 

all this Lebron Hype...big deal...DM put a stop to that real quick...

 

Good observations there.

You know people complain about us losing to the Bobcats twice but when we playe the Bobcats they had Isiah Thomas..or was that Brevin Knight? Well Tyrone Lue made Knight seem as if he was Isiah Thomas. We have David Wesley on the team a little earlier and we don't lose to the Bobcats.. twice. Wesley can put the clamps down. Mcinnis can fill it up, but he was tripping over himself out there when Wesley was on him late.

 

Another defense voyeur!

If last night was the norm defensively for Wesley, the trade is already a good one. 2 points prevented is 2 points earned.

 

I suppose Mark Price the Cavs announcer is a mental midget also. He is not a YOF and there were two things he questioned about the Rox over and over last night.

1. He questioned T-Mac jacking up 30+ shots to get his 30 points.

2. He questioned why Yao was not in the game since his shooting/efficiency were good.

This is nothing about being YOF but having some basketball common sense. And as far as thinking long term, I hope you are a Yao fan because correct me if I'm wrong, I believe he is 50% of this long term plan. T-Mac by himself without Yao and this bunch of players would be worse than last years Orlando team.

 

M. Price kept mentioning that TMac's shot #30 was coming and he was surprised that "TMac looked at Yao Ming to dish for the first time of the night while sacrificing his #30 shot attempt".

BTW, Price is not the only opponent announcers who spent a bunch of time counting the TMac shots. Granted, TMac was playing great last night and shut Lebron down on the defensive end. However, the Rockets are not gonna win lots of games with Tracy shooting 40% from the floor. Period.

 

First, you need count the TOs when other Rox tried to dish ball to Yao.

Second, even Yao is the most efficient player in the team in regards to score/attempt in long term, in certain short time window, like last night's 3rd quarter, he had cold hands with 1/5 ...

 

Until Yao embraces the opportunity to score, he should not be jacking up shots like TMac. Yao cannot put his head down and curse himself after missing shots. TMac doesn't give a crap if he misses a shot. He just keeps on jacking them up. At least TMac hits a good portion of them, so it's not a hindrance. Yao is not mentally at the point where he can be the go-to guy on the team. Look at his performances last year. He got a few games where he scored 30 to 40 points. However, he averaged 18 points last season which means the inconsistency was a huge issue last season as it is this season. Yao is best served right now chilling out as a roleplayer until he figures out the mental part of being a go-to guy down.

 

Couldnt say it better. To be a superstar you need to jack up shots to get out of slump. Yao's role player mentality is really frustrating.

 

I do not fault JVG for leaving Dikembe in the game. Without Lebron on the court, TMac was allowed to impose his will upon the Cavaliers. If Dikembe were to get totally schooled by Zydrunas, it would be a different matter. Dikembe got schooled bigtime by Zydrunas last year in Madison Square Garden, so Silas should went have to Zydrunas heavily in the 2nd half. He didn't, so Yao stayed on the bench. This was the 1st game Yao has played without the elbow brace. There's no point pushing it. TMac had the game in control.

 

McInnis made a key turnover late in the game when he was defended by Wesley. Wesley is taller than Lue which helps. Sura is a solid big PG defender. If the Rockets were playing against the bigger point guards like Steve and Baron Davis, Sura would be the primary defender. Wesley will guard the guys like Parker and Nash.

 

So, now you are saying that we should yank him when he goes cold or guess that he's going to get cold and yank him. Might as well try that with T-Mac also and sit him when his shooting percentage goes below 40%.

My point is can't micro-manage a game minute by minute. Players need to be in there and the highs and lows will balance out over the course of a game.

 

The Rockets will be a totally different team when Yao decides to be The Man. Right now, he's just happy with being a part of the team. No matter what the media, the fans, the teammates say, he's not willing to be the leader, be the focal point.

 

Never said that Yao should jack up 30 plus a game. Only quoting a knowledgable former all-star player whose comments mirrored what I was thinking when I saw the game that why isn't Yao playing and T-Mac is taking too many shots.

I want this team to win so as the grand experiment, let T-Mac take 30 shots every game and lets see what our win/loss record is. IMO, I don't think it would be better than it is now and probably worse.

 

When is that going to be, exactly? Yao doesn't seem like he has it in his character to take a bunch of shots. He's just not one to force the action. Doesn't make him a bad player, but it does mean that he's probably best suited as a #2 option.