Once again the media has mistranslated him. He said "We need to stop complaining to the officials and just play like we got balls"
We're collapsing down the stretch everytime, period. We can say we don't have our closer and all that crap, but not a single person has stepped up. If Yao is going to keep on setting picks like that every game, he should at least be taking 6-7 jumpshots just from stepping back. The pick-n-roll doesn't work unless TMac is running it with Yao, no point for Yao to be setting picks for Alston when he's just gonna swing it around the court, it's a waste of energy for Yao.
The positives (I think I will do that for every loss, hopefully not many this season ): 1. The turnovers are down. 2. Rockets outrebound Heat 3. Wesley is making shots 4. Yao's rebound is good, his shooting is better (I know, it's still below his average, but it's better than last game). 5. Tmac will be back sooner than later. I still hope Tmac doesn't rush back. I think the team is getting better. I predict the team will turn around by the end of the road trip. Tmac at least should wait until after the road trip. It is still early in the season. Take the loooong view.
Some random thoughts. There is no pick and roll with Yao. They are just using Yao as a screen. Yao gets no passes rolling to the basket. The guards need to watch the tapes on the last playoffs to see how T-Mac fed Yao the ball. Swift is very inconsistent. His play fluctuates from qtr to qtr. His throwing up prayer after prayer was hurting the flow. Didn't play bad overall but he lacks discipline on offense. JVG needs to address fronting quick. There is no counter play against fronting as of now. It has been an easy way to shut down Yao and the whole team. Alston is playing under control but not impressive. The guy averaged 14 points last season. So far he's averaging 8.5 points at 33%. What's wrong with Skip? Head is shooting at 50% and still plays behind Wesley!
I'm glad that there was some perspective in a game thread. Any loss hurts, but I did see glimmers of progress tonight. On to tomorrow...
I think we've heard enough of "while Tmac is out, the rest of the team needs to step up." So far, nobody except Yao has shown up, not to mention stepping up.
Chuck basically just spouted off the same crap about Yao not being a bulldog and he will never be great until he becomes one. Said Yao should average 25 ppg with tmac, and 30 ppg without him. Magic agreed, but said that you have to have it inside and it cannot be learned. Guess we should all pack it in and go home folks. Cancel your season tickets. My question is, will the tnt guys ever give us some analysis on the fronting situation. I know that the rule didn't exist when they played, but instead of saying, 'Yao ran out of gas', or 'Yao disappears sometimes and i don't know why', could they maybe try to explain the defense to us and how to beat it? They have never even brought up the fact that Yao dominates when his defender plays him straight up, but cannot do as much when he is fronted. Maybe we should send an email to clue them in? Never mind, Charles doesn't believe in the internet.
In the last playoffs, we lobbed the ball to Yao and it worked well. Even you give a couple turnovers, it's worth it because of Yao's efficiency in scoring down low.
The fronting problem was acutally addressed by JVG, but it was too little too late. During the last few play, you can see one of our guards comes over from the opposite side, and set a pick for Yao under the basket, and Yao quickly roll across from the baseline, using the pick to escape the defender, also getting a very deep position under the basket. It was really effective, and I hope JVG runs it more often when Yao is getting fronted.
I'd like to see this and other plays called when they start fronting. The league has learned that Yao has two weaknesses: getting fronted, and getting in foul trouble. I'd like to see us find an offensive strategy to switch to that will punish defenses for fronting Yao.
And I noticed something fantastic about Yao tonight: I saw several times where Zo drove it in and was obviously trying to get a foul called against Yao. And most of those times, Yao did exactly what he should have. At one point he stood with his hands up and didn't jump. He gave Zo the shot and Zo made it, but what Zo really wanted was a foul against Yao. Yao didn't fall for it, and the refs didn't call it. I saw Yao play like that a LOT tonight, and I was really happy to see that. In fact, I can't think of much I'm unhappy with in Yao's game. Though he didn't score as much in the second half as I would have liked him to, I blame the backcourt for that - they weren't making the Heat defense pay for clogging the lane.
BOOOOO! Aweful start by the Rockets. We've lost 2 games that we lead late, and should have won. Come on Rox! LETS GO HOUSTON!
First of all, we actually played better than last game. I'm not sure if it's becaused the Heats were just bad, but our offense did look better, the ball movement were much better. Second, both Yao and our back court lost patience in the 4th qtr when the Heats started fronting Yao. The guards either moved the ball to the other side too quick, or Yao was too easy to give up the fighting, just came up to set those stupid picks. I guess he was real tired, becuase those stupid picks didn't free either him, or the dribbler at all. Third, about Rafer, I never watched him play before, but based on his showing so far this season, the guy is very timid, does not look like someone who in running a team. DA took a lot of shots, but I believe that's what JVG wanted him to do due to lack of scoring w/o TMac. I don't think he is capable of handling that many shots a game. Swift sucks. He looked clueless out there. Worse yet, he clog the lane, made it very hard for Yao to operate when he was in the game. Now, people probably understand why he was let go by the Memphis. This team needs a steady inside force next to Yao, someone like Howard with a better defense & rebound ability, but he provided neither so far, and he is very inconsistent. Finally, JVG needs to tell Yao to stop setting those stupid picks, and stay under those picks when the Heats couldn't hit any outside shots. I'm not saying it's JVG's fault that Yao easily give up the fighting for the post, or the guards didn't have enough patience to wait to Yao to settle down in the 4th qtr. But as a coach, when you see that happened over and over agin, you need to call the timeout, tell your players to have confidence, not that easily give up. A tough loss, but I did see the improvement over the last game.
From yahoo, http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2005111014 The Rockets lost Ryan Bowen in the second half with a hip and groin strain. Is Bowen ok???
Totally agree. Everytime when Yao sets a pick and gets free, Alston doesn't give the ball to Yao while T-Mac does. I wish Yao yelled at Alston for that.
Does Yao know his max payment including yelling at guard when they are supposed to pass the ball to him?
I only heard the Heat game on the radio but... In the first three games, it seems to me Yao does not look for or expect the ball when he sets a high pick. Part of the problem is the dribbler never seems to attack the basket. They just dribble outside against two guys, struggle to see the floor and the defense easily adjusts before the ball can get to Yao. The 2nd part of the problem is Yao isn't even looking for the ball. The whole exercise seems a waste of time. Is this what happened last night? Last year in the Mavs series, Tracy would attack the basket when Yao set the pick and was therefore able to pass to the "rolling" Yao for slams and layups. The high picks Yao set against the Hornets and Magic could barely be termed pick and rolls. It ends up taking 3 passes, instead of 1, to get Yao the ball.
Those TMac - Yao PnR looked so unstoppable. Now I realize that we need 2 all star caliber players to make it work. The reason it's unstoppable is both TMac and Yao could have take the shot and make it very tough on the defense.
