im feeling really good after two games... whats not to like?? i love how we overcame horrible starts in our first two games to take a stronghold on the game.. and i really like the defensive intensity that we have been playing with. i will admit, i was skeptical of playing battier and hayes at the same time, but... they have proved me wrong with their defensive presence.. and battier has come through on the offensive side of the ball. i think our rebounding can improve alittle bit, but... geez, isnt it nice to see some fast break points? additionally, it seemed like tmac's 47 was an easy 47, we are spreading out and opening up the floor for our leader.. we will enforce our will on portland, and send the children back to the northwest wondering how they got beat by 20+.
I think the biggest thing to take from this game other than that we obvioulsy have a productive bench and the players are starting to get used to Adelman's system already is that as long as at least ONE of our superstars has a good game and our role players and bench are picking up the slack, we can win. Last year, both mcgrady and yao had to play well for us to win big games. And I stress big games, because I know other players picked up the slack when yao was hurt and we won against inferior teams, but when we played good teams without yao we weren't deep enough.
For people bashing Yao so much, he sure did nail some huge shots in the fourth quarter to help put the game away. He looked like he was easily getting the shots he normally hits, he just missed tonight. He could have easily scored more than 20 points if he had just hit his normal percentage of shots. Now on defense, against the Jazz, he's going to struggle a bit with Boozer and a Center that is a three point shooter. Yao has not regressed, he just had a bad game.
I've not read all the pages in this thread, so maybe it's been mentioned a lot already, BUT I think Yao is more affected by altitude than others. Not only does he weigh 300 lbs (that's a lot of flesh to oxygenate, for a body), but he's so tall that the air is even more rarified at his nostrils than, say, Mike James'.
he's so tall that the air is even more rarified at his nostrils than, say, Mike James'. signature material. HAHAHHAHA
I agree Yao on Okur may work. Okur is nowhere near as fast as Boozer so He could play closer to Okur without being worried about Okur blowing by him. Boozer is too fast for Yao to stay close and contest his jumper and Boozer is a legit shooter and that's when Boozer is able to take relatively open jumpers.
Yao should not be allowed to play in any Utah games unless Boozer and Kirilenki (not a typo) and Giricek is on the floor. First of all, he CANNOT defend Boozi nor can he can he score against him. And I don't know if its just me, but it seems like Yao can hardly breathe in Utah's arena....maybe its the altitude...or the stagnant atmosphere, even I feel drowsy watching games played in Utah
I guess nobody cares that Yao has a torn ligament in his left elbow (that's what the sleeve was for)? He's not using it as an excuse, but I will. I think it was affecting him yesterday.
It certainly was. He did play a poor game though, regardless. Some people are quick to jump on his back though, which is surprising, because he's our most dedicated player. I can admit to his bad games, but some of the bashing is just unwarranted.
Those Utah fans are really cocky to say their team is better than ours. Saying Battier is ineffective if they crack down on flopping is the dumbest thing I ever heard. He takes those hits hard. Their whole team would be ineffective since they flopped their way into the conference finals. They got every call in each series last year. But they couldn't get past the master of the flop, Ginobili.
The optimal Rockets lineup against Jazz is Scola, Hayes, Tmac, James, Head. Scola on Okur in the perimeter; Hayes on Boozer in the paint; Tmac on Kirilenko- an easy cover to conserve energy for offense; James on Deron; and Head on the other guy- whoever it is cuz if I can't even remember his name he must not be too good. It seemed like the Jazz finally adjusted to Tmac late in the game by doubling him everytime he touched the ball. With this lineup he can pass it to Scola or James when he's doubled. James and Head are deadly outside shooters while Scola can show off his post game. Hayes cleans up the garbage. I really liked how Hayes took charges against Boozer. I think he can limit him to 20 pts and 10 reb if he played him the whole game instead of the 35/15 Boozer puts up against Yao. Yao realistically isn't gonna play 35 minutes for 82 games anyways. Just use him like baseball managers do with their lefty bats against a tough lefty like the old Randy Johnson and give him the day off. OR... Stay with Yao starting the game but AS SOON AS he shows signs of playing bad again against the Jazz (2 turnovers in a row, 2 missed shots in a row, etc) replace him with Scola. I think we've seen enough of a sample size (8 games) to conclude that Yao struggles against this Jazz team.
Just my 2 cents on the game... Utah is a strong team, but they struggle to defend the one great player. They do well against teams where the wealth is spread among a lot of different players, but they really have a hard time handling the one significant talent - always have really. McGrady was just better than the Jazz and there wasn't really anything they could do about it.
Completely agree. There's also something about Kirilenko's defense that McGrady just gets up for. Even in the injury plagued 2005-2006 season, McGrady would just blow up when matched up w/ AK47.
