lmao was thinking the exact same thing when Yao broke his career high excellent win by the rockets........ didn't think it would be that close of a game to come into the fourth but good to see us pour it on late
Was a great game, and I'm glad our bigmen had BIG performances but it was against a much weaker Magic team. A team that we should beat but some were expecting us to take for granted. It's still a big win and I'll take it any day of the week. I was really suprised they were single covering Yao so much. The shots he did miss I thought were a little questionable about not being called fouls, but he really did step up huge tonight. Probably the most impressive thing about it was, almost no one on the team had to really work hard to get their buckets. Yao was bullying around anyone guarding him, and our guards were getting wide open looks at the basket almost all night, without the need for outrageous passing performances through 3 men clogging up the passing lanes. So no extra energy was wasted trying to get just one shot at the bucket. My favorite move of the night was Yao's power dunk on whoever was guarding him. I think it was in the 2nd quarter. He backed his man up pushed him baseline under the basket, made a move to the center of the paint and did a one handed jam knocking his man to the floor. In fact I think he did that a couple of times. And as much as I loved him being the primary scoring threat, I liked it even more when he got his points doing the dirty work grabbing boards and getting putbacks doing so. He was really bullying whoever was guarding him in the paint and when he didn't feel comfortable passed outside and backed his man deeper for the repost pass inside back into him. Steve didn't have a big game but then again he didn't have to. Mobley didn't either and readily gave up the ball to Yao every single time down the court. What I did notice most was the pace of the game slows down so much with Yao as the primary scoring threat. I swear that 3rd quarter felt like an eternity.
some postgame quotes from Yahoo recap: ``Our goal is play effective basketball and not to break records,'' said Yao, whose previous high was 30. ``Of course, if I can score more points I will try to score more points.'' ``Obviously, not too many teams have a weapon like that other than the Lakers,'' Rockets reserve point guard Mark Jackson said. ``The guy is so big and skilled, it's unbelievable. He's a big guy with great hands, great touch and he makes you look good.'' ``I told Andrew, 'Hold your ground as best you can,''' Davis said. ``We were going to give him help on the dribble, but it didn't get there the way it should have.'' ``I didn't want to be passive and let them come and defend me,'' Yao said. ``I wanted to attack them.'' ``Yeah, I had the hot streak,'' McGrady said. ``But it didn't matter because they were coming down and Yao was doing the same thing.'' ``Mark Jackson played a great game on the offensive end,'' Houston coachJeff Van Gundy said. ``He kept us organized and made some terrific passes.''
i think it was declerq yao ran over and dunked on. all the magic fans wanted a foul. The funniest part of the night was when everyone in the arena was booing drew gooden because he was a black hole.
I do want to point out that the Rockets...who average something like 17 or 18 turnovers per game...had just 10 tonight. Motay also continues his nice streak of games with a 20pt and 8 board performance. as long as 2 of our players are going off....we will continue to win. and even given the fact that SF and Cat havent been shooting very well lately...They are playing within the team concept for quite a few games now...and tonight was no exception....I just wish they could hit better when they do take the shots. and lastly...what more need be sad about MJax? wow...incredible performance from the new guy.. 10 dimes in 24 minutes...that is an assist every 2 and a half minutes..I shudder to think about what happens once he gets fully integrated into the team.. overall...even tho this was the lowly Magic...it was a nice win...and tomorrow will be one also...Im saying it here first....the HEat will be no trouble for the newly resurgent Rockets.
he decided that he should not be involved in the offense anymore, and just dump it into yao and mo. Thats one expensive dumper!!!
Perhaps JVG wanted Yao to experience what it feels like to dominate. Maybe Steve had orders to feed the big man continuously, just for tonight.
Errr... or maybe anything else would have been r****ded, given the relative efficiency of dumping it to Yao, tonight. If Yao can play that well everyday and he's always single covered... I'll be happy to have a max salary dumper.
That could be so too. Another possible factor is that Steve himself might have been curious about how the big guy would handle the responsibility. I'll drink to that.
am i the only one who thinks the magic coach should be fired for telling declerq to "hold your ground as best you can" against yao tonight? lets see, everyone doubles him aggressively and it usually works. no less than 4 days ago, the knicks singled him and he killed them. then, in the first quarter, yao tore them apart, but he kept using this strategy? how dumb do you have to be to not even attempt to disrupt our offense? as far as Clutch's comment, i don't get it either. it certainly does the rockets no good to have steve throw up desperation shots at the buzzer. it certainly does steve no good to have to not only iso completely, but to have to do it at a certain time (like 6 or 7 seconds left). can't we just set a pick up top with about 7 or 8 to go and either let steve shoot off of this or throw it to the picker or drive and kick? i'm scarred for life by clyde shooting too early and leaving time for flopton's 3 in game 6, but as long as it's not the 4th quarter, and especially if it's not a game of huge magnitude, can't we sort of run a play, even it it leaves 2 or 3 seconds on the clock. as far as ymc and DavidS' comment, it's maybe 35% correct. like most everyboyd on here, i play bball too, and i pretty much am only a shooter. as long as i'm not jumping up to catch the pass or scraping it off the ground, i'm pretty much good to go. and those types of passes rarely happen in nba games. these are the most coordinated people in the world, throwing it 20 feet to a guy isn't that hard. watch a game, tell me it happens more than 10% of the time. i was just saying right now mj seems to be a good luck charm. i'm sure it'll wear off and we'll regress back to the mean a little, but i'll enjoy it for now.
I've been clueless, too. Yao is almost invinceable 1-on-1, against all but the very best. But there are all sorts of compelling reasons to double: 1. Yao isn't good w/handing doubles (yet) 2. The Rockets are really ****ty at passing to the low post (with the exceptions of the Jacksons and Nachbar) 3. The Rockets don't have really deadly shooters, so we're not good at penalizing the other team for the double even when Yao does effectively pass out of it. There's no reason not to double... but few do.
Just watched the SportsCeter. That alley-oop to Yao looks too easy. Yao just jumped a little to finish it.
I think that ymc was talking about was more about MJ natural ablitity to make others score easily, i.e. making your teammates better with passing. My point is that some people have it, and some don't. History shows us that. These guys just have a special ability to "see" what others don't. They've consistently proved it. I wish Francis had it. If he did, he'd be one of the top 10 point guards to ever play the game. Yes. Better than Payton. Maybe even Isiah. Because merging Francis athletic ability with elite passing would be a complete player. Player/Total Assist ---------------------- 1. John Stockton 15,806 2. Mark Jackson 10,219 3. Magic Johnson 10,141 4. Oscar Robertson 9,887 5. Isiah Thomas 9,061 6. Gary Payton 7,843
Excellent game tonight, Yao was incredible in the 3rd. I thought he was gonna give that Za Za a punch in the jaw or something. Only 10 TO's - that was soooo pretty. With our recent play does everyone think this freezes any trades that were being considered?
You never give up a chance to better your team. Only diff now, we can be content sitting on our asses and let others come to us instead of trying to plug holes. All thanks to Mark Jackson.
