ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Mavericks 5/2/2005 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 5)

I second that. On the way out of the AAC, Mav fans were throwing beer on Rockets fans wearing jerseys & shirts and screaming "Houston Sucks!" and "F Houston!". The arrogance up here is stifling.

Right now on the radio talk shows they are having a jolly good time with the JVG & David Stern broohaha. I say let them have their day. This should all come to a screeching halt once they face Phoenix in the next round and Nash & Co. run right through them.

 

O'Neal suffers from the same type of selective officiating as does Yao so I'm not sure what this would accomplish.

 

Unfortunately for Dallas and Cuban, he's now pigeonholed.

Because Van Gundy called him out, Cuban won;t be able to make public statements as easily.

Right now there's a staelemate as both sides used their PR move.

Cuban publicly complained and Van Gundy publicly complained.

If either of them complain again, the refs are going to completely ignore their BS.

Imagine if Dallas was to advance and the very next series, Cuban complained about Stoudemire or Steve Nash.

Cuban used his ref card in the 1st round- too bad for him.

For us, everytime Yao gets called for a foul, people will be scrutinizing the officials whether it was legitimate or not. Also, Yao was a,ot more demonstrative after picking up his 4th because he had Van Gundy's backing.

Yao didn't pick up a single foul after that.

Dallas lost in that exchange as Cuban probably never realized some one would draw national attention to his efforts to sway officials.

Yao probably won't foul out again this series, especially not at the Toyota Center.

 

I still think we will win in 7. JVG has a knack for pulling out these types of series.

 

as Steve Kerr says, "Well, now what?"

 

The lessons that the Rockets should learn is:

Don't wait until the 4th quarter to feed Yao the ball.

If TMac were determined to run P&R with Yao from the 1st quarter, it would have been a totally different ball game.

The Mavs have no one that can stop Yao from scoring at will. The guy is only shooting 73% for the series (78% for the last 4 games) and we were only able to get him less than 11 shots/game. Quite pathetic to me!

 

Yao had all of 3 shots in the first period. The problem Yao has is that he does not have anyone on this team that can get the ball to him on a consistent basis. Dampier gets in early foul trouble and they bring in Alan Henderson to guard Yao and the Rockets can't exploit that matchup? Something is very wrong here.

 

Also, ask them which HOFers they ever watched play in their lifetime for the Mavericks. Ask them if they feel comfortable knowing that for the next 10 years, its Yao-Tmac (+ a better supporting cast) vs. Dirk... who has proved he's never going to be the "next larry bird"... hell, he may never even be the "next Chris Mullin."

Ask them if they realize that this team was supposedly 7 games better than the Rockets, and now they find themselves fortunate to even have a chance at getting out of the first round.

Finally... ask them to take a good look at where Sacramento is right now... because when a small-ball team loses its luster (and blows its only legit shot at a title), THAT is where they end up.

 

That's because they focus too much on getting Yao the ball in the post, and the refs are going to let Henderson fight Yao to death down there, and front the hell out of him (and they even had the audacity to call a foul against YAO.... so asking him to post up Henderson is really fruitless).

Thus, they just have to run the pick and roll till Dallas actually finds a way to stop it. They've done better at defending T-mac when he does it with guys like Deke and Padgett... but the ONLY way they've stopped the Yao-T-mac pick and roll is by Yao getting called for moving screens, or Yao fumbling the pass... that's it.

Also, Yao can get great position on Dampier whenever he wants.... the refs will call him for fouls when he's too aggressive with the fronting.

Frankly... Dallas is a better team when Dampier is not on the court... I'm sure Cuban is looking at that guy as $60 million dollars well-spent, when his team is better off with a 6'9 journeyman playing for nothing.

 

I have no idea why the Rockets do not post Yao everytime Dirk is on him.

It's a huge mismatch. Also, it forces Dirk to play defense against a much bigger player requiring a lot of effort.

This has been the biggest failure.

 

Or, pick and roll him to death... he's just as futile at defending that.

Its all about giving them different looks... if you focus only on the post, Dallas has enough time to get its defense set: front Yao aggresively and have the defender back to prevent the lob.

Likewise, on the pick and roll... eventually, they're going to send 4 guys at just Yao and Tracy, thus, other players are going to have to hit their outside shots.

I know Avery decided to prevent those "other" players from beating them, but I think he's going to relax that policy, now that he saw how effective the pick and roll was, and how ineffective our shooters have been the last few games (Wesley and James, mainly).

 

We will win this series as long as we use the high screen and roll with Yao and Tmac until Dallas proves that they can stop it.