I liked the first half, except Ming sat it out and Mutombo made him look like a bench player. He may be old, but he played better than Ming. TMac could not buy a shot, end of story. Had he been "on," the Rockets maybe would have won. Without him being on top of his game, no chance. Had the Rockets made all their freebies, they could have won. Barrett was impressive, Barry was good, and Wesley did well. Sura's shooting brought back memories of last year, clang, clang, clang. How many of Ming's shots rolled out, maddening. With a few exceptions, he looked really soft, and slow. The Suns are really, really good. Their shooting was ridiculous. Who shoots like that? Amare wasn't all that impressive. He is active and athletic, but he is no "beast." Nash didn't have his best game, but he really makes the team go. The Rockets are obviously not up to the Suns level, but a respectable performance. The Rockets' overall lack of team speed was clearly exploited. Also, the Rocket's shooting, while sometimes good, is still not consistent. I had this lingering thought that TMac might find his shot late and shock the world, but no miracle.
Tim Legler, on Sportscenter, just showed the Rockets not throwing it down to Yao. He spotlighted the positioning that Yao had and then the other Rockets passing around the perimeter for a 3. Yao still needs a little improvement on getting good positioning, but I think this is one area I wish the team would improve on. There has to be stretches of games they FORCE it down to him, especially against a team like the Suns, and they just don't.
I think anyone harping on Yao not getting the ball because of his lack of aggressiveness should rewind the tape and look at where the defenders were positions around Yao. There's a reason why the Rockets launched so many 3 pointers. The Suns flooded the paint area, and it is almost a guaranteed miss or turnover to pass into a cloud of defenders. Look at TMac who tried to drive into a wall of athletic guys like Marion and Amare. He got shutdown, and TMac whined and got nothing from the ref. If Yao wasn't aggressive, he wouldn't have gotten those putbacks. Forget that botched play with Barry near the end of the game. The Suns weren't going to give up the big lead even if Yao dunked it. However, the Suns did allow for a few possessions where Yao got the ball. The double team arrived quickly, but Yao missed the hook shot every single time except for once. I've watched Yao all season. Someone needs to ask Yao on his website why his hook shot is garbage this season. Why am I harping on the hook shot? Imagine if Hakeem missed every single Dream Shake. Would the Rockets have won a championship? Hakeem was a serious physical specimen who could dunk like a dunking fool, but it wasn't until he developed the Dream Shake that the Rockets won the championships.
I've noticed this as well. His jumper isn't as accurate as it was either. I even think he shot better with that cast on his arm. Could it be that? Or the fatigue from playing in the olympics catching up? or maybe he's just losing his touch?
Players need to get comfortable with shots and flow. If he only gets 4 shots in half, what do you expect? Guards have the luxury to have the ball in hands, Centers need feed. Ever seen dream missed 3 shots and got ignored? If you want a great center, start to make him one, instead of waiting one to fall from the sky.
but they don't. that's what's frustrating. i think it's because of yao's history of losing the ball when he catches it and dribbles the ball that's making them wary of passing it to him. be that as it may, you still gotta get him the ball. sometimes i wish for robert horry to come outta nowhere and do those 'dump it down' passes he used to do with dream. Man...whenever that sequenced happened back in the day...it was money.
I saw Tim Legler do this, and it didn't really help his case, one play he showed Yao standing right in the center of the key with the ball up top and a defender behind him, one standing about 5 feet to his right and in front and another standing five feet to his right and in front. The result (which any coach would have agreed with, was to swing the ball to the weakside man for what, IIRC, was a relatively open 3. Now I suppose Yao did repost, and you can argue that we should have held it and tried to get it to him again, but I'm pretty sure the play is drawn up so that the shooter is supposed to shoot. Then they showed Dikembe and he said "look, they're throwing it right to Dikembe!" Well, yeah, he's deep on the left low block and in single coverage with no help defenders. Of course they threw it to him.
TMac played like trash. All the perimeter guys couldn't make anything compared to the perimeter guys for the Suns.
Yao's missed pass was a downer, but harping on that missed pass is getting old even by Yao haters standard. Barry looked like he was shooting then fired a bullet pass to Yao who was thinking about getting rebounding position. That was an unexpected pass and Yao didn't know he was wide open. That play wouldn't look half bad if there was a defender behind Yao. Yao didn't cost us the game with that play. IMO what cost our game is, like Dakota said, we didn't shut their perimeter shooting down with one on one defense, instead we kept on switching and double teaming and gave them open looks. We should've freeze out their shooters and let Nash and Amare beat us, the latter was having a hard time scoring against Yao. What cost us the game is the cold shooting and bad shot selection of T-Mac and Sura. What cost us the game tonight is our usual inablity to involve Yao in the offense when he's double teamed, and the unwillingness to pass him the ball when he's in position. If I were Yao and a non Rockets fan I was gonna pack and go to the Kings, where I'd mix it up inside and outside, pass from the high post, get some easy jumpers, play with teammates who can share the damn ball with me, instead of playing for a coach who cripples my passing game and face up jumpers, wastes my energy to set useless picks, and picking up fouls for the pfs who can defend worth sh#T, and playing with teammates who don't pass me the rock, and living the fans who expects me use my arms to seal off 250 pounders in the paint for a perfect entry pass. Thank god by all acount that Yao is loyal and I'm a Rockets fan so this might not happen!
I completely agree! Joe Johnson even said it going in at halftime. They were going to double and triple team Yao every chance they get! Yet, they let Deke do whatever the hell he wanted.
I wish he gets his hook shot back. I want to see the Yao of last year back. I want to see the Yao who hit hook shot after hook shot over Shaq with Shaq looking clueless on how to stop it. It's not like he is totally missing the entire rim like Cato did last year, but it's almost like he is always off by a few inches, and the team never ever gets the offensive rebound after one of those misses because it's right under the basket, and the Rockets have garbage offensive rebounding PFs. I bet JVG sees this too. He went to Yao at the beginning to see if Yao had his hook shot going. Yao missed the 1st 3 hook shots. JVG then basically made a decision after that to take Yao right out of the offense except for putbacks. Without the hook shot, Yao becomes way too easy to defend. Just keep him from laying the ball up or dunking.
I have to wonder just how long the Suns can continue to play like this. Yes, they're all young, extemely quick and athletic, but they are not exactly the deepest team in the world. They only have a few decent subs, and they play such an incredibly fast-paced game. Will they continue to hit so many 3's at the end of the year and in the playoffs? If Nash goes down, they're definately screwed. Should be interesting to watch.
I was thinking the same thing. They are shooting unbelievable from behind the arc but, one would think, it can't last all year. Especially over the long, grinding 82 game season. Besides, if tonight was any indication, they take alot of threes just jacking up a shot with a man in thier face.
We lost because Suns played better, period. But I think Rockets are among the very few teams that can beat Suns. Why? Let me ask a question first. Do you think Rox can outrun the Suns, or outfast them, or outshoot them? The answer is no. But the Rox has size and inside game, the only proved way to beat the suns. Sadly, Rox did not use it tonight. Yes, I know you may say that Yao is going to turnover 100 times tonight if we focused the offense on him. You are right. But had the rox tried? you got to try your only hope to win the Suns. Sadly, too many times we saw Rox missed shot in a fast break and Suns used 3 second to punish the Rox. That was the fastest way to lose a game to Suns. At the the beginning of the season, Rox were criticized for their low tempo. I completely agreed with it. When you play a worse team, you want to have more pocessions to use a better talent. But when you play Suns, you want to play to your own strength, that is, a low tempo, half court game. To me, Yao was not so disappointing tonight. He was ignored by his teammates and coach, yet he still put on a double-double and played great defense against Amare. The last point. the rox got to get Yao involved. Yes, Yao sometimes played horrible. But Yao has the talent to develop to a MVP, that is the reason why he is No. 1 draft. Tell me who can stop Yao if he has the ball in the paint? Then think how well Yao contained Amare when he was in the paint. It's the coach's job to teach Yao how to catch in the paint. Practice, practice and practice. Turnover again? Ok, Practice again. Eventually you think he still will not catch? And when he can really catch the ball when he was deep, even with the current role players, the rox are title contenders. Rox has to play Yao inside and let him develop. I am ok with turnovers. The reason is simple, if yao can not catch, the rox is nobody.
