Did Anyone Else See This Big Problem After Tonight?

The Rockets will continue to win as long as they play team ball. There's any number of guys on the floor right now more than capable of hitting a big shot.

Team ball was responsible for the 22 game win streak last year. It's far more important than any garbage about a "superstar" carrying the team.

 

Spurs also lost to the knicks a couple games ago. You cant judge anything by one game in the regular season. Nuggets just lost by almost 40 at home.

Hell we just beat Portland with yao not playing well.

 

Yeah, because we could NEVER win without the almighty TMAC leading us.

16-6 without your boy. 5 game winning streak. Much better looking offense, defense, fast breaking, finishing games and chemistry seems 100x better

Bring on anyone. GO ROX

 

Come on man, you know there are so many more factors that are reasons to the team looking a little better. Let's not go overboard just yet. Let's not forget we still almost lost leads and games in the 4th quarters. This team still has a long way to go to hope for any playoff success.

 

And phoenix too, if they somehow crawl out of the 9th spot.

 

I love your post...very well said..and you had some numbers to back it up...sometimes the only way these blind yao fans can think objectively is with some numbers thrown at them....Anybody who is a rockets fan first can see that Yao is a huge liability at times...especially down the stretch.

 

So, by torched.. you mean he made 1 jumper in the 4th or do you mean the fact that AB can't guard his man one on one.

 

Yao carrying us in the last 5 minutes of a pressure game HAHAHAHA. What in his NBA career leads you to believe that is going to happen?

 

I'm talking about the entire game. Yao was getting killed on high pick and rolls. It's his weakness due to his quickness. And the point of a pick and roll is to set a pick to stop the guard's player.

 

Yes Yao's defending the pick/roll has been a huge hole (nothing new here).

An even more alarming factor is how easily he was neutralized by Aldridge via fronting defense. Yao tried to establish position but was extremely unsuccessful. I think this issue gets priority of addressing over his pick/roll defense.

Anyone wonder how Yao/Rockets would deal with this issue in the playoffs?

 

After a pick and roll is set up its Yao's duty to pick up the guard and try to cover for AB while he fights thru the pick...they either rotate or Yao needs to play good enough defense so that AB can come over and get the guard while still making sure the big man doesn't get an easy shot....only problem is Yao's wayyyyyyyy to slow for this and becomes a huge defensive liability because the pick and roll is the most common play called. If you look at all the great teams in the NBA right now, they all have a big man that can guard the pick and roll to perfection

 

come on, everyone knows yao will sell the game in the 4th in the clutch, but its okay as long as we win..Yao in the 4th, is about as clutch as Lebron in the finals 2years ago..lol..

Did anybody laugh when pryzbilla (how ever you spell it) flopped 2 times in a row?..I was dying laughing...it was so obvious..and when he flopped in the first, then scola returned the favor!..Flopping has gotten so ridiculous, its funny now

 

February is our month, it has to be.

 

last night against portland, we only made 5 field goals in the 4th quarter and yao was responsible for 40% or 2 of the 5. his 6 pts were a big reason we had a 15pt lead cushion before we hit the offensive drought.

he had 2 turnovers in the 4th. he had the ball stolen when he put it down on the floor; and he got called for 3-second violation when he received a late pass after pinning his defender down in the middle of the lane.

but if you want to say the whole 4th quarter drought was entirely on yao, since he's "neutralized" by the fronting (and the occasional doubles) while fail to realize that the rest of the team didn't know how to take advantage of that - that's up to you.

#'s are easy to find. anyone can google. but you've gotta to break down the #'s and actually watch the games.

but of course, if his 4th quarter #'s were decent, it certainly shouldn't be counted because the game was a "blowout". oh yeah? how do you think we blew out the bobcats? the game was essentially over in the 3rd where yao was the main reason by scoring 10pts and giving others easy shots (and that was after his teammates went away from him in the 2nd quarter).

i could go on. but you get the grip.

 

No one cares what he did against the Bobcats when he can't get open against fronting defense. Yao is very good against most players, but against some teams he becomes ineffective.

You bring up his fg%, but that doesn't matter if the offense stalls because he can't get open. If out of four possessions he has 2 turnovers, and shoots 1 for 2, that means the Rockets score on 1 out of 4 possessions. Yes you can spin that he shot 50%, but turnovers are worse than missing a shot. Bottom line is last night in the 4th quarter Rockets looked better on both ends when Chuck Hayes was out there vs Yao. Now this doesn't mean I'm insinuate that Chuck is better than Yao by any means, but in last night's match up Chuck was more effective.

 

This is a worthy concern, admittedly.

 

he did get open SEVERAL times during that scoring drought, despite the fronting. the entry pass never came or came late (resulting in one of his 2 turns in the 4th). watch the game tape again and get back to me.

also, let me say this for the 100th time - yao is NOT a particularly turnover-prone player. his average turnover number per game says so, especially for a player who has been the focal point of offense. people like to knock him on these turnovers because they look silly. but again, every turnover looks silly. maybe yao's are more clumsy-looking.

and i didn't bring up the bobcats game. it was the other poster i was replying to.

true. but can't we say the same to almost every nba player?

it's the "very good against most players" part that makes him a star. it's the "very few who can guard him one-on-one" part that makes him an allstar.

where i did talk about his shooting % in that post? i said poeple tend to overlook yao's contribution before we as a team hit that 6-minute scoring drought, and also tend to blame solely on yao for the drought while overlooking the inability of his teammates of taking advantage of the situation.

really? chuck only played the last minute or so in the 4th for defensive purposes. he scored all his (season high) 6pts prior to that. the fact you're saying "last night in the 4th quarter Rockets looked better on both ends when Chuck Hayes was out there vs Yao" makes me think you probably didn't watch the actual game but from the scoreboard or online play-by-plays. and this in turn makes me feel stupid about myself, since i am replying to a silly post.

 

We played well tonight.. I think we went away from our game plan due to the large lead we had through out most of the game... You have to give some credit to the Blazer's though, they are a good team and we shouldn't have let up..

 

Yao could not get open, that's why he couldn't get the ball. As previously mentioned, Yao has butterfingers so you cannot throw a quick pass by the defender because there's a good chance it'll bounce off of Yao's hands and go out of bounds. Blaming it on everyone else not getting him the ball doesn't help the Rockets get a good shot off.

The Rockets looked better on offense in the 4th quarter with Yao out of the game. Someone who watched the game would have realized some of the shots Artest and Brooks forced in the 4th quarter were due to the shot clock running down. The shot clock ran down because they were trying to get Yao the ball but couldn't. Once the shot clock ran down they had to force a bad shot. You can blame everyone else for not getting Yao the ball, but he shares the responsibility for not getting open. If he can't get open they can't run the offense around him. Rockets looked better with Chuck not because Chuck is a great offensive player, but because they weren't wasting the shot clock trying to force it to Yao. This is what I saw, and I didn't get this from reading a stat sheet.

Yao did contribute earlier in the game, but if you remembered the Rockets built their early lead with Yao on the bench late in the 1st quarter.

* I am not a Yao hater, like I mentioned he's great against most match ups. But there are times where if he cannot get the ball, instead of trying to force it they should find a better shot/match up.

 

You are a moron. Yao did not choke.

The team had 0 field goal in the last 6 minutes after Lowry went to the bench. It is not Yao's fault. He could not get the ball. If Lowry was on court in the last 6 minutes, the team would score some points.