You guys do realise that tmac said its on him right?? This game decides if they advance to the second round... do any of you think he will blow up salt lake city? And as for matchups. We're doing ok so far. Just that Yao is in that phase where he tends taking shots more.Just like tmac a few years ago if im not mistaken. or Vince carter . Fall in love with the J.Anyways. I hope all our players realise that second round is just around the corner and they should finish it right away! And also if they do win this game..my pick for rockets in 6 would come true
On the offensive side, I think Yao needs to adjust and try not to be too predictable. A lot of times I really felt that spinning to the baseline for a jump hook and a small jumper so that it'd be more difficult for the help defense instead of almost always trying to go to the middle and shoot a jumper, which has become too predictable in the previous several games. On the defensive side, he really needs to study Boozer's move and be more aggressive, especially pay attention to Boozer's left hand when he is driving. Needs to cut to the basket a little closer to stop Boozer's layup. My two cents. Hope Yao can have a better game in Game 6, although I think he's having decent games, just not great games. SI
Ok, but if Yao is marking Boozer the entire time, what's gonna stop Deron Williams from penetrating all the way to the bucket? Boozer can just pull Yao away from the hoop, and there will be nobosy on the inside to turn Deron away. I think we're defending the PnR as best we can with the people we have, it's just a matter of being as physical as them. If the man sliding over on the PnR can give the roller an extra bump and knock him off path, that will delay the play that extra second, which would allow somebody like Hayes or McGrady to come over and contest the shot.
I'll add that Chuck seems to be taking a page from Shane's book on defense. Shane will put his hand right in front of the shooter's eyes when the shot is going up. He never goes for the ball if he's close enough to cover the eyes. I've seen Chuck do that too. Boozer needs to be blinded.
I think the offense is best served when McGrady is running the show, and Yao flashes in the paint and bullies Okur to the basket after a feed from Tracy or one of our other perimeter players. . I'm not saying that we should abandon Yao's back to the basket game totally, I just think we should let Tracy make the decisions out there and let Yao work away from the ball and on the offensive glass.
The key to win is YAO HAS TO DOMINANT! If Yao can't get it going on the offensive end, Rockets will NEVER take control of the game, since he is a liability on the defensive end. Come on Yao, rise up, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!
For all the supposed underachievement Yao has been doing this series, when you compare him to Utah's center, there is no comparison. It is total domination on Yao's part: Yao - 24.4ppg on 41.6FG% with 12Rb and 0.8Blk Okur- 8.4ppg on 29.1FG% with 7.4Rb and 1.8Blk Of course, to be fair, Boozer is totally dominating our beloved Chuckwagon in every way on the PF front. But then with T-Mac compared straight up with Fisher who he is guarding, that again is total domination for the Rox. Hence the difference has and will be how Rafer and Shane do against DWill and AK47 which is slightly in Utah's favor so far. The coaching on both sides has been truly a battle of defensive tacticians at its finest, with the slight edge in my opinion to Sloan. Simply because he is willing to push the envelope of good defense by telling his players to play as dirty as they can get away with, while Rox defense is more conventional good solid positional defense. So good defense + dirty hard uncalled fouls beats solid good defense without the dirty antics-- that is truly Sloan's evil genius!!
Okur's offense has probably been dampened from Yao tiring him out. He's probably not used to guarding the post so much. Yao doesn't have to shoot too much, just limit the turn-overs, make good outlet passes, and score when he gets good position. Draw some attention to get others open.
Just the opposite, we HAVE TO establish Yao as early as possible in the game. One, get Okur in foul trouble, two give more room for TMac and Rafer to operate. If we truely can establish Yao early in the game, Jazz is over.
someone needs to tell yao to stop bringing the ball down low before the shots and when he gets ofensive rebounds. he is 7 6 for goodness sake, thre is no excuse for harpering, wiliams, and fisher to consistently swat his ball away from him. most are fouls , but the refs are not calling it. Also open up his elbows and swing them after EVERY rebound even when noone is around him (ala Bakley, Shaq and Dream) , the first one will keep players away, doing it All the time will get the refs to believe that that his natural move and not an intentional elbow. Finally this was one of my favorite dream moves, when people swatted at his ball down low he would jump and swing both arms out, usually two things happened; made the steal look more like a fall, but a few of those arms caught the face of teh players that dared to go for that steal ( my favorite was stockton getting smacked ) They thought twice beforfe coming close again. lastly, be like charles in the 97 series, with the illegal back picks that stockton used to set and harpring, Williams and fisher still do, level them a couple of times. GET MEAN with the MEAN dirty team.
Goes to show the type of stuff they get away with. I guess it goes both ways... this is the playoffs and you do whatever it takes to win. But Yao gets fouled a lot and they never call it.
Here's a thought. Call the freak'n foul everytime Memet Oger goes though Yao and hits him on the forearm to dislodge the ball on inbounds to the post.
