I have seen this for the past month. Yao will come in, get into foul trouble or gets tired. Then Mutombo has to come in and finish up the job. You can tell in Mutombo's face whenever he comes in to sub for Yao that he isn't happy w/ his play. With all the crap that Dampier has been talking for the series, I would think Yao would have some fire in him to dunk a Spalding on his face.
yes. for the past month, nonstop. what? geez, he had a bad game. The last month? No way. Especially lately, he was puttin it down.
It just depends. If Yao has to play against faster/athletic centers/fowards. He will struggle to guard them. But he will contribute. Just not as effectively. He'll have a few good games this serise. But is slowness will always be a factor vs teams like Dallas (speed and height). I think that Yao could do better vs the Sun than compared to the Mavs.
I don't even think he had that bad of a game given the minutes he played: 20 minutes, 11 points (3-8 shooting), 8 rebounds, 1 block. Given the foul trouble plauging his game, he didn't alright enough. His mere presence in the game today changes things enough. Next game though, I expect him to play smarter, and not be in so much foul trouble.
Agreed. Yao will step up next game and we'll need it b/c Dirk will surely come out with something to prove on Monday.
well yao right now is a role player but he's the absolute best one in the league. he had a tough game but it wasn't terrible considering the amount of minutes he played. as for the last month he's averaging 19.2 points so actually that's higher then his season average. deke has been 20 times more effective then anyone imagined and yao has had arguably a poorer season then expected but his impact over the course of the season is greater then dekes. yao's impact in the game even when he doesn't score is huge because at anytime he can be an offensive force and the defense has to respect that.
Yao has been a role player for 3/4th of the seaon. A very effective one though. The problem for this game is refs. Those tic tac fouls they normally don't call in playoffs were called on Yao. On the other hand, Yao fell on the floor at least 4 times and none of those were called as a foul. Even Shaq won't be effective getting called like that.
1. Yao had some bad fouls called on him 2. Yao had a bad offensive game, but his rebounding and free throw shooting were key. 3. We won the FREAKING GAME. WHY COMPLAIN?? 4. One 'bad' game for Yao and we still win? I'm happy. Stop Hating!
Tinman is absolutely right. As long as we win, no doubt Yao is gonna play better and the refs are going to call the game better.
I think Yao will play better. The officiating were absolutely horrific today. We still manage to outplay mavs frontcourt. Yao/Deke combined 19/16, far better than Damp/Bradley 7/7.
exactly. Somehow, ppl think Yao is non-factor when, in fact, he had 11 points, 8 rebounds, 1 blocks in limited playing time. Sure, Yao didn't play well, But, non-factor? givmme a break!!
It says something about this team when Yao is virtually a non-factor all game and we still easily win. Not to mention that T-Mac didn't even contribute too much in the 4th once the Mavs started doubling him. I guess that tears apart the whole "only 2 options" and "lack of depth" argument the media's been spoutin'
nothing kills the euphoria created by a big rockets win more than clicking on one of the rockets game threads and reading all these people argue over yao.
Yeah, it says Dallas isn't the foe everyone was making it out to be. Just as some here predicted (including myself), Houston is the better team. It's only one game, but the problems are showing with Dallas.
yao had a horrible offensive game. but on the defensive end he hussled. and offensively he set some MONSTER nasty picks. we didn't need him to score 20. we won. its all good. he wont play as bad next game. and no he's had a very nice last month.
To answer the question posed in the title, no he has not been reduced to a role player. He simply has some great, dominant games, and then he has some games where he is either off or doesn't need to dominate.
