I forgot to add, when Yao jumps to block Boozer's shot, it's not entirely bad if he comes down with all of his 300 lbs, elbow first in Boozer's face, and says excuse me .
While this sounds crazy and I certainly wouldn't advocate it for any long stretches of the game, I would like to see us give him some different looks to screw up their sets. Maybe throw shane on him every 4th or 5th trip down the court. Occasionally move Hayes to guard him. Double him once in awhile. Even put Mac on him a few times. Just basically keep him guessing. The one complaint I have with JVG's defense - and it is hard to complain about his defense - is he gets a little too stubborn at times. He will let a guy go-off a little too long before mixing it up or throwing the occasional double / trap at him.
Put hands up, no easy layup for him. Just let him shoot those fade away jumper all he want, if he can make them, more power to him.
Boozer had one good game and one bad game so I wouldn't say the game plan to have Yao play Boozer instead of Orkur is a bad one. Boozer was hitting these ridiculous high arching jumpers to get them over Yao's outstretched arms but I do have a suggestion for Yao, he was giving Boozer too much space afraid that Boozer would go around him. Yao should crowd him and force him to take a fade away along with making him arc the ball over him. That will cut down that percentage.
I'm not endorsing that we play dirty, but he needs to be fouled harder if/when he comes into the lane...
Boozer got a lot of good looks at the elbow b/c of the implementation of the Flex Offense by Sloan. It's Alston's job to recognize it and when Deron sets the pick on Yao, Rafer needs to try to impede Boozer's movement toward the elbow. In addition the person guarding the ball needs to for the pass further out toward the three point line and out of Boozer's range.
i'd like to see Yao just rest his weight on Boozer, lean on him the first half to tire those legs and shoulders making those jumpshots fall short
Boozer only gets decent looks off the pick and roll... he hasn't really taken Yao off the dribble in the half-court set, and he certainly won't simply post-up Yao and try and back him down. JVG made a key adjustment to the P&R late, doubling Williams hard out top with Yao, and rotating two men over to Boozer. Sure, that left Harpring/Girick wide open on the wings... but by that point, Utah was so committed to having Williams/Boozer make all their shots, the other shooters were either ice-cold, or they committed turnovers. Granted, Utah would eventually adjust to this defense, and those shooter are inevitably too good to leave wide open... but if we simply want to stop Boozer at all costs, its a decent strategy. Otherwise, I'd stick with what works.... we're still playing great overall team defense, we're creating turnovers, we're doing a better job on the defensive boards, and we're staying out (for the most part) of serious foul trouble.
not a bad idea at all, and one i think you might see should utah start having long term success against us. at this point, however, why change? the playoffs are all about adjustments and counteradjustments. why counteradjust to a part of the game that has not cost us? until utah proves that boozer can carry them to a victory, we have no reason at all to adjust to him. point-counterpoint adjustment-counteradjustment
KEEP MOVING PEOPLE NOTHING TO SEE HERE!!!!!! no but really..........letting him have jumpers all night and keeping the rest of the jazz on ice will equal a sweep if they don't adjust......so we need to do nothing at this point until they do something differnt booz with 30 and the rest of the starters with nuthin is a great plan...... we need to be reactive and not pro-active at this point.....this plan has us up 2-0......why in the world would we change right now????
Last night, I think it was Mike Fratello who diagrammed a pretty good play for the Jazz to get Boozer open. A guard (Williams) cut thru the middle, this made Yao drop off from Boozer to guard the paint, a forward (Harpring) came up and body checked Yao and sealed him in the paint, ball came to Boozer with Yao 5-6ft away and noway to get back in his face. Wide open J for Boozer. Sometimes the "expert" analysts (Kenny and Chuck) had no idea why Boozer was so wide open, it's not even funny.
howbout not let him get into rhythm beginning of the game.. like double him or even foul him early and hopefully that will throw him off.. and he may miss some free throws.. but obviously this cannot be done the whole game.. and yao should continue defending him for the most part but he should try to go for the block some times too.. how can okur block yao and yao not block boozer.. and when he's about to shoot, have battier or tmac or even hayes try to got for the block..
He really is a Czar of the telestrator. His precise and technical explanation of that play was excellent. It made Bull's frequent play diagrams look amateurish by comparison. Maybe it's because this was an actual play, rather than the typical Bullard diagram of "he draws the defense in, and then he passes it out to the open man for the shot".
If Yao can continue to force Boozer to shoot contested 17ft rainbows, I'll take it. Even when they started to drop in Game 2 I liked our defense. But Yao started to close in on Boozer and he was able to drive to the paint. We need to continue to have him shoot those rainbows.
We will still use Yao to guard Boozer. Yes it is a mismatch in their favor, but overall it's the best choice for us. Yao does not guard Boozer well off PNR, but he needs to stay in front of Boozer and put a hand up. His height does bother Boozer's jumpshot, as seen in the first game. If Boozer makes the shot, so be it. What we don't want is for Boozer to drive to the hoop and put Yao into foul trouble (like what he did last night). We can live with his jumpshot. I don't like the idea of letting Chuck guard Boozer because that would mean Yao would have to guard Okur and be way out of the paint. I also don't like the idea of doubling Boozer because there are many capable jumpshooters on this Utah team. Boozer will not shoot this well all the time. You can safely bet that he already had his best game in the series.
