In Preparation for the next Rox/Lakers Game .........

Ive seen Shaq committing offensive fouls that werent called ever since he came in the league. Any time he goes up for a shot he seems to bang the defender. Not only is it not called, but more often than not the defender gets called for a defensive foul. It's been happening so long I doubt the NBA has any interest in putting a stop to it.

 

Home court advantage. Not fair, but hey, that's the NBA.

Yao better watch his hands.

 

Yeah...you know when they did the over-the-top view? From the attic type camera? You could see Shaq pushing him but they still lost! Kobe Bryant didn't get any calls. And you all say Steve Francis makes too many turnovers. Kobe Bryant is the best player in the league, but in the 2nd half of Christmas, he made so many turnovers and did not draw any fouls. He didn't make too many shots either.

 

don't expect Yao Ming to have a big game...it's gonna be a quiet game for Yao on Jan. 17..IT'S THE FIRST TIME HE PLAYING sHAQ...just wait until the next match..in february?..i think it's in feb...YAo gonna power over Shaq in that game..!!!

 

Kobe does tend to dribble too much. Sometimes when he tries to go one on one, the triangle spacing gets all screwed up trying to cover for him.

But the score indicates that it's the Laker defence that was lacking today. It almost looked like a Sac-town layup line out there in the 4th.

 

I think they will call some offensive fouls on Shaq if he keep knocking Ming to the floor. Ming seems to get knock down easily when he got push around or with hard foul. I think if Shaq keep tried to bull over Ming and Yao kept hitting the floor then they have no choice but to call some fouls on Shaq. I am not saying Yao will pull the Divac's flop but he is truly not strong enough at this time to take a hit from Shaq. They are probably try to front Shaq and double team him before he got the ball. If everything fail, we can always do the hack-a-Shaq and take our chance with Shaq shooting free throws. But who know that Yao might be stronger than we thought.

 

At first I'm thinking that the first time will be a learning experience for Yao. He'll have to play Shaq and get bruised up like every other center in the NBA. But he'll learn what Shaq does and how what the referees will let go and won't.

Then watching this game, all of Game 6 of the Finals came back last year. How can you have a game plan for Shaq when you have know idea how the refs will call the game. I think back to Game 1 of the '99 first round vs. the Lakers and how Hakeem picked up cr*p foul calls when Shaq was establishing position. Hakeem played Shaq the way he always played him and he got calls for shoves in the back. Hakeem was never a factor in that game and got dominated for the whole series. I'd like to believe that Yao will gain a valuable learning experience from his first encounter with Shaq. But what good will it do if the refs are so inconsistent with Shaq from game-to-game. Cuban is right: the refs suck!