yao played great. he's not gonna carry us like the great centers of all time do, but if we get games like this out of yao consistently in the playoffs, we're going to do big things. we just need healthy tracy back and we're ready to go. ron would def. help also, but our D on kobe today was good. 13-32? good job guys
imo, this was Yao's best game of the season thus far. He was dunking, rebounding, making good passes, blocking shots, and played fearless and with lots of energy. I am very satisfied with his performance (even better performance than the Boston game).
The total misunderstanding is I want yao to fail, which is crazy. Why would I want the team I've been following since 77 to fail. I merely wanted to see how he would respond to the pressure of trying to lead. He played well tonight until the last 7 mins which is money time. Durvasa brought it up, I'll finish it. 0-4, 2 rebs, 2 asst is unacceptable for the best center in basketball. He didn't lose the game, but when rafer went on his dribbling exhibition, yao wanted no part of the ball. He drifted to the baseline,out the picture and rafer took it upon himself to make a play. I watched it and was hoping Yao would dive into the lane to receive a pass. Instead, he got out the way for rafer to "do his thing." That's isn't nor can't happen. I'm not blaming yao because I actually like the fire he came out with. I like the baseline dunk and the blks and rebs, even the tech when he kicked the support, I like. Yao just needs to be there when the team really needs him. Most games are decided in the last 6 mins of a ball game The missed rebs that were in his hands and like I said earlier, he wanted no part of rafer's last play. That said, rafer makes those free throws and its a tie game. I wouldve preferred Yao to make the play and get fouled vs rafer.
not funny. and it's still better than "it's all on me", or "i tried, it's just my teammates can't create their own shots." and saying "yao disappeared when it mattered" makes me believe you either don't understand bball too much or for some reason have a bias towards ym, or both.
so you started this thread (i bet you're a bit excited) and this is all you have to say after the game? c'mon, you can do better than that.
ever thought about the 3-second rule? it still about your expectation of yao. odem played tonight, so all the main guys of the lakers were there. if yao was able to hit, say 5 shots in the 4th under double-teams, and single-handedly win the game, then that's the performance at akeem's peak level.
IBM- Yao didnt lose the game, there are may plays throughout the game that lost it. When the game was there, rafer with the ball, dribbling the blood out the ball, he drifted out the picture. When Rafer was at the top of the key looking for something to do with the ball, he was watching almost out of bounds. That's not stepping up. That's conceding the play to a bench player. I know there is something called 3 seconds, I played D-1 ball, but diving into the lane or giving rafer a passing angle wouldve been nice.
k. any other complaints about yao tonight? out of 50 possessions, i am sure you can always pick out one or 2 that's less-than-ideal. even dream had some of those. did yao played well or should he just "sit down"? i'd give him an overall "a-" tonight. and i see many positives for the team that they can build on.
the point he tries to make is yao was letting a freakin' bench player in rafer dictating the important possessions of the game. you and i would rather yao have the ball and do something with it (hit or miss) rather than freakin' rafer.
rafer, last time i checked, is still the starting pg of this team. on the last possession or 2, it usually is the pg who initiates the play. in those situations, who has the ball and who is supposed to do what, is usually up to the play call by the coach. so it depends. i fail to see why what he said reflects yao's problem, since none of us knows what play was called by adelman.
yao can clearly demand the ball and call for it. b/c clearly rafer didn't know what the hell he was doing down the stretch.
i did say that yao played great b/c he played with tremendous fire. but yao literally deferred to rafer tonight down the stretch (or the whole team did). seriously? rafer? rafer made some nice plays in the 4th, but if hes your main playmaker down the stretch, we got problems.
i actually just read this from the chronicle - “Coach wanted me to get in the lane after hitting the floater to cut it to two,” Alston said. “It was a good shot. I got to convert the two (free throws).” unless rafer was lying?
When I used to talk to kenny smith on fullcourt press, he said rudy would draw up all these fancy plays after the timeout. They would break the huddle and dream would tell kenny and whoever was the pg that he was going to the blk, throw him the ball. Kenny would throw him the ball. That's all I'm saying. How much faith does adelman have in yao, if that was the play? What kind of play doesn't involve your best player. Yao wanted no part of that last play and you could see it. He was doing all he could to stay out of the play. He played a good game, but like I've said before, its all about when you score as much as it is how many u score. BTW, Battier is terrible.
I second that. Battier never was and never will be Bruce Bowen. He's not even as good as Ariza. He is way too slow and his lateral movement is terrible, even when he's at full strength. If you are not lockdown like Bowen was in his prime, you better have some offensive game to legitimize your PT. The fact is that Battier is no better than Bowen as an offensive player. He is tremendously overrated around here. It's all about the intangibles according to his supporters, how he quarterbacks the defense, the 1 charge he takes every other game. Or they cite one or two games where he played good defense and use that as the basis of their argument for his greatness. Battier just isn't quick enough to guard most SGs, unlike Bowen. Artest should be starting plain and simple when he gets healthy again and we should look to trade Battier for frontcourt length or to fill PG needs.
The refs gave him a boggy foul (4th foul) in the 3rd quarter and killed his momentum. He was on the bench until the 7 minutes of 4th (8-9 minutes rest). His shot feeling was gone and he was conservative in defense (fearing 5th foul, I think). We can't say he had a great game, but certainly a very good one (9-18 fg, 1-1 ft, 17 rb, 5 a, 3 blk, 2 to and 19 pts).
