What happened to HP? No posts since the beginning of the season. Is he protesting the lowly discourse that the board has fallen into.... or did he start rooting for the Jazz?
Just watched the Philly and Lakers game. I found two things rather interesting. First, AI called out his team players the other for heart and toughness, which caused a storm in media. Tonight AI went on the court and played with a "Heart of Champion". He led his team as a super star supposed to do, and the team followed. They played good defence, rotated well, and fought hard. It ended up with a convincing win. Your star players are supposed to lead the team especially at down times. They need to take the responsibility and burden to lead the sqad to war. Neither SF nor Yao are able to do that in Houston, it could be explained by lack of experience, or character difference, or lack of fire and "Heart of a Champion", but the end result is the same -- they didn't live up to the high standard for a true star player. The second thing very obvious was that 76ers fronted and crowded Shaq, and they dared Lakers outside jumpers to beat them, but they failed to make the shots, and automatically lower the chance to help Shaq to get good position and get the ball to him at right place and right time. Same thing happened in Indiana, when the outside shots were not falling, Shaq's demage was also limited, although as powerful as Shaq is. Doesn't this ring a bell to us? Certainly, Yao should be more aggressive and ambitious. But other players have to make open shots to help him and help him help them and eventually help the team to success. When you look at the Lakers game, when Shaq is dominating, usually Kobe is running and shooting well, Fisher and Fox and George and etc are making open jumpers. The more Shaq is doing well inside, the more open looks guards have. Both sides are interactive. We can't just blame yao for not being aggressive, neither can we just blame the guards are not passing the ball well. They both need to improve.
Both systems require a lot of ball movement, but the Lakers' tripple post system has more passing, less dribbling, hence they have a better chance to beat the defenders to the spots. On the other hand, the Rockets have more dribbling, less passing, which makes it slower to get to desired spots, hence more time for the defense to react. When feed the post, timing is everything. Shaq's strength alone can get him any position he desires, and faster than the help defender be able to react. With the way the Lakers move the ball, it's pretty certain, he will always get the ball with a single coverage. On the other hand, it takes Yao much longer to get deep position, and takes even longer for his teammates to get the ball to him, thus the "small window" of opportunity is SMALLER for Yao. Another thing often get overlooked is the different philosophy by the other teams when defend Yao and Shaq. No team trys to deny Shaq the ball outside 10" from the basket, so he usually stays around 12" to 15" area. With his strength, he can easily move a couple feet closer quickly when desired. Yao's situation is different. Teams don't want him to catch the ball anywhere within 20", with his strength and athletism (or lack of), it's much harder and slower to get within 12". So the only solution is to have better/quick ball moverment with PURPOSE, and Yao's increasing strength. Both of these requires time, and playing together, that's why I don't think we should make any trade now. --daoshi
Watching the Lakers last night really reminds me of the game against the Suns. Shaq was doubled and the 76ers were daring the Lakers to make the outside shots. The Lakers couldn't and they lost.
