...it exposed our greatest weakness. It isn't that we can't stop the PnR. It isn't that we can't stop the penetration. It isn't we don't drive to the basket. It isn't that we settle for too many jumpers, although all of those are very much significant weaknesses. By far our greatest weakness is that passing to Yao isn't instinctive. This was very much true in the numerous bad wins we had as well, but last night really p1ssed me off. By my count, Yao has 3 offensive 3 second violations last night. And we are not talking those ones gotten in the high post. No, Yao was right under the basket, and the pass never came. People are gonna say that Kurt Thomas/Amare/Diaw did a good job fronting/doubling Yao. No they didn't. In fact, Mark Blount and KG did a better job. Furthermore, one thing I noticed that Yao learnt this year was that when being fronted, he can generally seal the defender off to one side, usually away from the baseline to avoid the help in the paint. At this point, if we make a quick pass to we would have a simple baseline spin basket. We didn't do that either. So if passing to your franchaise player isn't instinctive in wins (however bad) and passing to your franchaise player isn't instinctive in losses (when we could really have used his help), what the hell do we need him for? Just to look tall?
isn't it just Yao's way of protesting? "hm, dudes ain't passin me the ball... I'm just gonna camp here and draw the violation, make'm notice me"
Has Rafer really regressed as a distributor this season, or has he always been this mediocre? And he needs to stop taking any shots that aren't a direct, open layup or open jump shot. With Snyder out of the lineup, we don't have any guards other than McGrady that can finish will around the basket. Luther Head and Rafer Alston are both well below average finishing in traffic.
I think this team has to decide who the clear number 1 option is and stick too it... every team has a go to guy...that you go to... when the game is on the line...no matter how many guys are on them...
as someone noted before, if this was hakeem, he would have given rafer a real mouthful. it wasn;t just rafer though, tmac was doing the same. either vg has to say something or yao really needs to demand the ball. the rockets went away from yao with about 6 or 7 minutes go. after his one miss, threes started to rain from the sky. the rockets are good, not mature enough yet though. hope like heck they learn to find mismatches such as yao against midgets trying to guard him
1. Yao was double teamed and fronted. Tough to get him the ball. 2. Yao was exhausted. He couldn't put up much of a fight. 3. Yao was being fouled while pushing for position. They called it at least once in the 4th, but still missed others. We try to pass, but Yao just isn't open in the 4th.
MFW, you make some good points and I don't disagree with them.. but..... I think last night had more to do with us playing the 2nd night of a back-to-back against the fastest team in the league. We showed we can play with them when we came back from being down by 22 to take the lead.....but we just ran out of gas. It happens to the best teams in the league.
I don't believe JVG will be fired. I do believe he will not get a contract extension for next season(at least I hope he doesn't).
yes, but again, does it require rest to pass it down into yao? if you think yao was tired, don't make excuses for him. he played 29 minutes last night. he didn't look tired, sme miscommunications in passes to him were not because he was tired.
There are a couple of things I think you might not have considered, MFW. First, the Rockets squad (including of course TMac and Alston) that briefly put themselves ahead of the Suns with 9 and 1/2 minutes to go in the 4th quarter did so with Yao resting on the bench, granted Yao took a big part in the 3rd-quarter comeback himself. So if this is seen as an excuse, the guys on Yao-less squad probably had a mentality that "since it is we who took the lead (without Yao), let's see if we can finish the game (without Yao)." Is that the right team mentality or attitude? No, but you can't blame them squarely for having that thought. Second, I don't buy Mark Blount did a better job than Kurt Thomas and company defending Yao. IMO, Thomas et al more than neutralized Yao in the 4th quarter - they pretty much schooled our big fella on both ends of the floor, especially on boards. Yao was ineffective during the 4th quarter, partly because of the inability of his teammate to pass him the ball, partly because Suns' big men did their job of denying him good positions and rebounding opportunity, partly because Yao himself was less aggressive than usual (his early foul trouble might still be haunting him).
Yao needs to let his teammates know too. He has the power to be vocal now. I dont want to see him to have another 0 production 4th qtr ever.
