After looking at the tape, I believe the Celtics were doing the following: 1) Totally ignoring the weakside players on the arc and dropping those defenders to the paint. This allowed the Celtics to send Eric Williams off of Posey and Antoine Walker off of Griffin to both help on Yao and to rebound. The Celtics had 33 DRebs vs 6 ORebs advantage. That part of the strategy worked well. Since the Rockets use mostly dribble penetration (as oppossed to passing) and seldom to never reverse the ball to the weakside with a pass, this meant the Celtics were basically surrounded the paint with Yao's defender, Posey's defender and Griffins defender. I saw more skip passes from the strong side arc (foul line extended to corner) than I've seen in a long time. What also aided the Celts defensive plan was Posey and Griffins inability to make long range shots. (Griffin was 3-5 but 2 of the 3 makes came in Q1). 2) Testing Mobley's long range shot by shading Pierce toward Yao until Cuttino got hot enough to make Pierce come out. This worked for awhile. I find it hard to believe that this defensive strategy won't be used again by another team.
The Sportscenter guys like to have it both ways. A. Show the times he's open and doesn't get the ball. B. Show him getting dunked on. (For "B," I can't wait until Yao gets his chance---might be next year---to take off Finley's head. Finley started the season bad-mouthing Yao, then giving him grudging respect, then yelling at/staring down Yao after dunking on him. Ohhhh, I can't wait.)
Sounds like a sound strategy to me. Use Griffin's and Posey's defenders to double down on Yao forcing Griffin and Posey to shoot jumpers, their weakness in their game. If you are the opposing team, what would you rather beat you, Yao Ming's hook shot from in close or Posey and Griffin jumpers from the 3pt line? Fairly obvious. If I was the opposing team I would run this defense all day. The onus is on Rudy to get Posey and Griffin to slash to the basket for passes instead of just hang out on the 3pt line ("motion" instead of standing around, what a concept!). We play into the opposing teams hands when we have them just stand around and shoot jumpshots when that is not really part of their game. Chris
A little more: 1. Calling anything involved with Sportscenter an "embarrassment" is an embarrasment in itself. Were all of you embarrassed when they would show highlights of early Rockets games (even wins) and only show Yao playing poorly, followed by two highlights of the other team? Again, this is silly. If ESPN was unable to find any mistakes or missed opportunities after reviewing all angles of film at all speeds, then the Rockets would have to be elected world rulers because they were so perfect - bow to the masters. 2. How many times did Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikmen, etc. miss WIDE OPEN (emphasis for the slow crowd who apparently need them to understand anything) receivers in the endzone? For a first down? Damn, that is the QB's only job and they all failed. Losers. 3. If a defense swarms a post player, rendering him ineffective (in that there is little safety in passing it to him), who is responsible for trying to get around it? The coach (adjust offensive sets)? The post player (read defenses better, adjust, fight, etc)? The PG and SG (make precision passing)? Iraqi drones (fly in and nerve gass the defense)? Now, if one or two or three of the above are not fully in sync will one adjusting make much of a difference? What about two? What about three? How quickly can such adjustments be expected to become routine for all involved? How much off-season time and how much in-season, on the fly, time? Thesis: Francis and Mobley Antithesis: Yao Synthesis: Cohesive, balanced offense If a + b = c, then will it be tomorrow?
Look, if I am the opposing coach I would be stupid not to play the type of defense employed by Miami, Boston, and Dallas. Just double yao down low and leave jp and/or eggie open. Would they rather have yao beat them with high % shots close in around the basket or beat by open mid range jumper for jp or eggie?
Actually, that really just depends on the team. As heyp pointed out, the type of defense Boston employed is very risky. It leaves all kinds of things open and places a tremendous emphasis on one player. In addition, you really have to have big, strong guys in the post to pull it off. Miami and Boston are examples of the kind of bruising interior players needed to make that defense happen. Lastly, you really have to have a pretty cohesive defensive scheme to be able to do what they did. Much like the Sonics in the early and mid 90's, the Celtics personnel and defensive tactics that are relatively unique. It would be tough for the majority of teams to play like this and get away with it. Also, in about 2 years, no one in the league will attempt it because Yao will be much stronger and the rest of the team will have seen it enough to know how to properly exploit it. As is, they've probably only seen this defense played a handful of times on the floor.
That's not true. Brian Grant played behind Yao Ming and shoved him out, off his block. Only when Yao successfully shielded Grant, would Grant swing around to the front, and that was because he had to. That is not what Boston did. Boston come out fronting and doubling off the bat. And Boston did this back in January, anyhow. We should see more fronting if people copied it, when in reality we are actually seeing less fronting that in Dec and Jan, ever since Rudy responded to the fronting with the double high post PnR. For some reason, I feel like I'm having deja vu from a conversation I had back in January.
Thank you for describing the gimmick defense that was "testing" Cuttino's shooting and our small forward. While you say you find it hard to believe we won't see this defense again, I find it hard to believe we won't crush this defense the more we see it. If we can't beat a team that is parking 3 guys around Yao Ming allowing skip passes from high wing to corner, or corner to high wing (which is a tell tale sign that you can get that zone moving), we are not a playoff team. Boston has a special collection of very fast defenders relative to their position. When you see one team do something, it does not mean each team would do it. Basically, Boston has to play that defense.
this is what Rudy said in the Boston Herald ``They had a guy in back, a guy in front,'' said Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich. ``We penetrated off that and got shots.''
I don't know why so many people here use ESPN as their back to bring their point across. If you are a real bball fan, you know those are made for the show, nothing more! The way I look at the Rockets season so far, they are a young team in the midst of changing their style, which is the only way most of them have known to play so far, shifting their guard oriented system to a center focused system, and the new focus is a rookie from a foreign land. All this combination means the inconsistency. Does anyone truly expect Francis to become a traditional PG with a pass first mentality all of a sudden, or do you really want him to? Francis & Mobley will continue to have the moments when they will ignore the open teammates, hog the ball with ISOs, and the other moments when they will be very patiently with the ball, let the plays come to them than the other way around. That's called the learning curve. Every young talented team has to go through this. The only complain I have is that they should have a veteran other than RICE in their starting lineup. The important thing is whether they have made any progress towards the ultimate betterness of the team OVER THE LONG RUN. Not just a couple games. So far, I think they have, just not fast enough for many of you.
I think it's obvious now that the thread-starter DID NOT SEE THE GAME. Wow. I watched the game and was so damn happy after the win. I turn on Sportscenter, and they come with some bull**** about Yao Ming not getting the ball? Huh? The guy could not get open. Period. The Rockets found the guys that were left open as a result, and they hit shots to win the game. That's what you're supposed to do. Man, what a downer to turn on Sportscenter and see that stupid crap, then pull up a b.s. thread like this. "You too can start a thread on the cc.net BBS...just watch Sportscenter and give us your comments..."
I KNOW. I agree with you freak. MAN. We won. They just make up crap. They always do this. They always humiliate people. But they just do it for fun. We attempted to get it to Yao. BUT IF THOSE STUPID ESPN guys actually watched the game, it was impossible. Tony Battie and two other guys surrounded him ALL THE TIME. We tried...really...they actually got it to him. THEY LOOKED every time to see if they could get it to him....but it was like IMPOSSIBLE. But we did good using him as a decoy. ESPN just makes up crap. I don't really care. Why do you even watch SportsCenter? It's long as hell and they show the Rockets like at the very end of the show. WE HAD A BUNCH OF GREAT PLAYS...even the Boston fans were cheering for our team!
hp - Agreed. There is really not a slow player amongst Pierce, Eric Williams, Walker and Wal-tah McCarty. I'm not saying they did it because I taped over the Miami game for obvious reasons but with Grant at the 5, Malik Allen, Eddie House and the Butlers would have the foot speed to pull it off. Further stating the obvious, it appears that most of the WC teams don't have the personnel to use this strategy successfully. Maybe it's more a thing for the EC teams to do.
Just to add my thoughts: I agree with both sides to some extent. I know that Boston made it harder to get Yao the ball and therefore our guards were pressed into taking more shots than our normal offense is "supposed" to allow. I also believe that Yao Ming is probably far more prepared to operate in a more complicated offense than most of his teammates. And I hold Rudy responsible for not working harder to implement some other "simple and basic" things for Yao, including using him for offense at the high post (for the exact same shot Bradley got in the Dallas game). This would also help open up other options on offense, for Yao and his teammates. I am willing to bet that if our guards continue to take a high number of shots every game for most of our remaining games that we will definitely miss the playoffs. Having said that, if they do take the shots and we do make the playoffs, I will immediately start a thread saying I was wrong!! Either way... Go Rox!!!!!!!!!!!
The defense on Yao was great... we need to find a way to overcome it though. We were down by 15 and made a great comeback, but we won't be able to always make a great comeback like this. My concern lies in the fact that we were down by 15 in the first place... if Yao wasn't getting the ball and we were up most of the game and had control of the game, then it would be a different story. But we were down by a lot and whatever we were doing was NOT working, and I don't always wanna depend on massive 4th quarter comebacks for our wins. In order to NOT be down by 15 in the first place, we need to figure out a means to get Yao the ball... it doesn't fall on just Mobley or Francis, but the entire team. Either that, or the team must better learn how to exploit the defense when they are super concentrated on Yao.
Yes, the D was tight on him, but a major reason why Yao got so few touches was because francis and mobley are only looking to pass inside as a secondary option and are missing the moment of opportunity when there is an opening. BTW, Piatkowski stands no chance of being resigned by the clips (nor does he want to stay). this guy would be a perfect fit with the ROX mid-level exempt this summer.
Francis and Mobley are not selfish. Far from it. But the problem is that they are too single-minded and don't have very good court sense. When they decide to shoot, they would shoot even there are teammates open. They are just like that.
