[nba.com postgame interview] Yao himself admits he needs more touches

if he could not establish the position and keep his man off then that would be a joke for him to get more touches...

 

i dont think anyone would say he doesnt need touches...but if he's being doubled then his teammates have to step up, which they have been, so it's not as crucial as people think.

If the rockets got the all to yao the times hes just fronted and not doubled, he'd still probably only average like 15 pts a game. the important part is what happens around him.

 

Can he hold his position over two player????

Houston did what they need to do, our PF kill them big time and the penetration got tons of FT.

Portland overplay and Houston make them pay. Remember Houston lead all the way and got a 14 pt lead late in the 3rd.

But yes he was open a few time and Rox fail to pass him the ball, but overall we make them pay, and he should have go to the line a few more times, especially in the play in the middle of the pain where he got hammer right under the basket.

 

can't agree more. and that's what they've done quite good tonight...Emm, most of the night

 

I just think the Rockets are not aware that Yao is opened or late passing him the ball when he's opened. He's not going to be open for long...only like a split seconds, that's when you should pass the ball. I just think the Rockets are making it hard to get Yao the ball. Why not dribble RIGHT TO YAO and give the ball to him that way or pass him without screening initially when he's post up on the initial side??...do something different...other than just the routine screening man at the post to free him up. Why not surprise your opponent with entry pass to Yao while he's cutting across the paint?? There are a lot of ways to run play for Yao than just fronting.

If your team's strength continue to be handicapped by your opponents...your future is pretty bleak because you can't continue to rely on your bench to bail you out.

 

half of you still watch the game on text play-by-play's?

i can count at least 5-6 times yao sealed his man behind him, in good scoring position, could/should have got the ball but didn't. adelman saw this too in the press conf. as well.

(and another bball 101 for the uneducated fans - no one can seal his man forever.)

 

I think Yao is losing his comfidence right now and he will probably play worse and worse if a center lose his self-confidence.
We dont need Yao play defence which he wont be good at like Howard forever.

Yao said yesterday, "Oden will be better than Howard in one or two yrs." So, should the Rox trade Yao for Oden? Or maybe Bynum the-next-Shaq officially?

 

Agreed!

 

Exactly, I thought i was the only one who saw it

 

and this is going to be a lose-lose situations when dealing with some fans and the media....even adelman talked about this when he was asked about yao again only having so many shots...he said so what, that's how portland played to leave scola/landry open and put two guys on Yao, so if scola and landry come through, which is what theyre suppose to do and we win, then what's the problem? Everyone is focused on yao's attempts and immediately see it as a negative if he's not getting a lot, but its only a negative if you dont make up for it.

All teams have this happen at some point, their go to guy gets doubled and the other guys have to come through. The difference is Yao is seen as somewhat unstoppable, so they do it more consistently to Houston.

If the rockets doubled kobe, and he shot like 4 of 5, but the rest of the lakers played well and won, what would be said? "Oh the lakers are great, their main guy gets shut down AND they still find a way to win, thats the sign of a contender...what happens if yao gets shut down and the rockets still find a way to win? "oh whats wrong with this team they have a real problem here".


Once again, its only seen this way for houston because its done more consistently to us than anyone else. I bet you if opponents did the same exact thing to TD, and TD all of a sudden was putting up 2 of 4, 3 of 6, etc for a few games, the media and some fans would start saying he's lost it and isn't that good anymore, even if the spurs were winning.

 

yes i saw that too. he had his man pinned at the top of key numerous time in today's game but our guards are horrible passers(brooks, lowry, artest). Either they did not see him or they just plain ignored yao. i hope it not the latter.

 

how could yao be any worse then scoring 7pts? it only goes up from here.

and, yao is a smart player; but his comment about oden and dh was way off. i say oden will be as good as dh12 in at least 3 more years - if the refs don't let him foul out in 15 minutes each game, and if he doesn't break another bone.

 

I agreed that in the 1st half YAO did hold the position for couple times and the ball just went to the weak side. that's why we need our Guards to be more patient.

but YAO still need to do a better work on keep his man off and hold on his position in low post...

 

what my feeling tell me is that someone in this team was just forcing Yao to leave this team

 

yao is pretty good playing the decoy role, but yeah he needs to score more in the longer term

 

I don't think that is the case. But, I do think some players don't really care whether they can pass the 1st round. For them, the most important thing is their own stats. They want to make their fame in this playoffs. In other words, they are using Yao!

 

Lost in all of that is a few things. WE actually lost game two. We all but blew game three, and for the most part, the Rox Win Big time with Yao getting 20 to 25 ppg, and we lose alot more when he doesn't.

So throw all those quotes and so called basketball knowlege to the wayside.

Your comparisons are useless. Lets put it into a more accurate perspective. If TD shot 2 of 4 and the Spurs consistantly lost games this way, then its not right.

 

We BARELY lost game two. We had that game. We didnt lose because of the issue with yao, we lost because we couldnt hit FTs and we were outrebounded, which of course was due to deke's injury and they didnt make an effort to rebound as a whole better to fix that. tonight was almost a replica of that game, but we hit FTS and we outrebounded them pretty well, and AGAIN Yao's issue was present. It comes down to how everyone around yao responds, period. We could win the rest of this series like this. Now i understand that the role guys havent been consistent like this in the regular season and THAT was why Yao being fronted was such a problem He got taken out AND the role guys failed for the most part. So everyone said oh it's on Yao to step up (in reality they could have also said it's on the role players to step up), now same thing is happening, but the role guys are coming through, afterall that is the mark of a legit playoff team, you need the other guys to step up,they're doing it now, is it likely that they'll keep it up every single game? Maybe not. Is it possible for them to keep it up enough to win the series? I think so.

 

I wish I can control AB like I was playing NBA2K9 so I can just pass the ball the Yao AT THE RIGHT TIME.