No more exclusion from punishment for Yao. Shaq had 4 fouls and Yao doesn't take over in the 2nd half. He gets shut down by a 40 year old with a gimpy knee who is 9 inches shorter than him. The rest of the team shows up to play going for a respectable 44% from the field including a triple double by the guy we love to bash, the Franchise. Come on Yao. The no-intensity statements made to the chronicle (http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76404), the lack of play when the game was handed to him on a silver platter, and you know what--I just won't baby him anymore. This is the PLAYOFFS. GROW SOME BALLS, YAO.
I was watching the game with about 10 random people, mostly Knicks fan. None of them were Rockets fans per se but they pretty much all rooted against the Lakers. It was really refreshing to hear some non-biased opinions on the Rockets. Every single one of the people think that Yao will be dominant in two years. A handful said top three in the league. One person said: "people need to realize this is still his second season, I mean what are they expecting? Him to outplay Shaq?" Yao did outplay Shaq today. Shaq could get NOTHING on Yao, Yao held his ground and kept Shaq outside his range. Part of it was due to the foul trouble, but part of it was due to the defense. Yao's jumper wasn't falling today. When Karl Malone guarded him, he was basically punching and mugging Yao, denying the ball. That's hard to fight against. When someone as experienced as Malone goes out there and has one purpose in life which is to deny you the ball. You have to have played basketball to know that. "Yao was handed the game on a silver platter..." blah blah blah... so you think he should have scored 15 more points when Shaq was out right? Hey guess what if he did that we still would have lost. The Laker were just plainly better today, Payton did nothing, Shaq did nothing, and they still won. I'm not a Yao apologist. I'm very hard on him when he stinks it up, you can ask my girlfriend the amount of obscenities that get thrown around after games like that Golden State game at the end of the season. But you know what, Yao banged with Shaq heavy minutes tonight, won the defensive matchup. With the amount of fatigue that must cause maybe that's why the jumpers aren't falling. A second year player outplays Shaq, limiting him to a career playoff low, and you want him to grow some balls. I just don't get it. If you are expecting Yao to dominate Shaq... then I'm sorry that's not gonna happen.
More poinently, what happened to the double team on Kobe? The Rocks let him and a few scrubs torch them tonight, their defense was terrible...too many open shots for the Lakers. DD
Now I starting to realize Rockets fans are the worst fans in NBA. Players got blamed so hard after each game as if they should go undefeated to NBA championship. First Steve, now Yao. What did you expect from Yao? Is neutralizing Shaq enough for you? Yao did more than that tonight and still got dissed so hard. Let's face it, Lakers just have much more talent than Rockets, Rox might steal a game or two if Lakers play poorly. Tonight Lakerts played too good for Rox to have a chance in the 2nd half. Stop winning please.
Absolut_RoxFan, You are right. As more time goes by, Yao will receive more and more of the criticism. He has to become stronger and more aggressive. No doubt about that. Now, this is separate from deciding what players will be playing with him next year. Because the fact of the matter is that we still need players that play well together regardless. Sloppy ball and bad outside shooting will never cut it.
Lets reduce his playing time and let shaq return to playoff form! Seriously its not like Yao is going to dominate against shaq in the playoffs. He still does his stupid-ass bringing down the bal and getting striped, but yao scoring 21pts while shaq is held to 7. I would take that any day of the week. Yao getting only 4 rebounds, Its not like that we were horribly out rebounded. Im not saying Yao played great, still brings down the ball too much, but well enough for us to win. What lost us the game; Mobleys loss of focus with that dumbass foul at the end of the quarter and these stats 19-30 and 23-27, we actually got more freethrows then the lakers but only managed to hit 63% of them
It seemed to me that Mobley really made Kobe work to get his shots. Nobody is really going to be able to keep Kobe from scoring. As far as Fisher and Rush going off, we all know that in the past great teams can inspire "scrubs" to play that much harder.
Absolutely! That's bad technique. He does that because it's easier for him to jump by dropping his hands down and then going up... This is a problem with his explosiveness (or lack thereof) in his legs and weak shoulders. Keeping the ball above your head and then jumping takes more out of you. But he does not do this. This is a very bad habit and bad technique. Yao must get stronger or he'll always do this.
He can do what you want only if he can dribble inside by himself and does no need any entry pass. You guys doubt the courage of the man who limited most dominating center's score to 7 and put him in foul trouble. Isn't it more possible that the offensive strategy was made by JVG or guards who have done this for a season?
First of all, your nick name is somehow suspicious I just said yesterday, that some of the posters started with a disclaimer as long time diehard true Rockets fans, then started to bash our players be SF, Yao, Cat, JJ or anyone. Maybe this is just a coincidence. But I don't see logic in this thread. Shaq was in foul touble, not because he hit the refs, but because the ball was going to Yao early, and Yao kept attacking him. Therefore, I would assume that Yao did some good things, and showed some balls there. Yao's shooting touch is off, with Shaq on the bench, he should have taken more advantage of the situation. That being said, the game was not handed to him in a silver platte. Shaq's career low was due to Yao's defense and attacking offense. Just imagine, in game 1, if Yao kept Shaq at 7 points, would we have won the game, would you have asked him to grow balls? Malone played great, so did Kobe, and their role players intensity and willing killed us today.
Shaq's sleep walked through both games and given yao every oppurtunity to put up some great number but he has not. Shaq is limiting Shaq, get real about that.
I wouldn't say Yao has really held Shaq, he's just been less involved in the offense. I was really disappointed in Yao tonight, even when he was scoring in the first half he was still playing timid, and when we needed him in the second half he wasn't there. I blame the loss more on JVG than I do Yao, but he really does need to grow some balls.
Shaq certainly has made his point known here and there on D but he is saving himself still and we are not taking advantage of it.
Do you really believe shaq is not trying out on the court. He maybe isnt the player he use to be, but he is still able to dominate. Do you guys think if shaq said to his teamates, give me the damn ball, theyd just ignore him. What I see is yao and the rockets playing great defense against shaq. 4 rebounds in 40 minutes? Look at the rest of the Box score, and see if his rebounding lost us the game. We only gave up 7 offensive boards and were only out rebounded by two. Both Teams shot a significantly higher percentage this game which means less rebounds to go around. Lets face it yao isnt a great rebounder but a sufficient one, he doesnt have great hands that can suck balls out of the air and he doesnt have the athletisim or stregnth that will allow him to relentlessly go after the ball.
Great. Yao should be punished. The best punishment is to ship the guy to NYC or LA. Let's all call the owner: Yao is why the Rox lost two road playoff games and needs to be punished. We need to work hard to make sure that sending Yao out of town would be the best for this team to win, uh, a playoff game ... Heck, without Yao this team would win 17 in a row in the playoffs.
