I think every time I do this, I stretch the criteria for what goes in the compilation a bit further .These aren't strictly plays run for Yao, but rather any offensive plays where he was in some way "involved". That means he sets pick for a primary ball-handler, he drew the attention of defenders that created openings elsewhere, he took a shot, he got a touch in scoring position, he was in position in post but passed up for whatever reason, there was some opportunity for him to get the ball in scoring position, etc. In all, there are 54 clips in this compilation (had to split in two, since Youtube has a 10 minute limit), and most of them are not Yao touches in post. Hopefully it gives an idea of things we did well with him, and where we can or should improve. Also, sorry for the poor quality of the video. I think after some time, the HQ version will show up. <table><tr><td><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nsze4doO2OA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Nsze4doO2OA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></td><td><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1ww-8LA5z5w&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1ww-8LA5z5w&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></td></tr></table> As before, here is my description and some thoughts on the various clips in the compilation: Code: #1 Down screen for Battier .. score #2 Draws Scola's defender .. Scola misses jumper #3 They miss Yao flashing in the paint #4 Pass up Yao for open Scola .. he misses, but Yao tips it in #5 Again playing off Scola, this time he hits it #6 Maybe the best executing post up play for Yao; good look by Artest #7 Yao draws foul on baseline spin off left post #8 Yao briefly opened in post, they miss him #9 Yao briefly seals his man under the basket, but Brooks elects to drive and kick to Scola, who pump fakes and hits the scoop shot. They didn't get it to Yao, but his presence created that open lane. #10 This is a play where Ron is the first option curling around a Yao screen, and Yao is the second option if he can seal his man. Ron receives it from Battier but Portland defends it well and he can't get to the basket. It results in a contested 3 for Brooks. Battier can't score on the second chance. #11 Yao creates another open shot for Scola ... score #12 Yao sets screen for Ron, who drives to the left baseline and passes it back to Yao for the 20 footer. Miss. #13 Another front with Scola being left open, this time Oden gets called for the foul. #14 Again Brooks can't get Yao the ball when he momentarily seals his man in the paint. Deep post catches for Yao need to be exploited. #15 Yao is pushed pretty far out with Oden and Aldridge on him. Battier goes to the left corner and brings Roy with him, leaving only Blake to cover both Scola and Brooks. Artest makes the pass to Scola but Aldridge is able to recover. It goes to Brooks, who runs PnR with Scola, gets the switch, and then makes a great individual move to beat out the clock. One option I'd like to see here is for Scola to set a back pick on Blake, and Artest to throw the skip pass to Brooks on the right wing for the 3-pointer. #16 Battier finally enters the ball into Yao in the paint, Yao makes a nice move, but the ball is stripped (or he's fouled). Solid execution, though. #17 Battier elects to go to Scola instead of Yao who has a couple defenders around him deep on the left block. Scola misses. #18 It looks like the play is for Yao to set a cross screen for Scola under the basket, get Oden to switch out, and have Yao seal in the paint. But Scola falls down, and the play gets broken up. Fortunately, Aaron's able to create something off penetration, gets to the basket, and Yao is in position to get the offensive rebound. #19 Well run pick and roll between Brooks and Scola. Battier in the corner keeps Fernandez from helping, and Yao distracts Frye just long enough. #20 Floor spread, two defenders sitting in Yao's lap, and Brooks decides to take Blake one on one. Nice move. #21 Brooks chooses not to get the ball back to Yao for the pick and pop and takes a tough shot. #22 Yao gets called for hooking Oden's arm on left block. #23 Ugh ... terrible possession. Artest needs to know when to move the ball, and when to create something at the basket. Ordinarily you don't want him to be too shot happy, but here he was way too tentative. And Landry made a poor decision not taking the shots available to him. #24 Just a bad pass by Lowry ... what was Yao supposed to do with it that far from the basket? If Lowry had his dribble available, I'd like him to drive it there. #25 Rockets try to run the same play from before where Yao sets a cross screen for Scola ... this time he gets called for a moving screen. #26 Good idea by Artest looking for Yao underneath. Just a bad pass. #27 First time Yao got the ball in the post where he can back down his man and go one on one. His baseline turnaround on the right block misses. #28 Good look from Yao to the cutting Battier. Bad defense by Roy. #29 Yao gets the ball on the left block, and he missed an opportuntiy to turn into the paint. Gets the ball knocked away, but fortunately Scola gets the loose ball. #30 Yao gets in front of the basket, as Scola receives the ball up top. Scola chooses to drive in and hits the layup. No help from Aldridge, who's preoccupied with Yao. #31 Well, this is a situation where a more athletic center might call for an alley-oop. A normal high low feed from Scola looks dangerous with Oden getting in front of Yao. It ends up being a bricked jumper. Yao has good position for the offensive rebound, but the ball doesn't bounce his way. #32 Artest passes to Battier under the basket instead of Yao rolling to the bucket. Bad choice. #33 Scola misses Yao on the high low feed and reverses it. Yao cross the lane, gets it on the right block, and has his shot blocked by Outlaw from be- hind. #34 This was Artest saying to himself, "Ok, time to shoot this possession." It's a brick ... shooting going to his right isn't a great shot for him, right? #35 There are definitely opportunities here for Yao to get a deep post catch. If he gets in the paint with a defender on his back, he has to seal and call for it. Artest dribbles a lot, passes to Battier, and the Rockets get bailed out. #36 Artest travels. #38 Oden fouls. #38 (cont) Brooks made a great individual move, scoring on the drive. Roy is just standing there instead of helping. #39 Artest chooses to go one on one again, and its a missed layup. Somehow, I don't like the spacing on the floor when Artest and Landry have been in there with Yao. #40 Nice look to Artest from Battier. Artest dribbles out, and then bullies his way back to the basket. Somehow, he gets the score. #41 Ok, Yao is pushed out, but get him the ball, and then let him pass out and repost. Instead the ball goes to the other side and Battier needs to create something off the dribble. Just bad offense. #42 Yao fronted, Battier passes to Lowry up top who makes a terrific individual move on the drive against Oden. Oden moves his feet pretty well actually, but Lowry makes a great move. Pryzbilla can't help, because he wants to keep Yao away from the offensive glass. #43 Ok, this is a standard play the Rockets run, with Yao setting a screen for Battier who pops into the corner and becomes the designated entry passer. Roy cheat over the screen, and is able to prevent the pass to Battier. That option broken, Wafer elects to go one on one, and misses a jumper. When Roy cheats, Yao has an open path to the basket. Ideally, you'd like to throw an alley oop to your center there (something the Rockets did quite often way back when with Horry and Olajuwon). I guess that's not an option here. #44 Yao denied on the left block with the front, but ball reverses and he gets it on the right block. Misses the turnaround. Artest needs to recognize when the help is out of position, and get the ball into Yao on the first option. When there's no help, trust Yao will go get it. #45 Lowry can't get the ball into Yao, not a good angle. In that instance, I think he should look to Artest in the corner, if Roy denies that pass then Artest should cut baseline. With Yao's defender preoccupied on the front, Artest will should be open. Instead, the ball reverses to Battier on the weakside, and he's forced to create something off the dribble. He's able to get by Roy and kick it out, but misses the corner three at the end of the possession. #46 Just Lowry being Lowry. Barrels in off the screen from Yao, and draws the foul. I hope he continues to do this throughout the playoffs. #47 Yao finally was open on the left block with his man on his back, and he can't catch the entry pass from Battier. Turnover results in a transition 3 for Portland. #48 Lowry draws another foul. #49 Brooks in the right corner can't get the Yao to ball, he drives left and passes it out to Battier at the top, who hits a 28 footer. Huge shot. #50 Another great pass from Battier into Artest in the lane. If only the defense allowed Yao to get that sort of position. Artest should do that regularly when Roy is guarding him. Strength-wise, that's a huge mismatch in our favor. #51 Artest misses shot on the baseline. I don't really have a problem with that shot. Maybe he could have dribbled a bit further and found Aaron in the corner for the 3, or wait a bit for Yao rolling to the basket. But not the worst shot in the world in that situation. #52 Aldridge switches on to Brooks .. and Brooks misses the pull up jumper. A good shot for him, the way he's been shooting in this series. Yao taps it out and we get another chance. #53 High pick and roll with Brooks and Yao. Brooks chooses to drive to the basket instead of pass out to Yao for the long 2. Good or bad decision? #54 Another high pick and roll, this time Brooks waits for Yao to roll into the lane. He has him open in the post with Oden behind him, but drives instead and finds Scola for the elbow jumper. Scola hits perhaps the biggest shot in the game.
i dont know about a few of those. even taking into considerations your criterias, some of those dont look like they involve much of yao at all, other than him being on the floor.
Which ones? I kept it loose, because I didn't want to leave out plays in which some posters may feel he should have gotten the ball but didn't.
I watched a few of the plays where you say "they miss Yao." Let's start with the first one... Play #3. Roy is just waiting for Artest to throw the ball to Yao. That is a TO more than half of the time.
It's begining to get sickening with the poster's wanting Yao to touch the rock everytime. Yao is not a center you can get the ball to effectively when teams front, or double him without the ball. Portland is betting that Scola and Landry can't beat them. Period. I would do the same thing, take away your #1 scoring option and let u try to force it to him. You have to take what the defense is giving you. I would put Artest at the 4, Shane 3 and Wafer at 2, Brooks at 1, and Yao. Watch the lane open up and Artest go off on them. This would require Portland to play straight up against Yao and then he would get off.
That may be true. When I say "they missed Yao", most of the time I think it was only a brief moment at which they missed him, and if the pass isn't extremely-well timed and on target it's a likely turnover.
There is a 2nd and even 3rd defender a step away from Yao on pretty much every play where you say he's open. More than half of those plays likely end up as turnovers even with perfectly placed entry passes. The Blazers are atypically long and athletic. They are Laker-like in this respect. Throw a ball to Yao with Yao on the move and 1 or 2 help defenders an arm's length away from him and you probably don't even get a shot off on that possession. Unless Yao has CLEARLY established position down low without a help defender or two a step away from him before the pass, we are better off swinging the ball. There have probably been 2 or 3 possessions total in the last two games where we should have been able to hit Yao. The Blazers are putting all their focus into taking Yao out of the game. We need to make them pay elsewhere. Trying to force the ball to Yao in tight spaces will lose us games. See the Chicago game.
Ordinarily, I would agree with you Brooksball. I usually argue something similar after games. But upon reviewing the game, I just felt there were missed opportunities. Clip #32, I thought Artest had the size and the angle to get Yao the ball rolling to the basket, but instead he passes it under the basket to Battier. Expecting Battier to finish from that spot is low percentage, IMO. Yeah, there's a risk when you give it to Yao that he fumbles it or its poked away. But sometimes you take that risk when a better option isn't available. In clip #35, I thought Yao could have tried sealing his defender as he was crossing into the lane and called for it. When he gets it in the paint, I'll live with that. A turnover is a possibility, sure, but there's also a good chance he'll draw a foul or throw in a jump hook.
durvasa, I didn't mean to criticize you. That was one of the best posts I've ever seen around here. I'm just generally tired of all the ranting about Yao not getting the ball enough. There was definitely a play or two over the last couple of games where Yao has been briefly open but for the most part the Blazers have made the decision to take Yao out of the game on the offensive end, and that is something that any team can do if they commit enough of their defense to the cause. The Rockets have to make them pay for it and be able to beat them in other ways until the Blazers stop overcommitting to Yao. If the Rockets can't take advantage of the 4-on-3s, they aren't good enough to win this series and we need to start over next year. We've lost many games in recent years where we tried to force the ball to Yao late and couldn't generate offense in other ways, even when McGrady was healthy.
On #32, I agree Ron had a good opportunity to dump the ball to Yao. On #35, I saw Roy just waiting from the weakside for Brooks to throw it to Yao's outstretched left arm while Yao sealed his man in front of him. When the ball swung around, Roy was just waiting for the entry pass, similarly to clip #3. Those were both high TO risks, in my opinion. Beyond the traditional post-entry pass from one of the wings where Yao has already established position with his feet planted (as opposed to being on the move) and is single-covered with his man on his back, the only other highly effective play I've seen to get Yao good looks is where Yao kicks out of a double team after he's received the ball then quickly reposts with a quick pass right back to him. That was a really nice play that I don't remember seeing until halfway through this season.
Look guys, Great post Durvasa. I agree that the window of opportunity to pass to Yao is short and the level of difficulty of the pass is high. However, I think we still need to set up some kind of post presence to win these next two games. Portland is purposely making the entry pass tough to deter the Rockets from utilizing Yao, knowing that this tactic may not pay off in the first couple of games but will payoff for the series as the rest of his teammates begin to forget Yao's existence. No matter what kind of defense Portland throw at us we need to get Yao couple of touches here and there just to keep the Trailblazers honest and force them to leave either Scola or one of our shooters wide open. The last thing we want is for the Rockets to assume that the pass to Yao is impossible and ignore him for the rest of the series. This gives Portland the option of just guarding Yao straight up with JP or GO without having to give up open jump shots on the opposite side of Yao's posts.
Personally I think Yao was more "active" in this game than the last though there were a few things he could have done to get the ball a bit more. But let's be honest, the defense was giving them jumpers from Scola and Landry and lanes for the guards to drive into because they were worried about Yao. I think with a few more hits from the outside we can open everything back up again. Wafer especially needs to hit a couple of early ones outside in order to open up the inside. The key to getting Yao the ball on this defense is setting a screen for him down low HARD, so that he gets a step on his defender when he moves across the lane. They need to have Ron set some screens on Pryzbilla so that he can give Yao time to cross behind him. Swing the ball from AB to Shane in the corner there and that will help get Yao open. If it doesn't work the first time, swing it around again... have shane run the baseline (have ab and ron look for the lane) and get it to him on the opposite side. As much as we all love Yao he needs some help getting open when he's crossing the lane because he's just a step slower than Pryz or Oden. He's money when he gets it down low, we just have to help him do so... without losing our attack mode.
I really like the idea of having Ron set those screens. If Yao still can't get open, Ron might be able to seal right under the basket. I think we should take more advantage of Ron's physicality on offense than we do.
i agree and disagree on #32 i agree because given the pass eventually led to shane being in a low scoring position. I disagree because i think that had more to do with shane not going to the right spot. He's looking at shane before shane even gets there, ron sees it would be a great look so he's waiting, almost passes, you can tell by how he almost picked up his dribble, then waits until shane is closer, but shane doesn't curl inward under the rim he stays behind the backboard. That was the mistake. I dont think ron expected him to stay that far out and had already made up his mind to pass and had already started to pass it.
also, on plays where yao actually got the ball in the post in good position, it seemed like his moves where half-ass, like he just did it to do it, i didnt see the concentration he usually has. That can't happen. I get he's frustrated because they bypass him sometimes, but when he goes get those few opportunities he has to be ready and get the most out of it.
It almost seemed like they were more willing to concede his post ups on the right block than the left block. My guess is Yao isn't as efficient on the side, so his shot attempts weren't strong moves.
i like that line-up a lot.. i wonder why adelman isn't as innovative and quick with these type adjustments.. i'd also like to at least see lowry play with the starters instead of AB...
This thread is required reading for members like W22_STREAK before they start making threads on their own.
Great work Durvasa. I remember that early play, you could hear the crowd get a bit antsy when Yao didnt get the ball. That is a lot of plays that Yao was involved in. There was what, 2-3 legit opportunities that we missed him?? Now, we do have some debate with regards to the risk of those plays. But still, its not like the guards were simply ignoring a wide open Yao, like some posters would have you believe. Seems like most of the times they went away from him it was because they didnt want the offense to bog down.
