Point (Counter Point)...well taken

I'm not confusing guts, grit, and determination for sloppy out of control playground basketball. In addition to driving the lane getting to the basket and getting the foul, Steve regularly including in game 1 of the playoffs, leaps out of bounds trying to save a loose ball, will dive to the floor scrambling for looseballs, often going up against much bigger and stronger players like Karl Malone in game 1. Steve works hard in that way, and it is valuable to the team. Other things that Steve does can hurt the team.

 

Wow, now Stevie is an undersized "SF".....Just beause he is not Kidd/Nash, it doesn't mean his is no guard. Yao is not exactly Shaq/Hakeem, so he must be an oversized and slower small forward. I mean, where are the blocks, rebounds and dunks? Heck, everyone in our team could be classified as "SF" because none of them is the top player in their positions.

 

Francis is a great one on one player.

Unfortunatly, it takes a team to win the title.

Francis will NEVER lead a team to a title, and I will be happy when he is traded this offseason.

DD

 

In the famous words of Yoda and Mace Windu (at separate points in a not-too-great movie), "I agree."

(For example, Mace Windu says, "The Dark Lord of the Sith is right under our noses and we're the wisest MFs in the galaxy and don't even detect him. We suck." Yoda: "I agree.")

But I would like Steve to wake up long enough to quit turning the ball over.

 

Damn lack of edit.

It would be good to see Steve wake up and not turn the ball over and help us get some dignity in this series. Winning a couple games would be nice. We have China on our side in this series, and Lakers haytas. But there are more Steven Smiths (that is, I LOVE THE LAKERS) than Bill Lambiers (I HATE THE LAKERS) out there. Us against the world.

Bring it, Steve.

 

Obviously the turnovers at the start of the game hurt, but I don't understand the Francis-must-pass-more complaints on this game. Did you not see Francis repeatedly blow by Payton and get to the rim near the end of the game? He had me wishing we ran that same play all game. He'd have scored a ton from the FT line and gotten folks in foul trouble to boot. Who would have thought the Glove would become a defensive liability?

 

Having a PG who can shoot the 3 and protect the ball = 5 more wins automatically.

That is what I wish for..........

DD

 

If he is gong to drive to the hole, AND HE SHOULD, then he needs to shoot better than 5-8 at the Free throw line.

DD

 

That is the tragedy of Rox.

The person who lead the team is dumb, the person who should lead the team has no heart.

 

Actually, I think Yao is being respectfull that it is Steve's team, and believe that once Steve is gone, Yao will step up and take over the roll as the leader of the team.

His time has come, and he needs to sink or swim....

DD

 

I just finish watching the game..... true that Francis turns the ball over a little too many in the first quarter, but I think he is really nervous then..... look at how JJ try to calm him down...... PPL seems to forget one thing, it is Yao's first playoff appearance... it is Francis' first as well......

passing into the post? Can we first get Yao to go into the post first? I notice that Yao seems to be setting lots of picks and Cato posting up inside.... why not the other way round? True that u can draw Shaq out with Yao setting the pick, but wouldn't it be better to let cato set the pick and Francis driving in, if Shaq come over to help and he might draw a foul or SF can pass it off to Yao (which I think is way better than passing to cato off penetration....)

 

I don’t understand your comment. Are you are insinuating that the reason Francis has not performed well is because of the JVG system? JVG has been very open with how he wants Francis to play. JVG feels very strongly that his team goes inside first. Going inside first does not necessarily mean pass to Yao all the time, it also means that Steve can drive to the basket. If Steve does pass the ball to Yao, and Yao is double-teamed, Yao’s job is to find the open man. If the open man is Steve, Steve will get an easy shot. Unfortunately, Steve is not a good outside shooter.

The other bad thing that JVG wants his team to do is to only shoot high percentage shots. In other words, he does not want Steve taking the ball to the hole with 5 guys on him, like last year. He does not want Steve to shoot a three while being double-teamed.

We are not talking about rocket science here. We are not talking about a complicated offense like Sacramento or Utah has. We are talking about a very simple offensive game plan. JVG’s game plan is a to have a tenacious defense, and have a basic, simple, smart offense.

 

I don't think this is the case at all. Yao just doesn't seem like he is into the game, which is a sign of fatigue. It looks like the NBAs 82-game season is taking its toll on YM, and it doesn't help that he is fighting the leagues most dominant player in a 7 game series.

As much as I want Yao to step up and be the man on this team, I don't think he is ready mentally and physically. Whether you want to blame this on Steve or not, Yao isn't doing it.

I honestly think SF will be the x-factor in this series. His TOs were the only downpoint of the last game (1st playoff series=jitters) and we only lost by 1 point. Look for Stevie Franchise to take over.

 

I gave credit where it was due. He did step it up by taking it into the trees and making some difficult shots, however 95% of the time he is out of control and/or leaves himself with no other choice but to throw up a wild shot.

Forgive me if I am not impressed by him scrambling for looseballs, where a majority of the time he is responsible for turning over. I expect every player in the NBA to give that kind of effort every game.

 

so do I.. but I dont see any other players really scrambling for loose balls like SF3 does. Do you see Cat/ JJ/ Cato do it? I see Yao hit the floor for a loose ball on Fri.. so that makes 2 players.

J