Whatever. The only problem with Yao last night was that he got into early foul trouble. He played with 2 fouls in the 1st quarter. That will cause him to be less aggressive. Furthermore, when he comes out of the game becasue of foul troulbe, that disrupts the flow of the offense when he comes in. It's no longer dump the ball to Yao, it's move the ball around. If Yao stays out of foul trouble he is much more affective.
That has a lot to do with JVG's requirement I guess. Remember last season when Yao had a monster game offensively but we lost, JVG critized Yao's defense publicly.
Well, Yao will have to 1) take JVG's criticism in stride, knowing what type of coach JVG is, 2) learn that his focus of the game is a not fixation, but largely dependent on the flow of the game and the needs of the situation.
I have commented many times on Yao's early fouls. I think he should avoid all confrontations and contact defensively until the 2nd half. And he should never try to draw a charge on a perimeter penetrator; that is just stupid. The odds of him getting that call are 1 in 100. The rest of the time it's an And 1 the other way. The officials are simply not going to give a 7'6" monster that call. If some little guys gets loose in the lane in the 1st half, I think Yao should let him go and not risk a foul call. Keep the body away, get the hands up and look for the bball but stay away from any possible contact that could result in a whistle against. It will cost a few points in the first half, but we will more than make up for it by having Yao tear it up offensively. Honestly, in thinking about this issue, if I were Van Gundy, I would come out of the gates with the zone. Zone everything up. Make the other team shoot over it and deny as much dribble penetration as possible while protecting the foul count. Foul count for and against is such an important factor in winning bball games. If you can stay out of the bonus and keep your opponent in the bonus and get them in foul trouble, then they play more tentative and you can lay it all out there and become way more aggressive. If you read my posts from last year, I was saying the same thing about Yao. Avoid all contact early. Then later in the game you bring on the dogs defensively. One problem that I have seen with JVG teams is they notoriously come out of the gates slow, whether it is in a game or in a season. I think it is because they are trying so hard to work in all the intracy that JVG puts in defensively and it is just too much to do early in the season and early in games. We come out of the gates like we are trying to shut out the opponent instead of getting our rhythm and getting up and down the floor a few times to work out all the adrenalin rush. To me, the ideal scheme is kinda like a boa constrictor. You start off loose and easy, free flowing, maybe even giving the opponent certain things defensively. I cannot overemphasize how important it is to stay away from the bonus and away from foul trouble. Then as the game wears on, you crank up the heat. And come the 4th quarter, you challenge and choke off EVERYTHING. When we get into games where Yao goes into the 4th quarter with 2 or less fouls, it's almost an automatic win. I bet our winning percentage is over 90% in those situations. The officials are available before the game I believe in each team's locker room for a few moments giving instructions, I think. If I were JVG, and he may do this, but if I were him I would even tell the refs what my defensive strategy was. I'd tell them I'm going to open up in the zone and my guys are going to being playing very loose to begin with, that they have been instructed to avoid contact at all costs for at least the 1st quarter. It would just be a little bit of a psychological ploy to use on the refs so that on a close play early that maybe they did not see because they were out of position, they may not blow the whistle and assume contact occurred as they have a tendency to do so often when they are out of position. Or when the offensive player initiates contact by running into one of our defenders that is actually trying to get out of the way and avoid the contact, it should be an obvious offensive foul. We are good enough offensively this year to play this way and trade buckets early. And the games where our opponent opens up cold from the field would wind up blow outs and the games where we trade buckets early and hopefully rack up the foul count on them should flow in our favor in the 4th.
You are correct, and without Wells, a better PG, and a solution at PF, a more efficient TMac, and a more agressive Ming, they aren't. JVG is a real question for me, and last night was not the answer I was looking for. He needs to become much more creative and flexible. Sloan used three rookies and a monster named Boozer to abuse the Rockets. No Wells, no minutes for VSpan, no chance for Novak, few minutes for Hayes. Beats me.
JVG hates Zone by heart, he stated many times the Zone means inabilities to defend. He experiments with it but I don't think he will use it that much. I think we should
JVG was not at fault last night. Hey, 97 points used to be a big deal for the Rox not too long ago. Early foul calls did put a damper on us with Battier out for a long time and then Yao out for a long time. T-Mac shot 33%: not JVG's fault. Yao was wide open down low several times and Alston didn't pass to him. Not JVG's fault. Something like 67% FT shooting: not JVG's fault. The Rox were just a little frantic and out of sync. No sweat. Still a playoff team. And once they're in the playoffs, they'll be better than two years ago!
hmmmm, I think it's either u didn't watch the game, or u watched it and u used great sarcasm in your post..
Can't get too down on the 1st game. Face it. Boozer got hot, I mean hot!!! Some of those fade-away shots shouldn't go in and it did. It's like he couldn't miss if he tried. It happens. Didn't Sura once had a game like that. Didn't have another one though. As for Yao, he go into foul trouble. and Alston miss 6 shots in a roll before making a few. Novak got off 3 shots and only 12 for Yao. He did get fouled a lot so those are "shots" too. T-Mac is not "right" yet. Give this team some time to gel. No team wins 82 games. Besides, this is a road game and the other team shot lights out. These games happen. Now, if they beat the Mavs, will this BBS predict Championship again? Then doom the next time they lose? We are a bunch of Yo-Yos
abso-frikkin-lutely I dont visit other sports forums, so Im not sure if this bipolarism is normal...but I know it is FULL effect here. sirbaihu, nice first post please feel free to comment more often.
I watched the Spurs-Mavs game tonight; they both look like well-oiled machines. The Rockets are going to have to do alot of "jelling" before Saturday, or there is going to be alot of "yelling" on this forum. And how does San Antonio come up with players like Elson? He looked liked KG, Jr. tonight.
Positive: Rockets survive one NBA regular season game without season-wrecking injuries to either Yao or McGrady. 81 to go BABY!
There were some positives to take from this. I like how we competed till the end. Defensively we played decent after the 1st quarter, but what bothers me is we could never get a stop when we needed it. That's very uncharacteristic of this team. I still think we need help off the bench, even though I know Wells will cure a lot of that. I hope Head continues his strong play, and I'd like to know whassup with the backup 4 position. Also, Mutombo has regressed drastically. It's amazing how many balls he fumbles and how many easy layups he misses now. I would consider removing him from the rotation for the time being, and going with Howard and Hayes as the backup frontcourt. Atleast Howard will give you scoring punch. I also think Snyder would work much better off the bench. Him and Head as the second unit sparkplugs would be explosive, and I want to see Battier back at his natural 3 position. Meaning, start Howard. His defensive lapses can now be masked with Battier as a rover of sorts.
The positive is that there is a lot of potential since they were playing at only 50% of their capability level...unlike last year, even they played at their best, they still can not match up the elite teams of the league. We definately have enough talents this year!
Another positive thing I found about this game was the MM chemistry. See, people b!tch all the time about there is 'no chemistry' between MM whatsoever. I beg to disagree. If know a little math as I do, Yao shot at 8/12 which was 67% while Tracy shot 8/24 which reflected a percentage of 33. So if you add these number together, you will get a 100% shooting percentage killer combination. OMG! I can't wait to see what happen next! Bring it on, MAVS!!
Well, one of the elements of good coaching is keeping the good and fixing whatever went bad. Players can't do that, they just have to give their all and play. It's up to JVG to make the disbelievers stop. Fingers crossed for a healthy team ofcourse. Players do get better when they have more games in their feet.
we had 5 player score in double digits and 19 assists not bad. 45% on 3 pointers. Just need to work on the defense and the free throwing. Should be correctable.
