Post-Game Analysis: Celtics 103, Rockets 99

but i am optimistic guys, t-mac played a pretty good game, he is on his way back (defense is a little shaky).

 

-What is up with Yao missing so many wide open dunks?
-AB should start
-Adelman shouldve taken Yao out, he was having a horrible game, he looked slow and was getting harassed by their forwards like I thought he would.
-I can't wait for Battier to come back, that was a great game, but when we're at 100% I think the result would've been different
-T-Mac had a decent game, took some bad shots in the fourth though.

 

I am a Chinese, after watching this game I have to admit once again Yao sucks when facing real challenge. Rockets should count on BIG two!

 

Hey guys, if you guys play basketball, you guys should know how it feels to lose your confidence. Nothing will go in if your out of sync!

 

Get a back-up for Yao and replace Rafer and the title is ours. It's that simple.

I am very impressed with T-Mac's free throw shooting, despite that important one in the end. I think him shooting 80-90% is here to stay. I am VERY impressed.

 

it's a tough game!! and yao's hook shot is in such a low rate.

 

it's a good thing we lost tonight because we learn from out mistakes and get better as a team. winning too early just gives you too much false hope.

 

3-1 is a good start especially when your 1 loss comes from the defending national champions. i really do think the substitution method in tonight's game is what lost it for us. i know some other fans have been calling for the Scola-Landry combo on the court together and i am too. i'm not blamin anything on Yao, he jus had a bad night...but when he's off like that why not jus take him out, rest him and let other guys go out and win it for us.

on other notes: very encouraging play from Artest and TMac. and those early phantom fouls on Yao and Landry are gonna hurt us if refs continue to do that

 

his man-to-man defense is shaky because of his bad wheel.

He's got good instincts though. Above average team defender with quick hands. If he wants to, he can be as good a defender as Battier. Let's not forget he was a defensive specialist in Toronto.

 

although they lost, they'll still play very well.

 

Lets hope Yao can tear Portland a new one.

 

Yao not playing well tonight is not a big deal, but Yao not playing well in big games is what the problem is. I mean cmmon man you miss one dunk like that and completely lose all confidence. Ron artest had a terrible shooting night, but still made his presence felt.

 

Instead of looking at the things that went wrong, let's take a look at the good things to come:

-Luis Scola: 9-15 FG, 9 Rebounds, 1 Steal; Very solid game for Luis. After struggling the first three games as well as preseason, Luis came up big tonight.

-Tracy McGrady: Shot 50%! 9-18 FG, 6 Assists, 2 Rebounds, 3 Steals; Great all around game. He made 7-8 FT, which is more than we expected from him, even if the one he did miss was the one down the stretch. There was also a brief period in the game when Tracy started attacking the basket, but Doc called a timeout to cool him down.

-Yao Ming: He may not have had the best statistical game, but after playing three solid games previously, he deserves more credit. He never gave up. I could not have been more impressed with his determination in the fourth when he dove on the ground to grab the ball from KG and spark the ensuing fast break giving the Rockets a shot at the game. So he may have shot poorly, so what. If we know Yao, we know he will be extremely dedicated to improving his game and coming out next time with passion and intensity. Hopefully this dedication lasts through the rest of this rough stretch of games.

-Aaron Brooks: 4-9 FG, 1 Assist, 1 Steal, 1 Rebound; another all around solid game for AB. I admire Adelman for using him for the first half of the fourth, but he really should have kept him in there for the rest of the game. Clyde pointed that out and asked the question if a coach should play his starters or the players that are playing well. Adelman seemed to have made the wrong choice.

-Chuck Hayes: Chucky did a phenomenal job on KG. Specifically, I remember a play when KG completely isolated Chuck and drove towards the basket. But Chuck was unrelenting and forced him to roll behind the basket and then stole the ball when he tried to pass out of it.

That's about all I got.

Yay Obama.

 

Huge rant, wrote it all out, just gonna post it this time and not delete it like I usually do.

I've calmed down from the initial frustration with Yao (I was screaming at the tv at the end).

But thinking big-picture, I think Yao needs to learn from these games. It's honestly not just this game, Yao has consistently shrunk against aggressive, physical defense (see Utah).

Yao has a tendency to put in just enough effort on each play to get the job done. That's the operative word for Yao, just enough. That's okay against regular season, average teams. When he puts up that hook shot, when he works for his shot, you rarely get the feeling that he is truly exerting himself out there.

Part of this is his conservation of stamina, and part of it is his slow and steady approach.

But the big games are won through fierce competition. Yao doesn't have that fighter's chip inside his brain that automatically turns on the do-or-die, fight or flight, only the strong survive mentality. Ron Artest has this, Tracy used to have this, but Yao has never truly shown this.

Yao needs to take a page from Carl Landry, from Ron Artest, and even Chuck Hayes. He needs to stop relying on others to step up for him, stop allowing others to abuse him and he needs to hit back and hit hard. He needs to rub off Josh Howard, he needs to block Deron Williams without a tooth, he needs to in a word, INSPIRE.

There are moments in a game when you watch and just know that the player you are watching is laying it all out there on the floor, blood sweat and tears, he is refusing to leave without making sure that he has done everything within his power to help his team win. This player will not be satisfied with anything less, because the stakes of that particular game are too great for there to be any less.

On the flipside, Yao is great at being a steady and consistent presence. He often speaks of Tim Duncan as an example to follow or measure himself against ("When we bumped each other, I recovered before him" or something like that). He shows this consistency often in situations where there is less pressure and intensity which is really a big reason for our great regular season success. But he needs to take a page out of Tim Duncan's book, and even a page out of his own book, the book that he wrote when he suited up for Shaq the first time. He needs to consider the center position as a personal battle. This is something that you always loved Hakeem for, you could tell that he prided himself in outplaying whoever was so unfortunate to be on the receiving end. Yao often does this when there is a focus around his matchup, aka Dwight Howard, Shaq, Amare, etc. Yao needs to stop thinking about anything more than outplaying his matchup. I'd love nothing more than for Yao to go out every night thinking nothing more than that he will dominate his opponent.

 

the disturbing thing is 3 of the 4 games, yao shoots 40% or lower. his one great game v. the mavs really skew his fg%. yao really needs to consistently shoots 55% if we want to go to another level (along with tracy shooting 45%).

we can't have yao shooting 40% in a lot of games (like he did v. utah in the playoffs 2 years ago).

 

Just got back...

GHARHGHGHSHFOSFJAL:SFHAOSFISAIFH

****

Yao really let me down tonight.

 

I total agree, especially when you know what you are capable of doing and you work so hard. Yao works so hard, but gets down on himself when things are not going well. Bad decision by coach RA not to take him out.

 

One bad game by Yao. Early foul trouble made him get lost in the defensive end. In the other end, he'd no answer to Celtics' physical play. Got blocked 1 or 2 layups which supposed to be easy baskets if he dunked.

Even Yao sucked, Rockets still got a chance. Tmac carried the team to a close fight with fxckng jumpers. Typical one man game in the last minute but failed eventually.

Good game by Scola and AB. Scola showed no fear to pumps and elbows. RA should let AB play more minutes since he's penetrating and hitting the 3s.

 

man i will loose sleep over this loss but anyway i guess we are better off the poor spurs 0,3 ill take 3 and 1 anyday good nighttt folks


go obama

 

Good thing is that T-mac's jumpers are finally falling. Hopefully he'll be 100% soon.