so we may not able to go as far as we'd like in the playoffs. dah. they need to at least partially solve this in the next 10 days. tall order, i know.
Still shaky pg play. Once again, why did Adelman not put in his best FT shooters in the last minute or so when the Trailblazers were going to foul quickly? Good game but the Rockets inferiority to the top teams in the NBA is still very obvious.
Did you ever notice the pass from Battier to Yao when he is fronted? That pass leads to a defensive foul and 2 free throw
With Yao the pass has to be perfect. I remember one lob pass over his head that wasn't right on the money that resulted in a TO, someone that was a little quicker and could leap could have gotten that ball and scored but with Yao it results in a TO. The lob pass with Yao going to the basket still has a place because I don't think it's that hard to make a perfect pass.
i was talking about we had chances to lob the ball to battier in the first half and we didn't. battier even got an offensive foul on one possession. and if the lob to yao HAS to be perfect, then they HAVE to make it perfect. practice it, repeat it. we will benefit tremendously if they perfect that pass.
you make it sound like passing to yao perfectly in the palm of his hand is doable. if it was perfectable, we would have perfected it by now. the fact is its an extremely risky play. shaq has a better chance of hitting 3 pointers than yao does of catching entry passes while being fronted.
High risk high reward move, I'd rather somebody launch a shot and let Yao go for the rebound in this case.
how do you know that? how many lobs have we seen in yao's 7 year here? and your "if it's doable, they'd have done it" logic doesn't fit the reality of the nba. listen to adelman after the game tonight. he said they've "talked about" how to counter the fronting many times and guys were still at the wrong spots. it takes practice, repetition and dedication.
they don't have to lob it every single time. just keep it as one of the options, like what battier did tonight. and i agree with you - if the guy defending our passer is too far (being too close to yao), then the passer needs to shoot the ball. we've actually had success with that, too.
ron artest needs to learn to give up the ball sometimes knowing that it can still come back to him. Scola is getting better and better and Yao is way better now in terms of staying out of foul trouble as compared to his previous years. Every offense should involve these 2 dudes and cant wait to have landry come back and contribute right off the bench. Good defense by hayes too but 9 points and 1/2 on FT
great win... riding on my 2 game winning streak..i think we're going to beast against orlando... and von is a beast too...i hope he stays...
i think the problem with the lob, and i forgot to mention this when i wrote about here earlier, Yao often catches the lob while facing the entry passer, then as he's turning he's also bringing the ball down and most of the time the defender is right behind him, that means Yao is bringing the ball down and putting it in the defender's chest, where he can tie him up. That happens fairly often as well. He needs to keep to tuck the ball in, to the side, or keep it high until he's got a clear view of that defender.
you really need to take my quote off your sig, you're taking it out of context to make my statement look as ridiculous as the statement you made back then, which is what I was poking fun at with my statement...
fronting has 2 major bad influence for the defender: 1. open the inner paint for fast breakers. 2. bad position for rebs. so there’s just 2 basic sets of tactics to beat fronting. 1. the Wafer dunk kind of play tonight! Yao walled out the double team/ fronter when wafer rotated deep in for the dunk. the fronters shut themselves out. I wish this beautiful play tips RA and the whole team. 2. high arc jumpers. in is in. if missed, let the inner Yao try for offensive rebs. don't make it low arc and long reb. rox should make a million drills for there 2 sets of play. since everybody fronts Yao now.
agreed. that's probably the 2 easiest ones to practice on right now, since they don't have too much time left before the playoffs start.
There's a few problems with that though. Come playoff time, more than likely that will be a no call, and Yao did travel on the play, but they called someone for slapping his arm I believe. I worry about Yao catching the ball when being fronted and having a man waiting for him when he turns around, and him shuffling his feet when he does catch it to make a move. I agree with Bill a lot when he talks about just driving to the basket when they front. That'll make it one less big man defender to block the shot, and Yao will have good position for an offensive Rebound.
