great post thank you for taking the time to do that. we need more threads like this one as opposed to the kneejerk reaction threads
And how would Yao establish position when Pau is already on his shoulder? Yao's not capable of moving him, so he'd have to literally step in front of Pau, which would have out him too close to the 3 point line. That far out Yao cant back him down. I'll agree with Brooks being better off swinging the ball round, but waiting wasn't going to improve Yao's position. I can also agree that Brooks is inexperienced, but like i said before, Houston can't afford to go to Yao only when the defense allows Yao to position himself. Yao has to TAKE the position, otherwise he's not much of a #1 option. I also agree with that, but should we simply accept losing when theres poor shooting and Yao can't get position? Even with poor shooting, if yao could get position when he wanted it would could give us a chance, especially when the game is close if the other team is also having a bad shooting night. When teams usually battle it out like that, the team that comes out on top is usually whoever has the most solid go to guy. We shouldn't just settle for the loss. You're right on about Dream coming out further to get it, which is exactly why i thought about Dream. Earlier this season, i think it was around the time we played Washington (when Yao had that big slam on Javalee Mcgee), Yao was doing that same thing. He was very succesful at getting the ball in the post during that week. He'd call for it up and then jump out to get it, then he'd either shoot a jumper, or turn around and back the guy down. Of course if Yao is starting out almost close to the 3 point line, then jumping out to get the ball puts him too far out, but that goes back to Yao. If he settles down deep to begin with, then he can jump out to get the ball and still be within close range of the rim to shoot or make a move.
some number for thought for y'all "7 years" crowd: Code: 2005 Situation G Min M A Pct Reb TO PPG vs. LAL 2 36:23 11.5 21.0 54.8 14.5 2.5 23.5 2006 vs. LAL 3 41:23 11.7 24.0 48.6 10.3 5.0 33.3 2007 vs. LAL 2 38:36 7.5 17.0 44.1 12.5 2.5 25.5 2008 vs. LAL 3 31:48 7.3 12.7 57.9 10.3 3.7 15.7 Guess who he is? what's the difference? and 08-09 splits
I'm trying to visualize it from Brooks point of view, but i'm not even sure it would have matter the way Gasol broke free. Now i dont even think the issue was the pass itself, it look like Gasol read Brooks, since Brooks take one long step before throwing his bounce passes, and times his lunge perfectly, but first he moved Yao out of the way....it still comes down to both Brooks and Yao being at fault i think. and thanks, i got lucky there were a lot of videos posted on youtube, i guess because it was a laker game, usually there arent many.
Good stuff, OP. Wish more people could respond like this with critical analysis to our loss, rather than creating knee-jerk threads calling for the team to the blown up or the coach to be canned
it's your subtle, category 3 thing going again. you are truly unique on this board. i'm amused as usual.
Force feed was not the problem. Artest deciding to be "kobe" was. He doesn't have that talent and should play within the team offense. If Artest played within his role last night like he have done the past few games before last night, we would have won. Artest trying to get to Kobe's head failed - he got to his own head. Hopefully he KNOW and learn from this.
Yao have always said T-Mac is the best passing him the ball. Rafer was good but nobody respect his shoot, so they back up and play the passing lane. Battier is a good one (he don't bounce pass) but Kobe was all over him every time he try to entry pass(kobe knows he wont get call for a foul), Kobe force him into some bad angles and blur his vision and did not make it easy at all. I don't want Ron to try the entry pass because if he don't see the angle instead of swinging the ball around or try a little better he lower his head and try to go one on one.
