The perfect game 1 from Yao, followed by a poor game 2. Different series, same pattern. (Both game 2's were officiated by Crawford, if that matters). I think the offensive fouls called Yao took a lot of agressiveness out of Yao, but the Rockets got to have the guts to make an entry pass. I would rather to see a Yao turnover than a Brooks dribbling, dribbling, dribbling more, and then a turnover. We haven't seen Yao getting 5-6 turnovers a game, which means we are making enough entry passes. Found a nice piece from Behind the Box Score, which says what I wanted to say. Link at bottom. "The turning point, to me, came at about the seven minute mark of the third quarter. The Rockets hadn't given Yao Ming(notes) a touch in ages (one shot in the ballgame at that point), and you just knew that if the Rockets didn't get a good look (in the midst of a 7-0 Lakers run), the Lakers could break it wide open. The ball went into Ming, he passed out to get a better re-post, and neither Aaron Brooks(notes) nor Shane Battier wanted to pull the trigger on another entry pass. In that instance, you can't be afraid to fail. Forcing a lob is not as safe as ignoring Yao to dribble into the paint to take a shot of your own, but the upside is so much higher if you try to toss the rock to the 7-6 guy with skills. And it's been Houston's crippling inability to do that, for years, that has kept them out of the second round. And if they don't find a way to get back to finding Yao, they haven't a chance in hell at the third round. Or even six games in this round. Time and time again in the second half the Rockets failed to make an entry pass. Sure, they're afraid of turning it over, so they responded by dribbling a ton and ... turning it over. Eight fourth quarter turnovers. 19 all day. 21 percent of the team's possessions ended in a miscue, which fed Los Angeles' transition attack, to say nothing of the scads of matchup issues that followed in the half court when the Rockets had to try to find their man on the fly. This team has some real heavy, internal analysis to take in. It really has to look itself in the mirror and decide if it wants to be plucky overachievers, or a team worth reckoning with. I don't care if Houston took Game 1 from the Lakers, we know Los Angeles hadn't played for a week, and that's one game in six this season that Houston has won. And they won the game with Ron Artest(notes) hitting a series of bad, lucky, perimeter shots. And what else? They won with Yao Ming getting the ball, and Yao Ming shooting the ball. That's the ticket to the next round. And if you don't have the guts to fire an entry pass that isn't anything less than a 100 percent certitude to get to the big man, than you don't deserve to move on. Simple as that. Find your go-to man, or go home." Link
