Does anyone else out there think that opposing teams are giving Yao too much respect? Yao hasn't often single-handedly burned teams who've played him 1 on 1. The Celtics strategy seemed excessive to me. I'm not exactly in the business of giving opposing teams tips on beating the Rox, but it seems like they would be much better off pushing Yao outside with 1 player and guarding Cat and Steve. I wonder if some of the opposing coaches are listening more to the newspaper hype on Yao than analyzing tape or scout sheets.
It is also true that teams bring their A+ effort to play the rockets. It's a similar mentality when teams play the lakers and the wizards. It's all about the spot light, the coverage and hype.
You can't respect the big fella too much. This league is filled with subpar C's and Yao one on one can pretty much out play any one not name Shaq or hacking him to death. That's why teams trys to gear their defenses towards him. When they do however, the Rox shouldn't listen to these idiot posters and try "force it" into Yao any ways. Pick and Roll is great but you know how much energy it exerts on Yao to either set or run behind a pick? And the lob pass isn't as easy in the NBA when guys have 30 inch veticles and explosiveness that's not see else where. Yao will be the center of the attention and the guards hopefully can stick it down the other team throats. What I'm hoping for is consistency and the improvement in Chemistry that comes with time.
Let's not forget that this strategy almost worked. The Rockets were down 15 with roughly 7 minutes to go. That was an incredible comeback...considering how many turnovers and offensive rebounds were given up. Great effort guys...good luck tonight.
The key is the teammates knowing when the shots should be for Yao, and when it's for them...sounds simple, but the chemistry should be getting better in that regard and in time...The only thing is the Rockets must be feeling a lot of pressure to hit on all cylinders now...People keep saying how this is a make or break year, when they truly deserve one more year no matter what happens this season...
I haven't watched many Rocket games this season. But if I have to pick some games where Yao "single-handedly" burned teams, I would pick the second game against Sonics (when Yao dominated the whole Sonics team defensively, remember one play where GP had to rush his lay-up and still got stuffed?) and the home game against Pacers (when Yao Ming dominated the whole Pacer team offensively in the fourth quater). I also believe that each and every NBA coach knows basketball better than all the cc.netters combined together. (sorry for all the experts here ) So I wouldn't say other teams give too much credit to Yao. Take last night's game as an example, Boston made it an out-side jumper competition which is their strength and they led by like 15 with about 6mins to go. Of course they lost the game, but you can't say they lost the game because they focused too much on Yao. Just my two cents. Shrimpie
Boston had one hell of strategy. Put it this way, in a series, Pierce won't usually struggle the way he did. Both our guards won't get so hot simultaneously that often. The zone and the fronting will still take our center away. Unless we learn how to play against zone, Boston will beat us 8 out of 10 times.
I think that is just the thing: he doesn't do it single-handedly, he's dangerous because he's a good passer. When he gets the ball in the low post, the defense is in a danger zone. He might score, he might pass to a cutter, he might kick it out: he has many good options available to him. You deny him the ball to keep from being put into that danger zone.
