Wait, are we talking about game 1 or 2? Yao's defense was so useless against Boozer that I thought Carlos uttered the words," Yao b**** man, that's how I keep my pimp hand strong," during the game.
No, in the last he made Boozer work for he's shots. thats all you can do. boozer just made some very, very tough shots. i cant fault yao. application was there. i doubt boozer can maintain that kind of level of play for the duration of this Series.
On the stat sheet maybe... Yao's defense on Boozer was adequate, and bordering on "pretty good." It wasn't smothering defense, but Yao's never been a smothering defender. There's only so much you can do when a guy's hot. Boozer was playing very well and hitting some difficult shots tonight.
There's no two ways about it...Yao has not look good in either games. If we are lucky enough to get to the next round, I hope his shot and weak plays recover.
wow, who was in there when the rox got the lead up to 14? Yao hasn't been spectacular, but rockets haven't looked to nervous these past 2 games with him playing the way he has. he will only play better
yea man after that inbound pass that we was smothered.. he was fouled for sure there, and was bleeding cause of it
That McGrady pass to Yao for the dunk reminded me of that similar play between Shaq and Kobe during the Western Conference finals a few years ago.
While I agree with the fact that Yao was smothered constantly, they weren't blatantly whacking him (and were called fouls when they did). In the playoffs that's, pretty much the level of physicality you would expect from the inside. But you have to admit that the Rockets got some calls tonight. Rafer's knocking the ball "off of Deron's knee", Yao's jump shot that was "fouled by Harpring". A couple of T-Mac's freethrows coming from jump shots with minimal contact. But what really has me excited was what they didn't call. A couple of plays on the offense and defense where Yao or Hayes could've being called for over the back for the rebound, numerous drives by Utah where there was some contact by either Yao or another players inside were not called. This typically how playoff basketball are called, with a very small amount of ticky tack fouls in the low post. What makes it good was that Yao got to be physical back, expecially on the contesting of several layups in the second half. But the key is his attitude, he's now gonna let ref know when he feel it was unfair. Give it a couple of years, they'll come around.
I would give the Chuckster co-player of the game for tonight game with 12 points and 12 rebound most of them are offensive rebounds.
yao definitely could be attacking much quicker and more aggressive, but hes still playing very good right now. He just needs to shoot faster after the pass, o/w the defender cant start to predict his movements, ie kirilenko block and poke checks
