illegal defense is illegal defense. it has nothing to do with fans. it was the written rule. just like zone defense, it was not allowed. you can double team a player after he gets the ball but not before he gets the ball. i don't know how you can argue about it. i don't need to watch those games again to validate my points. recently nba changed a few rules to make post plays tough for centers. please understand the bball, its history, and its rules before you argue.
I think the real key now is going to be Brooks. Brooks and Yao on the floor at the same time, they try to double and front Yao, Brooks is going to absolutely destroy them with penetrations and layps, dishes, and stop-n-pops. As Brooks goes in this game, so go the Rox. Just like I thought RA pulled a fast one on the Blazers in Game 1, knowing all along that all they needed to do was get Portland to focus solely on stopping Yao, Brooks and Scola and heck, even Battier, would eat them alive. It was a sucker punch, pure and simple. And it was made possible by Yao's ability to do whatever he wanted, with the Blazers helpless to stop him. Essentially, Yao did not even play in the 2nd half at all, but the damage was already done. And now, all anyone has been talking about is how perfect Yao was in game 1, and all the Blazers have been talking about is 'We have to change what we do to stop Yao' nonstop. Yes, they need to stop Yao, but this game is going to be like holding a mirror up to the first game. In the first half, the Blazers will sell out to stop Yao, and Brooks, Scola and Artest are going to puree them. Yao will probably be relatively quiet in the first half. And then, in the second half, when Portland makes their halftime adjustments to try to stop what was working in the first half, once again, RA is going to have them looking one way and the dagger will come from the opposite direction. Yao will take over, especially in the 4th quarter. We may not win by 27 again, but I won't be surprised to see it up around 20 at the end, as we break their backs late and stretch it out. Maybe getting ahead of myself, but I am hoping that the j*zz do what they do and beat the hell out of the Lakers, and stretch it out to maybe 5, 6 games. 7 games would be wonderful.
The guy is right -- Seattle used to have a rover like Nate McMillen or Ricky Pierce in the paint that would cheat on Hakeem's backside and them front him with Ervin Johnson or Perkins. They would go back and forth pretending to guard Hakeem and whomever there man was, but usually they were just playing illegal defense. But it was rarely called, and back then you got one warning for illegal defense until you started shooting technicals, so refs were more hesitant to call it a second time. That and the way they would foul Hakeem incessantly led to their success against Houston until a second dominant post player was acquired. Just because it was a rule doesn't mean it was called.
this is my last response to this topic. if refs didn't call illegal defense, there would be tons of teams to do this all years. why was only supersonics success?
You must not have watched those games. Karl was the only coach who simply decided to ignore the rules, because he knew his team could never beat Olajuwon and the Rockets if he played strictly within the rules. The Sonics were called for illegal d a lot, but probably only 10% of the time they were actually DOING it. Karl knew this, statistically-speaking, and felt the benefit was worth the cost. Can't argue with him - he was always one of our worst matchups, which is why we were so glad in 94 that the Sonics got knocked out in the first round, which left us with clear sailing to the finals.
In the begining of JVG time, Rockets don't have money to bring in talents. These bunch of olds are cheap. Thanks for the management to give big money Cato etc.
It was kinda similar to how the Jazz play where they will foul you and foul you and foul you and eventually the Refs stop calling it. Only the very blatant fouls are called on Utah. Same way with Seattle. They would get at least one illegal D very early on in the 1st quarter. Sometimes they would get the 2nd one later in the quarter. Rarely there would be a 3rd sometime in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. Almost never was there one called in the 4th.
That is exactly right. Which is also why whenever I hear people talking about how 'great' a coach Sloan is, it just shows how ready people are to repeat what they hear other people say. Sloan's teams have always played like thugs because that is how he coaches them to play. There is a reason he will never win CotY, and why he will never win an NBA ring. same deal with Karl.
It is hard to front someone who is strong and quick. You never front a Shaq or a Karl Malone... that's an easy two for those players. Yao is strong but not quick enough. I remember Hakeem as one of the players who will burn you if you fronted him. The common defense on dream was quick double team and force the baseline fade which btw, he developed a shot for. If Yao is fronted, forced penetration or pnr are the common counters the Rockets have ran. I'm looking forward to the fronting and see what the Rockets will do tonight.
i had moved to College Station since 1993. what do you think what i was doing during 5 years over there? prolly, you can help me to bring my joyful memory back.
