I think today we saw the beginning of the end of Shaq's dominance. I really do think that Yao has got into Shaq's head too. Shaq did redeem himself by blocking Yao 4 times though, so it can't be said Yao dominated him. However, when is the last time a center outplayed Shaq? Hakeem? If Yao would bulldoze Shaq right back and dunk over his head which we know he can if he really tried, I think Shaq would retire soon thereafter Yao reaches his peak of confidence.
Didn't Shaq have some kind of "MDE" - most dominant ever comment after their first meeting? Can we now say: "Yao Ming, M.D." - most dominant? Yao looked great last night. I liked that he kept going at him. Yao started like 2-6 or something, and Shaq had a big block on him late in the first half, but Yao responded. He didn't shy away, he stayed aggressive. Hopefully, this is a truning point for the whole team. Guys (Francis, Mobley) have to now see him as the legit #1 option after going toe to toe with Shaq.
Yao Ming's really impressed me with his ability to go against, defensively and offensively, with a range of players this year. Last year... I admit it, I started thinking that Yao's only capable of matching up against "traditional" centers. I'm talkin' about guys like Mutombo, Divac, Nasterovic, Wallace... guys who stand tall, play in the post with their back to the basket, aren't especially fast/big or anything. But over the past month, I've been impressed. I've seen Yao matched up against Garnett, Duncan, and now Shaq on defense and on offense... and he has definitely held his own. A great sign, considering it's only his second year in the season.
Actually, he had 10 blocks in a recent game, which is not too shabby. I wish we could have had him AND Yao Ming . Coulda woulda shoulda .
The daddy got taken the school and he's having a hard time dealing with. Awwww! And the best part is how people keep saying Shaq is going to be angry and ready for him next time, and Yao always neutralizes him or, in this case, outplays him. As for the excuse that Yao doesn't play Shaq straight up so it isn't fair to say he outplayed Shaq, maybe the Lakers oughta do the same to Yao instead of letting Yao absolutely destroy them. Yeah the Rockets have Cat and Francis to worry about, but the Lakers have Kobe and Payton, who got absolutely abused by Steve and Cuttino last night.
I always love it when Shaq is made to look like an idiot. Great job by Yao! BTW - because of this infernal MBA program I am taking, I didn't get to see much of the game last night. But I did see Shaq try to lay up some weak **** and it got absolutely rejected by Cato!
What a great, dominating game by Yao...He didn't back down and was finally aggressive and was unbeliveable... This is exactly why you give Yao the Damn ball... He took 20 plus shots and our backcourt still scored 42 points...Hopefully they got it... go Rox!!!
how exactly are Shaq and Amare chicken? They fiercely attack the rim any chance they get. Yeah, they'll foul hard or step aside when there's a chance they'll get dunked on, but that's not nec a bad move. Although i must say that i have more respect for guys who are willing (and often do) get dunked on while making legit effiorts to make a clean block... a la Yao, Dikembe, Mourning.
no, they didn't double Yao and looked what happened; they probably should have, but Shaq didn't want to concede. Shaq did not want to continue to get scored on so he "opted" out of the game.
Look. Shaq can't play Yao one on one either. Yao is gonna hit the hook and the jumper right over him. And if SHaq goes for the shot, Yao will fake him out of his shoes and take it to the rack. The only reason that Yao would have fouled out if they had went one on one is because Shaq gets the calls at this point. Shaq had at least 8 fouls in that game last night. He had to make the refs call #6 on him. That is ridiculous. Put Shaq and Yao one on one and call the fouls the way they are supposed to be called. They both foul out. Part of the reason the Lakers got toasted last night was their refusal to acknowledge that Shaq needed help on D. The Rockets are just smart enough to know that they need to help Yao as much as possible against Shaq. But Yao still acquitted himself very nicely just the same. I will agree it is too early to say that Yao has surpassed Shaq. But Yao has moved into his league. It is a push at this point. Whoever plays the smarter game will come out on top.
I would say it was more Van Gundy than Yao that got under his skin. We had at least 3 primary defenders on him (Yao, Cato and Taylor) all giving up fouls on every Laker posession down the stretch. He was going to the line and hitting his shots, but he was getting beaten up under the basket. On the other end, he had only his 6 fouls to give on Yao because Phil Jackson wouldn't change his defensive strategy on him. I'd be frustrated too if my opponent could hit me 18 times and I could only hit back 6 times. More than anything, really, I'd give the credit for this win to Phil Jackson and his poor defensive decisions. Of course, Taylor, Francis and Mobley weren't making a decision to double-team very easy with their incredible outside shooting, but Shaq needed help underneath.
I heard on radio this morning that Shaq was upset about people comparing his numbers with Yao's. He said something like "If Yao had to deal with as many defenders as me, he wouldn't have done so well." When I heard this, I laughed out loud. Shaq is sounding like Francis last year when he said the Mavs couldn't beat us one on one after they beat us by about 20 points. So is Shaq tacitly criticizing his teammates (by not being able to win the game when their men swarm him on defense) and his coach (by not throwing more defenders at Yao)? Anyways, when a guy makes lame excuses like "he got all the calls" or "he doesn't have as many defenders" you know he has nothing better to say to hide his sense of defeat. BTW, fba34, I agree that the foul on Francis wasn't flagrant, and the last one on Yao was bad. When he reached in and hit hard on Yao's arms from behind, I was like "What the heck is he doing?" It clear to me he intentionally fouled hard on Yao, maybe out of frustration, to take himself out of the game.
I thought the flagrant was a good call. The first replay they did, you could see he was reaching for the ball, so it didn't look so bad. But, the second one gave a truer picture I thought. He was reaching for the ball, but he was also throwing his whole body into Francis. The arm-to-the-head was incidental; but the foul on the whole was just a huge body-blow.
True, but the other thing of course is that Shaq is a slightly above average man-to-man defender. Offensively, he is unstoppable against anybody, but defensively, he is a little over average, worse than Dream and D. Robinson for sure. I do not know why though, maybe he does not give the effort.
Im starting to like Shaq more and more.. did you guys see when Shaq waved to Yao's parents? I know Shaq says stupid stuff here and there but all in all he seems like a great guy. I had a biased against Shaq and Kobe for a long time.. but I honestly didnt watch them play as much.. They both seem like classy guys for the most part. Plus I dont think anyone can really dislike Yao.. hes too nice. But the media sure is hyping the Yao vs Shaq stuff. J Yao is still not even close to dethroning Shaq... When Yao can do things consistently I will think about it! haha
Shaq's comments! After tonights game against Yao and the RoX, Shaq put his big ass size 22's in his mouth again. He said Yao will never be able to stop him one on one... "ever, ever, ever!" Now WTF does he have to talk **** like that for all the time? I used to like Shaq for the most part, but I've had it with his comments. Shaq is a poor sport, sore loser and a fat ass **** eyed chump! I hope the Lakers choke in the first round cause I can't stand arrogant NBA players like him. Shaq clearly got outplayed last night and he can never give credit where credit is due. He has no game... dude couldn't hit a jumper if his life depended on it. His game consists of power, that's it. If the baskets were 12 feet tall instead of 10, I bet he'd be scoreless. Without the dunk, Shaq has nothing!!
Oh, Shaq talks a lot of trash, but he's definitely glad that Yao's in the league. Remember last year? Kobe and Shaq especially were so complacent. You could tell that they were bored and felt they had nothing left to prove, especially in the regular season. Shaq was getting fat, out of shape and lazy. Now Shaq has a challenge to look forward to 4 times a year. Nobody loves hype more than Shaq; he's thrived on it his entire career. That's why he loves the trash talk so much. Not going to the finals and not being voted as starter to the all-star game, having a new rivalry... these things give Shaq the hunger back that he'd been lacking. I think it's obvious that he likes that hunger and needs it to be his best. Heck, it wasn't weeks ago that we heard he was training for his return game with a picture of Yao taped to the goalpost. I'd be willing to bet Shaq looks forward to his games against the Rockets far more than he lets on in the press.
I am not biased against Shaq. I am biased against Shaq's style of play. All the banging, body hooking, and running over the defender stuff. Shaq's part of the reason that we can't get scoring up in the league. Because he is always initiating so much contact in the paint, the refs won't call the offensive foul like they need to. The only way they have to even up the game is to let all the defensive banging go also. It leads to brutal games in the 60's, 70's, and 80's when the scores should be in the 90's and above. If the refs called all the offensive fouls that Shaq commits in a game, he would average 3 of them per game and would be in foul trouble 90% of the time. I do not respect Shaq's style of play as much as I respected players like Hakeem and Kareem. Those players had skills not just strength. Shaq has a lot of strength and not as much skill. He has no floor game at all. And if he were playing in the 70's and 80's with Kareem and Hakeem, he would be on the bench more than on the floor. By the way, the relationship with Yao's parents goes back to the incident a year or so ago where Shaq made an ethnic slur towards Yao being Chinese. When he saw that it was going to be a problem for him, he buddied up to Yao and Yao's parents as a means of putting to rest the incident. He had a good PR guy that gave him good advice. That's all.
I wouldn't even call Shaq an average defender. What center with offensive skills have you seen him contain, EVER (the stiffs during the 3 peat don't count). He is just not a good defender. As far as not giving full effort, you can make that excuse for 75% of the NBA players, because almost all of them have the athletic ability to be great defenders "if they really wanted to".
