Yao: "I think that's my worst game in my three years."

I agree with this...

Also keep in mind that none of these recent games have had a favorable match-up for Yao. They've all been smaller and quicker 5's and 4's guarding him from the front and the back, with the little guys digging for the ball every time he touches it. With the Cav's it will be a little different as they are a more traditional half-court team like us, with Big Z down low and LBJ on the perimeter. And Z vs Yao = favorable match-up imho.

Also, teams are focusing more on Yao b/c he has been killing everyone in January... this is to be expected but all it does is leave people like Scola and Battier wide-open... I'd really like to see these guys get some more shots.

 

It looked to me like he was busy winning the game for us. I don't think the players he was guarding did too much either unless you consider McCants making lucky fadeaways as bad defense. I will admit that Yao tries his best every game and sometime Tmac slacks off but it is usually against a scrub to mediocre player. I thought Tmac's defense in the Utah series was suspect against guys like Harpring who would sneak back door and make easy buckets.

 

If thats the biggest guy in the opposing team thats who Yao has to guard unless you prefer him guarding e.g. Marion instead of Amare. Against Jazz though if he didn't guard Boozer, he would have to defend Okur at the perimeter and let Boozer go berseck inside which doesn't make any sense having your big guy outside (might not be a bad idea considering Boozer did go crazy on us anyways).

 

Yea, looks like Yao has dead legs and has hit a wall.

Remember, he missed significant time the last two seasons around this time of the year. It's like a rookie coming in and hitting a similar wall this time of the season because they are not used to the amount of games. Yao hasn't played close to a full season in two years, then comes back to play the FIBA games and then a full season thus far playing the most minutes of his career.

He'll have a big game vs. the Cavs. Book it!

 

I think Yao is playing badly these past couple of games due to the team not playing around him anymore. T-Mac has been taking the majority of the shots, 25, 30 shots a game. Yao has only had 11. That's not enough for Yao Ming.

Unless T-Mac understands HOW to play with another Superstar, and as Magic Johnson alluded to, learning HOW to make Yao a better player, and vice versa, developing that crucial TRUST and CHEMISTRY, then it doesn't matter if T-Mac scores 50 points a game, and even wins a regular season game.

This is what Magic Johnson means. You must have CHEMISTRY, and what is that? It is trust, and learning to know when to shoot, and when to pass to make his partner Yao better.

T-Mac has never wanted or learned how to do this. He's still playing ISO, and he only looks to be "da man", and "put his will" on the game. Unless T-Mac has this big change of heart and shows maturity, and desire to WIN above all else, he and Yao are not a good match.

Have you noticed the Team's offense has changed since T-Mac has returned? Yeah, they're winning, but it's not as smooth as it was when T-Mac was out. It's not flowing. It's irregular, and at times, awkward. This is because T-Mac is holding onto the ball, sucking the life out of the offense like a Black Hole.

This team has enough talent this year to get past the First Round, much more talent than last year. But they may still yet again fail. Do you know why? Lack of Chemistry between T-Mac and Yao. No Trust. No synergy between the two. They are like playing separately together on the court, not playing together. Magic Johnson knew how to utilize a great Center. Magic knew when to score, when to pass. T-Mac doesn't, and that's the difference between a winner, and a loser.

 

Yao gets so many excuses but when it comes to Tmac, ITS HANG HIM!

 

lol right on... read the post right above you. To say our offense was so smooth when TMac was out and we were still had only 8-5 record, seriously! He points out 11 shots for Yao, thats about what he averaged when TMac was out. If anything, TMac coming back is taking away shots from Rafer (thank god!) and Scola. Yao is just having couple of bad nights, it happens. Yao's highest career PPG average was last year when TMac was with him. TMac is not selfish, if anything he is always looking for Yao and takes over only when Yao is doubled hard or if he is getting stripped or not handling the passes well.

I have to repeat again, motion offense is designed to mask the lack of superstars in a team. When you have TMac and Yao caliber, going to motion offense would be a waste of their talent. They can create and score on their own. To delegate Yao on high post and Tracy as a cutter is ridiculous. We might as well go back to the Sac team, who despite being experts at that offense got consistently beat year after year by two superstars.

 

"Stop talking, Start doing" -IBM®

 

Yao is out of gas because of the heavy lifting in Jan. POM is a confirmation that he tried his very best. Now the real Tmac is back. Give Yao some rest and I can see after the all star weekend, the freaking Houston 50pts a game duo is reloaded.

 

yao would have had plenty of shots if he could hold on to the ball or properly seal his defender off. if he's that exhausted he needs to just tell the coach he needs to sit down. but then everyone would call him a quitter like they call tmac huh...

 

If he wants more shots, he knows how to get em....GO GET THAT REBOUND big fella !

DD

 

The guy is tired. You know why? He's missing his FT's.

A couple days rest before Cleveland will help, and as long as he doesn't try too hard during the dunk contest or 3 pt. shootout he'll be fresh as springwater from a babbling brook somewhere up in the high mountains.

 

Where do you get that he's exhausted? Hes not.


Feb 4 @ MIN W 92-86 1 36:23 6 11 54.6 0 0 0.0 4 6 66.7 2 3 5 2 2 2 0 0 16

Feb 2 @ MIL W 91-83 1 37:59 5 11 45.5 0 0 0.0 2 5 40.0 3 9 12 2 3 0 3 4 12

Feb 1 @ IND W 106-103 1 38:49 4 12 33.3 0 0 0.0 9 12 75.0 5 7 12 4 0 0 1 2 17


The last three games, he's had rebounds of 5, 12, and 12,
He's played 36, 37, 38 minutes.
He's scored 16, 12, and 17 points.
He's shot 11, 11, and 12 FGAs.

NOTE the FGA attempts: 11, 11, and 12. That's too low for Yao Ming.


It's not that he's tired. He's not getting enough Shots.

T-Mac has been hogging the ball, sucking the life out of this offense that was for a while, very beauitful, very fun to watch, and effective TEAM OFFENSE. Now, it's become more T-Mac centered.

Haven't we done this already the past 3 years? Being a T-Mac or Yao centric offense will lose during the playoffs because those two players do not have chemistry. They do not help each other. No Chemistry = first round loss.

It's very easy to stop a single player. It's very hard to stop an entire team.

T-Mac MUST get OTHERS involved in the offense. You'd think that he's GET IT BY NOW but he really doesn't. He still is only interested in being the MAN.

 

Missing free throws isnt really a good indicator of being tire because it doesn't really require too much effort to shoot standing still without any defenders on you.

 

Our team defense sucked on Jefferson, Yao should have pushed up on Jefferson forcing him to put the ball on the floor and receiving help from Rafer who was guarding his twin no shooting brother from NY Telfair. I would rather have Telfair beat me than Jefferson. Poor coaching.

 

while i understand and agree with this simple philosophy, i also agree with JayZ's point that yao usually has to guard n all star.

id like to see how a zone would work against some of those teams.

 

Yao got only 5 rbs yesterday. Hows Tamc's "ball hogging" to do with that? If he is not tired, he would have grabbed 15.

 

or JVG does not know how to coach defense?

 

...making clutch shots while contributing significantly to our 8-1 record over the past 9 games.

T-Mac has been making a number of great passes during each game since he has been back... as usual.

He is demanding double teams and finding open players who are getting either easy, uncontested perimeter shots or easy, uncontested shots close to the basket... as usual.

 

where is the stat for tiredness? and why don't you mention anything about Yao's defense?

Yao looked "tired" in the first 5 minutes of each game if you watched it.

any excuse for that?