it has been mentioned in this thread already. i'd like to see it employed for a bit. Pros: - Jazz not the best 3 point shooting team - Takes away Jazz bread and butter offensive sets, which all revolve around picks of some sort - Keeps Yao in/near the paint, but doesn't require him to guard Boozer Cons: - Potential to give up mid-range jumpers, which Jazz are capable of making at high %'s - Potential to give up more offensive rebounds (though 2 years has proven man to man defense doesn't work that great on defensive rebounding against the Jazz for some reason either). - Is Yao quick enough to man the interior defense in a zone system? Zone is all about reaction. I think we are better equipped this year to run the zone from the perimeter, but Yao is obviously no Kevin Garnett. Since I don't get to see practice, I'd like to see it tried against a team like the Jazz here and there, but maybe they've tried it in practice and it didn't work. Against all teams, Jazz included, I do think zone should be used randomly. Out of timeouts (though if you did it ever time, not random anymore) is a good example. Or if your 12 point fourth quarter lead has shrunk to 5 points over the last two minutes, maybe throw in a zone.
Why are we still b****ing about yao on boozer and the utah jazz???? For all we know we might not even face them in the post season.... Someone else from their division or ours might take them out anyways... It's been 2 games and we as fans act like this is the final post season or something,jesus...... Take the game one at a time for what it is, We Won!!!!!
I totally agree with you on this. The one and only time Yao was hold Okur and Chucky is holding Boozer, we messed them up and they had no idea what to do. I figured RA will do that again in subsequent defensive posessions but that stopped in a hurry. I just don't get it. When Yao hold Booz, he gets P&R to death for an easy score every single time. And when Boozer faces up against Yao 1 on 1, he has a knack for drawing Yao's fouls and getting him in foul trouble. You gotta mix it up a little bit defensively...can't continue getting rapped and taking it every time down...
I would rather reduce the Jazz to a jump shooting team. We have quick enough players to close out quickly. I haven't seen it done before, but as long as Yao doesn't need to move more than 2-3 steps from his comfort zone, we are fine.
Did you even watch the game? THe only time Hayes guarded Boozer is when Yao went out, and he did a damn fine job at it too. I think everyone is selling Hayes's defense a little short (no pun).
like ya'll. after reading all, it can be concluded we have three choices. 1) stay what we did and was adopted by both good coaches (jvg and ra) 2) put yao on okur and hayer on boozer 3) no yao on court at all or maybe sub to play against their subs. we should all agree on that ra is a bball expert and he is smarter than you and me on bball issue. let's see how he is going to do when we face utah again.
Yao was on Okur for one play of the game, and of course nothing happened... Because the Jazz run their Offense through Boozer... So Boozer was over there backing down Hayes instead of Yao... ANd since Yao doesn't block any of Boozer's shots, except in broken plays right under the rim, Hayes or Scola really should be on Boozer, because Okur isn't really a factor on Offense that Yao even has to worry about. He can rest. Boozer was actually defended better by whoever when Yao left the game with foul trouble. Yao on Boozer = 25 pts for Boozer, and 5 fouls for Yao...
Yao can't effectively defend Boozer, this is for sure right now. But rather than developing complicated defense scheme against their best players, Yao should improve his offense efficiency against Jazz. Last year playoff boozer torched Yao like this, but rox lost because of its offense. So i put more value on his clutch shot.
Some posters on this board feel a very need to say that Boozer doing great against the Rockets is because of Yao's poor (non-existent) defense, which in reality is not totally true. 1. One thing that those fail to mention is Boozer is becoming a premier star in this league and is probably top 5 PF, do you really expect the Rockets to limit him 15 or 18 ppg every game. Not going to happen. I would even say that without Yao, Boozer might even average more. Hayes is great defender and can stifile Boozer times, but he can play him the whole game. 2. Also, Okur is all -star caliber player...he's defense is not that bad....if you've watched him over years, he can hold his own. I watched him with the Pistons and if they held on to him, they would be without any question...the best team in the East. He is an above average defender/center and can be aggressive on both ends. 3. The Jazz are not only a bad matchup for Rockets, they also have give matchup problems to two teams called the Spurs and Suns. Boozer had some great games against the Spurs in playoffs and regular seasons last year. In games 2 and 3 of WCF, he shot over 60% pct and averaged 30 ppg and 13.5 rebs. For the first 4 games of the series, Boozer averaged 24 ppg. He just hard player to stop period and when add a hot Okur with that ... it's tough for any defense to stop. They're probably the best 1 (C)-2 (PF) combo in league with guard who can also play in the post with good jumpshot/2nd in assists. What other teams have a formidable C and PF on both ends of the floor? No wonder Yao had such hard time last season, he can't be expected to shutdown two players. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3632/gamelog;_ylt=AtPDdN6OAADVFjWWvXeD7YukvLYF?year=2006/ Also, the Jazz have guy called Deron Williams, he straight lit the Spurs up and tattooed his number into the Spurs guards....they could not stop him (I watched all of the WCF games this year). Amazingly, this guy averaged 29.5 (shot 56% and over 52% in 3 consecutives games) and almost 10 assists in the first 4 WCF games. It was safe to say that Parker, Ginobili, and FInley could not stop this guy. He scored at will against them. Even though, Spurs eventually got to the finals and in almost dominate fashion. It wasn't a total domination over the opposistion, it was mainly stopping everyone not named Williams and Boozer. Duncan had his hands full with Boozer, while the Elison and Oberto were pretty much ineffective when duties shifted, while Duncan could handle Okur. This same Jazz team was 3 and 1 against the Suns, with only Suns victory coming on one of the last games of the season. Is it fair enough to say the Suns have problems with the Jazz, also and had a chance being knocked by them if they met in conference finals (so similar to GSW)? This is one situation where the undersized lineup actually disfavors the Suns. Since, there is not one player who can guard Boozer one on one (maybe Kurt Thomas, but he's gone). AMare is just not going to play that aggressive or come out and try consistently stop him. Marion and Diaw are both way too small to provide adequete defense on Boozer...he'll take them to basket or post all night...same is true for Okur. They can't double off the ball alot, because Utah has other weapons. Utah, especially last year was seriously a horrible matchup for Phoenix, especially with a guard like Derek Fisher who could somewhat slow down Steve Nash. Nash also would have to guard Fisher, because his very clutch and capable shooter when left open and is aggressive at getting to basket, at times or he would be left to defend Deron Williams (which is a worse matchup for the Suns). In alot situations against the Jazz, Nash is render completely useless on defense. Much of the same is to be expected with Brewer who has shown he can score and shoot. Who does Nash guard on the Jazz? Who does Amare guard on the Jazz? Just a few things to consider before you all come to the conclusion that Mr. 11 is trash defender. Bad matchups are just part of the game, as great as defender M.J. was he could not stop someone Magic or Bird. In 91 Finals, he actually did start out guarding Magic and proved to be a gross mismatch and the Bulls had success when they switched Pippen on him. There were players that even 23 couldn't guard. Rodman was probably one of the greatest defenders of all time, but they were opposing PF in the league that he could not slow down. As great as the Pistons defense was 04-06, they got owned by Wade. Duncan has hard time stopping, Amare who has looked like magnifcient against the Spurs in some games, does this warrant that Duncan is totally useless on defense? Does this mean that all of those players that I mention horrible defenders? Defense is a team effort and within context of the game some players are so good you can't expect one player to have handle him the whole game. Just a few things to consider.
just a quick reply, i can't speak for other people, but I can say that I don't think yao is a trash defender, he has no business guarding boozer, but since there isn't a "true" center on the jazz team, and yao is NOT going to the perimeter to guard anyone, he HAS to guard someone. and that someone just happens to be boozer who is a PF. somone said earlier it's like battier guarding AI, it's a mismatch. also saying yao has to guard a combo of okur and boozer is stretching it, he isn't asked to guard a C AND PF at the same time, his assignment has always been boozer, unless he gets switched up on a pnr. so that isn't proof at all for yao playing bad D. Yao does not suck as a defender, I'm not sure how many people actually believe that, but against this jazz team, it isn't going to be a pretty display of defense because of the matchups.
also, saying okur is a good defender because he played for the pistons is a stretch. This is YAO MING. It's like saying to tracy Mcgrady, tayshaun Prince is going to stop you on the offensive side of the ball because he is a good defender and he plays for the Pistons. No one, bruce bowen, kirilenko, kobe, whoever, has any say in how to stop tmac. Yao is on this level as far as centers are concerned. He is yao ming, you can't stop me, i'm yao ming. but really the team defense of utah is good, they are always running at yao, trying to strip the ball away, it isn't only about okur. in any case, everyone here wants yao to really stick it to the jazz, and not just one game here or there, but a consistent level of domination, which he hasn't for some reason...
I stand with Johnrox... its just a really bad match up for Yao. I don't think we could have had such a great defense last year if any of our starting five were crappy defenders... including Rafer. That's why I said I was anxious to see how the Scola/Hayes combo faired defensively against the two Utah players. We all know its a bad match up for Yao for a variety of reasons and I said in the game thread yesterday (and it seemed I was correct during last night's game) that Scola/Hayes would be a better defensive match up to Boozer and Okur and I was anxious to see it. I was actually surprised that Deke was brought into the game at all last night.
Scola was doin' a good job on Okur and as I remember he did the same with Boozer. So yes, Scola should guard Boozer
How many games do we have to see before we realize that: 1. Yao cannot defend Booz. 2. Chuck defends Booz very well. Okur is a poorer shooting/dribbling/driving Nowitzki. They key to defending him is to take away the spot up and make him put the ball on the floor. It will create turnovers and his shooting percentage will go down,down, down. Having Yao in the interior doesn't matter if Booz is going 9 for 15 and getting to the line a dozen times. There ain't no boards to be had. Not to mention Chuck is the best rebounder we got anyways and is much more effective in keeping Booz off the boards than Yao. I am not understanding what is so difficult about defending Okur on the perimeter. He has one perimeter skill.......Standing very still, catching and shooting. Any opponent should want the ball funneled to him and then close out on him, forcing him to dribble drive. He is too slow and not a good ball handler. Yao can play up on him and then get help from Shane sliding over to take the charge. Really pretty simple.
good post if yao moves to perimeter, all utah players except okur will attack the basket and crush the board. they have several players who can do that.
There are a few teams that Yao is just totally ineffective against regardless of how well he plays on defense. Jazz and the Suns. I don't know why, but playing against these two teams always takes Yao out of his game. He gets into this little funk and his offense suffers as a result. We might as well just sit him out most of the game. It's really not his fault but he just looks so miserable out there.
