Sorry to whine a bit even after such a big win. But is it just me or does Yao usually only get his shots/pts in later quarters of close games? I think it's because they only remember him and give him the ball when Steve/Mobley/Taylor/Griffin all proved to struggle with their shots? But I hate that they treat him as such an "afterthought". I mean come on he should be at least the 2nd option behind Steve.
I think this area has improved a lot lately (Yao's touches), so I am not too worried. Remember Yao also took 5 shots in the 3rd quarter and missed them all, meaning the offense was running through him consistently the whole game. Yao was on the bench for half of the last quarter, so obviously he got all his later shots during the crunch time. A month or two ago I would have been worried about Yao's limited touches, but no any more. Yao actually took more shots than anyone on the team against the Suns -G'day-
carayip, did you even watch the game?? Yao got his touches and was one of the reasons we lost the big lead. Yao turned the ball over 5 times, and missed a few really close to the basket. He also got rejected a couple of times.
Jack was really workin' it last night. He rarely passed at all. One turning point I noticed was late in the game: Steve had the ball at the left side of the three-point line. Cuttino is at the top, and he's clapping and calling for the ball. Yao is in the post on Big Jake, his hand raised in anticipation. Steve looks at Yao and is about ready to pass it to him. He then glances at Cat, who wants the ball. Steve looks back at Yao and dumps it down to him. Yao consequently scores and starts his barrage. I don't know if anyone else noticed this...I just thought it was interesting considering it was the first time I can remember seeing Steve pass the ball the other way when Cuttino is calling for it. Kind of pleased me.
No, I'm not. Believe me, I despise those kind of threads. I'm really not pointing out any of Cat's jealousy toward Yao. It's Steve's relationship with Cuttino. Francis is finally breaking away from constantly giving the ball to Mobley and he is learning to do what's best for the team.
Okay well. Yao touches a lot. I don't think we're ready to give it to him every time. If we do that....our offense will be even more predictable than it already is. Anyways.....Mobley was either too busy one on one trying to score on his man.......or ignored Yao and other wide open big men.....because there were many times YAO WAS WIDE OPEN and Mobley decided to not pass. And then he holds the ball too long........screws up our ball movement. We need to pass pass pass pass until we get an open shot. I still don't know why he wouldn't pass. Many times Yao was cutting. Just lob it to him.....and Yao will score easily. But other than that...Mobley has been doing good. And he gives the ball to Yao when he needs to. Francis has been doing great and is "GETTING" it. But our offense is totally screwed if Glen Rice is unable to make his shots and Mo Taylor cannot score anymore.
I don't think we should complain any more. The team has been playing very well overall. Although there are short period of time (in the last 5 games) that lapses existed, yet the important quality of the team now is, they sticked to their game plan and came back strong with the team play. One example was in the LA Clipper game, the jump shots did not work, but they sticked to the team play. At the end, they prevailed in overtime. Same thing in the Phoenix game, in the third quarter, the shots did not fall for vaious reasons (due to bad ref call, rough Phoenix play, or simply occasional selfish plays), they stick to their game plan in the fourth quarter and put the game away. Even it is Dallas or Sacremento or San Antonio, they are not perfect all the time. I am pretty happy with our team now. Way to go!
I am not just talking about the game vs Suns? I am talking generally. My impression is that they only gave Yao the ball when all the other players failed to score.
carayjp - I don't agree with you on the touches point. Yao is definitely the focal point of the offense now. Start of the game for sure, anyway... But I do have a question for everybody. Do you guys think that Yao has gone away from the quick passing that characterized his early showing? He seems to hang on to the ball for a LOOOOONG time in the post now. During the Phoenix game, it seemed like someone would dump the ball into Yao, who had one defender on him, and then cut through the lane... Yao would just hang onto the ball, do nothing, and the defender on the cutter would jump back in (usually Marion) and double Yao, forcing him to come close to a turnover if not actually doing so. The slow ball movement out of the post (and yes, I know the pass to MoT was one example of this that actually went well in the Phoenix game) has been a little depressing compared to the quickness Yao showed early on. Thoughts/observations?
Sometimes the timing and position of the pass are so poor ! One Guard dribbles so much while making his mind up to pass into Yao Ming that the defence adjusts before the ball is passed. One very important positive, that I have been calling for, was executed during the Suns Game, inside/outside passing and One time Yao Ming repositioned and the ball was returned back to him for a score. From my observations this is the first time this season and indicates we are making great strides towards Team Basketball! Go Rockets!
FGA Francis- 16.6 Mobley- 15.1 Yao- 9.8 Posey- 9.2 Griffin- 9.0 Taylor-8.1 Rice- 7.8 This kind of shot distribution is not right for me.
the reason why yao is not passing the ball out as quickly is because teams have figured out that they need to closely guard the cutter. early in the year, our cutters were wide open and he hit them consistently. Now, defenses are taking that away, and he has to wait for the double team to pass out. We need to recognize that it's not easy to read multiple variations of double/triple teams. Duncan has always averaged a lot of turnovers too, and it's because of the attention he draws.
