I don't want to hear anymore about him going 2/7, the big men's game is over and that he was getting taken out with fronting. His defense and rebounding were awesome tonight. He changed the game defensively and grabbed the rebounds with both hands (something he doesn't always do). His offensive numbers might be bad on the stat sheets but his effect is undeniable. He's a great decoy, and the team got a ton of open shots because of this. When he's denied the ball, he did a couple of things that I didn't saw as much in other games when he's fronted; he set hard picks and crashed hard to the board. That makes a big difference in impacting the game on the other side of the floor even when he's shooting poorly and denied the ball. As far as teammates, I said in the game two post game thread that the other players didn't look to get Yao the ball. Despite only 7 shots that was the case tonight. They always looked at Yao first, and when they couldn't get him the ball, they then ran the play on the same side of the court that Yao was on (which once again, they didn't do this last game). Yao was involved for most the game tonight. The only thing I would change is when a passer leads Yao with the ball when he's being fronted (Battier and Lowry both did tonight, sort of like a mini lob) Yao didn't move his feet and it was a turnover. But I like the mentality, and if they can get the timing right (i.e. Yao actually moving towards the ball instead of being flat footed) this will go a long way in helping Yao get the ball.
Although we lead the series 2-1 now, but its still early, nothing is improved, especially feed Yao the ball. We wont win this series by Battier's unbelievable 3'. Adelman and all the players on the court need to do better. This is the biggest problem we have...
In the 1st Half Yao was the reason that Scola and Landry played great. He got them a lot of good looks. In the 2nd half we failed to do the same thing, basically due to Portland adjusting at half time. We didn't have a counter to what they did, but we hit some big shots that just kept Portland from winning this game.
Yeah that's great that he can be a decoy. That said, Yao is one of our best free throw shooters...if he's unable to get the ball then the rockets are unable to get easy ft pts from the guy.
Agreed. I thought Yao did a great job on defense end. Also, when Portland "sandwiched" him which leaves our power forward wide open. JVG points out the same thing.
Yao was doing everything that he could do to help the rockets win this game. However, I hope Yao can be involved more at the offensive end in future games. If the rockets could not beat the front problem, they would not win this series.
the immobile big man's game is over, a mobile big man like Dwight will still be able to put up big numbers. Problem with entry passes to Yao when he's fronted and fighting for position, is that there is only a split second open for the entry pass. The entry pass has to be near perfect, because with a tree stump like Yao, if the pass is a bit wide or far, Yao can't retrieve it. Very high turnover rate trying to get Yao the ball with fronting defense.
WUT? We went to line 24 times tonight, Yao had what? 2 FT's? I'd say the team did a good job getting to line. 73% from the line needs to be better though.
I could point to at least 4 offensive plays where Yao was in good open position for 0.3~0.5 second, but either AB or Ron kept dribbling on without passing to him. If I had the time I would compile screen captures of these occasions; I don't understand why RA could bear with it as a coach and Yao could bear with it as the longest player in the team.
I didn't see a single lob attempted, while Yao was fronted not sandwiched. When he was sandwiched in the beginning, we went to Scola, and Scola didn't hesitate to take those jumpers, although he missed 2 early. I really like that. But in the second half, when they are fronting Yao with Oden only, we never ever tried a single lob pass. I was very pissed for a number of reasons. When you don't try to punish single front through lobbing pass, you can't get any open shots, and Oden in fact not only denied the ball to Yao, but also somewhat was close to other Rockets players. Spacing was poor. I know Yao is no Howard, but you can't say it forever, that it might lead to turnover, so we never try.
When Yao gets fronted, his mentally is damaged. You can see that when the team consistently fronts him and he finally gets the ball in post position, he rushes things. Can't blame him though, it must be demoralizing for him to try and get the ball all game but only succeed a small percentage of the times.
Optimistic post and all, but as a realist, the rest of the players didn't make them pay for fronting Yao as effectively as you described - we won because of a miracle shot by Battier and an equally miraculous dumb shot by Blake.
both yao and ron put their imprint on the defensive side. its good to see ron having control most of the night. he didn't have to shoot all the time. and though yao didn't get as many shots he definitely made blocks and rebounds. though brooks was dribbling way too much toward the end of the game.
