I am beginning to see a trend with Yao...slow starts to the season. Obviously he started slow during his rookie campaign, but by roughly 20 games in he seemed to find his stride...in his second season, if you'll remember, he again started slow, as I remember many on this board were complaining loudly, but again found his stride and showed marked improvement in many areas...this season, he is again off to a slow, if not inconsistent, start. Here's the silver lining...as poor and inconsistent as he's been this season, he still better than he was last season at this time, and certainly better than his first...and I think we can continue to expect steady improvement from here on out. Furthermore, Yao appears to need reminding of just how physical the NBA game is... no better team than Detroit to do this (even without Big Ben). He seemed to learn this lesson last season, as evidenced by his increased aggression that came around midseason, but somehow forgot over the summer (maybe too much international ball). During the second half of last night's game, I saw last season's aggression for the first time this season. It's like something snapped and Yao remembered how to play physically. If you'll remember there was a point last season (forgot the exact game) at which Yao just seemed to "turn on" his physical game, which led to much better performances. I believe last night's game may have brought about the same effect. Here's to hoping that Yao not only remembers how physical it got last season, but ups the ante with even more aggression from this point on.
Yao will prevail. Rocky took plenty of damage from Apollo, but when the last bell rang, it was the stallion who was left standing.
