It seems like the Rockets, since last season, have always had problems dealing with the zone defense. All the Hornets did on Saturday night was play a little zone defense around Yao and our offense looked very stagnant. Does JVG know how to play against a zone? I don't know.
Three points shots are supposed to be the zone buster. We've got some good shooters, but Yao just has to find them when he's swarmed. Remember when Dallas played zone in game 2? Tmac found Sura and made them pay. That's the problem with zone; it leaves shooters open.
Also penetrating down the middle is somewhat of a zone buster because it usuallly draws everyone towards you, so the player just has to make a good pass to an open teammate.
Go back and look. It wasn't a zone. All the players on the weakside shaded off of their man and sagged to the paint. (Fairly typical NBA defense). Once Yao received the ball in the post, the nearest NO player doubled down. The Rockets never reversed the ball or used ball movement to expose the remaining 4 on 3.
