Game Thread Houston @ LAC

[TMU]

Either the Clippers are too cheap to hire scouts or Mike Dunleavy is purposely trying to tank this season.

They don't front Yao, they decide to defend him heads up with Zach friggin Randolph instead. Yao in years past would've dropped 40 points easy in this game. Man.. only the Clippers..

He has touched the ball alot, he just chooses to pass it out alot. If he some sort of attitude or even be a little selfish, he would score 40pts tonight.

I see that often about teams fronting Yao, the truth is, Yao can be stopped by fronting, however if it was 100% effective, he wouldn't have seasons averaging 22/10, 25/10. Usually that means something is going on to slow the fronting down. Hot shooting, quicker passes, Yao sealing his man better, a quick PF (landry). I don't buy that anyteam can front, you have to have a guy who is willing to spend alot of energy to front and athletic (Randolph is not exactly athletic, they could of had camby front, but i don't remember him ever fronting Yao in Denver).

Plus if teams do front, the Rockets have to make them pay with quick swing passes and punish them from the weak side. (unfortunately Rockets haven't punished them enough with poor shooting)

But the thing is Fronting DOES work against Yao, especially this year. If every team defends Yao the way the clipper does, he could go back to averaging 25/10 even ifs he's not feeling a 100%. You allow Yao to establish position like that, the rockets are tough to beat because he will score against the conventional single coverage all day long. The key to defending Yao is to deny him the ball. Fronting frustrates him because he exerts a tremendous amount of energy just trying to create a passing angle to receive the ball. By the time he gets the ball, he's already exhausted. You'll notice that when Yao is being fronted, his shooting percentage goes down the drain.

I'm convinced now that the Clippers are the worst run organization in professional sports. They could've front Yao with Al Thorton. If tweeners like Al Harrington, Boris Diaw, and Renaldo Balkman can shut down Yao by fronting, anyone reasonably athletic should be able to.

Mike Dunleavy needs to get fired not promoted. I still can't believe that they made him their GM.

[Guy986]

Either the Clippers are too cheap to hire scouts or Mike Dunleavy is purposely trying to tank this season.

They don't front Yao, they decide to defend him heads up with Zach friggin Randolph instead. Yao in years past would've dropped 40 points easy in this game. Man.. only the Clippers..

Well, Yao cant drop 40 points with 8 times attempting. Ron: 5-15, Someone should tell this guy stop shot 3 like he is Reggie Miller. This is no accident, so here comes the question. Why rick is forcing Ron to shot this much 3.

Artest is 3/6 from three point land. That's 50%.
He is 2/9 from inside the three point land. That is bobby Jacksonesque.

Artest is a pretty good shooter when he isn't on the move. I HOPE he takes more open 3 as opposed to driving to the basket and blindly throws up a horrible shot.

[MaxRider]

Yao needs to be more selfish and shoots over shorter PF all game long

[MaxRider]

Artest is 3/6 from three point land. That's 50%.
He is 2/9 from inside the three point land. That is bobby Jacksonesque.

Artest is a pretty good shooter when he isn't on the move. I HOPE he takes more open 3 as opposed to driving to the basket and blindly throws up a horrible shot.

Artest is just like me
we both suck when having to take more than 3 steps to shoot

[dunleavyjr]

Rockets fans,

Come on, you were playing the paper clips!
Yao still is a 30-minute guy. His body condition does not allow him to play beyond.
That's like 2/3 galon, not every a full tank of gas.

[mpsniper101]

We had a fun time in the chat room. We are going to be doing it again on Friday, so please come and enjoy yourself. I'll ask the next person who makes the game thread to post the link on the front.

[BaYBaller]

It's nice that so far they have been able to keep to Yao to 30 mins even with T-Mac out. It just goes to show our depth. It's also nice to be in the thick of an easy stretch in the schedule. The playoffs are a virtual lock IMO, it's now about playing your big guns just enough to secure a good seed and keeping them fresh for the playoffs.

I have pretty much resigned that fronting Yao will always be a problem. Other people just have to step up in one way or another.

[Teckon]

Not every fronting defense can stop Yao. Fronting defense normally put the defensive side in a disadvantage position. The opponents need to devise a good fronting offense system that could minimize that disadvantage. So far only some teams have success as they have the personnel for such fronting defense. Still if the rockets are better in offense, they should be able to overcome any fronting offense. Rockets are working to get Yao more involved knowing that Yao will be the target of opponent's defense with Tmac out. See latest Chron article:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spo ... 47774.html