[Game 45] Houston Rockets at Detroit Pistons - 5:30pm

dunleavyjr · Post #121 » by **dunleavyjr** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:14 am

Iggyemu,

Rockets' gave up 100+ points to win this game by a margin of 3 points.
Defensively it's not good. Remember, defense wins championship.
Rockets today just won the shooting contest, i.e., offensively.

Rockets need to control the tempo, slow it down.

TracyMcGrady01 · Post #122 » by **TracyMcGrady01** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:14 am

what happen to brooks?

jzmagik · Post #123 » by **jzmagik** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:15 am

Missed the game, but I'm suprsised to see we won. We needed this. Apparently, Tmac looked pretty slow out there, not suprised. 10 days of rehab isn't enough to fix your health.

1nsane · Post #124 » by **1nsane** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:15 am

If alston didn't have 3 awful posessions at the end it wouldn't be so close.
But the pistons only lead 2 times so it was a very good game from start to finish.

dunleavyjr · Post #125 » by **dunleavyjr** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:16 am

Rockets giving up too many easy layups in the paint. Middle lane was too wide open. You would rather have Yao in the middle, and force opponents to shoot jump shots.

Last season's playoff, no Yao, what happened to the Rockets?

Transistor · Post #126 » by **Transistor** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:19 am

Props to Battier and Von Wafer tonight too, very efficient

dunleavyjr · Post #127 » by **dunleavyjr** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:21 am

TracyMcGrady01 wrote:what happen to brooks?

What happen to Brooks? Nothing. He's just being himself, just like Moochie Norris, John Lucas III, Mike Wilks.

1nsane · Post #128 » by **1nsane** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:23 am

and Spanoulis... :-)

TracyMcGrady01 · Post #129 » by **TracyMcGrady01** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:31 am

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/g ... layerId=11
Skip is getting well, he shot over 45% in the last six game :onfire:

jzmagik · Post #130 » by **jzmagik** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:03 am

OK I'm a little worried now, everyone on CF says that Tmac still looks like he can barely move... I think he needs to reevaluate himself, change his game up to suit more of a roleplayer.

abcdef · Post #131 » by **abcdef** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:05 am

Iggyemu wrote:Big time win. Took him 3 possessions before he decided to go strong to the basket but McGrady made a big shot. Artest was great all night. Battier and Hayes' defense were great down the stretch. Defensively overall we weren't very good but that was because there was not Yao. Offensively we were very good b/c there was no Yao. Its a tragic situation but once McGrady beat Prince there was no one there to stop him b/c Yao and his defender were not there.

It just depends on how we want to play...but more importantly finish games. I think Adelman has to take notice and figure out how to use Yao in a way that it doesn't hinder our overall offense. Clearly he brings a defender over b/c he hangs around the paint and its hard to spread the floor with him. But we probably would have held the Pistons 90 points if he was there tonight. Thats a significant defensive contribution.

Its on Adelman to figure it out. And hopefully all 3 guys will stay in the line up long enough for him to do so b/c Adelman probably would have it all set if he had everyone healthy for the last 3 months. Anyway good win. Hopefully we can take care of the Knicks b/c we have a very good home stretch coming up in which we have to get ourselves to 20 games over .500

You are as wrong as you have always been about Yao and the offense. The offense scores 6 more points per 100 possessions and shoots 4.5% better in eFG% when Yao is in the lineup than when he is not. Adelman or Morey, can't remember which, said that if Yao in standing around the lane, he actually in many situations keeps the help defender away because that defender is concerned with boxing out Yao on the shot or preventing him from receiving a dish. That layup by McGrady at the end was a failure by Tayshaun to keep McGrady pinned farther down on the baseline which would have allowed the help to get there and a good recognition by McGrady of the fact that Tayshuan had misplayed him. It had nothing to do with whether Yao was in the lineup or not.

Simply put the Rockets are far better offensively with Yao on the floor than when he is not.

G-Heel · Post #132 » by **G-Heel** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:07 am

I admire how Rockets always seem to find a way to win despite never have all their players healthy. Just when T-Mac and Artest got back, Yao was out injured. I hope they get all their players back by playoff time, it'll be fun to watch.

teamny1 · Post #133 » by **teamny1** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:27 am

i don't get how Yao doesn't spread the floor well when he's in, when he has two defenders on him almost every possession. So when Artest and McGrady were out and it was Yao dominating the touches and playing off the doubles coming his way, that wasn't spreading the floor? So at that stretch it was Yao deciding to shoot about 11-12 shots a game, single coverage, while everyone else beat their man single coverage because of the poor spacing...?

MaxRider · Post #134 » by **MaxRider** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:42 am

wow we won!!!

San Antonio and Dallas lost
good for us

Baller 24 · Post #135 » by **Baller 24** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:26 am

McGrady didn't look that bad out there, but his legs were worn out at the end of the game. He needs to continue playing more, because I think his confidence in his knee seems to be back using his mentality, but he needs to play some more, that's the only way he's going to get his body back into game shape.

MaxRider · Post #136 » by **MaxRider** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:31 am

i think with Yao not playing and the return of T-Mac and Artest making their scouting report going to trash

CuttingEdge · Post #137 » by **CuttingEdge** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:55 am

Yao does a way better job of drawing the defense in a way to make penetration better. Iggy.. you lost me on that.. Yao's better for this team both ways it's more about if we make our shots or not from the outside.

Iggyemu · Post #138 » by **Iggyemu** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:31 am

abcdef wrote:
You are as wrong as you have always been about Yao and the offense. The offense scores 6 more points per 100 possessions and shoots 4.5% better in eFG% when Yao is in the lineup than when he is not. Adelman or Morey, can't remember which, said that if Yao in standing around the lane, he actually in many situations keeps the help defender away because that defender is concerned with boxing out Yao on the shot or preventing him from receiving a dish. That layup by McGrady at the end was a failure by Tayshaun to keep McGrady pinned farther down on the baseline which would have allowed the help to get there and a good recognition by McGrady of the fact that Tayshuan had misplayed him. It had nothing to do with whether Yao was in the lineup or not.

Simply put the Rockets are far better offensively with Yao on the floor than when he is not.

No we are not. We are more balanced but we are not better offensively. I am not talking about not playing Yao his usual minutes...I am just talking about deciding when to use Yao. I would never give up Yao's defense for better offense....

I am simply suggesting that what we saw today was an open lane b/c Yao wasn't there and thats something Adelman can take notice of when he is trying to figure out how to maximize the potential of this team. Maybe Prince misplayed McGrady on that play but Sheed was so far out on Scola that even if Prince didn't he wouldn't have been over there in time. If thats Yao and Prince misplayed McGrady, Sheed gets there and he challenges that shot b/c thats what good defenders do. They don't worry about the other guy getting an offensive board...they trust their teammates will step in and get the board....not to mention Yao isn't exactly the greatest rebounder around.....a smart defender like Sheed would step up and challenge knowing what he knows about Yao and having the trust in his teammates to clean up the miss.

And still they were others...Artest's drives to the basket were clear with no Yao. He had some nice layups....looked like he did in Sacramento. Don't forget the way we completely destroyed the Pistons in the first half b/c we spread the floor so well. Nope. We are a better offensive team without Yao. I remember reading a Bill Simmons article a few months ago suggesting that we should bench Yao and just play the way we did today. Of course thats not realistic and not something a championship team would want to do since that negates a lot of our defense and rebounding. But I say that to hammer home the point that other more credible people that myself have noticed how much better we are offensively without Yao.

Now my point is....Adelman needs to figure out how to incorporate what we did today with what Yao brings. Its not like we were just hot today. We had wide open shots off penetration. We just hit em.

abcdef · Post #139 » by **abcdef** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:54 am

Iggyemu wrote:
abcdef wrote:
You are as wrong as you have always been about Yao and the offense. The offense scores 6 more points per 100 possessions and shoots 4.5% better in eFG% when Yao is in the lineup than when he is not. Adelman or Morey, can't remember which, said that if Yao in standing around the lane, he actually in many situations keeps the help defender away because that defender is concerned with boxing out Yao on the shot or preventing him from receiving a dish. That layup by McGrady at the end was a failure by Tayshaun to keep McGrady pinned farther down on the baseline which would have allowed the help to get there and a good recognition by McGrady of the fact that Tayshuan had misplayed him. It had nothing to do with whether Yao was in the lineup or not.

Simply put the Rockets are far better offensively with Yao on the floor than when he is not.

No we are not. We are more balanced but we are not better offensively. I am not talking about not playing Yao his usual minutes...I am just talking about deciding when to use Yao. I would never give up Yao's defense for better offense....

I am simply suggesting that what we saw today was an open lane b/c Yao wasn't there and thats something Adelman can take notice of when he is trying to figure out how to maximize the potential of this team. Maybe Prince misplayed McGrady on that play but Sheed was so far out on Scola that even if Prince didn't he wouldn't have been over there in time. If thats Yao and Prince misplayed McGrady, Sheed gets there and he challenges that shot b/c thats what good defenders do. They don't worry about the other guy getting an offensive board...they trust their teammates will step in and get the board....not to mention Yao isn't exactly the greatest rebounder around.....a smart defender like Sheed would step up and challenge knowing what he knows about Yao and having the trust in his teammates to clean up the miss.

And still they were others...Artest's drives to the basket were clear with no Yao. He had some nice layups....looked like he did in Sacramento. Don't forget the way we completely destroyed the Pistons in the first half b/c we spread the floor so well. Nope. We are a better offensive team without Yao. I remember reading a Bill Simmons article a few months ago suggesting that we should bench Yao and just play the way we did today. Of course thats not realistic and not something a championship team would want to do since that negates a lot of our defense and rebounding. But I say that to hammer home the point that other more credible people that myself have noticed how much better we are offensively without Yao.

Now my point is....Adelman needs to figure out how to incorporate what we did today with what Yao brings. Its not like we were just hot today. We had wide open shots off penetration. We just hit em.

The numbers don't lie. The Rocket score 6 more points per 100 possessions and are +4.5% eFG% with Yao on the court versus when he isn't. I don't care how the Rockets "look", the truth is that the Rockets are far better offensively with Yao on the court. You named one play, there have been many plays this season where Yao dropped the ball to McGrady on the wing, cut down the other side of the block, and when McGrady drove baseline, Yao's defender didn't help and stayed home instead. If that were Scola that defender would have helped and taken his chances with Scola trying to finish at the rim off the dish from McGrady. Adelman stated this basic fact himself; Yao forces his man to stay with him. Artest was far more effective today shooting the trey than driving in, when he was blocked several times, just like usual. I posted the numbers which showed that Yao AND McGrady both score inside FAR better than Artest. He simply put needs to adjust his game to the other two, and he seems to be doing so with his improved 3pt shooting, I commend him for that.

If you want to talk about open shots, how about the open shots that occur when Yao is being fronted/doubled or he backs down and draws another defender, you know, the ones that occur on every other play where Yao posts up?

Bill Simmons is not credible, he was a Yao hater from the very beginning. He guaranteed that Yao over Jay Williams would be remembered as a Bowie over Jordan draft pick, and even LAST YEAR he wrote a piece about how he would still draft Jay Williams over Yao. He is no expert. He is simply a fan who has a decently entertaining blog that is not supposed to be informative. Asking him about Yao is like asking an Orlando columnist about Tracy McGrady, you know as well as I do that they have plenty of crap to spew about him and will do it if given the chance (which they did recently).

BaYBaller · Post #140 » by **BaYBaller** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:13 pm

Even though compucomp is in love with Yao or whatever I don't see how you can say that the offense is better with Yao out. Maybe total points scored because a faster pace and more possessions but not in overall offensive efficiency. The notion of Yao clogging the lane is somewhat overblown. If it's a set play you can easily drive on the weak side if Yao wants to stay on the box. Yao can also set up a high PnR, which has been the most effective play for HOU since T-Mac got here. The only time I have actually noticed an issue with Yao clogging the lane was certain occassions with Artest and Wafer, which I can only assume has to do with chemistry issues being their first year here.

Also I have absolutely no idea why you think smart defenders help off Yao because he's not a threat for the offensive rebound. Not only is that a ridiculous statement but it is based on what I can only assume is conjecture. Just ask Garnett the last game in BOS. Nobody is going to leave Yao directly under the hoop and not boxed out unless they absolutely have to.

As for Artest I'm still unsure what to do with him (as I'm sure Adelman is as well). You can see he isn't the greatest of finishers around the rim, but he is effective if he can bully his way in through a smaller defender. On the flip side the possibility of him spreading the floor at the PF spot is also enticing.

On the subject of T-Mac and Wafer, T-Mac is still a much better passer, and much better at getting his own shot even in his current state. I think starting him was the right decision. Wafer is pretty much going to be that spark plug off the bench, as he should be.