Yao Ming Mania - Latest Comments in Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

James Ma — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:23:02 -0000

Thanks, Pryuen and John, your points are well-taken. Yao's inside threat does open up the offense for other guys to score, and that's easy to overlook. The rules, indeed, have changed in the past decade or so in favor of wings rather than big men.

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

Staff — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:37:42 -0000

My thoughts to your points:

1) Shaq is actually playing better than he has in a long time.

2) Nash abuses everyone. He is a Hall of Famer. All of those other guys you mention do the same to their opponents.

3) The statement "The great big men always found a way to contribute during the final minutes..." applied when the rules were different. It's now much more difficult now because they can be double-teamed without the ball. Not many big men are winning games for their teams late. The rule changes have favored the CP3s, Wades, Kobes, etc. to win games.

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

Staff — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:27:56 -0000

About this same topic, I thought I'd reference something I found that Feigen wrote on chron.com about a week ago http://blogs.chron.com/nba/... at the 2:03 mark. About Brooks, Feigen wrote, "The Rockets wanted Brooks' scoring and perimeter shooting threat on the floor with Yao. Scoring point guards, or lead guards, get criticized for it, but many win an awful lot of games, with the one in San Antonio winning three championships. Cleveland seems pretty fired up about its chances with Mo Williams."

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

pryuen — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:14:50 -0000

You asked where was Big Yao at the end of the game???

Did you notice he was the player that stayed the longest on the court?? 41 minutes. Must be his seasonal highest play minute.

And as I posted above, Rockets is known best as a half-court O&D team; they're not good as a run-and-gun team. And towards the last stretch of that game, did you see how Aaron Brooks was playing??? He dribbled, and dribbled around the pick-n-roll set up by Big Yao for him, just shot regardless, without any slightest intention to pass. Big Yao could only run up and down the court on those O&D transitions.

Luckily Aaron Brooks made that lay-up past the slow Shaq.....and Yao Ming was there using his last ounce of energy, put his hand into the face of Steve Nash that made Nash missed that last shot. Or else, the Rockets would have lost.

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

Luckyme — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:10:39 -0000

That was a very exciting and entertaining game. Yao had a below-average game, but his block of Shaq's first shot and the three passings were priceless. At the end of the game, he seemed to be shying away from attacking the post. Too much respect for Shaq ?

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

James — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:12:33 -0000

We're all Yao fans here, but let's not ignore some disturbing (to me, anyway) aspects of Yao's game:

- Shaq is over the hill at 37 and Yao is in his prime. Shouldn't we expect more from Yao than a draw?
- Yao defended Nash's last shot well, but that was after Nash abused him (and Brooks) the entire second half. We've seen Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson and even Andrea Bargnani dance through games against the Rockets because of Yao's defensive weaknesses. It's OK when Yao makes it up at the offensive end, but he hasn't always been reliable at this.
- Also, where is Yao at the end of games? The great big men always found a way to contribute during the final minutes despite being smothered, but Yao often disappears. And frankly, when he does get the ball during crunch time my palms get sweaty because I want so much for him to do well, yet half the time he'll miss a shot or make mistakes.

Charley Rosen thinks Yao hasn't fully recovered from his foot injury, and he may be right, as Yao hasn't performed as well as in 2006 when he was considered an MVP candidate. Let's hope he finally gets a restful summer this year and comes back stronger than ever.

Sorry for the rant, guys, but being a Yao fan can be very frustrating sometimes: there's so much anticipation and hope built up but very few moments of release.

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

Staff — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 10:20:09 -0000

I like the dimension that Brooks brings that is so different from
Alston, and it seems to be working since he has a 13-3 record as a
starter. It seems most succesful teams these days have point guards
who are quick and can score (CP3, Wade, Rondo, Nash, etc). Mike Bibby
was like that, too, under Adelman at the Kings, so it may be that AB's
coach is wanting him to do that. Plus, he's still young and I think
will evolve. When you've got a physical asset and skill like that
(quickness, can score), I think you use it, just like Yao uses his
size. That's what frustrated me about McLady -- he could attack the
basket and score, but he settled for too many long jumpers and 3-
pointers.

If Brooks has an off shooting night, then I like how Lowry is available
to take over, like he did in Utah. As long as they have that, I'm okay
with AB being more aggressive because it gives the defense one more
thing they have to think about, which is good for Yao.

Good thoughts, and I'll keep an eye on it more.

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

Staff — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 10:01:13 -0000

I think they're working out pretty well.

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

pryuen — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:03:15 -0000

John

Thanks for the excellent game summary.

Could it be only me regarding my over-concern and worry??

Obviously a win is a win, no matter how ugly. And it was great for Aaron Brooks to sustain pressure, traded blows for blows, shots for shots with Steve Nash, a 2-time MVP, and score the clutch shot 7 seconds before end of 4Q to win the game.

But IMHO, if Aaron Brooks just remembered what the Rockets do best as a half-court O&D team, never great as a run-and-gun team, focused more on what traditional point guards do best, the Rockets would have finished the Suns in 3Q or 4Q, and the game needed not to be decided on the last shot.

Luckily, it was Yao Ming's timely help defense on Steve Nash's pick-n-roll and put a hand into his face to sort of affected the 3-pointer. Or else, the Rockets would have lost this crucial game.

It seemed to me that Aaron Brooks is just too trigger-happy, a shoot-first-pass-second guard. Yeah he shoots much better than Alston Rafer, but he just lacks the composure, court vision, and the ability to read the game and organize offense.

Most of the time that I watched him in this game, he would rely on his speed, push the ball past the half court, and then tried to speed past his defender 1-on-1 with his team mates providing shields for him. He would waste almost 8 to 15 seconds doing that. And when he realized he could not have scoring opportunity, he then passed to his team mates, leaving them very little time on the shot clock. He seldom can organize the offense.

When he played the point, he just held onto the ball too long....and Rockets' motion offense seemed to stall. He was lucky that his shots were falling tonight....and 20 shot attempts for 30 points, 3 assists and 4 turnovers did not seem to be good indicator of a competent point guard.

In that aspect, I like the other small fellow better. At least Kyle Lowry had better passing skills, better court vision, and he is willing to try to get his team mates involved, and organize offense.

I really think Lady Luck was with the Rockets tonight that they've won the game, which they should have put away early in 4Q, that the game needed not be decided on a last shot, if Aaron Brooks had put in effort to control the tempo/rhythm of the game, and not try to play run-and-gun with the Phoenix.

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

Jeff — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:33:33 -0000

Some critics say that Yao and Idleman cannot co-exist. What is your comments on that suggestion, John?

Re: Brooks breaks Suns in another breakout game

Xiao Chen — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:32:38 -0000

I watched this game, it was one of the best games I've watched lately. Ron Artest is doing exactly the same things that he did when he was with the Pacers on the court.

As long as we don't meet the Jazz in the playoffs, we'll go far this year.