Yao vs. Lakers - 1/17/03
Special Bonus Coverage
 On this play, Yao's shot cannot be blocked even by Shaq. The Rockets went on to win 108-104 in overtime |
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Epic. This game was one for the ages. If you weren't one of the tens of millions of people worldwide who saw the Rockets beat the Lakers 108-104 in overtime Friday night, I wish you could have seen it. If you didn't see it, I'll do my best to describe the game through the Detailed Yao Analysis below.
So where do we begin? Let's talk about the activity leading up and surrounding the game, sans the racial issue because I could write a book about that subject. You know it's a big game when Hakeem AND Moses Malone show up to watch this game. The two Houston Rocket legends were sitting at half court on the floor with owner Leslie Alexander. We hadn't seen Moses in years, and Hakeem has only been to one game this season (to our knowledge) which was his retirement ceremony on November 9th. Other Houston luminaries in attendance were Kenny Smith, Roger Clemens and Houston Texans quarterback David Carr. Yao vs. Shaq Okay, let's get to the meaty stuff. Yao started off with a bang by unbelievably blocking Shaq three times in the first three minutes of the game. It's almost a guarantee that no one has ever done that to Shaq before. Yao also scored 6 points in those first three minutes, leading ESPN analyst Bill Walton to say, "This is a stunning start." But Yao cooled off offensively and missed 7 shots in a row until the 4:22 mark in the fourth quarter. Part of it may have been because of good defense by the Lakers and Shaq, but another reason could have been an injury to Yao's left index finger in the first half, which Yao iced during timeouts. Whatever the reason, it didn't matter if Yao wasn't scoring, because he played solid defense against O'Neal. In total, Yao had 5 blocks against The Diesel. Offensively speaking, although Shaq scored 31 points, 8 of those points were scored when Yao was not in the game, 2 were scored on a slam dunk that should have been a goaltending call on Shaq, and 4 were scored on free throws from intentional fouls. That's alot of points (14) to account for if anyone is going to say Shaq outplayed Yao. It's funny how Shaq's dunks are talked about on Sportscenter, but what about Yao's 5 blocks against Shaq? Yao also played 9 less minutes than Shaq. But let's face it, no one is going to shutout Shaq. The goal? Just play a decent game and give your teammates the opportunity to win it. Mission accomplished. Offensive problems once again The Rockets didn't win this game in the prettiest way. Their offense got very ugly in the fourth quarter when it struggled and showed to the entire world how bad it can really be when it plays against a good defense like the Lakers. It broke down most of the time with players resorting to the same old jacked-up shots that don't make sense, all to the ire of Bill Walton. It's amazing the Rockets won this game with how poorly the offense played. We're still not fans of Rudy's offensive strategy where basically each player creates their own shot at the expense of low-percentage FG attempts and turnovers (17 for the game compared to the Lakers' 8). If Kobe had a normal game shooting (only 5-for-21 from the field), the Rockets would have lost this game. But perhaps with the whole world seeing how flawed the offense is, and seeing how stressful it is to almost lose a game you had in the bag after holding a 7-point lead in the fourth quarter, these factors will motivate Rudy to start emphasizing more ball movement. More than a breakout game...a legendary one The reason why the Rockets won was because of Stevie Franchise. If there was ever a time to call him by that name, it is now. Franchise put the team on his back by scoring a career-high 44 points (12-for-21 from the field, 14-of-17 from the line, 6-for-8 on three-pointers). While other Rockets were struggling because of the Laker pressure, Franchise was there to deliver by making a big trey with 13.4 seconds to put the game into overtime. And with the tremendous amount of time he handled the ball, it's amazing Francis had only 3 turnovers [later amended to be 7. Sorry, my bad. But still not as much as you would expect scoring 44 and the number of assists he had. Read on...] What's also great is the 11 assists Franchise dished out that kept his teammates involved, including perhaps The Play of the Year when Francis faked out Kobe on one pump attempt, drew Shaq to him on another fake, and zipped a heads-up pass to Yao on the baseline for a dunk that put the game away. Almost every superstar player who has played in the NBA has that one game where fans remember it being the event that put them into the 'immortality' classification. This game was 'it' for Francis as the world watched him validate the All-Star status he has achieved. It was also the first time in Houston Rockets history a player had scored more than 40 points and over 10 assists in the same game. Honorable mention Cuttino Mobley had a great game, too, scoring 29 points on 8-of-17 shooting, including a big 3-pointer in the fourth quarter when the Rockets were having problems, and hitting 10-of-10 free throws. Can you imagine only getting Honorable Mention with awesome stats like that? Cat showed tonight he can be a player who doesn't just score a lot of points against bad or average teams, but can deliver against the big boys. Cat grew before our eyes tonight when he sank free throw after free throw to close it out. That kind of performance would usually warrant a couple of more paragraphs of text, but this obviously was Stevie and Yao's night, and is certainly the focus of our attention. Moving forward For the next couple of days until their next game, it's time for the Rockets to reflect just how much this victory can do for their season and to build on it. Although they lost the lead in the fourth quarter, they made plays when they needed them. Now they are 23-15, have won 6 of their last 7 games, and hopefully are on their way to a 50-win season. Not bad for a team that was 28-54 last year. We can't end this column without saying one more thing about Shaq. He made another comment that was offensive, this time to people who don't make much money. In regard to a flagrant foul called on Shaq in the final minute of overtime, he has some nerve to make the following comment (especially after the Rockets were rooked several times themselves on bad calls by the refs, which kept the Lakers in the game in the first place): "The unfortunate thing is it had to be decided by them. A whole bunch of people who paid a lot of money had to see a game that was decided by someone who doesn't make a lot of money. That's unfortunate." So does that mean people (referees) who don't make as much money as the fans who paid for expensive tickets aren't smart? What does a person's income have to do with anything? Here we go again. I guess he'll never learn. cYAO, John |
Detailed Yao Analysis
vs. Los Angeles Lakers 1/17/03
| 1st quarter - Yao starts the game, but loses the tip to Shaq. | ||
| 11:47 |  |
On the first play of the game, Shaq gets the ball out on the right wing about 20 feet from the basket. He dribbles past Yao along the baseline, gets under the basket, and goes up for a shot about 3 feet from the hoop, but Yao goes up to block the shot from the side! The sell-out crowd roars like it's going to bust the roof off Compaq! |
| 11:37 |  |
Ten seconds later, Yao gets the ball deep in the paint with his back facing the basket, and Shaq is guarding him. Yao dribbles once into the lane and goes up for a sweeping Sky hook with his right hand--COUNT IT! Shaq hardly contested the shot. Guess he's feeling Yao out to see how high he needs to go to block it. The crowd is amped, as well as the Rockets bench where Bostjan Nachbar and Moochie Norris rise from their seats and are clapping like this is an NBA Finals game! |
| 10:17 |  |
Yao shoots almost the exact same shot over Shaq as last time, but misses. Yao is 1-for-2 from the field. |
| 10:04 |   |
Shaq posts up on the left edge of the lane, dribbles twice into the lane, then spins baseline toward the bucket, jumps and puts up a shot he wants to dunk, BUT YAO BLOCKS IT AT THE RIM FOR HIS SECOND STRAIGHT REJECTION OF SHAQ! You can only imagine the decibel level inside Compaq Center right now!
Yao starts running up the court on the fast break as Shaq tries to understand what just happened. Francis has the ball on the break and sees Yao cutting through the lane unimpeded. Franchise wisely passes the ball to Yao, who catches the ball in the middle of the lane, jumps, pump fakes 4 feet from the rim, and banks it in off the glass for the basket! Yao thoroughly beat Shaq down the floor for that one! Yao is 2-for-3 from the field with 4 points. Rockets lead 6-2. |
| 9:26 |  |
From his favorite spot on the left side, Yao quickly turns for a fallaway jumper over Shaq, and YAO DRAINS IT! Yao is 3-for-4 from the field and has all of Houston's 6 points.
Bill Walton says, "He's calling for the ball. He's just going right at the league's Most Valuable Player (Shaq)." |
| 9:07 |  |
Shaq gets the ball down low about 4 feet from the basket with only Yao in between himself and the basket. Shaq makes contact with Yao, then spins toward the baseline and goes up for a shot, BUT YAO IS THERE AGAIN WITH HIS 3RD BLOCK IN A ROW! Shaq looks like he's asking, "What's going on here?" |
| 8:17 |  |
From the right side just outside the lane, Yao dribbles once toward the lane, then quickly spins away from Shaq and shoots a fallaway jumper. But the shot misses everything and comes down to the Lakers. I think this is the first we've seen Yao shoot an airball from this position on the floor. |
| 5:54 | Yao is guarding Shaq in the middle of the paint. But Shaq breaks free for just a split second while Kobe zips an entry pass to him from behind the arc. Yao tries to deflect it, but the pass is too fast. Shaq catches it, has an easy lane to the basket, and throws it down two-handed with a hang-on-the-rim-and-flair-out-the-legs dunk. Great pass by Kobe to Shaq as he broke free. | |
| 5:31 |  |
Yao gets the ball at the top of the key all alone, and shoots an 18-footer but misses. |
| 4:00 | During the timeout, the Rockets trainers are treating Yao's left-hand index finger. | |
| 2:30 | Yao checks out of the game for Cato with 6 points (3-for-6) and 3 blocks. | |
| 2nd quarter - The Rockets trail 22-28 (Francis hit a three at the end of the first quarter to close the gap to 6). | ||
| 12:00 | Both Yao and Shaq are out of the game. | |
| 6:16 | Yao checks into the game for Cato. | |
| 1:05 | Yao checks out of the game. Rockets trail 44-47. | |
| Halftime - The Rockets trail 46-47. Yao has 6 points on 3-of-8 shooting, no rebounds and 3 blocks. Shaq has 11 points, 4 rebounds and no blocks. | ||
| 3rd quarter - Yao and Shaq start the quarter. | ||
| 11:50 | Pick | Just inside the three point line on the right side, Yao has the ball and hands it off to Mobley who is curling around him. Fox is chasing him and runs right into Yao's monster pick and falls to the ground like a boxer after getting knocked out. We're not sure if Fox is acting, though, since he gets up pretty fast. Cuttino proceeds to drive straight to the hole and goes in for a two-handed dunk! |
| 6:08 | Assist | Mobley drives the lane and passes a high pass to Yao. Yao catches it and sees there's no shot, so he immediately and adeptly passes it out to Francis on the wing, who drains the three! Great anticipation by Yao to find the open man! |
| 5:42 |  |
Shaq gets the ball on the right edge of the free throw line, dribbles into the middle of the lane, then goes up for a fallaway jumper...BUT YAO IS THERE TO BLOCK IT FOR HIS 4TH REJECTION OF SHAQ! Unfortunately, Yao can't grab the ball cleanly, it pops out of his hands and to Robert Horry under the basket, who dunks it home as Yao recovers and tries to swipe that shot as well! Bad break for the Rockets after such a great block by Yao. |
| 3:32 |  |
Kobe drives toward the baseline, elevates towards the basket from the edge of the free throw line, tries to draw contact and then shoot it on the way down, but YAO IS THERE TO STUFF HIM! |
| 2:21 | Shaq in cylinder, no call | Shaq grabs a rebound off the glass and above the rim and slams it home. Replays show the ball was in the cylinder when he first touched, but there was no call. |
| 2:02 | Yao checks out of the game for Cato with 6 points, 5 boards, and 5 blocks in 26 minutes. | |
| 1:39 | Shaq checks out of the game. | |
| 4th quarter - Rockets lead 61-59. | ||
| 12:00 | Shaq starts the quarter, Yao is still on the bench. | |
| 8:18 | Yao checks into the game with the score tied 77-77. | |
| 6:41 | Shaq gets the ball on the left edge of the paint. Shaq spins toward the baseline, elevates and shoots a one-handed jump shot from 5 feet away, and it's good.
Bill Walton says, "Yao has to live with that. You force Shaq to take that shot every single time, you have a chance. Keep him out of the middle...the most impressive thing about Yao Ming tonight has been his defense. He has not fouled, he has not allowed Shaq to overpower and overwhelm him at the hoop." "25 minutes against Shaq is like Friday afternoon in Los Angeles on the 405 Freeway." |
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| 5:50 | Yao goes up for a monster defensive rebound over Devean George, and shoots a quick outlet pass over Shaq, who tries to jump and deflect it, to Mobley at halfcourt on the dead run. Mobley takes it all the way to the rack for a layup! Great starting of the fast break by Yao with his outlet! Rockets lead 83-81. | |
| 5:15 | Shaq tries a jump hook over Yao in the middle of the lane, but Yao plays great defense to make him miss it. | |
| 4:22 |  |
Steve Francis drives baseline, but sees Yao cutting to the basket from out high, and flips a quick pass to him. Yao stops in the middle of the lane four feet from the basket, leans in and scores on a right-handed lay-in over Horry (who tries to draw the charge)! Great body control by Yao to score for the first time in almost 3 quarters! Rockets lead 85-83. Yao has 8 points on 4-for-12 shooting. |
| 3:50 |  |
Shaq attempts a fallaway jump shot over Yao, but Yao slightly tips it and is credited with the block! That's 5 blocks against Shaq that Yao has racked! |
| 1:26 | With the score tied 87-87, the Lakers Rick Fox shoots a three pointer, but it bounces high off the rim AND YAO SKIES FOR THE REBOUND AFTER DOING A GREAT JOB OF BLOCKING OUT SHAQ! That rebound was HUGE! . | |
| :18.8 | Kobe is shooting free throws with a two-point lead, 91-89. He makes the first one, but misses the second one! That makes it only a three point lead. Read on... | |
| :13.4 | James Posey inbounds the ball to Yao out high near the three-point line. Francis curls around Yao as he hands him the ball, and Yao stays stationary as he sets a pick on Fisher. Francis stops at the top of the three point line needing a three-pointer to tie it...AND HE DRILLS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Compaq erupts!! The game is tied 92-92!! Whatta bucket, and great screen by Yao!! This play has been used a couple of times in the final seconds this year (at Memphis and at Miami), and it has worked all three times now! | |
| Overtime - The score is tied 92-92. | ||
| 4:44 | Shaq gets into the lane and shoots a jumper too hard, and it bounces strong off the glass and Yao tips it backward to Francis, who gains control of it over Kobe. Great defensive tap by Yao! | |
| 4:06 | Shaq gets the ball on the left side outside of the paint. He dribbles twice on Yao into the middle of the lane, then spins the other way and goes up for a monster jam over Yao that leaves the backboard rattling. That's the kind of dunk that everyone was expecting Shaq to put on Yao all game long, but it's really the first time it has happened. The score is now tied 94-94. | |
| 3:15 | Shaq gets the ball on the right side just outside the paint, spins baseline on Yao, jumps backwards, then puts a shot off the glass and it's good. Yao even tried to foul him by grabbing him around the waist, but Shaq still made the shot. Hate to admit it, but that was an awesome move by Shaq. The Lakers lead 96-94. | |
| 2:30 | Shaq goes up for a jump shot just outside the paint on the right side, but Yao has good position and Shaq misses. The Rockets trail 95-96 and they have the ball. | |
| 2:22 | Francis drives the lane, but fumbles the ball and three Lakers try to grab it. While on his knees in the middle of the lane, Francis is able to gain possession of the ball and spot Mobley out by the three point line. From his knees he throws a slow bounce pass to Mobley, who calmly takes his time, elevates and DRAINS THE THREE TO TAKE THE LEAD!!! UNBELIEVABLE PLAY (LUCKY PERHAPS?) AND CLUTCH TREY BY CUTTINO!!! | |
| 1:28 | Shaq jams another home, but this time with all 5 Rockets around him, not just Yao. The Rockets still lead 99-98. | |
| 1:11 | Francis drives baseline and Shaq ties him up, but Shaq is called for a flagrant foul, which means he gets two shots and possession of the ball. On top of that, Phil Jackson is called for a technical foul for contesting the foul. | |
| :33.6 | Yao blocked Horry's shot, but he's called for a foul. Horry makes both free throws, and the Rockets lead by two: 102-100. | |
| :10.2 |  |
Francis drives to the elbow but is cut off by Kobe, so he spins away from him and makes his way to the free throw circle where he pump fakes a shot that gets Kobe in the air and out of the play, then Francis pulls up to shoot a jumper from the free throw line that draws Shaq to him, BUT NO! HE SEES YAO AT THE VERY LAST INSTANT ALONG THE BASELINE, AND ZIPS HIM A PASS, AND YAO GOES IN FOR THE TWO-HANDED JAM WITH ONE SECOND LEFT ON THE SHOT CLOCK! WHAT AN UNBELIEVABLE ALL-STAR PLAY BY BOTH GUYS, ESPECIALLY FRANCIS!!! THE COMPAQ RAFTERS ARE ABOUT TO COLLAPSE FROM ALL THE NOISE!!
The Rockets go on to win 108-104. Yao finishes with 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 blocks! A classic game that will always be remembered! |
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Did you know?
* One thing might have been lost in all the bedlam of the celebration after the now-famous pass from Steve to Yao for the two-handed jam in the overtime period. There were only 2 seconds on the shot clock when Steve passed the ball to Yao, and only 1 second on the shot clock when Yao jammed it through. Talk about cutting it close! * Francis figured in almost two-thirds of the Rockets 108 points with his 44 points and 11 assists. Coverage on the tube You have to give credit to ESPN for bringing up the issue about Shaq's controversial comments. It would have been very easy for them to just keep it simple and only talk about basketball, but to not address this issue when millions did not know much about it would have been the easy way out. Play-by-play man Mike Tirico brought up the issue for those who did not know about the controversy, and quickly analysts Bill Walton and Tom Tolbert provided their opinions. Walton was consistent with the article he wrote on ESPN.com the day before, saying he thought Shaq's comments were not only wrong, but the way he apologized was unacceptable. Tolbert believed the exact opposite. He thought people were taking the issue too seriously. Regardless of whose side you are on in this argument, it made for great television. Walton and Tolbert got into a very heated debate with each other. It was probably the most spirited debate I've heard during an NBA game ever. It appeared the two had purposely not discussed the issue beforehand so it could be as fresh and spontaneous as possible in front of the audience. It worked. |
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Christmas in January
You probably heard how Yao had sent a Christmas card to Shaq, received December 23rd by Shaq's dad Phil Harrison, and read by his father on camera during the game. We think this is what Phil read (it was hard to understand the first sentence, even after playing back the videotape 10 times) Dear Mr. O'Neal, Best wishes for the Holiday. Thanks for the upcoming year. Thanks for the encouragement. You are my #1 player. Be like Shaq. Mr. Yao Ming The last sentence has us curious. We're thinking that Yao meant that Shaq should just be himself. However, it should be made clear that this card was written before the recent controversy had bubbled up to the national media over the past week. As a side note, it turns out Shaq had not seen the card until just before the game. Apparently the card had been sent to Shaq's father's address. What's so funny? During the game there was a play where Francis had knocked a Laker ball out of bounds on a defensive play in front of the Rockets bench. Francis had dived for the ball along the sideline, and when he got up, Rudy and Steve exchanged some words and both of them busted out laughing and proceeded to give each other a 'low-five.' That was the most expressive laugh I had ever seen between Rudy and a player DURING a game! It would be great to know what they said to each other. Call it both ways ESPN's Tom Tolbert went ballistic by jumping on the officials for making the controversial call against Shaq in overtime when he fouled Francis and it was ruled to be flagrant. Although the call may have been wrong, the Rockets were wronged on big plays of their own, but Tolbert wasn't as opinionated on those calls, like when...
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More comments from Walton
You can see several comments made by Bill Walton in the Detailed Yao Analysis (highlighted in bold) and "What they are saying" sections. Here are some more we pulled from the ESPN telecast:
You also may have seen after the game when Yao and Steve Francis were giving interviews on the court how Shaq's dad (Phil Harrison) came up to Yao with a big smile on his face and gave him a hug. That really impressed me. After the interview was over, he gave even a bigger smile and hug to Francis. You really have to like moments like those. Even though the Lakers had just lost a big game, Phil didn't hold grudges and seemed to treat Yao and Steve like they were his own kids. Foot in mouth again? After the Rocket-Laker game, Shaq not only insulted people (like referees) who don't make much money with this statement: "The unfortunate thing is it had to be decided by them. A whole bunch of people who paid a lot of money had to see a game that was decided by someone who doesn't make a lot of money. That's unfortunate." ...but in a post-game news conference Shaq also goes after an ordinary guy (Irwin Tang of Asian Week) who was offended by Shaq's statements last week... "It's just unfortunate that an idiot writer would try to start a racial war when there's really nothing there. I said a joke. Maybe it was funny, maybe it wasn't funny. I already apologized. But an idiot writer from a small paper started it and I'm surprised that some of you big guys, rather than just sticking to the facts, that you jumped on the bandwagon. So I'm disappointed in some of you media people for that. And that's why sometimes I don't talk to you. Because, if you're going to be a writer, sit your [butt] down and write. Don't make [stuff] up and don't try to start nothing." Shaq should understand that if someone of color is offended by his statements, that person is not 'making stuff up' when he expresses how hurt he is by those statements. That's like saying Martin Luther King, Jr. was 'making stuff up' when he expressed his opinion in the 1960s. And what's the deal with Shaq denigrating the 'little guy?' Similar to the first statement above on how someone who makes less money doesn't have great judgment, he's saying here that the smaller the paper you write for, the less your opinion matters. These statements from Shaq are surprising considering his modest upbringing. I guess the bigger in size you get, the more you feel you're entitled to go after people who are smaller than you and don't have as much of the mass media's attention. I think the word for that is 'bully.' Personally, I have always liked Shaq because of his unique statements and humor, atypical for many athletes these days who seem to be reading canned responses from a script. Making fun of the Sacramento Kings is one thing, but insulting those people who can't defend themselves is another. But in Shaq's mind, I'm probably just 'making stuff up' since I'm just this little guy with a Web site. |