Rockets out-gunned in Dallas to lose fourth straight
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005
by John
Dallas’ Jason Terry pushes off on Yao Ming with no offensive foul called. The Rockets gave the heavily favored Mavericks troubles on Tuesday night, but Dallas prevailed in the fourth quarter to win 102-93. For more photos from the game, click here.
by John
TUESDAY, 11/22/05 - Despite a 102-93 loss, both of the Houston TV announcers were beaming about how great of an effort the Rockets put in Tuesday night in Dallas. Sure, they played better, led at halftime, and put up a good effort. But they choked in the latter half of the fourth quarter and lost another one. What else is new? A loss is loss, and there are no moral victories. As Jeff Van Gundy recently said, there is no positive spin to failure.
Let’s see…Yao could have kept it close in the fourth quarter, but he made only 1-of-4 shots in the quarter, missing two easy consecutive shots in the lane, including a blown layup when the Rockets only trailed 94-89 with 2:37 remaining.
I hate to say it, but Yao cannot carry a team through four quarters by himself without a superstar like T-Mac to help him. He either doesn’t have the mental toughness to do it, the stamina, or both. But in the first quarter, he was absolutely dominant, scoring 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting and hitting 7-of-8 free throws.
You can tell Yao has more energy in the first quarter, moving quickly without the ball jockeying for position. But as the game wears on after he has logged lots of minutes, he starts to fade. In the third quarter, he was only 1-for-6, and finished 2-for-10 in the second half altogether scoring only 5 points.
So here’s a thought: how about play Yao about 8-10 minutes in the first half, hope the Rockets can keep it close, then play him about 20 minutes in the second half so he will be fresh and can hopefully be quicker than his defenders? I don’t know if that will work, but it’s worth a shot. After all, we’re dealing with something here that no other NBA coach has ever encountered: playing one of the largest guys on the planet in a very active sport, in a very intense Van Gundy defensive system. Maybe it’s just not feasible for a 7’6” guy to play the same minutes as a 6’11” guy and stay as fresh.
Dallas’ Jason Terry pushes off on Yao Ming with no offensive foul called. The Rockets gave the heavily favored Mavericks troubles on Tuesday night, but Dallas prevailed in the fourth quarter to win 102-93. For more photos from the game, click here. by John
TUESDAY, 11/22/05 - Despite a 102-93 loss, both of the Houston TV announcers were beaming about how great of an effort the Rockets put in Tuesday night in Dallas. Sure, they played better, led at halftime, and put up a good effort. But they choked in the latter half of the fourth quarter and lost another one. What else is new? A loss is loss, and there are no moral victories. As Jeff Van Gundy recently said, there is no positive spin to failure.
Let’s see…Yao could have kept it close in the fourth quarter, but he made only 1-of-4 shots in the quarter, missing two easy consecutive shots in the lane, including a blown layup when the Rockets only trailed 94-89 with 2:37 remaining.
I hate to say it, but Yao cannot carry a team through four quarters by himself without a superstar like T-Mac to help him. He either doesn’t have the mental toughness to do it, the stamina, or both. But in the first quarter, he was absolutely dominant, scoring 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting and hitting 7-of-8 free throws.
You can tell Yao has more energy in the first quarter, moving quickly without the ball jockeying for position. But as the game wears on after he has logged lots of minutes, he starts to fade. In the third quarter, he was only 1-for-6, and finished 2-for-10 in the second half altogether scoring only 5 points.
So here’s a thought: how about play Yao about 8-10 minutes in the first half, hope the Rockets can keep it close, then play him about 20 minutes in the second half so he will be fresh and can hopefully be quicker than his defenders? I don’t know if that will work, but it’s worth a shot. After all, we’re dealing with something here that no other NBA coach has ever encountered: playing one of the largest guys on the planet in a very active sport, in a very intense Van Gundy defensive system. Maybe it’s just not feasible for a 7’6” guy to play the same minutes as a 6’11” guy and stay as fresh.
