Rockets take out wounded Bucks
Monday, March 26th, 2007
by John
Yao throws one down over Milwaukee’s Brian Skinner on a play where he flopped a few seconds earlier in an attempt to draw a foul, but the refs didn’t fall for it. Yao finished the game with 22 points on 9-of-22 shooting, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in a 107-86 victory. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for pre-game photos.
As expected, the Rockets took care of business Monday night against the poor, injury-plagued 25-43 Milwaukee Bucks to clinch a spot in the Western Conference playoffs. With Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, Dan Gadzuric, Bobby Simmons, and Mo Williams all out, the Rockets got off to a fast start with another 30+ point first quarter (33), led by 9 at halftime, extended it to 23 in the third quarter, and cruised to a 106-87 win.
Although the Rockets were playing the second game of a back-to-back and they were embarrassed (once again) the night before by the Hornets, it was impossible to fathom the idea the Rockets would lose this game. If they had lost, they would have serious problems at this stage of the season losing a game like this one.
Yao got off to a rough start, missing his first 5 shots, and he finished 9-of-22 from the field for 22 points. I’m a little concerned Yao has started to lose his shooting confidence lately as the Rockets head into the home stretch. As much as I would like to blame it on the splint on his middle and ring finger on his shooting hand (like Rocket broadcasters Matt Bullard and Bill Worrell did), Yao has had some great shooting games since having the splint applied on March 9th, like the following:
March 9th – 6-of-11
March 11th – 14-of-22
March 16th – 8-of-18
March 18th – 10-of-18
March 20th – 10-of-17
March 22nd – 10-of-19
Also, starting since March 9th when he started wearing the splint, he has shot 67-of-79 (84.8%) from the free throw line, which is very close to his season average of 85.8%.
It’s only his last two games where he has struggled from the field, making only 16-of-44 shots for 36% shooting. If I could ask Yao one question, it would be about the effect the splint was having on his shot. He mentioned after the Hornets game the problem was that he wasn’t able to get position down low, and he vowed to get better position against the Bucks. However, getting better position still didn’t help as he started the game 0-for-5.
It was interesting that Jeff Van Gundy left Yao in the game until the very end of the game when it was well in hand, probably so he could improve his conditioning and work the kinks out of his suddenly-gone-south shot.
Yao throws one down over Milwaukee’s Brian Skinner on a play where he flopped a few seconds earlier in an attempt to draw a foul, but the refs didn’t fall for it. Yao finished the game with 22 points on 9-of-22 shooting, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in a 107-86 victory. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for pre-game photos.As expected, the Rockets took care of business Monday night against the poor, injury-plagued 25-43 Milwaukee Bucks to clinch a spot in the Western Conference playoffs. With Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, Dan Gadzuric, Bobby Simmons, and Mo Williams all out, the Rockets got off to a fast start with another 30+ point first quarter (33), led by 9 at halftime, extended it to 23 in the third quarter, and cruised to a 106-87 win.
Although the Rockets were playing the second game of a back-to-back and they were embarrassed (once again) the night before by the Hornets, it was impossible to fathom the idea the Rockets would lose this game. If they had lost, they would have serious problems at this stage of the season losing a game like this one.
Yao got off to a rough start, missing his first 5 shots, and he finished 9-of-22 from the field for 22 points. I’m a little concerned Yao has started to lose his shooting confidence lately as the Rockets head into the home stretch. As much as I would like to blame it on the splint on his middle and ring finger on his shooting hand (like Rocket broadcasters Matt Bullard and Bill Worrell did), Yao has had some great shooting games since having the splint applied on March 9th, like the following:
March 9th – 6-of-11
March 11th – 14-of-22
March 16th – 8-of-18
March 18th – 10-of-18
March 20th – 10-of-17
March 22nd – 10-of-19
Also, starting since March 9th when he started wearing the splint, he has shot 67-of-79 (84.8%) from the free throw line, which is very close to his season average of 85.8%.
It’s only his last two games where he has struggled from the field, making only 16-of-44 shots for 36% shooting. If I could ask Yao one question, it would be about the effect the splint was having on his shot. He mentioned after the Hornets game the problem was that he wasn’t able to get position down low, and he vowed to get better position against the Bucks. However, getting better position still didn’t help as he started the game 0-for-5.
It was interesting that Jeff Van Gundy left Yao in the game until the very end of the game when it was well in hand, probably so he could improve his conditioning and work the kinks out of his suddenly-gone-south shot.