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Yao has to assert himself if Rockets are to succeed

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Updated Mar 17, 2009 1:08 PM ET
     
 
Yao Ming hates to lose. If you saw him after defeats, you would see that it tears him up. Seven years in the NBA, and he never has won a playoff series. It is time for him to take his game to another level. Not his play, necessarily, but his handling of the game and his teammates. He is the Rockets' best player, their leader. Everybody in the world knows it, but it is time for Yao to let his teammates know it. He tiptoed around Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley. He deferred to Tracy McGrady. Now it is time for Yao to Americanize his game and let his teammates know what's up. As complex as the workings of a Basketball team are, it is a simple game. At times, the Rockets make it too difficult. Basically, the Rockets' offense should be as simple as 1-2-3. 1. His name is Yao. 2. Give him the ball. 3. Give him the ball. Don't tell us what defenses are taking away. Don't tell us double-teams are coming from the back side on entry passes. Don't tell us about fronting in the post. Too often the Rockets show a weakness in heart and commitment that good teams just don't show. That should worry Rockets fans who dream of the team having playoff success this season. Wednesday night - with the defending Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers in town - presented them a playoff-type atmosphere, and the Rockets played playoff-type basketball. They lost. (Hey, that's what they do in the playoffs isn't it? It's been a dozen years since Rockets fans cheered for their team in the second round, meaning there is a generation of Rockets fans growing up thinking this franchise never wins.) If the Rockets make a concerted effort to get Yao the ball, they are a better team. Period. If they do that, playoff success could be had.
Is Yao a superstar or what? Well, the NBA statistics show 59 players who take more shots per game than Yao averages. He took only three shots in the second half of a playoff-type game against the Lakers after making all six of his shots in the first half. That's ridiculous. Team fails him What, you think Shane "1-for-something" Battier can lead a team to a playoff series victory? (If so, you better turn off The Big Bang Theory, stop drinking that funny-tasting juice Daryl Morey is serving, and start watching the games.) If the Rockets do what they so often do in losses - fail to feed the big man - their playoff stay will be short. They talk about getting Yao the ball, then Battier carelessly rolls it to him in the post. Turnover. They say everything goes through Yao, then Aaron Brooks casually lofts a pass to him that travels so slow a defender could have started at the George R. Brown and gotten to Toyota Center in time to steal it. Turnover. You learn how to feed the post in bitty basketball. The Rockets had a season-high 23 turnovers against Los Angeles - which isn't a defensive machine - and perhaps a third of them involved poor attempts to get Yao the ball. They claim that as Yao goes so go the Rockets, yet Ron Artest threw up eight 3-pointers (he missed them all), and his teammates fired up 20 more on a night they weren't making many (five). How many times are we going to hear excuses for why the team could not get the ball to that tall dude? It is time Yao tells his teammates a thing or three. Clearly, Rick Adelman isn't getting the point across. During one game at the Olympics, a guard on the Chinese team, who couldn't start at Yates, threw some Battier-like mess into the post. It wasn't stolen, just knocked out of bounds, and Yao shouted at his teammate. Given my limited Chinese - and considering I was watching this game on Chinese television, so I had to lip-read (and I don't lip-read) - this translation might be a bit off. But I believe he said: "You see this huge hand? Throw it here." "Hey, Shane, you see this huge hand?" In another game, a Chinese teammate launched a trey just as Yao had pinned a defender on the low block. Yao gave him a dirty look and said something. Again, I don't habla or parlez-vous Chinese, but I think he said, "Hey, give me the darn ball." One would think Yao wouldn't have to do that in the NBA, but all the great scoring big men have had to do it. If only we had a recording of some of the things Hakeem Olajuwon said to Sam Cassell during games. Or what Moses Malone said to put Calvin Murphy in check. It's about time for Yao to be like Hakeem and Moses. The Rockets' playoff hopes might depend on it.
Tagged: Rockets, Yao Ming, Lakers

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