when the game started with the pace JVG wanted...

when the game started with the pace JVG wanted: slow pace, quick defense, and OK shooting from outside, it's the correct track to win the game facing a team like mavs at their home. however, when rockets can't shoot from outside and have so many TOs, the train just got derailed. you see Yao's shooting is terribel tonight. is it because he is tired? nah, it's only the 1st half, even a back-to-back shouldn't get him down that badly. what's the reason behind it? still the guards of rockets. JVG wanted his outside players, PGs, SGs and SFs, to play in-and-out games with Yao Ming on all the runs. This is the best way to use a traditional center like Yao Ming. When Yao gets a position inside, pass the ball inside. if nobody comes to double team him, good, Yao will turn and beat him one-on-one. if somebody comes up to double team, even better, all Yao needs to do is to pass the ball out, ideally, to the open shooter, or somebody else, then passing the ball quickly to the open player. Then a perimeter shoot will dunk them 2 or 3 points. if the player who has been double teaming Yao manages to go out to cover his own guy, that's fine too: Yao reposts himself and the PG just passes the ball back to him, then we go back to the old setting. No fancy plays here, but just the basics of in-and-out games. however, w/ today's rockets' roster, when nobody can shoot from outside, not even the 3-pointers, just those 2-point jumpers, this game just get too hard for Yao inside. why? nobody give a sh*t for other rockets except yao. whoever double-teaming him continues doing so, and let the other 3 to take care of the rest 4 rockets. they shoot from outside? fine. they would definitely miss and the rebound will be far from the post and yao wouldn't be able to grab it anyway. if Yao decides to shoot by himself, no problem either: under double or even triple teaming, how well do you think Yao can shoot? maybe just like what he is doing now. that's exactly what we are seeing in the 1st half of the game, and many many other games rockets have been playing this year: they let others to shoot and just take care of Yao, and we see a poor-shooting game by Yao. is this JVG's fault? not really. all the coaches will do the same. many open shots have been created by this set of play, which means the game plan is working. but if you can't dunk the points, sorry, there is no partial point in NBA. what's my point? it's not yao, not tmac, not JVG, but the guards. i miss the days with tmac, when nobody dares to double- or triple-team yao ming like tonight. i miss those tough players like JVG once had at NYK. if Rockets ever had warriors like oakley, come on, mavs will pay big in the paint.