HOUSTON OWNS PHOENIX

That doesnt stop Tmac in between game nd also his face up game. Marion is a good on the ball defender, but not that good of a help defense guy. You want him guarding the other teams best perimeter player, he could have slowed tmac down at the very least.

LOL marion is like 6'8" and yao is 7'6" i dont think he would of taken that many rebounds away from yao

^ Is that a joke or are you serious?

At 6'8, Marion can still jump higher and grab rebounds over Yao, he's the teams leading offensive and defensive rebounder, so I think him being there would've made a huge difference. Not that it would've propelled the Suns to a victory or anything, but to say Marion not being there meant nothing is very far from true.

Yao had 9 offensive rebounds in the game, if Marion was there, he would've cleaned up some of those defensive boards that Yao managed to get. The Suns had Walter McCarty playing 26 mins at PF, and he grabbed 1 rebound in that time. McCarty did hit a lot of shots offensively, but he was a non-factor on the boards.

LOL marion is like 6'8" and yao is 7'6" i dont think he would of taken that many rebounds away from yao

Marion is only 6'8"...And yet he manages to grab 10 boards a night.

Rebounding is not all about height, it's more about positioning. Not only that, but Marion has sick vert. Yao can only jump like 1/2 cm off the ground while Marion's vert is pretty high (I'm not too sure but I think it's around 40 inches).

The Rockets played really well and could have still won with Marion in the game, but he would have definitley affected the final score in some way.

I gotta say though that was a high scoring game

it's phoenix.... whaddaya expect?

HOUSTON...scored 127

you know its easy in hindsight to say that if a team had so and so on the court they would have done this or that. the fact is they didnt have them and they got toasted. how do you know he would have made a huge difference. maybe he would have had a bad game and they would have lost even worse.

LOL marion is like 6'8" and yao is 7'6" i dont think he would of taken that many rebounds away from yao

Marion is only 6'8"...And yet he manages to grab 10 boards a night.

Rebounding is not all about height, it's more about positioning. Not only that, but Marion has sick vert. Yao can only jump like 1/2 cm off the ground while Marion's vert is pretty high (I'm not too sure but I think it's around 40 inches).

Marion's biggest strength in rebounding is his quick jumping. He can probably jump as high as he can jump four times before Yao could do it twice. If he can just tap it up and prevent someone else from getting it he has a great chance of pulling it in.

Not to say putting Marion on McGrady for at least a bit wouldn't be a bad idea. Hell if TMac was torching my team I'd even try putting Q on him for a bti and see if he feels up to it. But that's not how I'd start the game off.

the fact is that Houston won..
too bad marion couldn't play..
and it's very rare to see Houston havin a high score...
they were simply on fire...

i suppose coach's strategy also has something to do with this W.
Van Gundy's a good coach..

Reboundign is not height... Ben Wallace is only 6'9"???

Its about skill...

Rodman.. listed at 6'8..
Barkley.. 6'5...

Exactly!

i wasn't referring to you, matthew. i must have been putting my post together when you submitted the one above mine. i was referring to the other 2

I didn't swear either...

I gotta say though that was a high scoring game

it's phoenix.... whaddaya expect?

HOUSTON...scored 127

exactly.... phoenix sucks at defense. they're like the mavs of 2 years ago.... hell, i bet charlotte can score 100+ agains the suns....

i suppose coach's strategy also has something to do with this W.
Van Gundy's a good coach..

van gundy's not gonna be as effective as a coach if yao doesn't become more consistent... van gundy runs his offense through big centres, and if yao is a no-show that night they're pretty much f*cked....

Reboundign is not height... Ben Wallace is only 6'9"???

Its about skill...

bill russel said the reason he was such a good rebounder was because he always knew how the ball was gonna bounce off the rim. i think the mental part is the biggest part in rebounding. rodman always was thought of as a freak but the fact was that guy did his homework. sure he might have been lazy in practices near the end but he always studied film and was just flat out smart than almost anyone else on that court.

he only focus on rebounding and committed in doin that.. and he did it well..
he didn't care bout scoring..

His job o nthe team was to rebound.... but Bob Cousy did state that Russell could score if u needed him to... his offence is slightly underrated!

he only job was not rebounding mind you, the man was a defensive beast. imo the best defender to ever play the game. its too damn bad they didnt count blocks back when he played. its been said before that he would have averaged around 15 a game if they did.

Even if thats true (alot of people exagerate things like that, ive seen footage of him being scored on), there was so many more possesions back then, so 15 block shots, while impressive, is probably about the equivilent of 7 or 8 in todays pace, and there wasnt the athletes as there are today. however i do agree with you, he was the best defender in the leagues history.

I believe it was Bill Russel who said "I make more shots miss by making people think I'm going to block them then by actually doing it". Just having a presence of someone like ben wallace in the paint adds a whole other aspect to the game. I know I wouldn't want to go in the paint with that guy, huge rugged guy with an afro... don't mess.

You cant compare Ben Wallace to Bill Russell..

I can't compare the fact that they both have a strong presence in the paint?

Well then it's like comparing Peja to larry bird becuase they can both hit three's... Bill russel was much more than just a good help defender, russell did whatever it took to win. Ben Wallace, on the other hand, swats shots out of bounds when he comes on help and thats virtually it.

I understand, but I'm not trying to compare all aspects of bill russel/ben wallace because I know they vary a lot, I'm just trying to say that they both can be intimidating presences in the paint.

Well then it's like comparing Peja to larry bird becuase they can both hit three's... Bill russel was much more than just a good help defender, russell did whatever it took to win. Ben Wallace, on the other hand, swats shots out of bounds when he comes on help and thats virtually it.

this is a good point. when russel blocked shots he would block it just enough so he could catch it, todays players try to throw it out of bounds.