Lost in Translation

I think the technical foul on Yao Ming was unfair. Clearly, he's familiar with the English idiom "throw in the towel." Having fouled out, he simply tossed the towel across the court to indicate he accepted his fate, that he was ready to "throw in the towel."  Stupid refs.

Seriously, Yao is a sight. We've been trying to catch him live a few years now, but this was my first chance. His skill level is so disarming. I mean, if you have that sort of body you shouldn't get the benefit of massive skills too. It's almost unfair. In the first half, it was -- no one could think about stopping him. I don't know what halted his efforts in the second half -- maybe a little worry about foul trouble, maybe some tiredness. Tracy McGrady didn't suffer the same affliction.

There's a guy I've seen live a few times, T-Mac. And he's always amazing. When watching his fourth quarter explosion, I tried to look at what he does which Kevin Martin could duplicate to make sure he gets a bulk of shots. And I figured it out: He takes a ton of inexplicable shots. I guess you have to do that to be an Alpha dog in this league. Kevin never take bad shots. We wouldn't hold it against him if he started doing so.

And let's end with a rousing round of applause for Spencer Hawes, who simply dominated the paint in the third and fourth quarters as Brad Miller sat with foul trouble, Mikki Moore sat with ineffectiveness, and Kenny Thomas sat with Kenny Thomasness. Five rebounds in eight minutes during that stretch, and great court awareness and movement -- he set a lot of screens for Kevin and Ron. Three cheers for that.