Yao Dislikes What He Sees

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It wasn't a case of the Bucks collapsing on Yao defensively. For the most part, his offensive struggles came when he was being guarded straight up by 6-9 Brian Skinner.

"No, it's not the foot," Yao said. "That wasn't a problem. It seems like my turnovers are going up and my shooting is going down."

Yao appeared to be rushing his moves on offense and not getting the proper elevation on his turnarounds or his jump hook. Until he started to clean up around the basket, he looked every bit like someone who'd been away for nearly 1 1/2 weeks of camp.

"There's fatigue," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "He's in a constant battle with that. But he'll get into as good a shape as he can."

With less than two weeks until the regular-season opener, the clock is ticking.

"I can't say my conditioning was fine," Yao said. "Playing 28 minutes is good for me. But I need more time playing to feel the court, to feel my teammates, to feel my playing.

"I was making mistakes, running to the wrong place and not knowing what to do. It will take time to fix that, and it's going to take some work."

Feeling frustrated
Of course, Yao had put in much of that work over the summer, getting back into game shape and getting himself into decent conditioning for the World Basketball Championship in August.

By the time that competition was over, he was feeling on course to start the Rockets' training camp and pick up where he left off before breaking a bone in his foot last spring.

Now, time is of the essence.

"I feel rushed," Yao said. "That frustrates me. But I've got to put that frustration away and continue on."</div>

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