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Yao appears dejected in the fourth quarter against the Nuggets
after getting little playing time for the second straight game.

Who would have thought Rudy Tomjanovich would have limited Yao to 13 minutes in his second NBA game? We cannot understand it. Talk about anticlimactic! Yao had 2 points, went 1-5 from the field, had 7 rebounds and one assist. If you read the 10/30/02 quote by Rudy T. in the "What they are saying" section below, you can understand how the Rockets think Yao is way behind in his preparation. You can even read another article saying that Yao is not ready--that he has too many liabilities, and those liabilities can be exploited. But the one thing these risk averse people forget is that Yao is smart and has proven throughout his career he learns very quickly from his mistakes. There is also something to be said about playing Yao more minutes NOW. For example, the Houston Texans are throwing rookie quarterback David Carr into the fire by playing him NOW. Yao has a lot to learn about the pace and speed of the game, but he's not going to learn it from the bench. Plus, it's not like Yao is tired. He's 22 years old, and he's not making excuses like the Denver altitude--he WANTS to play more minutes. Just look at the picture at the top of this page. All we want are 20 minutes a game. Perplexing. Although the Rockets beat the Nuggets 83-74 Friday night, the Houston offense looked dreadful for most of the game. It reminded us much of last year's offense, despite Rudy T.'s emphasis on more movement in the offense during training camp. The Rockets need a scoring threat like Yao in the middle of the paint to open up opportunities for other players. Instead Yao is being forced to play Kelvin Cato's style of play--staying outside the paint, ready to crash the boards, waiting for a guard to drive the lane and put up an acrobatic and difficult shot. Can't we use someone 7'6" a better way? Although we diss Cato, he surprisingly had a decent game -- 5 blocks and six points at the half -- to earn more playing time in the second half. But the part of the game that really perturbed us when Cato was replaced not by Yao in the 3rd quarter, but by Jason Collier! We have been watching Collier carefully, and on defense he constantly leaves his man open for uncontested dunks. Perplexing once again. If Rudy doesn't play Yao for more than 20 minutes Saturday night in Compaq Center against Toronto, don't be surprised if he is booed by Rocket fans. Doesn't he realize there are millions of new fans in China watching, wincing in pain while the offense struggles when Yao could at least be a decoy? Doesn't Rudy also realize there are a lot of NBA fantasy league owners who drafted Yao and are getting nothing from him? ;-)

Detailed Yao analysis
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1st quarter
3:44	Yao checks in and replaces Kelvin Cato.
3:28	Yao came over to help on defense against a driving Nikoloz Tskitishvili, who had driven past Francis. But he deftly passed to Nene Hilario on the baseline, who drove to the basket for a nice layup. If Yao hadn't come over to help, Tskitishvili would have had a sure slam. So we don't know if you can blame this play on Yao. The 7-foot Tskitishhvili looks like he's going to cause a lot of problems the way he can handle the basketball and drive through the lane at his size.
3:20	Yao shows his court vision and anticipation by receiving a pass near the three-point line and quickly passing to a cutting and wide-open Jason Collier for a slam!
2nd quarter
11:29	From the left side, Yao makes a baseline spin move and floats a shot a few feet from the basket, but James Posey surprisingly swats the ball away. It's debatable if Yao can dunk the ball on these types of moves, but it may be worth trying since NBA athletes are quicker than what Yao may be accustomed to.
10:43	Yao scores his first basket in the NBA. He got the ball on the left block with his back turned to the basket, dribbled about three times, quickly turned right and hit a perfect fallaway swisher. Surprisingly, there was a nice roar from the Denver crowd.
8:45	Yao came over to defend a driving Kenny Satterfied near the basket and had perfect position as Yao stood his ground. The refs failed to call a charge against Satterfield, who ran right into Yao and scored the basket. Rudy T. was livid on the sidelines for not rewarding Yao for his great defensive position.
7:49	Yao checks out of the game for Cato after 7 minutes and 45 seconds of playing time.
4th quarter
12:00	Yao checks into the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter...finally. Rockets are up 56-53.
11:39	Yao rebounds a blocked Jason Collier shot about three feet from the basket and tries to put it up off the glass (see photo below), but it gets blocked by Nugget Chris Andersen underneath the basket. Yao most likely would have gone up for the slam if he had an unobstructed path, but he had to play it safe. This is the second time in the game that Yao has been blocked, which is surprising given his height. He may need to become more assertive and go up for slams, even if it means he could get called for charging. But this approach could put Yao on the free throw line more, where he's 'money.'
9:59	Nugget Nene Hilario tries to go baseline against Yao, but Yao does a great job of quickly cutting him off and making him go the other way (see photo below). Hilario spins and tries a hook shot over Yao, but misses off the back of the iron.
8:35	Yao gets it in the post and does a quick turnaround leaning toward the basket, but aims too high in trying to use the backboard, and misses badly.
7:10	Yao is replaced by Cato. Looks like another low-minute evening for Yao.
4:08	From the bench, Yao shows more emotion than any other Houston player by raising his arms and pumping his fist in exclamation when Mobley hits a clutch three-pointer to put Houston up 7 points. This outburst shows Yao is passionate about the game and cares more about the team than himself--consistent with his Chinese training and upbringing.

Unfortunately, Yao is about to get blocked on this shot by Nugget Chris Andersen.

Yao plays Nene Hilario beautifully by cutting him off at the baseline.

Yao battles in the paint for a rebound.

Yao always seems to show his enthusiasm when his teammates play well.

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