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Yao blocks a shot of last year's Rookie of the Year Pau Gasol. The Rockets cruised to a victory Saturday night against the Memphis Grizzlies 93-82. (AP Photo).

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With Steve Francis sitting out to rest his sore back Saturday night, the Rockets finally won a game they were expected to win, defeating the Memphis Grizzlies 93-82. After trailing by 26 points at one time, the Grizzlies cut their deficit to 11 in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets held on to win despite scoring only 10 points in the final period. Through this victory, Houston's 3-game losing streak at home was finally broken. The Rockets continued their encouraging play of late exhibited against the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks on Friday night by spreading the ball around and attacking the basket. Houston got off to a fast start by going on a 15-4 run and taking a 23-12 run in the first quarter, and never really faced much of a threat. Without Steve in the game, Cuttino had one of his best games of the season by scoring 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting. The Rockets also outscored Memphis in the paint 60-38, with many of those buckets coming from slam dunks. The Rockets also had 51 rebounds, which continues the longest stretch of games this season (4) where they have had 50+ rebounds in each game. Mr. Consistency (once again) Yao had his usual reliable game, scoring 18 points (8-of-14) in 33 minutes, snaring 7 rebounds, tallying 2 assists, and 1 block. In fact, these stats were almost the exact same as his previous game against the Mavericks (33 minutes, 18 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block). Talk about consistency! I thought that Yao was going to be able to rest the entire fourth quarter when he checked out late in the third quarter and the Rockets led 79-56. But Rudy was compelled to put Yao back in the game when Memphis cut the deficit to 16 points with just over 7 minutes remaining. The lead never got smaller than 11 points afterwards. With this final stanza, Yao got to pad his stats with 4 more points and an assist. One tidbit worth mentioning: Over his last 12 games, Yao has made at least 50% of his shots in 8 of those games, averaging 17.5 points on .524 shooting over this span. This is a marked improvement compared to the 13 games prior to this stretch (the period where everyone was saying Yao had hit the 'rookie wall'). During that stretch of games, Yao shot 50% only four times, averaging 10.5 points on .402 shooting. Although Rudy frequently mentions that Yao is 'tired', you really can't tell if that's the case any longer after looking at these numbers. Francis' absence Moochie Norris did an admirable job filling in for Steve by scoring 9 points and 9 assists. In fact, Steve's absence was considered a benefit if you listen to Grizzlies' center Lorenzen Wright, who said after the game: "They play better when he's not out there. That lets the other guys show what they can do. The other guys pick up their game. He (Steve) carries so much of the scoring, when he's not out there, everybody else can play and divide it evenly." It reminds me of what some people said about Hakeem back in 1991 when Bill Cartwright's elbow landed on The Dream's eye socket and knocked him out for a bunch of games, followed by a big Rockets winning streak. Or when Vince Carter missed a lot of games last year because of injury, and without him the Raptors then went on an impressive run to almost make the playoffs. I'm not sure if I agree with Wright's statement, but it's interesting to hear another NBA player challenge Franchise's effectiveness. It will be interesting to see how often Steve tries to 'throw one down' on Wright in their next game against Memphis on April 15th! It will also be interesting to see how NBA experts start ranking Houston's backcourt (Cuttino and Steve), considered one of the best in the league, now that Gary Payton has joined Sam Cassell in Milwaukee's backcourt after this week's major trade. On Saturday night, Payton scored 22 points and had 9 assists in his debut as a Buck, and Cassell had 16 points and 8 assists. Next up The Rockets now go on a tough road trip, playing in Boston Monday, New York on Tuesday, and Washington on Thursday. You would expect the Rockets to win these games, but the Rockets have always had a tough time beating all of these teams on their annual East Coast swing. I think the Rockets will be fortunate to come away with 2 victories. Tuesday's game will also be interesting since it's the second night of a back-to-back, where Houston has done surprisingly well this season with a 10-4 record following Saturday's victory against Memphis.

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Detailed Yao Analysis
vs. Memphis Grizzlies 2/22/03

I decided to attend the game Saturday night (which explains why this report is coming out later than usual). However, because I'm a dummy, I messed up the programming of my VCR! (The game was televised in Houston on a different channel than normal). As a result, I can't provide my normal Detailed Yao Analysis. However, I did take some photos at the game. You can see some of those photos by clicking here. I hope this makes up for my stupidity. Thanks for bearing with my fallibility! In the meantime, you can see other Yao Ming Maniacs' opinions on his game against Memphis by visiting our discussion forum thread. You can even post your own thoughts (free registration required).

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