Yao stretches out for a rebound over the Wizards’ Antawn Jamison on Wednesday night in Washington. Yao had a below average game, scoring 11 points on only 3-of-9 shooting from the floor, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. The Rockets ended up losing the game 101-98. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 3/2/05 – Just one day after getting lucky against the Chicago Bulls when shooting guard and catalyst Luol Deng had to leave his game against the Rockets for good, Houston had the exact opposite occur against them against Washington on Wednesday night.

Wizards guard Larry Hughes returned to the lineup for the first time after missing 20 games because of a broken thumb. Washington really missed him during his absence by winning only 9 of those games, and had lost 5 of their last six games. Hughes’ return made a big difference as he scored 31 points, grabbed 6 boards and had four assists to lead the Wizards to a 101-98 victory.

The Rockets had a chance down the stretch, but once again they blew their fourth game in their last five in the fourth quarter, giving up an 8-point lead after fighting hard to overcome a 17-point deficit in the third quarter.

Late in the fourth quarter, Yao mishandled a perfect pass right under the basket all by himself just for a second, which gave the Wizards just enough time to recover defensively and foul him to force him to make free throws. Yao went to the line and missed a big free throw that could have brought the Rockets to within one point, 97-96, with 1:12 remaining. Instead, they were still down by two points, 97-95.

After T-Mac hit a three-pointer with 6.9 seconds remaining that closed the gap to 99-98, the Rockets were forced to foul Washington’s Gilbert Arenas to put him on the line. Arenas made both free throws, pushing the lead to 101-98. T-Mac had to shoot a three-pointer to tie the game, but his shot was a little too strong. Result: Yao’s missed free throw was a big determinant in losing this game. If he had made that free throw, the Rockets would not have been forced to foul Arenas. Instead, the game would have been tied and the Rockets could have played straight up defense. And they wouldn’t have had to try to make a desperation three-pointer to tie it.

Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but this wasn’t the only thing Yao did wrong. He made only 3-of-9 shots after only playing 11 minutes the night before in Chicago. So certainly he must have been rested. By halftime he was 1-of-5 from the field with five points, made 2-of-4 in the third quarter, and didn’t take a shot in the fourth. He finished with 11 points in 29 minutes of play. Keep reading to learn later more about Yao’s miscues.

In the first quarter, the Rockets missed their first 8 shots of the game, including Yao getting blocked by Brendan Haywood, until Yao grabbed a rebound in front of the rim and slammed it home. Houston then went on a 9-2 run to take an 11-8 lead. Later Yao made a mistake by putting his hand in the basket and was called for defensive goaltending.

The Wizards finished on a 16-4 run to take a big 28-17 lead after one quarter, with the Rockets only shooting 26% (5-of-19) and turning the ball over six times, with three turnovers coming in their last four possessions. The Wizards scored after each one of those three turnovers.

Houston went on an 8-1 run at the beginning of the second quarter and shaved the deficit to 47-40 at halftime. However, Arenas was killing the Rockets with 16 points by halftime, Hughes had 10 points, as did Antawn Jamison. Even with Houston having a big height advantage, the Wizards were outscoring the Rockets 26-14 in the paint, 12-4 in second-chance points, and had a 12-2 lead in fast break points. Because of Houston turning the ball over 10 times, the Wizards had an 11-4 advantage in points off turnovers. It’s amazing the Rockets were only down by 7 points at the half.

In the first three minutes of the third quarter, the Rockets got outscored 12-2 and fell behind by 17 points, 59-42. It looked like they were going to get blown out of the MCI Center, when Houston suddenly started to chip away. Houston went on a 13-1 run, thanks to four turnovers by the Wizards during that run. Yao scored on a layup after getting a great pass from T-Mac on a double-team, and was fouled. After Yao hit the penalty free throw, the Rockets only trailed 62-58, having closed the deficit from 17 to 4 points in a little over 3 ½ minutes.

Yao , who had a promising third quarter after scoring 5 quick points, unfortunately dropped an easy pass underneath the rim that would have been a sure layup. Yao would not score the rest of the game.

Fortunately, the Rockets tied the game at 68-68 after scoring 10 straight points via a Mike James layup coming from a nifty pass by T-Mac, a trey by T-Mac, James hitting another 3-pointer, and T-Mac hitting a long 22-foot jumper. By the end of the third, the Rockets only trailed 73-71 after shooting 12-of-24 from the floor. James was sensational with 9 points on 4-of-9 shooting, Wesley scored 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting, and T-Mac had 7 points.

The Rockets really started cruising when Dikembe Mutombo threw a strike to
T-Mac, who cut into the lane and threw it down for a monster jam, putting Houston ahead 80-76. Then Jon Barry hit a three-pointer to put the Rockets up by 6 points, 85-79, with 6:56 remaining in the game. Then Barry scored again on a reverse layup to put the Rockets up 87-79 with 5:54 remaining. Finally, the Rockets had rid themselves of those recent fourth quarter collapse demons, right?

Wrong.

The Wizards didn’t give up and cut the lead to 89-86. The Rockets then threw the ball into Yao, who was easily stripped of the ball, and that turnover led to a layup by Arenas cutting the lead to 89-88. On the ensuing possession, Howard was stripped in the lane, which led to a Wizards’ fast break and two free throws by Hughes that gave them the lead, 90-89.

Later, Yao came over to help defend Larry Hughes, who penetrated into the lane. But by Yao leaving his man Brendan Haywood open, Hughes exploited the situation and dished to Haywood for a layup. Bad D by Yao.

Overall, Yao looked like he took a step back in time to November or December by the way he played. He looked nothing like the superstar he was the few weeks leading up to the All-Star game. If you had to pick one guy to pin this loss on, it would be Yao, who had a huge mismatch sizewise at center and didn’t exploit it.

The main bright spot for Houston outside of T-Mac’s 26 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists was once again the sensational Mike James, who scored 24 points (4-of-7 three-pointers), dished 7 assists and had 5 rebounds. Juwan Howard scored 12 points, as did Jon Barry on 4-of-5 shooting.

Now the Rockets have a few days off until their next game on Sunday against the Mavericks in Houston. Yao doesn’t seem to play very well after long periods of time between games, so don’t expect him to get back to his pre-All Star game self that game.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s post-game analysis, click here.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2005 at 11:58 pm and is filed under vs. Washington. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.