Yao drives past Dallas center Shawn Bradley on Sunday in Houston. The Rockets defeated the Mavericks 90-69, who were without Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Erick Dampier because of injuries. Yao scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 28 minutes of play. Click here for more photos from the game.

by Chia-Chi

SUNDAY, 3/6/05 – On Sunday, the Rockets dominated the Dallas Mavericks for a surprising 90-69 victory. But Dallas has been plagued by injuries lately, with leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki a late scratch from the line-up Sunday because of mysterious knee swelling from the Mavericks’ game against the Lakers on Friday. Michael Finley has also been out of the lineup because of a bruised calf, and the Mavs’ main line of defense against Yao, the meaty Erick Dampier, has also been hurt.

But after losing four out of their last five games, any addition to the Rockets’ W column is welcomed by Rocket fans.

One of the areas head coach Jeff Van Gundy emphasized before the game was the team’s offensive rebounding, and the Rockets delivered in the first quarter, collecting 6 in that quarter alone. Yao also came out active in the first, scoring four quick points. His rebounding also improved, collecting 9 boards in the first half. But even without their leading scorers the Mavericks kept the game close, ending the first quarter down only 20-18.

However, the Rockets’ defense glowed in the second, leading to Maverick turnovers and fast break opportunities, holding the Mavs to 37% shooting. By the end of the second quarter the Rockets had amassed a 44-35 lead.

However, Shawn Bradley did a good job defending Yao in the first half, limiting his touches and holding him to 2-of-5 shots. But a pep talk during halftime seemed to invigorate Yao, who came out with six HUGE points in a row to deflate a Mavericks run that put them within 1 point.

The first play was off a nice pass from T-Mac, which lead to a two-handed jam that the Maverick’s offense could only watch in vain. The second was a pass to Yao while triple-teamed. With a quick release, he got the shot off, which was goaltended. The third was a — *gasp* — pass to Yao off a pick-and-roll. Yao’s path to the basket was partially blocked by Shawn Bradley, so he paused and used some nice footwork to get around Bradley to finish with a huge jam.

The majority of the fourth quarter was played by T-Mac, Dikembe Mutombo,
Jon Barry and Mike James. While the Rockets offense was slow in the beginning, they quickly found their offensive and defensive pace and dismantled the Mavericks’ hopes. Mutombo did a great job guarding the basket, and the Houston guards forced multiple turnovers.

The Mavericks offense grinded to a halt, scoring only 14 points in the final quarter. Yao came in for the final few minutes while the Rockets were up by 20 and scored four more points, including an emphatic dunk in the final minutes to seal the victory.

While the victory was expected against a short-handed Mavericks team, the win was still critical in building the Rockets’ confidence, especially heading into a road trip against Seattle and Phoenix. On a
good note, Bob Sura will play on the road trip, and none too late.

In other developments, the team seems to be getting more comfortable passing to Yao off the pick-and-roll, which can only be a good sign. Van Gundy also seems to have cooled off Mike James‘ offensive engines in return for defensive output.

The Rockets play Seattle on Tuesday to start their four game road trip. I personally will be watching live from Key Arena to provide Yao Ming Fan Club coverage. Go Rox!

Chia-Chi
zenithnadir@YaoMingFanClub.com

John’s take of the game

With Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Erick Dampier out of this game, the Rockets had no excuses if they had lost this game. The Dallas offense clearly struggled in the first half without their big horses in the lineup. Things were looking good for the Rockets with their 44-35 lead and 29-21 rebounding advantage.

But the Rockets were on the verge of having their ego shattered when Dallas came back in the third quarter, going on a 12-0 run in the first four minutes to take a 47-46 lead. The Rockets half-court offense looked as bad as it did in November, missing shots and turning the ball over.

But as Chia-Chi mentioned above, something magical happened. The Rockets went on an 8-0 run, with Yao scoring 6 of those points. Then when Dikembe came into the game for Yao, he made his presence immediately felt, forcing the Mavericks to miss seven of their next 8 shots. By the end of the third quarter, the Rockets had righted the ship and led 61-55 and completed a 23-4 run that stretched from the third and into the fourth to lead 80-59 with 5:35 remaining.

Similar to the Rockets loss against the Spurs on February 23rd when they didn’t have Bob Sura in the lineup, the Mavericks held tight until the loss of a key player caught up with them and the bottom fell out. By scoring only 69 points, the Mavericks scored their least amount of points in 6 years. But give the Rockets credit for some good defense, too, especially Dikembe, who finished with four blocks.

One of the stories of this game was T-Mac getting hit in the chin, requiring him to go to the locker room and get six stitches. Coming out of the locker room, T-Mac wasn’t fazed one bit, finishing with 32 points on 11-of-22 shooting, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Another amazing stat was the Rockets 17-6 advantage in fast break points against a team known for its run-and-gun offense.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 6th, 2005 at 11:58 pm and is filed under vs. Dallas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.