Yao moves laterally to defend the Sonics’ Luke Ridnour on Monday night in Seattle. Yao scored 20 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked 3 shots on the way to the Rockets winning their second straight, 90-78. Click here for more photos from the game.

ClubYao writer Chia-Chi attended Monday night’s game between the Rockets and Sonics. John also had commentary about the game, which is directly below Chia-Chi’s report below.

by Chia-Chi

MONDAY, 4/11/05 – The rest of the Rockets’ season all of a sudden seems much smoother with another convincing win on the road. The T-Mac/Yao one-two punch was in full force as the Sonics, missing four of its top six scorers, valiantly struggled to stay in the game but had no answer for T-Mac’s 38 points.

It took a while for the Rockets to get into gear in the first, with the Sonics playing a quick and faster pace. But after a timeout from Seattle, the Rockets defense stepped into gear, not allowing a single Sonics bucket for a six-minute stretch. But while the defense by the Rockets was particularly commendable, the defense of the Sonics was particularly rough.

To give you a feeling for the kind of game being played, the score after the first was 14-13, Houston. For the most part it was an ugly, down-in-the-trenches type of game, with neither team giving up any space. The Sonics knew they had to play hard to squeeze out a win and the Rockets knew that the Sonics are always a threat with coach Nate McMillan, regardless of rotation.

The Sonics have a clear mismatch with the Rockets at the center position so they compensate with particularly rough play. In the last meeting between the teams, Sonics center Danny Fortson landed a nice left cross on Yao’s chin. In this game the Sonics roughness in the paint, including a few good knocks to Yao’s head, resulting in 5 fouls a piece for centers Vitaly Potapenko and Jerome James and 13 free throws for Yao. Yao left the game during the second half to have four stitches in his chin.

While there were certainly times Yao got hacked, you wouldn’t believe the amount of pushing and wrestling the Sonics put Yao through. On one play where Yao was going for an easy dunk, Jerome James actually grabbed Yao’s waist and pulled him down with a bear hug! He was also continually fronted and pestered. On one particularly tough offensive rebound Yao was whacked in the head by Reggie Evans and stared him down in anger. T-Mac came out and pounded on Yao’s chest to pump him up.

It wasn’t until the third quarter that the Rockets started to pull away. Starting the quarter tied at 37 a piece, Yao started the quarter hot with six points. But the story of the quarter, and of the game, was T-Mac who went on a tear. Every shot he took was contested, but McGrady showed his superstar qualities by elevating and hitting from everywhere on the floor and a hand in his face each time, scoring 17 points in the quarter.

While Ray Allen has the same scoring ability as T-Mac, David Wesley hounded Allen all night, forcing him to pass to less effective scorers like Nick Collison.

Down by eight to start in the fourth, the Sonics refused to give up. Behind aggressive play from Ray Allen the Sonics fought back to make it a one-point game. Yao broke the Rockets’ scoring drought and made a layup 5 minutes into the fourth. Ryan Bowen saved the day with three huge offensive rebounds in the fourth when the Sonics were making their final push.

The Rockets started pulling away after the perimeter shots from Jon Barry, Wesley, and T-Mac started falling. The Rockets closed this one out in convincing fashion, with T-Mac scoring 38 and Yao scoring 20 and rebounding 13.

While the Sonics are a possible match-up in the playoffs, the Rockets are keeping their heads about them. They know that their first round match-up is still undetermined and that the Sonics players who are injured and resting now will be back. Also, in the two previous games with the Sonics, the point difference between the two teams has been only two points.

Chia-Chi
zenithnadir@YaoMingFanClub.com

John’s take of the game

The Rockets started off slowly and had 5 turnovers in the first quarter against an injury-depleted Sonics team. The Sonics only hit 27% of their shots, but Houston didn’t shoot much better, hitting only 31% to hold only a14-13 lead after the first quarter. The lead should have been much larger considering the Sonics didn’t score a point for the final 5:52 of the quarter.

Yao started off strong, hitting the first shot for the Rockets, but struggled with passes that were thrown his way, some which were thrown poorly. He actually resembled more of a bumbler during the early part of the game, but late in the second quarter he showed vigor by blocking a shot down low, then going strongly after the rebound amidst a sea of Sonic players. After getting fouled, T-Mac and Mike James were so proud of their big man’s show of strength and desire, they rewarded him with a couple of thumps on the chest.

Still, the Rockets were letting the Sonics – losers of their last four games — hang around at 37-37 by halftime. T-Mac was his normal scoring self with 15 points, and Yao had eight.

T-Mac really took over in the third quarter when he scored 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-4 from behind the arc, taking a 71-63 lead into the fourth quarter.

As usual, the Rockets struggled in the fourth quarter and let yet another team back into the game. Seattle scored 7 straight points to close the deficit to 71-70, but Yao hit a big shot down low to stop a total collapse. Then Jon Barry hit a huge three-pointer after a beautiful cross-court pass from T-Mac with 5 minutes remaining to make it 78-72.

Surprisingly, the Rockets showed some grit down the stretch and closed out the Sonics to win 90-78. Yao finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks. On Monday, Sonics coach Nate McMillan had the following to say about Yao:

“Watching him against us, he has shown a lot of improvement. He really knows angles, how to get deep post position; he’s more physical than he was. But now, with his feel for the game, he’s a dominant player. You have to put him in the category of a Shaquille (O’Neal), a Tim (Duncan), those players that I don’t think there’s a way of stopping.”

As improved as Yao has become, the stud of the game was McGrady, who scored 38 points, dished out 4 assists, and grabbed 11 rebounds.

The Rockets are only ½ game ahead of the hard-charging Denver Nuggets for the all-important 6th playoff seed, with only four games remaining. The Rockets play Memphis on Wednesday night at home, then face the Nuggets on Saturday night at Toyota Center which should have a playoff-like atmosphere.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

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

This entry was posted on Monday, April 11th, 2005 at 11:59 pm and is filed under vs. OK City/Seattle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.