Yao puts up a sweet finger roll in the fourth quarter to help lead the Rockets to a 100-92 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies Wednesday night in Houston. Yao scored 12 points in the pivotal fourth quarter, and finished with 29 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 4/13/05 – It’s something you can’t say for every game this season, but without Yao on Wednesday night, the Rockets would have lost. Yao was clutch when the Rockets needed him most, scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter in a very tight game against the Memphis Grizzlies, leading the Rockets to a 100-92 victory. Yao finished with 28 points, 9 boards and 4 rejections. Although Yao has always been known for his high percentage field goal shooting, Yao’s defense and shot-blocking skills have improved over the past few weeks and made a difference in this game.

Yao got off to a great start in the first quarter, hitting all four of his shots with confidence for eight points. T-Mac was the reason for at least two of those made shots, dishing two assists to Yao down low for easy buckets. T-Mac also scored 8 points in the first quarter, but the Grizzlies still led at the end of the quarter, 26-24, thanks to Mike Miller’s 9 points.

In the second quarter, the Rockets went on an 8-0 run to take a 40-30 lead, and a few minutes later they held a 46-33 lead. Yao scored 6 points thanks to 4-of-4 shooting from the free throw line, and point guard Mike James shot an amazing 3-of-3 from three-point territory. Miller continued his hot shooting, scoring another six points on 3-of-4 shooting. By halftime, the Rockets led 52-42 thanks to 44% shooting in the first half and five three-pointers. T-Mac and Yao both had 14 points each.

In the third quarter, the Rockets opened up their largest lead of the night at 62-46 after running off an 8-0 run. But the Grizzlies came storming back, thanks to a 20-7 run sparked by a McGrady-like scoring binge by Miller, who scored 13 points and three treys to bring them to within 69-66.

The fourth quarter was a nail-biter, with the game nip-and-tuck the entire quarter. Every time it looked like the Rockets were going to pull away, the determined Grizzlies would battle back and stay within striking distance. It wasn’t until T-Mac dished a nifty pass to Yao who was cutting down the middle of the lane to lay it off the glass for the deuce, and was fouled with 1:08 remaining. Yao then went to the line and hit the penalty free throw to give the Rockets a 93-88 lead. Twenty-seven seconds later, Mike James (15 points) hit his fourth three-pointer of the game at the 41 second mark to give the Rockets a 96-90 lead to basically seal the deal. It was great to see James hit a big shot when the Rockets needed it.

Mike Miller (career-high 37 points) gave the Houston fans lots of headaches during the game, but he won their favor by fouling T-Mac with only .2 seconds remaining when the game was in the Rockets’ hands 98-92. That foul gave T-Mac a chance to go to the line and shoot two free throws to hit the 100-point mark and give the attendees free Big Macs. Needless to say, after T-Mac drained both free throws, the Houston crowd was ecstatic.

With the victory, the Rockets kept the Grizzlies, currently battling Minnesota for the 8th and final seed in the Western Conference playoffs, from clinching a playoff spot. The Rockets also stayed neck-and-neck with the Denver Nuggets for the sixth playoff seed.

Denver won their game on Wednesday night against New Orleans. So if the Nuggets beat Memphis in Denver on Friday night, the Rockets and Nuggets will have the same record (48-31) with only three games remaining. One of those games involves a duel between the two teams on Saturday night in Houston, which will most certainly be a showdown for that 6th playoff spot (or maybe the 5th) to play Seattle (or Dallas) in the first round of the playoffs.

I will be at that game, and I can’t wait to file my report…unless the Rockets lose, of course.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 13th, 2005 at 11:59 pm and is filed under vs. Memphis, Yao's best games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.