Yao snares a rebound against Golden State Tuesday night in Oakland, one of 11 rebounds Yao had to go with his 23 points and 3 blocks. But it wasn’t enough as the Rockets lost their third straight. Click here for more photos from the game.

by Chia-Chi

TUESDAY, 4/5/05 – What a heartbreaker. In tonight’s game against the Warriors the Rockets were competitive the entire time but could not muster enough defensive power to earn the victory. In a game where all of the Rockets did well, the Warriors did exceedingly well. Behind a career night from Baron Davis the surging Warriors simply beat the Rockets for the win, 122-117.

While the Rockets have been struggling of late and plagued with a variety of injuries Yao’s swollen calf, T-Mac‘s hip, Jon Barry ‘s sore back, etc), the Warriors have been on a roll, winning 8 of their past 9 games, including wins over Seattle, Phoenix, and the Kings.

Heading into the final weeks of the regular season, the older Rockets are feeling the pains more than a younger Warriors team that will not make the playoffs.

The first quarter started at a quick pace with the Warriors taking the reins. Center Troy Murphy, who was rock-solid for the Warriors in the previous match up, started the game with a quick three and was followed by Baron Davis’ two-point jumper. On a steal from McGrady, Davis assisted Jason Richardson for one of his slam dunk contest-winning jams. At this point the Warriors lead 7-0 and had the sold-out Oakland crowd on its feet.

But Jeff Van Gundy‘s constant plea to stick with the game plan in good times and bad finally sunk in as the Rockets started playing their game. The Rockets came back from a strong start by T-Mac. While the Rockets wanted more touches for Yao, the Warriors doubled and triple-teamed him throughout the quarter. Yao was constantly defended from the back and front, even when he didn’t have the ball! The Warriors challenge in the paint was a dare to shoot from the outside. While the Rockets shot fairly well, mostly behind T-Mac and Sura, six first-quarter turnovers laid the foundation for 26-18 Warriors lead.

The second quarter was more competitive. Yao came out strong and scored six points and had a nice block of Richardson. In a highlight-reel worthy play, Yao got the ball deep in the paint and dunked it while surrounded by three Warriors’ players!

Unfortunately, Zarko Cabarkapa, whose three point shooting proved to be a nightmare in the last matchup between the teams, came out strong and drained two three-pointers. But the Rockets played their game with T-Mac being his usual self, scoring effortlessly from outside and by slashing inside. However, Baron Davis matched him tit-for-tat, including the last nine points for the Warriors to maintain their lead.

Near the end of the quarter Sura was upset about a non-call and was walking down the court when he inadvertently bumped into Warrior’s coach Mike Montgomery. After being called for a technical, he was led off the court by a Rocket’s security guard whom Sura also pushed away. The first half ended with the Warriors leading 53-50.

Starting the third quarter the Warriors stopped guarding Yao as much so they could put more coverage on T-Mac. The single coverage freed up Yao in the paint where he had a field day with Adonal Foyle, shooting a variety of hooks and post up moves for easy points. T-Mac also had a huge quarter as well, scoring 12 of his game-high 44 points. Sura, who was booed on nearly every possession, was 2-2 from the three point line.

But the story of the quarter was Baron Davis, who seemed invincible on the court. Not only did he score 17 points from all over the place, but he also distributed the ball to his teammates for easy buckets. Davis ended the game with a career-high 40 points and 11 assists.

T-Mac pushed the Rockets forward with an incredible shooting display. By the end of the third the Rockets were down 89-84 and the momentum and energy seemed to be with the older and more experienced Rockets team.

But the confidence of knowing how to win in the fourth can often transform to arrogance and laziness. The lesson from the last game against the Warriors was, “Live by the three and die by the three.” The Warriors remembered, but the Rockets forgot. Down by 5 points at the start, the Rockets relied on three-point shots that never dropped. The Rockets shot 10 three point shots in the fourth, but only hit two. In desperate need for high percentage points, the Rockets fed Yao in the fourth and he delivered, scoring eight points in the quarter.

Jason Richardson attempted another highlight dunk over Yao but was fabulously rejected. You know that if he would have made it to posterize Yao, Sportscenter would have replayed it a hundred times. Conversely, those even more amazing rejections don’t get the attention they deserve.

But the high offense of the Rockets was not balanced with a strong defense and the Warriors never relinquished their lead.

How Did Yao Do?

Yao’s all around game today was excellent. He was aggressive around the basket, grabbing offensive rebounds for dunks, blocking shots, and defending well. Yao finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks, on 8-12 shooting and was 7-7 from the line. He had the type of game where he was solid in every area, and you wish he had on a consistent basis.

One area that has been lacking of late is David Wesley. Such an integral factor of the winning streaks that resulted in the Rockets having the best away game record, he has lost his shooting touch.
Tonight he shot 3-13 from the field and 1-6 from the three point line.

The Rockets are now only one game ahead of the 7th spot in the West.

As a side note, status was given for injured Rockets power forward Juwan Howard. While recovering and doing exercises in a pool, Howard is still expected to be out at least 4 weeks. While it is possible that he will be active during the playoffs, from all coaching indications, his recovery is not expected.

Chia-Chi
zenithnadir@YaoMingFanClub.com

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

Yao walks off the court Sunday with a bandage on his chin after getting accidentally elbowed in the paint. Despite Yao’s return to the lineup and leading the team in scoring (19 points) and rebounds (12), the Rockets lost their second consecutive game because of poor shooting, this time against the Phoenix Suns, 91-78. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

SUNDAY, 4/3/05 – Through almost three quarters of play, it looked like the Rockets had a chance to keep up with the heavily favored Phoenix Suns. Houston was only down 64-62 with about a minute remaining in the third when Shawn Marion made a layup. Up until that time, there had been 11 ties and 18 lead changes in a tightly contested battle.

But like their losses against the Hornets on Friday and the Spurs last weekend, the Rockets fell apart in the fourth quarter and lost another game that was winnable, losing 91-78 at Toyota Center.

The Suns started off with their high-octane offense, and surprisingly, Houston revved up its own engines and managed to keep pace with much more fluidity in their offensive game compared to how they played against the Hornets in that humiliating loss Friday night. Yao got off to a great start, making a dunk on Houston’s first basket, and showed just how missed his inside presence was on Friday. Houston was only down 31-25 at the end of the first quarter, with Yao hitting 3-of-4 for six points.

In the second quarter, the game quickly became more defensive-oriented, with the Rockets limiting the Suns to 10 points on 5-of-25 (20%) shooting. Yao was playing extremely well defensively, tipping passes, blocking two shots, and coming up with numerous intimidations. And he wasn’t getting into too serious of foul trouble, either.

But Houston’s offense didn’t really capitalize, scoring only two more field goals (7-of-23) and 17 points overall to lead 42-41 at halftime.

Other than free throw percentage (1-of-6 for Phoenix, 6-of-8 for Houston), all of the stats were pretty much even. So the second half was going to come down to who wanted it most.

At first, it looked like Phoenix was going to run away with it when they started off on a 6-0 run. Jeff Van Gundy called a timeout, probably not happy about how the Rockets’ Ryan Bowen — not confident after a 1-for-4 shooting performance in the first half — had passed up a couple of open shots. For the fifth time this season, Bowen was starting in the lineup since Jon Barry experienced back spasms before the game. So T-Mac moved over to shooting guard and Bowen came in to fill T-Mac’s small forward spot.

After the timeout, their offensive liability (Bowen) soon turned into an asset. Van Gundy positioned Bowen on the low block, and he scored on a layup and was fouled for a three-point play. Energized, Bowen stole the ball on the ensuing Suns possession, dribbled it down court with one defender in his way, then dished to an oncoming Yao who beat everyone down the floor and threw it down for a one-handed jam to tie it at 47-47.

Steve Nash came back to hit a three-pointer, but Bowen responded and hit a 17-footer to close it to 50-49, Phoenix with the lead. Bowen came back and hit a wild 8-foot hook shot from the baseline to put Houston up 53-52.

In a span of about 4 minutes of action, Bowen showed he could play by scoring 9 consecutive Houston points, getting a steal and dishing an assist. Perhaps Bowen was going to be yet another un-sung hero that emerged from the Rockets’ bench this season, just like Jon Barry and Scott Padgett have been able to do this season. Bowen had a decent track record, being 4-0 as a starter this season, but never performed like this before. He was sitting on 14 points and the Rockets looked like they were going to make it competitive.

Not for long, though. Bowen didn’t score the rest of the game, and not many other Rockets did either. Houston’s shooting continued to head southward, and the Suns finished off Houston for its 30th road win of the season.

Although they did a great job on defense, the Rockets’ final shooting stats were horrific. 34% overall, 22% from three-point land. T-Mac (13 points) hit only 6-of-21, and was 0-for-5 from three. That’s his second bad shooting game in a row. Bob Sura (10 points) was 4-of-15, David Wesley (8 points) was 3-of-11, and Mike James (7 points) was 3-of-15. If it wasn’t for Yao’s great return, 19 points and 12 rebounds, this one would have been over much, much sooner.

What seemed to be a strength (good shooting) during recent win streaks is now turning into a weakness. Perhaps you can chalk it up to the chemistry imbalance that has arisen since Juwan Howard got hurt, but the Rockets are going to have to get over it and compensate somehow, or their playoff run will be as short as some of the jump shots we saw on Sunday night.

Even though Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire (9 points) wasn’t much of a factor because of foul trouble, one ironic twist was that Jim Jackson returned to his former arena and haunted them like no else has in a long time, scoring 15 points and hitting 3-of-5 treys. In 21 minutes Jackson, a reserve, scored as many points as Wesley and James combined in 69 minutes of play.

Now the Rockets head to the Bay Area where they face a very hot Golden State team. Houston was lucky to win their last game there a few weeks ago. With the way Houston is shooting, look for another loss and more risk of Houston’s hold of the sixth playoff spot unraveling before our eyes and having to face either the Suns or San Antonio in the first round. Yikes.

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

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy agonizes over a humiliating performance by his team to the lowly New Orleans Hornets, the team with the worst record in the league. The Rockets lost 76-73 in part because Yao Ming did not play because of a calf injury. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

FRIDAY, 4/1/05 – Yao was held out of Friday’s game night against the New Orleans Hornets because of swelling in his calf resulting from an injury that occurred late in Wednesday’s game against Portland.

What a difference it made. Without Yao, the Rockets struggled offensively more than anyone could expect, losing to the second-worst team in the league 76-73. The Hornets are now 17-54.

Ironically, like Yao, yours truly is not in very good shape. I have been laid up because of a bad case of the flu, so I’m going to have to punt on covering this game. If I had to skip one game to cover, this one is it since Yao didn’t play and the Rockets shot a dismal 31% from the field.

Now excuse me as I go back to sleep.