Yao puts up a shot against P.J. Brown Thursday evening against the New Orleans Hornets in Oklahoma City, and finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks in 30 minutes of play. In their last preseason game, the Rockets lost 89-88, and next look forward to their season opener on Wednesday, November 2nd. For more photos from the game, click here.

THURSDAY 10/27/05 – It was like deja vu of previous seasons’ losses to terrible teams like Charlotte and Atlanta on Thursday night. Houston had a massive 22-point lead against the pathetic New Orleans Hornets, but somehow ended up losing 89-88 in the last second of the Hornets’ new home debut in Oklahoma City. Thank God it was only a preseason game and it doesn’t count, but the Rockets cannot afford to have another breakdown like this one since it was the last preseason game before next week’s regular season opener on November 2nd.

The Rockets started the game without Tracy McGrady for a second consecutive night since he is still resting because of tendonitis in both knees. The Rockets started the same roster as its previous game against Utah: Rafer Alston at point guard, Derek Anderson at shooting guard, Ryan Bowen at small forward, Juwan Howard at power forward and Yao at center.

The first quarter went as expected, as the Rockets played with a smooth flow and confidence, and rang up a 31-19 lead by the end of the first quarter. All the starters, except for Bowen, were close to double-digit scoring by the end of the first quarter, and Yao played very well in scoring 7 points in 12 minutes of play. He also blocked a shot from his best friend and former Rocket, Bostjan Nachbar.

The Rockets were just as dominant in the second quarter, shifting into a higher gear to lead by 22 points at one time. It was so easy that Jeff Van Gundy rested Yao to experiment with Swift at center and Juwan Howard at power forward. That combination might not work during the season because Swift picked up 3 fouls in the second quarter alone, and Alston also picked up a couple of fouls. Yao played six minutes in the second quarter and scored two points, grabbed 3 rebounds, and blocked another shot (with Nachbar being the victim again). By halftime, the Rockets lead 47-34 and Yao had 9 points, 6 rebounds and two blocks.

But then disaster soon struck in the third quarter. After picking up his fourth foul, Alston was benched two minutes into the third quarter, and Moochie Norris took over at the point. The Rockets slowly lost control of the tempo, and the Hornets slowly ate into the deficit and got back into the game. The Rockets’ backcourt went into total disarray with poor perimeter defense that allowed the Hornets to rain down several of their 3-pointers. At least five 3-pointers were made by Bostjan Nachar (2), JR Smith (2) and Speedy Claxton (1).

Meanwhile, the Rockets offense returned to some of its bad habits and forgot to make full use of Yao as the go-to-guy. After scoring 5 quick points in the early part of the third quarter, Yao seldom had the chance to touch the ball again until the two-minute mark. Yao played the entire third quarter and managed to score 7 points, grab 3 more rebounds, and block one more shot.

By the end of the third quarter, the damage had been done, with the Rockets getting outscored 39-23 and losing their lead to trail 72-70.

The fourth quarter was close all the way. But because it was a preseason game, Van Gundy decided not to play Yao or Dikembe Mutombo, but instead played Lonny Baxter alongside Juwan Howard on the front line. When Howard fouled out at about the halfway mark of the fourth quarter, Ryan Bowen was sent in to play instead of Swift, Mutombo, or Yao. As a consequence, the interior offense and defense of the Rockets was practically non-existent. And when Alston and David Wesley missed consecutive 3-pointers in the last 2 minutes of play, the momentum of the game turned to the Hornets.

The Rockets had a one-point lead after Luther Head hit a driving bucket at the one minute mark, and David Wesley had a chance of putting the game away with 11 seconds left with a three-pointer, but he missed. With time running down, Speedy Claxton threw up a driving prayer that clanged against the backboard, but P.J. Brown got the offensive rebound and laid it in with 0.4 second remaining. Luther Head missed a desperation jumper at the buzzer, and the Rockets lost 89-88.

So instead of ending the preseason with a 7-1 record, the Rockets threw away a match they should have won, and completed its preseason at 6-2 instead.

As an afterthought, this loss could be better for the Rockets in the long run since it further exposed some of the inherent weaknesses of the Rockets whenever they have a massive lead against weaker opponents. The Rockets need to work further on its perimeter defense against strong three-point shooting teams.

The only comfort from this loss could be that Yao, Juwan, and Derek Anderson played pretty well. Yao finished with 16 points (6-of-9 shooting, 4-of-4 from the line), 9 rebounds and 3 blocks in just 30 minutes of play. Howard scored 16 points (7-of-10 shooting, 2-of-2 free throws), grabbed 3 rebounds, had 3 assists in just 30 minutes also. Derek Anderson was the top scorer of the day with 18 points (5-of-11 field goals, 7-of-7 free throws) in just 24 minutes of action.

To see the complete boxscore of the game, click here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2005 at 11:59 pm and is filed under NBA preseason, vs. New Orleans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.