‘Reunited and it feels so good.’ Yao and T-Mac play in the same game on Tuesday night for the first time in five games. Both Yao and T-Mac scored 25 points in beating Atlanta, 100-85, to snap their 7-game losing streak. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

TUESDAY, 11/29/05 – I was ecstatic to hear before the Rockets game against Atlanta that T-Mac would play! It felt like Christmas 26 days early!

After watching McGrady’s impact on the team Tuesday night and seeing his team defeat the Hawks 100-85, it will be fun to watch the Rockets try to dig themselves out of their 3-11 hole (now 4-11). Okay, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself since Atlanta (now 2-11) is not Detroit or San Antonio. It’s still not going to be easy.

It’s amazing the difference that T-Mac made right out of the gate, scoring Houston’s first six points. Since it had been 11 days since his last game action, he had to ask coach Jeff Van Gundy for a break at the 6:16 mark of the first quarter because he was so winded. However, he came back a few minutes later to finish the quarter with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, and pushed Houston to a 26-22 lead heading into the second quarter. Can it get any more obvious how valuable he is to this team?

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There’s a definite ‘must’ read in today’s Houston Chronicle about Yao. Here’s one of the quotes from Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy:

“I know right now, everybody’s hopping off the Yao bandwagon,” Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “That happens. People are fickle. When a guy doesn’t make (shots) it’s condemn Yao. It’s either Yao is right behind Shaq (O’Neal) or Yao is right below the worst center in the league. With Yao, the only thing I feel badly about is people try to raise expectations up so high, they’re actually satisfied with nothing that he does. I feel badly for him in that way.

“I’m not going to jump off because everyone else has.”

Click here for the article.

“I’ve dealt with a lot of players and there (are) more misconceptions about Yao Ming than anyone.”

– Miscellaneous quotes from Jeff Van Gundy, 11/2/05

“I’ve already paid enough money (to the league in fines). Let’s not go there. It’s too early in the season.”

— Jeff Van Gundy, when asked about Yao Ming’s foul trouble, 11/2/05

“Yao has sold that very, very well, about fatigue being an issue. It’s not. Yao is a great worker. He just wanted some free time, I think more mentally than physically, and no one should begrudge anybody that.”

– Jeff Van Gundy after Yao requested some time off, 11/13/05

“I know right now, everybody’s hopping off the Yao bandwagon. That happens. People are fickle. When a guy doesn’t make (shots) it’s condemn Yao. It’s either Yao is right behind Shaq (O’Neal) or Yao is right below the worst center in the league. With Yao, the only thing I feel badly about is people try to raise expectations up so high, they’re actually satisfied with nothing that he does. I feel badly for him in that way.

– Jeff Van Gundy sympathizing for Yao and showing faith in him, 11/27/05

“It wasn’t as tough for me as Yao, because I had the ball 90 percent of the time. It’s different for a guy like Yao because we have to get him the ball. I already had the ball. I can create my own shot and create shots for other guys. That’s why it’s on us to get him the ball.”

“With the rule changes and the ability to completely take a guy out of the game like they’ve been doing, it’s simple. I was trying to tell the guys, it’s on us. It’s on the guys handling the ball to get him the ball. It’s going to be hard to get him post-ups. It’s going to be hard to throw him the ball on the post with a guy playing in front of him and a guy playing behind him. With me out, all the attention is focused on Yao.”

– Teammate Tracy McGrady, wanting to help out Yao because of NBA rule changes making it difficult for centers to dominate, 11/27/05

“He had a bad stretch. We had a bad stretch. A post player is much more dependent on who he plays with than a perimeter player. Our strength as a team is not entering the ball to the post. We’re getting better.”

“Certainly the game has been made harder on the post player, and it’s a perimeter game. The foul calls the perimeter players get can be a little softer than inside. The touch fouls on the perimeter and the mayhem inside can be…for any big guy, a little bit difficult to figure out. But that’s how the league is.”

– Jeff Van Gundy on Yao’s recent troubles offensively, 11/27/05

Yao falls to the floor in pain after Chicago’s Malik Allen stepped on his ankle. Yao shook off the injury to score a season-high 30 points, 14 coming in the fourth quarter to lead a Rocket comeback. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as the Rockets lost their 7th straight, 94-89 to the Chicago Bulls. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

SATURDAY, 11/26/05 – If you watched the Rockets game on Saturday night against Chicago, you actually missed a pretty entertaining game. It reminded me of an expansion team playing in front of their home crowd that knows their team is not going to make the playoffs, are playing for pride instead, and everyone is okay with that.

It’s gotten that low, folks, when I’m comparing the Rockets to an expansion team.

You’ve got to give credit to the Houston fans for cheering on their team as they made one of their biggest comebacks of the season. They got very loud as the Rockets crept back into the game. Down 75-60, the Rockets went on a 25-10 run, powered by Yao hitting 6-of-6 shots in the fourth quarter (14 points) on his way to scoring a season-high 30 points. Before he got hot, Yao had only made 3-of-12 shots, and had only hit 1 of his last 9 shot attempts.

I could go into lots of details on how it all panned out, but since they lost it doesn’t really matter. I’ll just say the Rockets had plenty of chances to snap their 6-game losing streak. But when the game was tied 85-85 with 1:37 remaining, the Rockets’ defense (second-best in the NBA, which is shocking) let Kirk Hinrich (forcing Yao to foul him and foul out of the game) and Chris Duhon score on easy drives to the hole without any resistance, and that was just about it.

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Yao goes up for a rebound over the Grizzlies’ Shane Battier on Friday night. Although Yao grabbed 12 boards and scored 15 points, Battier led Memphis to a 86-81 victory by scoring 20 big points and grabbing 7 boards. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

FRIDAY, 11/25/05 – If the Rockets end up making the playoffs after T-Mac comes back this season, he should be immediately named NBA MVP because there would be no other player more valuable to their team than T-Mac. The Rockets are now 0-7 without T-Mac (3-10 overall) after losing to Memphis Friday night, 86-81. Without him, they are a lost cause.

The same story applied Friday night: the Rockets were competitive for a little over 3 quarters, but they couldn’t make enough big shots to win when it counted.

I thought this game was going to be different, especially considering the hot start the Rockets had. David Wesley started the game hitting 3 treys in a row, putting the Rockets up 9-0. Then Juwan Howard scored on a strong move to the hole, giving them an 11-0 lead. Finally some good karma that could break Houston’s five game losing streak, right? Naah.

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Yao and Juwan Howard show their dejection during their loss against the Phoenix Suns, 100-88. The Rockets have now lost five in a row and are 3-9. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 11/23/05 – It’s really difficult for me to get motivated to write game summaries these days. After watching Houston lose its fifth in a row Wednesday night against Phoenix 100-88, it’s tough to get motivated to write about the worst team in the Western Conference at 3-9.

Not only were the Rockets outscored, they were outshot (45% vs. 41% field goals), were killed from behind the 3-point line (14-7), out-assisted (33-17), turned the ball over more (15-8), out-stolen (10-4), and out-blocked (5-0).

Yao, who only scored 8 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, had the following to say:

“I can’t believe how we’re playing right now. We have a game plan and we know what we need to do and we’re not doing it. I’m a big part of that, too. Time’s running down. There are 70 games left but I think this is a very bad, bad stretch for us.”

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Dallas’ Jason Terry pushes off on Yao Ming with no offensive foul called. The Rockets gave the heavily favored Mavericks troubles on Tuesday night, but Dallas prevailed in the fourth quarter to win 102-93. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

TUESDAY, 11/22/05 – Despite a 102-93 loss, both of the Houston TV announcers were beaming about how great of an effort the Rockets put in Tuesday night in Dallas. Sure, they played better, led at halftime, and put up a good effort. But they choked in the latter half of the fourth quarter and lost another one. What else is new? A loss is loss, and there are no moral victories. As Jeff Van Gundy recently said, there is no positive spin to failure.

Let’s see…Yao could have kept it close in the fourth quarter, but he made only 1-of-4 shots in the quarter, missing two easy consecutive shots in the lane, including a blown layup when the Rockets only trailed 94-89 with 2:37 remaining.

I hate to say it, but Yao cannot carry a team through four quarters by himself without a superstar like T-Mac to help him. He either doesn’t have the mental toughness to do it, the stamina, or both. But in the first quarter, he was absolutely dominant, scoring 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting and hitting 7-of-8 free throws.

You can tell Yao has more energy in the first quarter, moving quickly without the ball jockeying for position. But as the game wears on after he has logged lots of minutes, he starts to fade. In the third quarter, he was only 1-for-6, and finished 2-for-10 in the second half altogether scoring only 5 points.

So here’s a thought: how about play Yao about 8-10 minutes in the first half, hope the Rockets can keep it close, then play him about 20 minutes in the second half so he will be fresh and can hopefully be quicker than his defenders? I don’t know if that will work, but it’s worth a shot. After all, we’re dealing with something here that no other NBA coach has ever encountered: playing one of the largest guys on the planet in a very active sport, in a very intense Van Gundy defensive system. Maybe it’s just not feasible for a 7’6” guy to play the same minutes as a 6’11” guy and stay as fresh.

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Yao shoots a jump hook over Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal, but it was another tough game for Yao and the Rockets, who lost 85-74 and fell to a 3-7 record. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

SUNDAY, 11/20/05 – Although it didn’t surprise me, I was bummed to hear that T-Mac was not going to play Sunday night against Indiana because of his injured back. Forget the fact that Rafer Alston was not going to play because of his injured leg. That really doesn’t hurt you much. But lose T-Mac with this cast of players, and you have no chance to win, especially against the Pacers. If they were going to win this game, it was going to take a heroic game from a couple of unexpected players.

That didn’t happen. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Rockets had their chance, trailing only 58-52 thanks to their defense, which has been pretty decent through their recent losses. But like clockwork, the Rockets’ offense (the little that was there) gave out, and the Pacers went on a 19-4 run to put away Houston and ultimately win 85-74.

Yao was only 4-for-16 until the game was well out of reach, making his last 5 shots to make his final boxscore look better than how he played: 8-for-21 for 24 points and 13 rebounds.

Yao still cannot shake inconsistency, missing lots of shots down low in the paint. But you know what? Maybe Jeff Van Gundy shouldn’t be trying to force feed Yao consistently down in the lane. Maybe the Rockets need to change up the offensive attack, bring Yao out of the paint, and let him shoot those straight-up jumpers and give him a break from all of that pounding inside. He was an accurate shooter from outside in his first two seasons. Hopefully Van Gundy’s emphasis on working Yao strictly in the lane has not made him lose his touch from the outside. I don’t know if that’s the answer, but with how badly the Rockets are struggling offensively, it can’t hurt.

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ClubYao’s correspondent in Hong Kong, Raymond, has translated a Sina.com article from Chinese to English reporting some of Yao’s and Jeff Van Gundy’s thoughts after the Pistons game on Friday night. You can read those quotes by clicking here. Thanks Raymond!

Yao prepares to make a strong move against Detroit’s Ben Wallace. Yao showed lots of aggressiveness all night, played 37 minutes, and recorded a double-double (20 points and 12 rebounds). But the rest of the Rockets struggled, and the Rockets lost again, this time 78-70. For more photos from the game, click here. Photo courtesy of NBAE via Getty Images.

by John

Like the Rockets, it has been a long week for me at work and I’m dog tired, so this is going to be a relatively short report. Watching the Rockets play the Pistons didn’t give me any extra energy since the game was relatively boring and low-scoring. Both teams couldn’t score (39-36 at halftime), the same number of points was scored in the second half, and the Rockets lost 78-70.

The only real excitement in the game was watching Yao take Ben Wallace to school, showing aggressiveness down low and scoring 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting. And although Houston’s offense was sucking again (except for Yao), the Rockets managed to keep it close and had a shot at the end to win it.

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