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Archive for February, 2006

Rockets lose to Suns again

Monday, February 27th, 2006
by John
Yao greets last year's NBA League MVP, Steve Nash, Monday night at Toyota Center.   Despite Yao's 27 points and 18 rebounds, the Suns snapped the Rockets' four game home winning streak, winning 111-94.Yao greets last year’s NBA League MVP, Steve Nash, Monday night at Toyota Center. Despite Yao’s 27 points and 18 rebounds, the Suns snapped the Rockets’ four game home winning streak, winning 111-94. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

MONDAY, 2/27/06 – As I mentioned in my blog entry last night, I was not going to be able to watch the Rockets game against the Suns Monday night because of a family commitment that conflicted with the game. But I was able to see online that the Rockets had a 44-43 lead with a little over two minutes remaining in the second quarter, but then had to go off-line for a few hours. I was hoping the Rockets would shock me and pull off an upset of the heavily favored Suns, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The Suns showed why they are so good and blew past Houston to win going away 111-94. Yao pulled his weight, tallying another double-double with 27 points and 18 boards. But T-Mac struggled with only 13 points on 6-of-18 shooting.

It’s performances like Yao’s that won him NBA Western Conference Player of the Week honors, as it was announced on Monday by the NBA (see more details below).

Oh well, the Rockets weren’t expected to win this game, so at least I picked the right game to miss.

John

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Yao wins NBA Western Conference MVP Player of the Week award

Monday, February 27th, 2006
by John

MONDAY, 2/27/06 – Great news about Yao! He was finally rewarded for great play on Monday. Here are excerpts from the NBA.com story:

NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2006 – The Washington Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas and the Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Tuesday, Feb. 21 through Sunday Feb. 26.

Yao averaged 26.7 points on .553 shooting and 15.7 rebounds to lead the Rockets to victories over the Clippers, Warriors and Magic. He recorded three consecutive double-doubles for the first time this season, including a 22-point, 21-rebound performance in a 106-102 win over the Clippers on Feb. 22.

Here is a closer look at the week for Yao:

Feb. 22 vs. L.A. Clippers: Scored 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting, while adding 15 rebounds and two blocks in a 106-102 win over the Clippers.
Feb. 24 vs. Golden State: Posted 22 points and 21 rebounds to lead the Rockets past the Warriors 91-88.
Feb. 26 at Orlando: Had 29 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in a 89-84 road win over the Magic.

Other nominees for Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were Boston’s Paul Pierce, Detroit’s Ben Wallace, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade, New Jersey’s Jason Kidd, Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson and Phoenix’s Shawn Marion.
John

Yao leads Rockets to another win with 29 points, 11 boards

Sunday, February 26th, 2006
by John
Yao contests a shot from Orlando's Dwight Howard on Sunday afternoon.  Yao had another excellent game, scoring 29 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in 34 minutes of play to hold off the Magic 89-84.  More analysis of the game is forthcoming late Sunday night.Yao contests a shot from Orlando’s Dwight Howard on Sunday afternoon. Yao had another excellent game, scoring 29 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in 34 minutes of play to hold off the Magic 89-84. More analysis of the game is forthcoming late Sunday night. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

For those NBA fantasy league managers who have Yao on their roster and were hurt earlier this season when he was out 21 games with his toe injury, surgery, and recovery, I have great news for you. You are now being rewarded for your suffering.

In the four years I have been running this Web site, I don’t think I have ever seen Yao play so well with such consistency.

Yao has had stretches like this previously in his career, only to take a few steps backward. But not this time around, Yao has really hit his stride and is racking up double-doubles consistently.

He had another one Sunday afternoon in Orlando, scoring 29 points (15-of-19 from the line, the most makes and attempts this season by a Rocket) and grabbing 11 boards to lead the Rockets to an 89-84 win. You can honestly say that without Yao in the lineup, the Rockets would be losing most of these games. It used to be that’s what you would say about T-Mac. Don’t get me wrong – T-Mac has been very important, but without Yao, the Rockets would not have won 10 of their last 12 games.

One of the reasons for Yao’s improvement lately is his ability to stay out of foul trouble. Another is his improved conditioning. It also helps he had more of a physical and mental break this past summer without as many commitments to the Chinese national team. Another is that his toe feels a lot better after finally getting it treated.

That was no more evident when he made one of his quickest baseline spin moves this season in the second quarter Sunday, exploding around Tony Battie, leaving him in his wake, then throwing down an authoritative one-handed jam sideways!

But the main reason for Yao’s success has to be his increased confidence after seeing how much his team needed him during his 21-game absence. When you realize your team is better with you in the lineup than not, you tend to play a lot looser and relaxed knowing a mistake or two isn’t going to kill your team.

In the first half against Orlando, Yao scored 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting, giving the Rockets a 44-39 lead. T-Mac was also a stud in the first half, hitting 5-of-10 shots and scoring 14. But the rest of the way, T-Mac struggled, making only 1-of-6 field goals and scoring 5 points.

Yao picked up the slack for T-Mac in the third quarter, scoring 13 points – 7 points coming from the free throw line.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Rockets opened up a 20-point lead (74-54), and it looked like the Rockets were going to cruise to an easy victory. But then Orlando went on a 25-8 run – thanks to lots of free throws – and pulled within three points with 1:21 remaining when Hedot Turkoglu hit a three-pointer from the corner to make it 82-79, Houston.

But an unlikely hero, Juwan Howard (12 points on 6-of-12 shooting), hit a cold-blooded baseline jumper on the following possession to push Houston’s lead to five points and was able to hold on the rest of the way.

I’m not too concerned the Rockets have been blowing big leads lately. If they were leading the Western Conference and were looking to tune every facet of their game for the playoffs, it would be a different story. But the Rockets are just trying to scratch and claw their way into the playoffs, and I will take a ‘W’ any way I can get it.

And with the Lakers losing to Boston by one point Sunday night, the Rockets are now only 3 games behind LA for the 8th and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. Amazing the Rocket have gotten themselves back into the hunt.

The only problem is that on Monday night at Toyota Center the Rockets play a back-to-back and face the sizzling Phoenix Suns, winners of 6 games in a row and the team that handed the Rockets their worst loss of the season just 10 days ago, 109-75.

Unfortunately, I probably won’t be able to file a report for that game since Monday is my wife’s birthday. For you married guys out there, you know how bad of a move it would be for me to stay home and watch that game versus taking my wife to dinner on such a special day.

If history is any indicator, it won’t matter much that I miss that game since it could be over by the third quarter. But just in case they surprise me, I’m going to record it.

John

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Yao has monster 22-21-2 game to defeat Warriors

Friday, February 24th, 2006
by John
Yao throws down a two-handed jam in the second quarter Friday night after his patented spin move on the baseline against Golden State's Troy Murphy.  Yao had a monster game, scoring 22 points, grabbing 21 boards and blocking 2 shots to lead the Rockets to a 91-88 victory.Yao throws down a two-handed jam in the second quarter Friday night after his patented spin move on the baseline against Golden State’s Troy Murphy. Yao had a monster game, scoring 22 points, grabbing 21 boards and blocking 2 shots to lead the Rockets to a 91-88 victory. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

When it was announced that Tracy McGrady wouldn’t be able to play Friday night because of the death of his fiancee’s mother, the Rockets faced a test they had failed 13 times before in a row – trying to win a game without T-Mac in the lineup.

But this team is a little different now, and the Rockets finally got the monkey off their back, beating Golden State 91-88 Friday night at Toyota Center.

Once again, Yao put in a magnificent performance, scoring 22 points, grabbing 21 boards, blocking 2 shots, and committing only 2 fouls in 37 minutes of play.

He started off slow, hitting only 1-of-5 in the first quarter. But he then went on a tear in the second, making 5-of-7 shots to rack up 16 points by halftime and propelling the Rockets to a 52-45 halftime lead.

He scored 4 more points in the third, contributing to a Rockets 76-68 lead heading into the fourth. Unfortunately, he missed all four of his field goal attempts in the final quarter, and the Rockets only shot 5-of-17.

Everyone else struggled, too. The Rockets missed their first 9 shots in the fourth quarter, didn’t score for the first six minutes, and the Warriors capped a 16-0 run to take an 82-76 lead.

But Houston made some big shots to get back into the game and take the lead. Thanks to great defense in the final seconds by Yao on Jason Richardson, who had made 7-of-11 treys in the game, J-Rich’s shot missed badly, and the Rockets held on for a hard-fought 91-88 win.

Give credit to Houston’s defense for holding the Warriors to 9-of-25 shooting in that fourth quarter. Otherwise, a couple of more Golden State field goals, and this could have been a devastating blow to the Rockets attempt to pull within a half game of the Warriors in the scramble for the final playoff spot. That final position, held by the Lakers, is now only 4 games away with 27 games left to play.

I would be negligent if I didn’t give props to Keith Bogans, who played superb in T-Mac’s absence. In the first quarter alone, Bogans scored 9 points on 4-of-5 shooting and grabbed 3 rebounds. He finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds. Not bad, Bogie (not sure if he’s called that, but it sounds good).

And Juwan Howard rebounded from a terrible shooting performance on Wednesday (2-of-11) to match Yao in the points column (22), making all of his free throw attempts (6), and grabbed 8 boards. What a great time to step up in T-Mac’s absence!

Finally, Luther Head had one of his best games in a long time, hitting 3-of-7 treys, scoring 11 points, and dishing out 7 assists – the most assists he has dished in 3 months.

The Rockets next play the Magic in Orlando on Sunday afternoon, this time without Steve Francis, traded a few days ago to the Knicks. We still don’t know if T-Mac will be able to play in that game because of bereavement, but I’ll bet he will play to 1) take his mind off the sadness, and 2) not miss the only game he gets to play in his old team’s arena and stick it to ‘em.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Yao dominates again to put Rockets back on track

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006
by John
Yao challenges the Clippers' Elton Brand Wednesday night at Toyota Center.  The Rockets handed the Clippers their fifth loss in a row, winning 106-102.  Yao dominated with 29 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks.Yao challenges the Clippers’ Elton Brand Wednesday night at Toyota Center. The Rockets handed the Clippers their fifth loss in a row, winning 106-102. Yao dominated with 29 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 2/22/06 – After losing their worst game of the season against the Phoenix Suns right before the All-Star break, it was going to be interesting to see if the Rockets could put that debacle behind them leading up to their game against the LA Clippers on Wednesday night. It could have been very easy to let that loss affect all of the confidence they had built up winning 7 of their previous 8 games.

Give the Rockets credit for not only coming back with a nice win against the Clippers, but having the strength to fend off a very motivated team that was probably very angry they got blown out 128-97 in their own gym just eight days prior, and had lost four in a row.

The Rockets blew some leads in this game, but I’m not complaining. The Clippers are a very talented team, and they are going to make runs. I’ll take a 106-102 win against them anytime. The Rockets need as many wins as they can get over the remaining 28 games if they are going to hunt down that final playoff spot, which is currently 4 1/2 games above them.

Yao had a monster game, scoring 29 points and grabbing 15 boards. His teammate Tracy McGrady remarked after the game, “Yao has been playing out of his mind lately. Since the guy’s been back, he’s been extremely aggressive, he’s playing with a great deal of confidence.”

T-Mac got himself out of his recent funk, at least for now, scoring 26 points and dishing 5 dimes. He did only hit 9-of-23 from the field, however. Hopefully he meant it after the game when he said about his recent personal problems off the court, “That’s over with. It’s time to move on. We’re not even mentioning that. I’m not going to talk about it.”

The main surprise in the game was the offensive production from David Wesley, who shot an amazing 8-of-10 from the field, including 4-of-6 three-pointers, to score 21 points. Combine Yao, T-Mac, and Wesley’s points, and they scored almost 75% of Houston’s points. Reminds me of “The Big 3” days of Hakeem, Clyde and Barkley. If this Rockets team goes as far as that team did — the Western Conference championship round — I’ll be extremely happy (and shocked).

Last but not least, Rafer Alston continues to play well, scoring 9 points on 4-of-9 shooting, and doling out 11 assists. No wonder Wesley is playing better these days — Rafer has taken alot of those point guard responsibilities off his shoulders to make him very refreshed.

The Rockets next play on Friday a Golden State team that has been really struggling lately, so that game should be a win for the Rockets (it better be) and their fourth win at home. If they don’t win that game, you can just about write off the rest of this season because there is not much room for error over the remaining 28 games. They have to win every game they are expected to win, and pull off a few upsets to grab that final playoff spot.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Article about Yao’s funky move at the All-Star game

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006
by John

In case you didn’t see it, the Houston Chronicle has a great article about the hilarious dance move that Yao and the other Western Conference starters put on during the All-Star game introductions.

More photos from All-Star game night

Monday, February 20th, 2006
by John
Yao and Shaq meet before the NBA All-Star game on Sunday evening.  Yao scored 5 points and grabbed two rebounds in 18 minutes in the game, which the Western Conference lost 122-120 to the Eastern Conference.
Yao and Shaq meet before the NBA All-Star game on Sunday evening. Yao scored 5 points and grabbed two rebounds in 18 minutes in the game, which the Western Conference lost 122-120 to the Eastern Conference. To see photos from the night’s activities, click on the following links: 1 | 2| 3| 4

Thoughts and photos from NBA All-Star weekend in Houston

Saturday, February 18th, 2006
by John
Yao, T-Mac and Shaq meet on Saturday during the East/West All-Star practice at Houston's convention center.  Yao, T-Mac and Shaq meet on Saturday during the East/West All-Star practice at Houston's convention center.
Yao, T-Mac and Shaq meet on Saturday during the East/West All-Star practice at Houston’s convention center. Yao, T-Mac and Shaq meet on Saturday during the East/West All-Star practice at Houston’s convention center. We’ve got lots of photos from many of the weekend’s events at the following links: | 1| 2| 3| 4| 5

by John

SATURDAY, 2/18/06 – I went to downtown Houston Saturday afternoon where all of the All-Star game activities are taking place. First of all, it was really cold walking around outside, probably in the mid-40’s (Fahrenheit) when it’s normally in the 60’s this time of year. It was a lot colder when you factor in the wind chill!

I took some photos outside of Toyota Center, then walked over to the George R. Brown Convention Center to check out the outside of NBA Jam Session. I had heard on the radio that Jam Session had sold out today, but I wasn’t too upset since I had been to it a couple of times in other cities, and they are pretty much all the same.

I did drop by some of the hotels downtown where a lot of the NBA players and sponsors were staying. At both the Hilton and The Four Seasons they were checking for room keys before you could enter the lobby to keep loiterers out. Good for them.

Friday night

The night before I went to the downtown Hyatt Regency with another key founder of the Yao Ming Fan Club to meet with some potential partners, and met some very interesting people, like the grandson of James Naismith. Naismith is the man who invented basketball.

Many of the former NBA players were staying at the Hyatt, and I saw guys like George Gervin, Manute Bol, Dan Majerle and Mark Eaton. Except for Majerle, it was somewhat sad to see all of them walking gingerly, probably because of all the wear-and-tear they had put on their knees during their NBA careers.

One of the intriguing conversations I had in the Hyatt lobby was with top skateboarder Chris Gentry, a Houston native doing business with some of the people who are also doing deals with NBA licensors. Chris is a very engaging cat with a magnetic vibe about him. He is one of the founders of the Pro Riders Organization, created to further the sports of skateboarding, bicycle motocross, and freestyle motocross.

That’s really all I have for my All-Star game report. I wasn’t lucky enough to get tickets to any of the events, but for some reason I’m not missing much of it. I probably would if the Rockets had a better record and were in the hunt for a top seeding in the playoffs.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

Yao and T-Mac enter All-Star weekend on a bad note

Thursday, February 16th, 2006
by John
Yao and Tracy McGrady show their disappointment during the Rockets' worst loss of the season, losing to the Phoenix Suns 109-75.  Pulled from the blowout early, Yao scored only 6 points, and T-Mac scored 10.Yao and Tracy McGrady show their disappointment during the Rockets’ worst loss of the season, losing to the Phoenix Suns 109-75. Pulled from the blowout early, Yao scored only 6 points, and T-Mac scored 10. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

TUESDAY, 2/14/06 – After playing their best game of the season on Tuesday night in a blowout win over the Clippers, the Rockets played their worst Thursday night against the Phoenix Suns on national TV, losing 109-75. It really wasn’t even that close. At one point, the Suns had a 47-point lead in the third quarter.

All the gains the Rockets made wining 7 of their last 8 games entering this game were virtually wiped out with their most embarrassing loss since last year’s 40-point blowout against the Mavericks in Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs.

What a great way to go into the All-Star break…Not! I bet you T-Mac (10 points, 4-of-15 shooting) and Yao (6 points, 2-of-7 from the field) don’t feel like playing in the All-Star game after being part of such a bad loss.

The good thing is that if the Rockets somehow make the playoffs this season, chances are they will play the Spurs or the Mavericks, not the Suns. It will still be an early exit, but maybe just not as bad.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Yao records 15th double-double in Rockets blowout of Clippers

Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
by John
Yao throws one down after hustling down the floor for an uncontested dunk in a rare blowout victory Tuesday night, shelling the Clippers in LA 128-97.  Yao had 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting, and 12 rebounds to record his fifteenth double-double of the season.Yao throws one down after hustling down the floor for an uncontested dunk in a rare blowout victory Tuesday night, shelling the Clippers in LA 128-97. Yao had 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting, and 12 rebounds to record his fifteenth double-double of the season. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

TUESDAY, 2/14/06 – The Rockets have been playing well lately, but no one expected the kind of performance they put on Tuesday night against the 30-19 LA Clippers. Making a statement to the rest of the league that they are not going away this season, the Rockets dominated the Western Conference’s fourth-best team 128-97, and have now won 7 of their last 8 games.

The Rockets had their high scoring first quarter (30) first half (61) and final score (128) all season long. And the boxscore from this game is amazing. They shot 58% overall and 54% from 3-point territory. They made 82% of their free throws. They out-rebounded LA 47-26. They had 32 assists and 11 steals (five by Rafer Alston). They pushed the ball all night, getting 15 fast break points, to look like a much different team than earlier this season.

The game is a virtual highlight reel, including lots of dunks by Yao coming off assists from his teammates. Yao scored 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting and grabbed 12 boards. After shooting only 15% on Sunday against the Knicks, T-Mac was back as his usual self, shooting 10-of-21 for 28 points and doling out 5 dimes. And Alston looked liked John Stockton with his 13 assists and 17 points (on 5-of-7 shooting). When these 3 guys play like that, they are going to win almost every time.

Everyone played well in this game, so there’s no need for me to go through the boxscore; you can take a look at it yourself to see all the player totals. But notable performances came from Stromile Swift, who hustled his way to lots of rebounds and tip-ins, and Keith Bogans, who surprised everyone and scored 18 points in just 25 minutes of action, including 4-of-5 three-pointers! Wow!

It’s too bad the Rockets couldn’t go into the All-Star break off this tremendous high — they may be brought back down to earth when they play the high-powered Suns in Phoenix on Thursday night. But at least for now, the Rockets are creating some fear and drawing more respect from the teams on their schedule. I can envision the announcers during the NBA All-Star game also giving props to Yao and T-Mac for bringing their team back from the dead, which was unimaginable just a few weeks ago.

Now at 22-30, it should be an interesting remainder of the season for Houston. If they can go 20-10 the rest of the way, they might just have a shot to grab the final playoff spot. And anything can happen in a first round match-up between either the Spurs or Mavericks, long-term rivals they know very well. They face those teams five more times collectively the rest of the regular season, so if they do make the playoffs, they will have really earned it.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.