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.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 11:59 pm and is filed under vs. LA Clippers, Yao's best games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.