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.

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.

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