Yao shoots over former Rocket teammate Maurice Taylor on his way to scoring 24 points, grabbing 8 rebounds and blocking 4 shots in another impressive performance, leading the Rockets to a 90-83 victory. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

SUNDAY, 2/12/06 – I went to the Rockets-Knicks game on Sunday night at Toyota Center, and the Rockets took care of business, beating a struggling New York team 90-83. The Knicks have lost their last nine games in a row, 15 of their last 16 games, and have the second-worst record in the league (now 14-36).

I really felt sorry for them because they remind me a lot of Houston when both Yao and T-Mac were out earlier this year, and we all know how painful that was. They have a hard time scoring (38% shooting Sunday night), and just don’t have a superstar that can put his teammates on their back and will them to a victory.

I was impressed after the game with what appears to be team unity despite such a terrible season. All of the New York players gathered at mid-court to take part in some kind of prayer, which I think they do after every game, so at least they are trying to stick together through some very tough times.

Meanwhile, the Rockets had a hard time distancing themselves from the Knicks in the first half, and I had to think this game had the makings of an upset. The refs were calling the game very tight – too tight – putting both teams on the free throw line 38 times. The game was almost unwatchable, but it was working out to the Knicks advantage. The Knicks made 15-of-22 FTs compared to Houston’s 11-of-16. By the end of the game, 67 free throws were attempted. Yuck!

In part because of all those free throws, the Rockets only had a 47-46 lead at halftime, and that was only because David Wesley hit a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer to give them the lead.

Part of the problem in the first half was Tracy McGrady’s struggles from the field, scoring only three points on 1-of-12 shooting! The explosion we are so accustomed to seeing this season in the second halves of games when he’s off track in the first half never happened on Sunday night. He only made 2-of-8 in the second half to finish 3-for-20, finishing with 7 points! It was the worst shooting night of T-Mac’s career. I thought he was settling on too many jumpers from the outside and not taking it to the hoop enough, which was surprising because he said a few games ago that when he’s not making shots, he has to take it to the hole strong to get his rhythm.

In the third quarter, it looked like T-Mac was resigned to the fact he was doing more harm to his team than good by shooting the ball. He had a couple of plays where he did take it strong to the rack, and I thought he was going to put up a running shot off the glass that were higher percentage shots. Instead, he dished off to Yao who caught the ball on-the-move to the hoop and threw it down for a monster dunk, was fouled, and who made the penalty free throw for a 62-53 lead.

On the very next possession, T-Mac drove down the lane again, and I was thinking, “Alright, put it up!” Instead, he kicked it out to Wesley, who nailed a three-pointer for a 66-53 lead. So even though his shooting was pathetic, he did have 7 assists and had the presence of mind to get his other teammates chances to score by using himself as a decoy.

The Knicks cut the deficit to 71-66 with 9:45 remaining in the fourth quarter, but Rafer Alston hit a big three-pointer to push the lead to 74-66, and the Knicks would get no closer than six points the rest of the game.

I’ve got to give credit to Alston, who hit some big shots when the Rockets were struggling in the second quarter, scoring four points, including a beautiful fake pass as he crossed through the lane and hit a running hook shot.

Alston finished with 14 points and 7 assists, and has been playing a lot better recently. He’s not putting up Mike James numbers, but he is providing some relief to his teammates (T-Mac, Wesley, Luther Head) so they don’t have to bring the ball up the floor like they were doing alot during their losing streak earlier this season.

Because of that relief, Wesley is also playing a lot better. “D-Dub” scored 15 points on efficient 4-of-8 shooting (4-of-7 from three-point territory) in 37 minutes.

More about Yao

For the third game in a row, Yao was the difference in this game. Without his 24 points (8-of-13 shooting), 8 rebounds and 4 blocks, the Rockets lose this game. The Knicks had no answer for him, with center Eddy Curry fouling out in the fourth quarter.

I’ve got to say I think this is the best Yao has played in his NBA career. He’s delivering points when his team needs him, he’s staying out of foul trouble, blocking more shots, and he’s grabbing a decent number of rebounds. He’s also the only NBA center averaging 20 points or more per game.

But everyone knows the Rockets have no chance to win on the road against the LA Clippers on Tuesday and Phoenix Suns on Thursday if T-Mac doesn’t get on track. Yao said it himself after Sunday’s game. Thankfully McGrady is a better player on the road than at home this season. However, T-Mac has got to play like his usual self at home if the Rockets are going to make a run at the final playoff spot over the next 31 games.

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 scores on Mehmet Okur after a sweet move on the baseline that got him to the hoop in a big win against Utah Saturday night at Toyota Center. Yao scored a game-high 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting. grabbed 8 boards and blocked two shots. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

SATURDAY, 2/11/06 – The Rockets probably had one of their most impressive wins of the season Saturday night, taking an early lead against Utah and never relinquishing the lead in a 102-88 victory.

It reminded me of last year when they were playing so well in the second half of last season. Unlike the loss against the Lakers on Wednesday, the Rockets shared the ball (27 assists), shot well (49%), grabbed rebounds, and pushed the ball for many fast break points. You couldn’t ask for much more from the team as a whole.

Yao was amazing, scoring 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting in just 31 minutes, grabbing 8 boards, and blocking two shots. His teammates found him under the basket multiple times after they drove into the lane and drawing defenders, giving Yao easy dunks. He also had two scores on spin moves on the baseline, getting around defenders for easy dunks. He looked good and is really coming into his own.

T-Mac scored 25, grabbed 6 boards and had two blocks. Although he was 9-for-22 from the field, he took it to the rack more often rather than relying on jump shots as he has been doing alot lately without as much success.

David Wesley was third in Rockets scoring (17), playing efficiently by hitting 7-of-10 shots, and 3-of-4 three-pointers. It helped that Welsey only had to play 32 minutes, thanks to new Rocket reserve guard Keith Bogans making his debut in a Houston uniform.

Although Bogans, acquires a couple of days ago from Charlotte for Lonny Baxter, only had four points, but they were spectacular. His first basket as a Rocket occurred in the middle of the second quarter when Rafer Alston bounced a sweet no-look pass to Bogans as he was breaking toward the hole. Bogans then elevated, suspended in mid-air, drew a foul from Greg Ostertag, then shot it high off the glass as we as coming down for the bucket. A little over a minute later, he grabbed an offensive rebound in the middle of the lane and scored on a nice garbage basket to make it 38-25. That’s all that Bogans scored for the night, but they were impressive and welcomed.

The Rockets opened up an 18-point lead in the second quarter, but Utah was able to close the gap at 47-35. However, the way the Rockets were playing, it didn’t look like they were going to have any problems. They were clicking on many cylinders.

Yao fell to the floor as he bumped into T-Mac and a cluster of other players as he was running up the court in the middle of the third. It looked scary at first because he landed on his right elbow, checked out of the game and put an ice pack on it.

Without Yao, the Rockets opened up their lead to 80-58 at the end of the three quarters. The Jazz went on an 11-2 run to cut their deficit to 13 points with 8:47 remaining. But the Rockets didn’t collapse, held off the Jazz and managed to win their 5th game in 6 tries.

The Rockets turn right around and play the Knicks on Sunday night at Toyota Center on a rare back-to-back at home. I plan to be at that game, so it will be interesting to see if there is a discernable buzz in the building compared to earlier this season. I’ll let you know.

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.

Kobe Bryant blocks one of Yao’s shots during the Rockets 89-78 loss to the Lakers Wednesday night at Toyota Center. Yao scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a loss that ended Houston’s 4-game winning streak. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 2/8/06 – Through three quarters Wednesday night, the Rockets game against the Lakers was one of the best of the year in my opinion. Not that the Rockets played that well. They were trailing 44-33 at halftime. But the buzz among the 18,000+ Houston fans was palatable as they watched the Rockets go on a 15-3 run to take their first lead at 48-47, and it looked like it was going to be an exciting game the rest of the way.

The largest Toyota Center crowd of the season was finally able to get excited about the game, and you could feel how badly they wanted a win since the Lakers currently occupy the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoff seedings, with the Rockets only 5 games back in the standings. On top of that, the Lakers had lost their last four games, so the fans smelled blood.

But then Kobe went off and scored 12 points in the third quarter with an amazing array of shots, and the Lakers cruised to an 89-78 victory. So instead of only being 4 games back if they had won this game, the Rockets are now 6 games back.

It was interesting to hear Kobe’s comments after the game about how much the Rockets appeared to take him lightly when he said, “I started coming off the pick and roll and I was so wide open. It really threw me off at first. It’s been two months since I’ve been that wide open.” What?! Even more wide open than the 81 points you scored against Toronto? We’re lucky he only scored 32.

Of course, Jeff Van Gundy wasn’t happy as you can tell by these post-game quotes:

“How little we put in the game, from the start of the day to the end of the game, was totally uninspiring. We went through the motions, but didn’t even fake it very well.”

“We didn’t try hard enough. It gives you pause to think what do we really have here? We should’ve been frothing at the mouth, like pit bulls. I so much want to have a team that really, really, really wants to play every day, every night.”

Unfortunately, the highly anticipated showdown between Kobe and T-Mac never materialized. While Kobe ended the game with 32 points, 9 assists and 6 steals, McGrady struggled from the floor again, shooting only 5-of-18 from the floor and scoring just 11 points and grabbing 4 boards. And since Yao had a so-so game (14 points, 7-of-17 shooting, 13 rebounds), there was no way the Rockets were going to win with Yao and T-Mac both having sub-par games while Kobe and Brian Cook (of all people) combined for 59 points.

Even more disturbing is that T-Mac has now only made 30% (19-of-63) of his shots over the past 3 games. Hopefully he’s not going through back problems that are affecting his play. We’ll find out Saturday when they play Utah at Toyota Center.

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 scores two of his 27 points Monday night over Philadelphia’s Samuel Dalembert. The Rockets won their fourth straigt game, beating the 76ers 87-81. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

MONDAY, 2/6/06 – Who would have thought the Rockets could win with T-Mac scoring only 13 points? That’s what happened Monday night in a game which Yao dominated, tallying a double-double (27 points, 12 rebounds), and their defense holding the Philadelphia 76ers without a bucket for 15 straight minutes and 19 straight shots in the second half. Look out. The Rockets are on a 4-game winning streak, and are fun to watch again!

In addition to the 76ers drought in the second half, they only shot 18% in the first half, scoring only 9 points in the second quarter. They also had 14 turnovers in the first half, finishing with 24 TO’s compared to Houston’s 13.

Although Yao scored 27, he only made 9-of-21 from the floor. The key was his shooting 9-of-9 from the free throw line.

Props go to Rafer Alston, who finally shot well from the field to add to his usual decent assist totals. After hitting only 1-of-16 three-pointers in his past four games, Alston finally found his range and hit 5-of-8 treys Monday night, scored 19 in addition to his 8 assists. He also played pretty good defense on Allen Iverson. With T-Mac only making 5-of-19 shots, we can say that without Alston’s contribution (and of course Yao’s), the Rockets probably would have lost this game. That’s a switch.

It didn’t hurt that Philadelphia struggled from the floor, making only 33% of their shots. It’s very reminiscent of Houston’s bad shooting when T-Mac and Yao were both out of the lineup. But hey, it happens, and the Rockets will take it.

I am now betting that T-Mac will have a monster game against the Lakers on Wednesday night because rarely does he have more than a couple of bad games in a row, and it’s T-Mac’s turn to take over for Yao as part of their “one-two” punch while Yao has just a so-so game statistically. And you can bet T-Mac will be pumped to play against his scoring rival, Kobe Bryant.

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 makes a move toward the basket in New York. Yao scored 15 points in the Rockets’ third straight win. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

SUNDAY, 2/5/06 – For the first time in two months, the Rockets won their third straight game. This time they beat the struggling New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden in front of a national TV audience. It looked like the Rockets were going to run away with this game several times, but they couldn’t put the Knicks away until the final seconds with some David Wesley free throws, winning 93-89.

The Rockets played very well in the first half, with Yao scoring 8 of Houston’s first ten points, including a sweet fake that gave him a wide open lane to the bucket for a layup that ABC replayed over multiple times. He also had two blocks in that first quarter and dominated on both ends of the court, scoring 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the first half.

The Rockets led by as many as 9 points in the second quarter, and it looked like they were going to blow it wide open. They were playing extremely well, only turning the ball over four times in the first half and accumulating 15 assists. They also had a 14-0 advantage on the offensive boards, which was shocking considering the Knicks lead the league in offensive boards.

But the Knicks were able to stay in the game, trailing only 45-42. The lead could have been larger if T-Mac hadn’t struggled offensively. He was 1-of-8 from the field with only four points. But now with T-Mac and Yao back in the lineup all healthy, no big deal. When T-Mac is struggling, Yao will take over. When Yao is struggling, T-Mac will pick up the slack.

That’s exactly what happened in the second half. Yao went cold, missing all six of his shots, but T-Mac got hot in the third, scoring 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

With T-Mac’s help, the Rockets went on a huge spurt, opening up a 12-point lead. Their defense clamped down early in the third quarter, with Yao getting a block and the team picking up multiple steals.

Early in the third, Wesley scored after he stripped the ball from a Knick in the lane, took it down the other way and scored on a layup while getting fouled. After he hit the penalty free throw, the next time down the court, Wesley hit a three-pointer. He capped off scoring 8 points in a row by himself after scoring on a fast break layup on the very next possession.

But the Knicks made another run, erasing their 12-point deficit to tie it at 71-71 with 8:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Rockets countered with an 11-5 run over the next 3 minutes to take an 82-76 lead, and it looked like the Rockets were going to cruise to a victory. But the Knicks wouldn’t go away, and they only trailed 84-81 with less than two minutes to go.

With one minute remaining, T-Mac came up big with a drive to the basket, then dished off to Stromile Swift underneath the basket for a dunk to make it 86-81. Then T-Mac hit a huge two-pointer with 37 seconds remaining to make it 88-81.

But New York’s Jamal Crawford wouldn’t give up, scoring all of New York’s 8 points the rest of the way. The Rockets had to make lots of free throws down the stretch to close it out. It wouldn’t have been as tight if they had made all of them. Rafer Alston missed a free throw, and Wesley missed two, but he made four to finish with 19 points and clinch the victory, and that’s all that mattered.

More thoughts about Yao’s play recently

Despite Yao’s bad shooting in the second half, I got the feeling when watching him in the first half while he was dominating that he is much more confident after seeing how much his team needed him during his 21-game absence. Maybe he realizes as hard as he is on himself when he isn’t doing well, it’s sure better than the alternative: his team not having him at all.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

Yao puts up a shot over a much smaller Johan Petro Friday night against Seattle. Yao scored 24 points and grabbed 14 points in an impressive 100-77 win. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

FRIDAY, 2/3/06 – I had tickets to Friday night’s game, but couldn’t make it. Bad move. I could have seen a game where Houston dominated for once.

Houston had one of its easiest victories of the season Friday night, beating Seattle 100-77 at Toyota Center. A 23-point margin of victory is a rarity in this abysmal season. But with T-Mac and Yao back together again, the Rockets won their second straight game at home (the first time that has happened this season) and are showing again they are tough to beat when healthy. They are now 11-6 this season when they play together.

T-Mac had 36 points, shooting over 50% (14-of-26) and made 4-of-7 three-pointers. He also had 9 rebounds and 3 steals. Meanwhile, Yao scored 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds. That was after Yao struggled in the first half, hitting only 3-of-10 shots.

T-Mac caught fire in the third quarter, scoring 14 points and launching them to a 73-57 lead heading into the fourth quarter after ending the third on a 23-8 run. The rest of the way, the Rockets didn’t let up, even showing some impressive fast breaks, and closed out the Sonics easily.

Just as impressive as the offensive explosion was the Rockets holding the Sonics to 77 points after Seattle had scored over 111 points in six of their last 7 games.

The Rockets got meaningful contributions from Luther Head, who scored 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. In 18 minutes of play, Stromile Swift also chipped in 8 points on 4-of-6 shooting, and grabbed 6 boards.

Rafer Alston was awful, hitting only 1-of-7 shots (missing all six of his 3-point attempts). He did have 11 assists, though. David Wesley was only 1-of-5 with two points.

Now that Yao and T-Mac are back, you have to look at the standings and see if they can possibly make the playoffs. Right now they are 17-29 and 6.5 games out of the last playoff spot. New Orelans/Oklahoma City currently holds that position with a 23-22 record (.511)

With that winning percentage being a benchmark, let’s assume it will take a 42-40 record for making the playoffs. That means the Rockets will need to go 25-11 the rest of the way. That’s a 69.4% record. Only Detroit, San Antonio and Dallas have better winning percentages this season.

It’s going to be tough for the Rockets to make it, but if any two guys can get them there, it’s T-Mac and Yao.

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 throws down a thunderous dunk against Milwaukee at Toyota Center Wednesday night. Scoring 21 points and grabbing 13 boards, Yao was the difference in an 86-84 victory. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 2/1/06 – Okay, this is more like it. It wasn’t perfect, but the Rockets reminded everyone what they can do when they have their “Big Two” of Yao and T-Mac together.

Yao showed just how much the Rockets missed his presence during those 21 games he was out of action. On a night when T-Mac didn’t have that great of a game (6-of-19 for 22 points) based on his very high standards, Yao delivered big-time in only his second game back from toe surgery, scoring 21 points (8-of-18 shooting) and grabbing 13 boards to pace the Rockets to an 86-84 victory over Milwaukee.

Before I go further, let’s throw out the fourth quarter where the Rockets only scored 9 points. I’ll talk about that in a minute.

The Rockets got off to a quick start at the beginning of the game, taking a 6-0 lead. But then their shooting went south, and the Bucks went on a 24-5 run and held a commanding 27-15 at the end of the first quarter. I couldn’t help but think, “Here we go again.”

At the start of the second quarter, Chuck Hayes checked in and ignited Houston’s sluggish offense. In his first 3 minutes, he grabbed four rebounds, tipped in a garbage basket, blocked a shot and then hustled down court immediately after the block and was rewarded with an alley-oop, fast break pass from Rafer Alston for a beautiful bucket.

Hayes’ impact on the Rockets has been nothing short of remarkable. Before signing with the Rockets two weeks ago, he was in Albuquerque with their NBDL team. Hayes started showing glimpses of what he can do on the big stage on January 20th. In only his second NBA game, he scored 12 points and grabbed 13 boards against Chicago.

Hayes impact on this game was completely obvious. Beyond grabbing 8 boards and scoring 8 points in just 13 minutes, he jump-started the Rockets’ tempo both on offense and defense, and just as important, the Toyota Center crowd’s enthusiasm level.

Yao checked back into the game shortly thereafter, and it was vintage Yao. He hit fallaway jumpers, grabbed rebounds, and dished a sweet dish over a defender’s head to Ryan Bowen for a layup to cap a 13-2 run that cut their deficit to 29-26. When Hayes scored on a nifty baseline reverse layup, Houston took the lead for good, 30-29.

A little over a minute later, Yao made his patented spin move on the baseline around rookie Andrew Bogut and threw down a vicious two-handed dunk, with a little roar and snare to go with it! Man, we’ve missed that, Yao. Welcome back. Having you in the lineup makes such a difference. Not a knock against any of your teammates, but you just add another dimension to the offense that Juwan Howard and Dikembe Mutombo cannot offer.

He wasn’t done, though. Thirty-two seconds later, he hit a fallaway jumper to make it 35-30. Less than a minute later, he backed down his defender on the block. Unlike other occasions where defenders would ‘pull the chair’ from behind Yao to make him lose his balance and force him to throw up a wild shot as he fell to the floor, it looked like this time Yao saw that he had an open lane to the basket without needing to bother making a spin move, or fadeaway jumper. Instead, he just backed up, looked up behind him, saw the basket, and as he was falling to the floor, laid it in without ever needing to turn toward the basket! Only someone 7’6” with good touch could try scoring on a play like that one!

That unlikely basket made the score 37-30. Chuck Hayes’ energy and Yao’s 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the second quarter was pivotal to giving Houston an unusual 49-41 lead at halftime.

The Rockets maintained a double-digit lead most of the third quarter, thanks to T-Mac getting back on track offensively after only making 1-of-6 shots in the first half. McGrady scored 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting in the third to provide Yao some relief and to create that “one-two” punch the Rockets have been waiting for most of this season. But Yao didn’t disappear. He made 3-of-4 shots in the third quarter to score 6.

Heading into the fourth quarter, the Rockets led 77-66. The question was if Houston could muster some killer instinct and cruise to an easy victory.

That final quarter was ugly, and represented the problem they have had all season: the inability to score. Yao missed all three of his shots (maybe blame it on fatigue from his 21-game absence), and T-Mac went 1-for-6 again (maybe because his back wasn’t feeling great). Rafer Alston was 1-of-4, but he hit a big runner in the lane with 2:45 remaining to make it 86-81.

On the ensuing possession, Jamaal Magliore had a sure-fire dunk that could have made it 86-83, but Yao came up with a HUGE defensive play by blocking Magliore’s shot at the rim. Man, I’ve missed that too, Yao.

The rest of the way, both teams missed lots of shots. Houston’s defense clamped down and forced the Bucks to miss 14-of-21 shots in the fourth quarter, including a missed three-pointer by Bobby Simmons with a few seconds remaining that could have won it.

Finally the Rockets’ bad luck of losing games every possible way has ended, at least for now. Couple Simmons’ missed shot with the fact that Milwaukee’s leading scorer, Michael Redd, was out because of back spasms, and the Rockets only need about 13 games like this one to even out their bad luck this season along with their shocking 16-29 record.

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.