Yao Ming’s fans in Seattle came out in force to cheer on their hero against the Sonics Tuesday night. Unfortunately, they only got to see him play 27 minutes because of foul trouble. He did score 22 points and grab 10 boards, though, in a 104-87 loss to the Sonics. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

TUESDAY, 4/4/06 - The Rockets played uninspired Tuesday night in Seattle, losing handily to the Sonics 104-87. Yao fouled out of his first game since December 11th, finishing “only” with 22 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes of action.

Many of those fouls were touch fouls, and Yao didn’t really have an explanation for them. Several of the calls were bogus, but with the way the Rockets’ season has gone this season, nothing surprises me. When Yao wasn’t in the game, the Rockets gave up too many easy baskets in the paint, like to Chris Wilcox, who scored an amazing 26 points and grabbed 24 rebounds – tying Shawn Marion for the most rebounds in a game this season.

This game was almost the opposite of Houston’s blowout of the Sonics six days prior in Houston. Only scoring 10 points in the first quarter of that game, the Sonics scored 32 in the first quarter this time around and led by 11 heading into the second quarter. After that, the game was never really close. This time Seattle was rested, Wilcox had a great game, Ray Allen wasn’t 1-for-13 (11-of-22 in this game for 32 points), and Rashard Lewis played.

If the Rockets were lifeless in this game, can you imagine how they will be Wednesday night on the second night of a back-to-back in Portland? Luckily the Blazers have lost 21 of their last 23 games. Otherwise, it would not have been pretty.

One interesting thing the Rockets bench did in this game was remain standing until Yao scored their first point on a free throw to make it 6-1 with 9:14 remaining in the first quarter. Maybe it was a way to encourage their teammates. But it was strange seeing them standing for almost 3 minutes at the start of the game. I felt bad for the fans behind the bench who couldn’t really see because of it! If it was a show of solidarity toward their teammates, maybe the bench should have remained standing the entire game.

The only thing that went wrong for Wilcox occurred at the end of half-time when he was walking over to the baseline to inbound the ball at the start of the second half. The Seattle ballboy had to remind Wilcox to take off his warmup pants, creating a chuckle from the ballboy, Wilcox, and even the ref!

One surprising development that occured in this game for the Rockets was Richie Frahm showing major hops and scoring on two dunks in a row! Maybe the Rockets’ bench is more athletic than we thought. Keep an eye on Frahm the remainder of the season – with his 3-point shooting and surprising athleticism, he may win a roster spot next season.

With the Rockets having virtually no chance to make the playoffs, I’m not as mad about this loss as Jeff Van Gundy. I want to see more of the bench players perform to figure out who should stick with the team next season.

And it’s not a bad thing that with every loss, the Rockets’ chances increase for getting a higher lottery pick in the NBA draft. You may remember what happened in 2002 when the Rockets jumped several spots and landed the right to draft Yao Ming #1. With the bad luck the Rockets have had this season, they are entitled to a few lucky breaks come ping-pong ball time.

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 Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 at 11:59 pm and is filed under vs. Seattle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.