The NBA released its All-Star game voting totals yesterday, and Yao leads everyone in the League. Not too many people can dispute Yao’s lead like they might have done in previous years. Forget all that crap, like Shaq’s in the past, about how there are a billion Chinese voting. Yao deserves all the votes he’s getting. Click here for the story.

Yao rises up for a layup Friday night in Golden State. The Rockets lost in the final seconds on a huge 3-pointer by Baron Davis. Because of Tracy McGrady’s absence because of back spasms, Yao played 41 minutes, scored 38 points and grabbed 18 boards. Click here for more photos.

The Rockets lost a heartbreaker against Golden State Thursday night, with Baron Davis putting on an amazing performance (34 points, 8 assists) and hitting a 3-pointer with just 1.2 seconds remaining to not only break their heart, but rip it out and stomp on it.

I’m sure many of you saw the play where Davis rebounded Yao’s air-balled hook shot from the right baseline, did NOT call timeout, then dribbled it the length of the court and nailed the trey.

It was a smart move for Golden State to NOT call timeout since the best way to probably attack Houston’s vaunted defense is to do it when they don’t have a chance to prepare.

I replayed that play about 20 times to see if Yao should have stayed with Davis all the way down the court rather than switch off to cover Adonal Foyle as Davis approached the 3-point line with just a few seconds left. Yao actually played pretty good defense on Davis all the way down, keeping his hands up so there was no way Davis could get off a shot.

But when Yao made his switch off of Davis, as I’m sure he has been trained to do by Jeff Van Gundy when in a situation with a smaller guard who can blow past him, it gave Davis just enough daylight to launch the game winner.

You might be able to say that Davis wouldn’t have been able to get off a decent shot if Yao had stayed with him, or even pass it to a teammate for a better shot attempt. But that would have required Yao to be watching the game clock and know EXACTLY how much time was remaining on the clock while simultaneously running down the floor, which is really difficult to do in that situation. If he had switched off Davis with .2 seconds remaining rather than 4 seconds, Davis’ shot might have been a lower percentage attempt, but how is Yao supposed to know that running down the floor while concentrating on Davis?

You just have to give credit to Golden State for pulling this game out. They made plays down the stretch. It was an incredible fourth quarter for both teams. But Golden State was just a little bit better, and they had their star rise to the occasion in a clutch and frantic situation.

Yao also rose to the occasion, scoring 38 points (15-of-32 shots, 8-of-8 free throws) and grabbing 18 boards in a whopping 41 minutes, but in that final situation if you have a guard who can create his own shot, you’re a little better off. The Rockets’ Tracy McGrady has done that many times (remember the San Antonio game a couple of years ago where he scored 14 points in 30-something seconds?). But since T-Mac sat out this game with a bad back, they didn’t have that element in this game.

That’s what really sucks about this game – they were so close to pulling out a victory, and needed a win after losing against the Lakers on Tuesday night and just started a tough 5-game road trip out West. These past two games could have easily been won. Turning the ball over 20 times in each game doesn’t help.

The only bright side to this game is that Luther Head stepped up for the second straight game in T-Mac’s absence, scoring 26 points on 10-of-20 shooting, grabbing 9 boards and dishing 4 assists. He’s showing he’s the real deal, and it looks like Houston finally has made a smart draft pick (other than when it’s a no-brainer like Yao). I love watching a player rise from obscurity to becoming a star, and that’s what it looks like the Rockets have.

Rafer Alston also played well, hitting 5-of-10 three pointers on his way to 19 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. He still shot only 6-of-15 from the floor, but we have come to expect that from Alston. As long as he doesn’t shoot lower than that, continues to hit big treys and racks up close to 10 assists, I’m relatively okay with it.

Shane Battier was solid with 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting (3-of-5 treys), 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

Bonzi Wells played 17 minutes and only made 2-of-7 shots for 4 points, but the Rockets need to invest that time in him to get him up-to-speed since T-Mac’s health is in question, and they need as much firepower as they can get against the Lakers on Friday night.

Yao convenes with John Lucas during the Rockets’ amazing run in the fourth quarter when they went on a 26-1 run to pull within two points, but missed big free throws in the final two minutes that kept them from taking the lead and winning the game. Click here for more photos.

The Rockets almost pulled off a miraculous comeback against the Lakers Friday night. Down by 27 points in the fourth quarter, they came storming back on a 26-1 run mainly by going ‘small’ with reserves like Steve Novak, Scott Padgett, Luther Head, Chuck Hayes and John Lucas III.

If it hadn’t been for 4-of-6 MISSED free throws in the final two minutes, the Rockets could have had a comeback story for the ages. Unbelievably, Scott Padgett missed two free throws in a row that could have tied it, and Luther Head and Chuck Hayes both missed 1-of-2 free throws before that.

I’ve got to give props to Jeff Van Gundy for leaving these guys in the game as they ratcheted up the defensive intensity to cool off the hot-shooting Lakers, who went on a huge run themselves in the third quarter. The Rocket subs got back into the game by throwing caution to the wind by jacking up three-pointers and taking it to the hole aggressively. It almost worked.

You have to question Van Gundy leaving some of these guys in a little too long after they pulled within two points, such that they were dog-tired down the stretch and couldn’t hit throws with wobbly legs. They had expended so much energy trying to get back into it, they apparently didn’t have the strength to finish it out.

The Rockets were also robbed when Kwame Brown committed goaltending by tipping in a Kobe Bryant missed layup attempt with 57 seconds remaining when only up by two points, but the refs didn’t call it as the Rockets’ bench erupted. That no-call was a backbreaker.

Luther Head picked up the slack for an injured Tracy McGrady by more than doubling his average point total to 21 points. T-Mac’s injury could really give Luther the chance to become a star. And John Lucas III showed the world the same energy and scoring ability he showed me at the Vegas Summer League where he absolutely dominated. So although the Rockets will dearly miss T-Mac while he’s out because of back spasms, it will be fun to watch these guys – along with Vassilis Spanoulis – step out from behind his shadow, improve as players, and improve their bench depth over the long-haul.

The Rockets went to Yao early to milk his hot hand after that 38-point outburst last Saturday night against Washington. He made 5 of his first 6 six shots and scored 12 in the quarter. Kwame Brown couldn’t stop him, getting scored on early and picking up two early fouls.

Yao scored 9 more points in the second quarter to finish the half with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting. By that time, no one really stepped up to replace T-Mac’s missing points other than Juwan Howard with 10 points in the second quarter. Rafer was 2-for-7. Shane Battier was 1-for-6. Still, the Rockets only trailed 54-51.

The third quarter was all Lakers, showing they are for real this year by going on a 30-13 run and making 65% of their shots while Houston turned the ball over a whopping 10 turnovers and making only 4-of-13 field goals.

Since they couldn’t stop the Lakers and were trailing 84-64 heading into the fourth quarter, and extended it to 90-64 with 10:36 remaining, Van Gundy had enough and decided to go with a smaller, quicker team and give his subs a chance. Out went Yao, Juwan, Alston and Shane. In came Chuck Hayes, Padgett, Lucas, and Novak. Luther stayed in the game.

The Lakers extended their lead to 93-66, but the subs went on that amazing 26-1 run with a no-holds barred attitude offensively, great defense and rebounding. Here’s how it all went down with 10 minutes remaining in the game:

93-68: Novak hits a running jumper with 9:27 remaining

93-71: Luther hits a three-pointer with 8:42 remaining

93-73: Luther hits another jumper with 7:49 remaining

94-72: Kobe makes 1-of-2 free throws with 7:34 remaining

94-75: Novak makes a trey with 6:52 remaining

94-77: Luther makes a jumper with 6:19 remaining

94-79: Chuck Hayes scores on a layup with 5:57 remaining

94-81: John Lucas III makes a jumper with 5:08 remaining. Now down by only 13 points. A complete comeback may be possible.

94-84: Scott Padgett makes a trey with 4:35 remaining

94-87: Lucas makes a huge trey with 4:02 remaining. Phil Jackson decides to put his starters back in the game.

94-90: Luther makes another three with 2:54 remaining

94-91: Luther makes one of two free throws with 2:01 remaining

94-92: Chuck Hayes misses one of two free throws with 1:38 remaining

– Scott Padgett is fouled on a defensive rebound, and he goes to the line and misses both free throws that could have tied the game. The second attempt teased everyone by rolling around the inside of the rim, then spinning out. You could tell he was either weary from the effort expended to get back into the game, was thinking way too much when shooting those throws, or both.

96-92: No goaltending is called on Kwame Brown’s tip-in when it should have been with :57 remaining. This no-call was huge.

– Novak misses a trey.

98-92: Smush Parker scores on a runner in the lane.

Here’s a couple of other tidbits from the game:

I thought the game was poorly officiated, like the goaltending on Brown that wasn’t called, Yao getting fouled as he was going up for a sure layup late in the game with no call, and a couple of other blown calls!

Yao only scored five points in the second half and finished with 26 points overall. In the second half, the Lakers defense tightened up and forced Yao to throw the ball away numerous times or get it stripped. For the game, Yao turned it over 6 times.

Bonzi Wells finally got a chance to fill the T-Mac void and didn’t do much in the third quarter, which was expected since he hardly has played this season. But he did show some nice passing skills by dishing a nice, selfless touch-pass to Yao down low for a dunk.

It was very strange, but good, to see all of the Rockets’ starters on their feet cheering with the crowd as the subs pulled them out of their hole. On average that only happens once or twice a season.

Yao goes airborne to chest bump Juwan Howard after Yao hit a backbreaking shot with 11.4 seconds remaining that helped beat the Washington Wizards. Yao scored 23 points in the fourth quarter alone on his way to 38 points, 11 rebounds and 6 blocks. Click here for more photos.

I have seen a lot of fantastic performances by Yao over the past 5 seasons, but the game he had Saturday night against the Washington Wizards ranks as one of his best ever.

With an ailing T-Mac in the locker room because of back spasms (oh no, not again!), Yao took over and scored 23 points in the fourth quarter on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field, and 11-of-12 from the line. His points mainly came from unstoppable fallaway jumpers, capped with a baseline jumper while falling out of bounds with 11.4 seconds remaining to expand a one-point lead to three, 112-109. The Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas missed a 3-pointer that could have tied it, and Shane Battier sank two free throws to seal the victory, 114-109.

Yao finished with a season-high 38 points on 13-of-19 field goals, 11 rebounds and 6 blocked shots. My goodness, Yao is indeed worthy of NBA MVP consideration.

With T-Mac’s back acting up again on a night where he was pretty good himself (28 points on 10-of-21 shooting, but 1-of-5 from three-point range), Yao knew he had to take over in the fourth quarter.

“(McGrady) was out in the fourth quarter, and it was very tough to score,” Yao said. “I was thinking, ‘Do more.’

“It a little bit changed my play. I was more aggressive. Tracy, who is the best player on our team, is out, and somebody had to step up.”

It’s comical how the Associated Press writer for the game watered down Yao’s performance and attributed it to Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood having to leave the game because of injury. There may be just a little truth in that, but to have that be the leading theme in the story smacks of more anti-Yao thinking we had thought had finally been put to rest. You can read the AP writer’s take on the game by clicking here.

As much as this cat tried to downplay Yao’s game, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan gave Yao the ultimate respect after the game:

“I don’t think anybody has an answer. If you have personnel to look him in the eye a little bit, just a little bit, that helps. But the guy has an arsenal that I haven’t seen before. He is equally dominant on either box. Now you tell me: Who in the history of the NBA can you say that about?”

“Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was dominant on the left box and darn good on the right. This guy shoots turnaround jump shots, gets post-ups, makes free throws. He does everything.”

While watching the game, here were some of the other plays that stood out to me:

1st quarter – Luther Head led a fast break that ended with a beautiful alley-oop to T-Mac for a dunk. I hadn’t seen that from the Rockets in awhile.

2nd quarter – Gilbert Arenas scored 19 points in the quarter alone, at one point scoring 13 of the Wizards’ points in a row. Rafer Alston led a break and faked a behind-the-back pass to T-Mac to juke his defender, then laid it in easily. Very Skip-to-my-Lou-ish!

2nd & 3rd quarter – Alston scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. While Yao is out resting, T-Mac takes over and scores 12 points on 3-of-7 shooting and 5-of-7 free throws.

4th quarter – With the Rockets leading 90-87 with 7:34 remaining, Juwan Howard foolishly fouls Antawn Jamison while shooting a 3-pointer, and on top of that, was called for a technical for reacting to the call, which led to a 4-point play. Big mistake that keeps Washington in the game. But Luther hits two huge three-pointers down the stretch to help the Rockets maintain the lead.

Even though Gilbert Arenas scored 41 points, overall, the Rockets defense played very well, holding the high-scoring Wizards to 39.7% shooting. 12 total blocks by the Rockets definitely helped. Houston shot lights out: 55%.

Now the main thing that concerns the Rockets is the future of T-Mac’s back. This is much more concerning than the concussion he had last week. If he’s going to continue to have problems with his back like he did last season, then it was a bad night overall, even with Yao’s amazing performance.

John

Click here for the Houston Chronicle game story.

Yao skies over Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor Friday night on his way to 21 points in 25 minutes during a blowout victory over the Bobcats, 92-62. Click here for more photos.

Friday night the Rockets got payback for losing games they should have won against woeful Charlotte the past couple seasons. Sure, the Bobcats were without starting point guard Brevin Knight and Adam Morrison had another awful night shooting (1-of-11 for 2 points), but the Rockets didn’t care.

Last season they lost their only game in Charlotte, and the previous season they lost both games to them within a span of 4 days – losses that eventually affected their playoff seeding and forced them to play a much tougher Dallas Maverick team in the first round. We all know how that turned out.

The Rockets took care of business Friday night, holding the Bobcats to the lowest number of points in their three seasons by a mile (9 points), blowing them out 92-62 and holding them to 28.4% shooting.

The defense is playing like I have never seen before, holding their opponents to more than 4.5 points per game than anyone else in the league. Houston (86.52 ppg) leads San Antonio’s 91.05. Those numbers are incredible. They are second to San Antonio is average point differential per game (9.2 vs. 6.47).

What has really helped those numbers over the last week is that the Rockets held Cleveland to 63 points last Saturday night, then set their franchise record by holding Charlotte to 62 points on Friday night. We bow down to you, Jeff Van Gundy, Shane Battier, and the rest of the team.

What else can you say in a blowout win? There are no complaints from me, and you can’t say anything else to describe it other than “dominant.” Yao (21 points in 25 minutes) and T-Mac (23 points in 27 minutes) hardly played in the fourth quarter where they led by as much as 36 points.

Let’s hope this extra rest helps them in their back-to-back against Washington Saturday night. The rest they got in the fourth quarter against Golden State on Tuesday certainly didn’t help them in their awful performance Wednesday night against the Timberwolves.

Juwan Howard got lots of playing time Friday night and rebounded from his 0-for-5 shooting game against Minnesota by hitting 6-of-11 (12 points) and grabbing 6 rebounds.

The Rockets shared the ball very well, dishing out 14 assists, with T-Mac getting 5 of those. Battier had three assists, and chipped in 3 steals and 6 points. But his defensive job on Morrison was his greatest contribution, which is becoming a common theme against big-time scoreres (e.g. Lebron James).

John

Click here for the game story.

Kevin Garnett puts much of his weight in defending Yao Ming in the paint Wednesday night. Tough Timberwolve defense against Yao held him to his lowest shooting percentage of the season (26%), yielding only 14 points in 41 minutes in a 90-84 loss in Minneapolis. Click here for more photos.

Yao had his worst shooting game of the season Wednesday night in Minnesota, shooting only 26% (5-of-19) and scoring only 14 points in 41 minutes in a 90-84 loss to the Timberwolves. It looks like the rest he was able to enjoy the previous night by taking the fourth quarter off didn’t help.

Kevin Garnett, Mark Blount and Craig Smith showed they can play defense, too. There’s a reason the T-Wolves are third in the league in opponents’ scoring average (92.9 points per game). They did a good job pushing him further away from the basket than he likes to be, which happened to him earlier this season and resulted in a poor shooting night.

You would think if teams knew that’s what it took to contain Yao, they would do it all the time. But give credit to Yao for being strong enough and fighting hard to get great position against most of his opponents and average 26 points per game.

The fourth quarter was especially disastrous for Yao. He was called for a very questionable tech – his first of the season — after posterizing Eddie Griffin on a dunk and belting out a yell.

Later on he was called for goaltending against Troy Hudson, which gave the T-Wolves an 85-77 lead with a little over 5 minutes remaining.

Shortly afterwards, Yao was blocked at the rim by Garnett, but grabbed the rebound and blew a layup. I had just written a few days ago how impressed I was that Yao wasn’t blowing chip shots this season like he had done so often in previous seasons. After the game, Yao vowed, “I will make those next time.”

Throw in 7 turnovers on the night for Yao, and you have his worst overall night of the season.

Yao didn’t get much help from his partner Tracy McGrady, who also finished with 14 points and shot worse than Yao (didn’t think that could be possible), making only 5-of-21 shots, missing all 3-point attempts, and turning it over 5 times himself.

So although the Rockets have a decent 12-6 record, it’s clear they aren’t as good against tougher competition. Even with such a bad night for Yao and T-Mac, at least they didn’t get blown out. They had a chance to tie it very late in the game with a three-pointer, but like all night, they couldn’t get off a decent shot and lost.

Yao throws one down in a dominant performance against Golden State Tuesday night where he was played man-to-man most of the night. Yao finished with 27 points on 12-of-17 shooting, 8 rebounds and two blocks in just 27 minutes as the Rockets blew out the Warriors, 118-90. Click here for more photos.

Yao and T-Mac put on a clinic Tuesday night against Golden State. Yao’s 12-of-17 shooting and 27 points and 8 rebounds atoned for the 8-for-23 shooting abomination and 5 boards Saturday night against Cleveland. Give alot of credit to his teammates, who got him the ball down low many times against man-to-man defense.

After suffering a concussion in that Cleveland game, T-Mac inexplicably was as good as new, scoring 31 points on 13-of-25 shooting and doling out 7 assists.

I thought it would have been distasteful after his last injury to joke about it, but now that we know McGrady suffered no ill effects after getting bopped in the head accidentally by Dikembe Mutombo’s elbow, I can tell you what I was thinking as T-Mac struggled with his balance. I thought the injury might help clear T-Mac’s head of all the negative vibes he has been having this season and make him shoot better….kind of like those stories you hear about where people with diseases or blindness get struck by lightning and are suddenly cured.

Who knows. Maybe that’s what happened. Yao evidently thought the same thing after the game when he joked, “It knocked him awake.”

The Rockets were definitely awake in the first quarter. Not only that, they were on fire, moving the ball around for high percentage shots and layups and opening up a 19-point lead, 26-7. Yao scored the first 11 points for the Rockets, with the last 3 baskets easy layups.

By the end of the first quarter, the Rockets had scored their highest number of points in the first quarter this season, making 64% of their shots and leading 35-20. Yao had 17 points, and T-Mac had 11. Incredible!

In the second quarter, the Rockets kept pouring it on, building a 56-28 lead a little more than halfway through it. Their shooting from the field cooled off somewhat, making only 7-of-19 shots. But they went to the free throw line 15 times, and made all 15!

Juwan Howard made all 5 of this free throws on his way to a 9-point quarter. Yao added six more points to his total, including a powerful one-handed slam that raised his teammates off the bench in exaltation, and he went into halftime with 23 points and a 65-44 lead.

T-Mac lit it up in the third quarter, going to the hole aggressively like the T-Mac of old, making 6-of-11 shots and scoring 13 points to build an even bigger lead after 3 quarters, 93-68.

In the fourth, Yao didn’t play and T-Mac played for just a few minutes since they play a back-to-back against Minnesota Wednesday night. That gave the Rockets’ bench some much needed playing time, and Vassilis Spanoulis took advantage of it, scoring 13 points and hitting 4-of-9 from the floor, 3-of-5 in the fourth quarter.

John Lucas also played fantastic in his 6 minutes, hitting all 3 of his shots and finishing with 7 points. The Rockets finished the game with their highest point total this season, winning 118-90.

I really felt sorry for Golden State, who was playing a back-to-back after losing to San Antonio by 40 points Monday night.

Poor Don Nelson. I bet he wish he hadn’t come out of retirement for this kind of abuse. Not to say the Warriors haven’t done some good things this season. After all, they lead the NBA in shooting percentage. But against the Rockets’ defensive buzzsaw, they were held way below their average — 39%.

Nelson was very complimentary of the Rockets afterwards. “The Rockets are for real,” Nelson said. “We had no answer for anything they did. I was going to attack Houston in the open court and spread their defense, and it blew up in my face.”

Apparently Nelson was also playing a ‘spread defense,’ as described by Yao after the game. “I thought after the first two baskets I made they might come to double-team or something,” Yao said. “But I kept looking around and still there was only one man. I think they were hoping we’d get bored throwing the ball into the paint and start to play some perimeter, playing their game. We know their game. They were weak on the inside.”

John

Click here for the game story.

Yao tries to keep Lebron James from scoring Saturday night, but with no success as James prepares to throw one down. However, it was one of only 7 shots that James made in 22 attempts. Meanwhile, Yao finished with 24 points and 5 rebounds in leading the Rockets to an 81-63 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Click here for the game story. Click here for more photos.

This is probably the latest commentary I have had after a game, more than 24 hours after the fact. I spent the past day at my folks’ house helping out with a very ill relative, and didn’t have access to TV during the game, but was able to watch it on Tivo late Sunday night. I’ll probably have a similar schedule during most weekends in the foreseeable future.

With that said, it was a thing of beauty to see team defense play such a big part early in the day when one of my favorite teams – the UCLA Bruins football team – shock the world and the 14-point favored USC Trojans by knocking them out of the BCS National Championship Game by holding them to the least number of points this decade.

Later that evening, defense was the overwhelming factor that led to the Rockets dismantling of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ offensive attack, holding them to 28% shooting for the game. It probably would have been worse if the Cavs hadn’t cut a 26-point deficit in half late in the fourth quarter.

After Houston had gone scoreless during a Cleveland 13-0 run, though, the Rockets righted the ship and scored 3 baskets in a row to put the game out of reach, winning 81-63.

I’m sure you know by now that T-Mac suffered a concussion after running into Dikembe Mutombo‘s elbow accidentally. It looked scary at first, with McGrady totally out of it. But then later on it was reported that he doing much better after the game, joking and smiling in the clubhouse. It’s uncertain if he will play in Tuesday’s game against Golden State.

T-Mac actually had a great start before getting hurt late in the first quarter, scoring 7 points on 3-of-5 shooting and doling out 3 assists in just 10 minutes of play.

The Rockets went on a 14-1 run without T-Mac at the end of the first half, holding the Cavs to no field goals for 8 ½ minutes. Yao had scored 20 points by halftime, and the Rockets were comfortably ahead 43-29 at the half.

Shane Battier did an amazing defensive job on Lebron James, who was only 4-for-16 at one point in the third quarter. King James finished 7-of-22 for the game.

With the ‘playmaker’ McGrady not able to dish some assists to Yao for dunks or layups because of his concussion, Yao did not get easy looks (finished only 8-of-23 from the field) and only scored 4 points in the second half. But the Rockets didn’t really need him much in building a 26-point lead.

When the Cavs cut it close, Rafer Alston and Luther Head came up with some clutch shots as they have done most of the season and put the game away. Head was especially outstanding, hitting 3-of-6 three-pointers (13 points), grabbing 7 rebounds, and passing 5 assists. And he only had 1 turnover in 31 minutes.

Overall, it was an ugly game since the Rockets only shot 39% from the field, but on a day when defense made headlines on the West Coast, the Rockets applied their own smothering defense on the Gulf Coast.

Here is an excerpt from today’s announcement on NBA.com

The Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard and Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming today were named Eastern Conference and Western Conference Players of the Month, respectively, for games played from the start of the season (Oct. 31) through November.

Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor, Cleveland’s LeBron James, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, Denver’s Carmelo Anthony, Detroit’s Chauncey Billups, Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal, the Los Angeles Clippers Sam Cassell, Milwaukee’s Michael Redd, New Jersey’s Jason Kidd, Sacramento’s Kevin Martin, Utah’s Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams.