Yao tries to defend the Hornets’ sensational point guard Chris Paul Saturday night in Houston. The Rockets beat New Orleans/Oklahoma City for the first time this season, which was big in the Rockets’ quest to win home court advantage against the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Yao had 30 points in the win, while T-Mac scored 25, including 11 in a row in the pivotal fourth quarter. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for pregame photos during the shootaround.

What else can you say about the Rockets’ 123-112 win against New Orleans Saturday night in Houston? It was one of the biggest wins of the season in defeating a team that had beaten them each time this year, and kept the Rockets’ quest to win home court against the Jazz in the playoffs alive.

We really learned much about how well the Rockets might perform in the playoffs by doing what they had to do to win this game, despite all the telltale signs that this was a game they would probably lose

The Rockets and Hornets were trading blows all game long like it was a prizefight. But not until the fourth quarter when T-Mac went on a tear to score 11 points in a row did the Rockets put the game away. T-Mac finished the game making 8 of his last 9 shots, and 9 of his last 11, after only making 2-of-7 in the first half.

Just like T-Mac had iterated in a Houston Chronicle article on Friday that now “it’s time,” he put his money where his mouth was and came through by hitting huge buckets when the Rockets really needed them. He essentially willed his team to a win down the stretch.

The Rockets needed all the help they could get because they couldn’t stop the Hornets’ offense. The Hornets were incredible, racking up 62 points in the second half, the highest number of points the Rockets had given up in a second half all season long, and shooting 54.2% from the field for the game.

David West scored 33 (his third 30+ point game in a row), Marc Jackson 22, Devin Brown 21, and Chris Paul 20. And they did all this without Desmond Mason, and potential most-improved-player-of-the-year candidate Tyson Chandler (sore big toe) who can give Yao problems down in the post.

It’s hard to believe the Hornets aren’t going to make the playoffs. Their 37-43 record is not indicative of how good they are. That just goes to show how competitive the Western Conference is this season. But some years are like that. I remember during the Rudy T. era the Rockets finished 45-37 one season, and they still missed the playoffs, which was one of the best records for a team that didn’t make the playoffs.

Without Chandler in the lineup, Yao had his way with one-on-one defensive coverage on him most of the night. Yao scored 30 points on 11-of-16 shooting, and 8-of-11 from the line. He also had two blocks. But the one stat that several people (sportswriters, Van Gundy, even Yao himself) made fun of was his two rebounds.

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A few days ago (Tuesday, April 10th) a Seattle blogger went to the Sonics-Rockets game to find out why people of Chinese heritage supposedly don’t buy that many Yao jerseys. Here’s his post.

Here’s a quick read (as well as here) about how Yao thinks Yi Jianlian is a bit ‘long and rangy’ and should ‘open his heart’ to coaches, officials and U.S. journalists as he prepares for the NBA draft in the States.

Here’s a link to a story that describes the special training that Yi will be getting this summer compared to what Yao and Wang Zhi-Zhi got before starting their NBA career.

Yi landed in Los Angeles on Friday. Click here for more photos of Yi arriving at LA International Airport. Click here for photos taken from Yi’s send-off party in China.

With all the high expectations for teams like Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio, Detroit, and Miami to win a championship this season, it was nice to see a couple days ago MSNBC.com giving some attention to the Rockets and the hopes of T-Mac and Yao to replicate the greatness of other great duos in NBA history.

Yao and Shane Battier team up to block the Blazers’ Raef Lafrentz shot in the first quarter Wednesday night in Portland. The Rocket defense was stifling in the first quarter, and the Rockets eventually opened a 25-point lead in the third. But the Blazers fought back and were able to cut the deficit to 3 points late in the fourth. However the Rockets held on for the win, with Yao finishing with 27 points, 12 boards, and 3 assists. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for pregame photos during the shootaround.

During the third quarter of Wednesday night’s game for the Rockets against Portland, it couldn’t get much better for Houston.

They had a 25-point lead and were rolling to an easy victory, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming were tuning up well for the playoffs, Utah had lost to Denver and by night’s end the Rockets were going to be 1 ½ games up on Utah for home court advantage in their first round playoff series (unthinkable about 10 days ago).

So naturally with the game in hand, I was starting to think of what Houston had to do in their 3 remaining games to stay ahead of Utah to secure home court in their playoff series.

But just as I started to think ahead to the playoffs, I think the Rockets did, too.

Like so many times this season, the Rockets let their opponent back into the game. By the 4:24 mark of the fourth quarter, Portland had cut that 25-point deficit to five points, 87-82.

To make matters worse, with less than two minutes remaining in the game as the Rockets were trying to survive the Blazer comeback attempt, T-Mac went down with what looked like a season-ending and playoff-ending knee injury in a scramble for a loose ball. Brandon Roy landed on his leg and knee awkwardly, twisting it and making T-Mac writhe in pain on the court.

In that one instant, all those thoughts about winning in the playoffs went out the door. But luckily T-Mac was able to get to the bench and didn’t go to the locker room, so he might be okay. But we’ll find out soon enough on Thursday.

And as T-Mac watched from the bench, the Rockets held on for a 99-95 win.

After the game, Jeff Van Gundy was obviously disgusted by how the Rockets let the Blazers back into the game, just like other teams have done so often this season against the Rockets. It would seem almost impossible for Portland to come back without injured players on the court, like Zach Randolph, Lamarcus Aldridge, Darius Miles, and Joel Pryzbilla like they did.

Well, I have a theory on why it’s happening….

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Here’s a link to a good article that describes the latest with Chinese player Yi Jianlian, who is expected to be a high first-round draft pick in the NBA draft this summer.

It looks like Yi will be picked so high in the draft, the Rockets would not have much of a chance to get him (if they’re interested) unless they trade for that pick. My bet is that the Rockets’ top priority in the draft will be to find a top-notch point guard instead.

Yao goes up for a shot against Seattle’s Nick Collison on Monday night. Later in the third quarter, Collison would pull Yao down to the floor on a flagrant foul, and Yao would retaliate by hitting alot of shots to finish with 15 points in the third, and 31 overall. Click here for more photos from the game.

Unfortunately this blog entry has to be somewhat short because of some work I had to get done tonight. But I have to say that I was impressed with the up-tempo style of play the Rockets played against the Seattle Sonics to win 95-90.

Yao Ming was the man (again), scoring 31 points on 10-of-19 shooting and hitting all 11 of his free throws. The Sonics didn’t have anyone who could stop him, and they obviously don’t have the personnel to play the kind of team defense that Golden State or Phoenix plays against him.

Probably the most exciting play that involved Yao occurred with 5:06 remaining in the third quarter with the Rockets up 62-59.

Yao was running down court on a fast break and got great position down low on Nick Collison. Yao went up for the shot as his body was moving toward the basket, and Collison put his right arm on Yao’s hip while also pulling down on Yao’s shooting arm with his left hand.

Yao has a tendency to fall to the floor on these kinds of shots, probably because he’s so big and it’s safer for him to have his body fall to the floor — like a stuntman would — than try to use his legs to stop all the momentum behind his upper body.

But with Collison having his arms on Yao as he was falling, it looked like it was a flagrant foul, but in my opinion it was really hard to tell if Yao’s falling to the ground was all of a result of Collison, or Yao was falling anyway, or a little bit of both.

After the game, Yao definitely thought Collison pulled him down. But if you look at the slow-motion replays carefully, it showed Yao had a lot of momentum as he was falling to the floor, and that it could have been deceiving. Regardless, if you watched the game in live action like the refs saw it, you would think it was flagrant, and that’s what they called.

When Yao hit the floor, he was writhing in pain and held his elbow after hitting it hard on the floor. Seeing Yao be the victim of a called flagrant foul by the refs, and also in pain, T-Mac took exception to Collison’s foul on Yao. Wanting to protect his big man and make a statement, T-Mac came up to him and shoved him with his right hand.

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Yao charges into Francisco Garcia Sunday night for one of his five fouls. Those 5 fouls held Yao to just 24 minutes of action and 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Luckily, Tracy McGrady scored 40 points as the Rockets beat the Kings 112-106 and pulled within 1/2 game of the Utah Jazz for homecourt advantage in their playoff series. Click here and here for more photos from the game. Click here for photos from Saturday’s practice in Houston before leaving for their West Coast road trip.

Maybe the Rockets should play the rest of their games on the road. After losing 3 in a row at home this past week, the Rockets went into Sacramento against a tough crowd at Arco Arena, and came back from a 8-point second half deficit to win 112-106.

It helped that Yao and T-Mac were back in the lineup together for the first time since their 3-game losing streak started.

The Rockets got off to a great start, with Yao scoring 9 of the Rockets’ first 11 points. One of those scores included T-Mac driving the lane, drawing the defense to him, and dishing to Yao for an easy dunk with Yao getting fouled. We sure missed that kind of play over the past 3 games.

For one moment, though, it looked like the Rockets’ season was going to be over when T-Mac twisted his ankle in the first quarter and went down in pain. On the replay, it looked like he had also hyperextended his knee, a much more serious injury. Thankfully, T-Mac returned to action after the ensuing timeout, and all was fine.

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In the top photo, Yao speaks with Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy in a session on Friday before their game against Portland later that night. It was decided later that Yao should sit out the game because of some type of contact he received during Wednesday night’s game against Golden State that hurt his back.

During Friday’s game, Yao joins T-Mac in the training room while their teammates played without them against Portland. The Blazers ended up beating Houston without Yao and T-Mac in the lineup, a significant blow to Houston’s hopes to catch the Utah Jazz for home court advantage during their first round playoff series. Click here for more photos of Yao and Van Gundy in their gameday session. Click here for more photos taken during the game.

What a frustrating game Friday night against the Trailblazers. Houston had all kinds of chances to beat a young, sub-500 team like Portland, and to do it on a night when Utah left the door open for the Rockets to get closer to the Jazz for home court advantage. Utah had a 5-point lead against Sacramento Friday night with 3 minutes to play, but they still managed to lose.

In the Rockets game against Portland, Yao and T-Mac played it safe by sitting out the game because of back issues, and the rest of the Houston veterans couldn’t beat a relatively inexperienced Portland team, losing 85-78, which is the Rockets’ third home game in a row to lose!

You can just about kiss goodbye any chance of the Rockets getting home court advantage against the Jazz now. They have blown all kinds of chances this week, losing to Utah and Golden State. But I guess it’s no surprise since the Rockets are 1-11 when both Yao and T-Mac don’t play.

The Rockets started off terribly Friday night, getting down 17-4 after Portland went on a 15-0 run. The Rockets made something like two of their first 13 or 14 shots, and turned the ball over 5 times in the first few minutes of the first quarter.

Houston ended up shooting only 30% in that first quarter and trailed 23-14 heading into the second quarter, and was still behind 40-33 at halftime. The deficit could have been much less if Dikembe Mutombo hadn’t blown a layup right before the halftime buzzer, and 4 other layups had not been missed by his teammates earlier in the half.

You just can’t blow easy shots like that. That is the difference between the Rockets and other teams – Yao and T-Mac are superior to most of their counterparts, but after that, there is a big drop-off in talent level, except for maybe Shane Battier.

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Yao was stifled by a swarming Golden State defense all night long Wednesday night. Yao was only able to get off 4 shots and score 9 points in a 110-99 loss to the Warriors. Click here and here for more photos from the game.

On Wednesday night, the Rockets showed to me many of the flaws that will lead to their demise in the playoffs. They not only lost to the Golden State Warriors 110-99, which didn’t surprise me. They were dominated. Part of the reason was because they held Western Conference player of the week Yao Ming to 9 points on 2-of-4 field goal attempts. Amazing.

What’s frustrating is that the Rockets seem to have no answer for high-powered offenses like Phoenix (who they haven’t beaten all year), Dallas (who they are 1-3 against) and now the much improved Warriors. What’s even more frustrating is that Jeff Van Gundy doesn’t seem to be able to adapt his game plan for teams like those.

Consistently Wednesday night the Rockets tried to keep pounding it into Yao despite having two or three defenders on him. Golden State was doing an excellent job defensively on Yao, and they made it very difficult for the Rockets to get him the ball in the post. It’s not as easy as people (like the Rocket TV announcers) would think. When the defenders are fronting Yao, and have a man behind him, and are basically playing zone defense against him with hands constantly up, it’s going to be hard to get Yao the ball without risking a turnover or a three-second violation in the lane.

Yet, that’s what the Rocket perimeter players continued to do. I counted at least 8 turnovers resulting from them trying to get Yao the ball in a tough position, resulting in either a tipped or stolen pass. Give credit to Warriors coach Don Nelson for exploiting the absence of T-Mac, out with a stiff back (more on that later).

On the other end, Van Gundy said after the game that the way the Rockets should beat that kind of defense is to make their perimeter shots. Jeff, that’s true. But I’m sorry, if you haven’t figured it out by now, you don’t have enough personnel who can do that consistently. You have Luther Head, who stepped up in T-Mac’s absence by hitting 7-of-9 three-pointers for 30 points, but many of those came when the Rockets were just about dead down by 16 points in the fourth quarter.

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