I had a few more things I wanted to write about regarding Tuesday night’s game against the Lakers that I didn’t have time to write last night because the game ended so late.

It might be a symbol of great things to come that Yao Ming scored the first basket of the Rockets’ season, scoring on a reverse layup with 7:37 remaining in the first quarter after catching a sweet pass from Rafer Alston. On the next possession, Yao scored again on nice fadeaway jumper. Other Rockets had their chances to score first, but collectively they went 0-for-5 to start the game.

Did you see what Yao did with 5:09 remaining in the first quarter? He got the ball at the edge of the lane about 8 feet away from the basket, then made the most aggressive move I’ve seen him make in a long time. He dribbled strongly toward the basket with authority, was going to throw it down, and was fouled. Maybe his plan is to do that more often. After all, who is going to stop a freight train that’s 7’6″ and 300+ steamrolling his way to the basket? At minimum, he’ll get fouled and go to the line.

For all those critics who think Mike James is a ballhog…if he was a ballhog last night against the Lakers and he performs that way, then I’m all for it. Ballhog away! He was extremely effective scoring 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting. And I don’t mind a hot 3-point shooter taking another 3-pointer right after hitting one. You play the hot hand.

Bonzi Wells played okay, scoring 7 points in 18 minutes. I was disappointed he turned the ball over twice in a row, though. It was like a throwback moment to last year.

The first quarter was pathetic, with the Rockets shooting 5-of-20 from the field and turning the ball over at least 5 times. I had thought maybe the Houston Texans were out there playing.

Around the 3-minute mark in the second quarter, some of the Rockets’ best moments occurred. First, with 3:45 remaining Yao did an awesome job playing like Vlade Divac in the high post by passing the ball to Tracy McGrady for a reverse dunk! That’s what this new offense is designed to do! A thing of beauty! I predict Yao will continue to keep getting comfortable dishing assists from the high post area.

Then with a little over 3 minutes remaining, Mike James stripped the ball from Kobe, brought it up court, penetrated into the lane, and dished to a running Yao for a throw-down dunk! Then right after that, Mike James hit a three! With James on the floor in the first half, the Rockets scored 10 more points than the Lakers.

With all the problems that Kobe has had with his trade demands to get out of LA, he outplayed McGrady in the first half with 19 points vs. 10 points for McGrady, who was 3-of-9 from the floor and 4-of-6 from the line.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 8:24 pm and is filed under vs. LA Lakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.