“Every year, Yao is getting better. The Rockets showed their confidence in him, when they go through him at the end of the game like they did tonight. He made some big shots and was tough to stop.”

– Tim Duncan, on the Rockets’ big man who had 28 points and 13 rebounds in Houston’s 89-81 win over the Spurs, 11/06/07

“He’s so much more relaxed now.”

– Steve Francis, on how Yao handled all the hoopla with the media frenzy around Yao’s matchup with Yi Jianlian, 11/09/07

“He handles it so great. I really admire the way he handles himself, the way he carries himself.”

– Rockets’ teammate Shane Battier on how Yao Ming handled himself with all the attention from 200 million Chinese viewers (reportedly) watching him and Yi Jianlian in their first NBA matchup, 11/09/07

“I don’t think there’s a better one-two combination (in the NBA). Tracy is a great offensive player. He’s an all-star who creates his own shots and is able to get to the basket and finish. Yao Ming is basically what they call him, ‘The Great Wall of China.’ Once he posts in the block, he’s so hard to guard. Your best defense against him is to try and not let him get the ball, because once he gets the ball, he’s pretty much unstoppable. Plus, he’s a good passer who sees the floor well and gets his teammates the ball in good positions. That might be the best one-two combination since MJ and Pippen.”

– Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace after Yao Ming scored 34 points on 13-of-15 shooting and 8-of-8 shooting from the line after a Houston victory over the Bobcats, 11/11/07

Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady sit depressed near the end of the game as the Rockets got blown out by Golden State, losing 113-94. Both players only scored 21 points collectively.

I hate to say it, but I did mention at the end of my post last night that the Rockets were certain to lose against the Golden State Warriors tonight. And it wasn’t because of “tired legs,” as the folks covering the game for FSN-Houston kept saying. It’s because I think Golden State is just unstoppable, especially against the Rockets, who still have a ways to go before they can beat them when GSW is hitting on all cylinders. They shouldn’t feel too bad, though, because neither could the Dallas Mavericks in last season’s playoffs.

Because I saw it coming, I’m not as mad as I usually am after a loss. The Rockets just don’t match up with them at all (most teams don’t), having lost for the 3rd straight time against Golden State, this time 113-94.

The Rockets started off just as I anticipated, falling behind quickly 18-3 and making only 1 of their first 10 shots as the Warriors started running-and-gunning.

But the Rockets then went on a 9-1 run to get back into the game. Tracy McGrady did a good job not forcing long jumpers, and being aggressive within 12 feet, taking it to the hole and scoring on a reverse layup that impressed the Golden State crowd.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yao Ming shoots a huge jump hook over the Phoenix Suns’ Amare Stoudemire Wednesday night that gave the Rockets a 96-92 lead with 1:08 remaining in the game. Yao would finish with a monster game, scoring 31 points and grabbing 13 boards in the victory. Click here for more photos from the game.

Well, it didn’t take too long for Rocket fans who have been calling for Steve Francis to get quality minutes all season to prove to the head coach they were right all along.

Francis got significant minutes on Wednesday night against the Suns in Phoenix, and he was an important reason why they pulled out a big 100-94 win.

Francis provided a spark by scoring 9 quality points in 27 minutes. All of his buckets were huge at the time because for every shot he made, you knew it was going to force Adelman to give him more minutes in upcoming games, like most Rocket fans have been saying for weeks now.

But those shots he made did another thing – it made Rafer Alston realize that Francis is breathing right down his neck for playing time, and it paid off right away. Alston played much better on offense in this game, but believe me, it’s a fluke because Alston will always be a streak shooter. We’ll get to him more in a minute. Let me finish up on Francis.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have gone ahead and created a new photo gallery that has many of the photos from this past year of Yao’s activities. It’s basically the same photos you have seen on YaoMingMania, but all on one page. It’s a cool way to find interesting photos you like of Yao, as well as see a chronology of Yao’s life in pictures in 2007.

Just click on the “Photo Gallery“ link in the navigation bar. You’ll then see two “sets” to choose from — one set of photos without Yao, and another titled ‘2007’ with photos that include Yao. Click on that 2007 set, and you’ll see thumbnails of the Yao photos. You can then hover over each thumbnail to get a short description of the photo. To see a larger photo, just click on the thumbnail image.

Over time, I hope to get all the photos I’ve posted in this gallery and apply descriptions to all the photos, but it’s alot of work, so please be patient as I try to do that over the next several weeks (or months).

Enjoy!

In case you missed it in the discussion forum, Raymond has translated an interview that Yao gave recently after the Rockets win against Denver on Saturday night. I recommend it, and you can read it here.

Thanks Raymond!

Yao Ming shoots a jump hook over LA Clipper Chris Kaman on Monday, November 26th in Los Angeles in an 88-71 Rockets win. Yao finished with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting, 8 rebounds and 1 block. Meanwhile, Kaman came out strong and scored 22 points on 7-of-20 shooting, and 13 boards. Click here and here for more photos from the game.

Well, we’re going to have to wait at least another game to see if the Rockets’ renewed emphasis on ball movement will be effective. Despite Rick Adelman‘s vow to not lean on Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady (especially) to have so much of the scoring load placed on their shoulders, in the second half he absolutely threw that philosophy out the window Monday night in a victory over the hapless LA Clippers.

In the third quarter when the Rockets finally got some separation from the Clippers due to them missing tons of shots (Sam Cassell’s injury in the first quarter really hurt their cause), they just kept feeding McGrady who put the entire offense on his shoulders by scoring 9 points in the third, and 19 in the fourth. This was quite a change from their commitment in the first quarter when I thought McGrady did a good job taking it to the hole and not settling on jump shots.

In the second half, I can understand the philosophy of “feeding the hot hand,” but this was ridiculous. There was no ball movement at all – just McGrady going one-on-one as he scored 28 of the Rockets’ 48 second-half points, and 36 overall.

Where is the commitment and the will power to stay the course, and not to be tempted to go back to the “old way” of scoring points (which we know doesn’t work in crunch time), and work out the kinks in the new system?

Read the rest of this entry »

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports that when the Rockets were flying back from Miami to Houston after losing their 6th game in a row, that the players (especially Yao and McGrady) had discussions with coach Rick Adelman on how the offense should focus more on Adelman’s new system as opposed to keeping remnants of the old one around.

Evidently Adelman hasn’t been comfortable making a complete switch to his new offensive system. But after several losses in a row where guys were “standing around” and the shot selection was terrible at the end of games, I would have thought it would be a no-brainer for him to go to a more motion-oriented offense much earlier than after losing 6 games. That’s what Adelman had been brought into to do in the first place, right?

Read the rest of this entry »

Yao Ming comes over defensively to help Shane Battier defend against Denver’s Carmelo Anthony taking it to the hoop Saturday night. Yao finished with 22 points on 9-of-18 shots, and grabbed 13 boards in a rare 109-81 blowout against a Nugget team that has now shot below 40% for three straight games. Click here for more photos from the game.

For all of us who tuned into the Rockets game Saturday night against the Nuggets to see if they would crash-and-burn in the game’s final minutes…well, we’ll all have to wait until Monday night when the Rockets play the Clippers in LA.

Having lost 6 in a row, the Rockets came out like a caged animal and opened huge 20+ point leads against a poor-shooting Nugget team. Although Denver came into the game 9-4, they had shot less than 40% their last two games, and aren’t really as good as their record indicates. They made it 3 games in a row Saturday night, making only 35.4% of their shots in a 109-81 loss to the Rockets.

The core of their offense, Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony, made only 15-of-38 shots to score 35 of their 81 points. So it’s really hard to tell just how well the Rockets will fare once some real pressure is applied to their defense. But the Rockets will take the ‘W’ any way they can get it to get their record back to 7-7.

It was clear the Rockets were going to go all out to stop their 6-game losing streak, showing lots of energy and resolve to build a lead so big that no team could really blow. It’s just too bad it took this long for a sense of urgency to set in.

Tracy McGrady was aggressive going to the hole, and his shooting percentage reflected it, making 13-of-23 shots for 35 points. Not intentionally wanting to be a party-pooper, I still think he fell in love with too many outside shots. Everything he shot close seemed to go in, so I think that emboldened him to take four 3-pointers (he missed three) and take three other unnecessary jump shots.

Read the rest of this entry »

Raymond has translated an article that Titan Sports’ Wang Meng wrote after interviewing Yao Ming about how the coaching change has dramatically changed how things get done at Toyota Center before games. One word of caution: this writer sometimes has quoted Yao for saying some almost unbelievable things, but this story sounds very believable to me.

It’s clear that Rick Adelman is an “old school” players’ coach whose pre-game preparation doesn’t stand up to Jeff Van Gundy‘s. There probably aren’t very many coaches who could match JVG’s control freak-ism. So I don’t have too much of a problem with coaches who don’t spend as much time obsessing as JVG did. I think too much obsessing can make a team tight. But it’s obvious this season, by looking at the product on the court, there is very little dedication to defense, and that the pendulum may have swung too far the other way. Adelman is clearly letting the players do what they want more than JVG would have ever dreamed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yao Ming meets with former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy before the Houston-Miami game Friday night, November 23rd. Van Gundy was the ESPN television analyst for the game. This happened to be the most interesting photo from the night because the Rockets didn’t do anything interesting on the court, losing to a struggling Miami team. Houston has now lost 6 in a row and dropped below .500. Click here for more photos of Yao with Van Gundy, as well as more photos from the pre-game shootaround and the game.

I’m tired of it, so this is going to be short.

The Rockets lost to a very bad 2-9 Miami team that was 0-5 on their home court before beating the Rockets Friday night. Houston has now lost 6 in a row, with no end in sight. My, oh my, how this season has cratered so quickly.

Miami gave them every chance to win, but the Rockets are so bad, you knew they wren’t going to be able to do it.

Rick Adelman looks like he’s a deer caught in the headlights.

McGrady: 7-of-20 from the floor. 5-of-10 from the free throw line. Inexcusable.

Yao Ming got schooled by Shaq down low: 26 points and 14 rebounds. Shaq was obviously tired of being written off as a force. Yao scored 20 points on 8-of-13 shots.

I feel bad for Luis Scola, who may be the Rockets’ best offensive player (9-of-15 for 18 points), and except for points from Yao, isn’t getting any help. Too bad it took idiot Adelman this long to figure out that he should be playing more.

Adelman inexplicably keeps playing “0-fer” Alston: who was 1-for-6, and 0-for-3 from three-point territory. HOW LONG DOES IT HAVE TO TAKE?

LESLIE ALEXANDER: PLEASE FIRE ADELMAN BEFORE THIS SEASON IS DOWN THE DRAIN!

In words that Stephen A. Smith would use, this team is “a piece of garbage.”

I’m out.