For the second straight game, Yao stepped up after a lackluster game by the Rockets. Here’s what he said after the Philly debacle last night.

“When you are soft yourself, everything will feel tough. It’s not because they are so tough. It’s because of how soft we are.

“It’s weird that we changed that quick. I never had that feeling. I feel like they traded me to another team, a new team I’ve never been on before.”

Yao has called out his Chinese national teammates before, but this is really the first time he has done it with his American teammates. I really think that Yao can be a leader, but it takes a disaster like this one to get him there.

Yao Ming misses a dunk against Philadelphia in a game that was a disaster for the Rockets. Yao only made 3-of-11 shots and scored 12 points in 33 minutes before all the starters were pulled after having fallen behind by 20+ points in the second half.

I was going to write a long post about all the things the Rockets did wrong as they fell behind by double-digits in Philadelphia Monday night. But then it just kept getting worse and worse, and I couldn’t keep up with documenting their poor play as the Rockets fell behind by 31 points.

When it became garbage time, Rick “Idle-man” (as aptly named by reader “Shawn”) finally put his subs in the game for good because he had no choice since his starters sucked so bad.

And lo and behold, the unit of Luis Scola, Luther Head, Bonzi Wells, Kirk Snyder and Mike James actually made it interesting by pulling to within 12 points with a few minutes left, but they couldn’t get a miracle win. But at least they showed they have some players who can score in a 100-88 loss.

I am not going to cite any statistics for any player because those numbers don’t mean anything in a game like this one. The starters don’t deserve to have their numbers mentioned, and the subs got moist of their points in garbage time when the game was out-of-hand and there was really nothing to lose.

If there is anything to be learned from this game, it’s that Rick Idle-man needs to show some balls and START this same bench unit against Detroit on Wednesday night — at least for that game — and sit Tracy McGrady, Yao, Chuck Hayes, Shane Battier and Steve Francis. That will send a signal that their poor play is not going to cut it. The reserve unit deserves a chance to show what they can do when they start a game. If they implode, so be it. At least Idle-man would have rewarded “giving a damn” with playing time.

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Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle has some interesting quotes from Yao in this story about how the Rockets fell apart yesterday in Toronto, a game that I also wrote as being pathetic.

“I feel this is the worst game I ever had in my career,” Yao said. “When we played on the court, no intensity, no patience, no (adherence to the) game plan, don’t know our game, don’t know their game, no trust (of) each other, no defense.

“I hate this game. I hated it. It’s all on us. Us. I’m one of us.”

Yao also commented about his thoughts when he and his teammates were getting ready for the fourth quarter. Yao was yelling out, “Let’s go. Wake up! Let’s go!”

“I knew something was wrong. When we were waiting to step on the court, I was walking to the middle line and saw the people; I was trying to wake everybody up, myself too. Everybody was like they had the same as my ear.”

I think these statements are significant steps for something to change, and I’m not just talking about an attitude adjustment, which rarely works. When your franchise player voices his displeasure about his teammates’ effort (and his own), then you’ve got something there.

The Rockets have finished a quarter of the season, are a measly 11-10, and have lost 9 of their last 14 games. They always say you can tell how good (or bad) a team is after the first 20 games. Well, we’re there, and it sucks.

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Yao Ming shoots a hook shot over Toronto’s Kris Humphries. The Rockets played poorly in the second half, with Yao taking only 10 shots (while McGrady shot 21) and scoring 15 points in a humiliating loss, 93-80.

After the way the Rockets half-assed their way to a sorry loss against an average Toronto Raptor team Sunday afternoon, someone high-up in the organization needs to rip this team. It most likely won’t be head coach Rick Adelman because he has proven to be too easy going to do that. Maybe owner Leslie Alexander?

In the second half, this veteran Rocket team was outclassed by a bunch of Toronto bench guys, and thoroughly embarrassed as the Raptors scored 59 points in the second half vs. just 35 by the Rocks.

You expect All-Star Chris Bosh to get his points, even if this was his first game back in 5 games because of a groin injury. Bosh scored 21 points (16 points in the second half), grabbed 10 boards, and blocked 4 shots. But when you’ve got bench players like Kris Humphries scoring 16 points, Jason Kapono scoring 10, and Carlos Delfino scoring 12, you have to do some soul-searching on if you’re really the better team or not.

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Who says Yao can’t jump? Here, Yao jumps to defend against New Jersey’s Vince Carter as he drives to the basket and misses a wild shot. Yao also did some damage on the offensive end of the court, scoring 25 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, dishing 5 assists, and blocking 3 shots in a fairly easy victory over the struggling Nets. Click here for more photos from the game.

After so many games against tough opponents — the toughest schedule in the league — the Rockets are finally able to get a “break,” play against weaker opponents (like Memphis on Wednesday), work on their chemistry, and get other guys involved in their new offense.

That’s what happened again Friday night in New Jersey as the Rockets easily beat the Nets 96-89, and four Rockets scored in double-digits: Yao Ming (25), Tracy McGrady (24), Rafer Alston (15), and Shane Battier (12).

The Nets could never get anything going as the Rockets held double-digit leads most of the game. That has been par for the course for the Nets at home this season, where they have had double-digit deficits in their last 9 home games, and have trailed at halftime in 15 of their 19 games.

The Rockets kept that trend going through halftime Friday night by leading 48-33 after shooting 54% as a team. McGrady was feelin’ it in the first half. He got hot and the Rockets kept feeding him as he scored 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the first half, hitting fallaways and tough shots, including two three-pointers in a row.

By halftime, Yao had 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting, easily being able to shoot over Jason Collins , Jamaal Magliore, and other defenders. No one had an answer for him.

I loved one play at the 8:55 mark in the first quarter after Yao chased down a ball from the high post, dribbled a couple of times toward the basket, then threw a perfect pass to Chuck Hayes for a layup. What mobility in the high post — I love it!

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Yao Ming throws down a one-handed tomahawk jam in the first half of the Rockets game against the Memphis Grizzlies. After 3 days off to rest and prepare, the Rockets’ team shooting improved to 51% for the game for the W. Click here for more photos from the game.

I had to work late on Wednesday night that overlapped with the Rockets-Grizzlies game. Then when I got home to watch the game on my DVR, I got sick to where I’m not able to write a full report like I normally do. But I’ll try to gut this one out.

After losing to the Grizzlies on November 13th in Memphis, the Rockets got some payback by easily defeating the Grizzlies 105-92 on Wednesday night in Houston. I was a bit concerned the Rockets would come out lethargic, similar to the last time the Rockets had 3 days off and didn’t look like they had done any preparation in a loss to Dallas on November 21st.

The big key to this victory was the re-emergence of Bonzi Wells (24 points on 11-of-14 shooting), who many people, including myself, had written off that perhaps he was going to sprial downward the rest of the season.

Bonzi was phenomenal in the second quarter when he scored 12 points, and looked like the same Bonzi who had destroyed the Spurs in the fifth game of the season. Although he had shorter guards trying to guard him Wednesday night, he still looked like a totally different player from the guy who had been missing so many shots during his slump lately.

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Raymond reports that Yao and his new bride Ye Li filmed a commercial for Chinese life insurance company China Life on Monday in Houston. Here’s one photo from the commercial shoot:

Click here for more photos from the commercial shoot.

Raymond also has photos from Monday and Tuesday’s Rockets practice. Thanks Raymond!

I like this article in today’s Chronicle about what Yao thinks needs to happen for his teammates to hit more of the shots they have been missing:

“Come early in the morning before practice. Maybe stay for a half-hour and take a couple hundred shots, like I do every day.

“Before the (last) game, I saw a lot of players doing this. I think we need more.”

Yao isn’t afraid to call it like he sees it. I like it. Keep it going, Yao. You’re a leader now.

It has been about 3 1/2 years since I last took online donations. That’s around the time that I started putting Google Adsense ads on my site. I thought Adsense would generate enough revenue to do away with ads, but I was wrong. It’s barely enough to cover my hosting costs each month.

Recently many readers have expressed a desire to help me out given how much time I have put into the site over the past 5 1/2 years since its inception. One reader asked me today if it was possible to donate, so I went ahead and found some of my old code that allows you to donate using Paypal. And compared to the last time I took donations through Paypal, the good thing is now you can make donations using credit cards through the Paypal payment system (you don’t need a Paypal account).

I figured this is really the best way to collect money rather than making YaoMingMania a “walled garden” only viewable to people who pay a subscription fee.

The donate button is on the right side of the page, or you can donate using this button here:

Thanks again to all the readers who have expressed a desire over the last week to help me out financially, and for all your support and kind words!

In case you didn’t see Yao throw the towel Saturday night in Sacramento that got him ejected from the court, or didn’t see Raymond’s clip in the forum, you can check it out here.

You go, Yao!

Update: the Houston Chronicle has a short article on the complaints the Rockets registered with the NBA league office on the calls that made Yao so angry.