Yao Ming & Steve Francis cheer on the Rockets Tuesday night as the Rockets blew out the Utah Jazz to force a Game 6 in Salt Lake City on Friday night. Click here for more photos of Yao and Steve at the game.

Now THIS is the way it should be. Down 3-1 in their series to Utah and facing elimination with one more loss, the Rockets manhandled the Jazz in Game 5 Tuesday night 95-69, extending their playoff series to at least one more game that will be played in Utah Friday night.

Finally everything came together like we knew this team was capable of doing. We just wonder why it took four games for it to happen. Sure, they won Game 3 in Utah thanks to a Carl Landry block at the end of the game. But this game was different. Unlike that Game 3 win, the Rockets built a double-digit lead in the first half, and every time the Jazz made a run to make it look like they would rip the heart out of their Rockets and fans with a comeback win to win the series, the Rockets would respond and hold them off.

When they could have just laid down and died against the big, bad Jazz, and head into the off-season with a sour taste in their mouths, the Rockets were like an animal backed into a corner and they came out fighting. And they never let up.

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Despite being the host country, the Chinese National Team didn’t get a good draw, having to face Team USA in their first game of the Olympics. They are also in the same bracket as world champion Spain. There will be 3 other teams in their bracket for a total of six.

All 6 of these teams will play in a round-robin format, with the top 4 teams advancing to play winners from the other bracket.

You can check out more of the story by clicking here.

Here’s another story on China’s draw.

Don’t know if you saw it, but tonight the league announced the schedule for Tuesday night’s games. And guess what — the Rockets game against the Jazz will NOT be on ESPN or TNT. It’s going to be on NBA TV! I get the NBA TV channel, but something tells me there are a lot of folks out there who don’t get that channel and also don’t live in Houston where they can watch the local broadcast. So they may be out of luck.

I’d be curious to see if any of you out there are not going to be able to see it at home, or if NBA TV is part of your basic cable package.

And get this: the game will go head-to-head against Game 5 of the Phoenix-San Antonio series on TNT that also starts at 8:30pm Central like the Utah-Houston game. To me, that’s a slap in the face to fans in both Houston and Utah. Both series are at 3-1, so how did they go about choosing what game would go on each network? You would have thought they would have just spread out the games over different days so that basketball fans wouldn’t have to make such a difficult choice.

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Yao has continued to stay with his teammates in Utah leading up to Game 4 on Saturday night. With the Rockets 86-82 loss to go down 3-1 in the series, it’s not over yet, but Rocket fans can’t wait until next year when they will hopefully play against Utah in the 2009 playoffs where they will have to contend against one of the best players in the league. Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets lost Game 4 Saturday night because of stupid mistakes and terrible execution down the stretch. Bad officiating (as always) didn’t help them either.

Through Houston’s 86-82 loss on Saturday night and on the brink of elimination in yet another first round playoff series, I think many things became clear about what the Rockets need to do in the off-season with their personnel. I’ll save that for the end of this post.

But back to their performance in Game 4. They were stinking up the place in 3 different stretches of the game, but timely 3-pointers got them back into the game very quickly each time. However, every time they got close, they went brain dead and as a result, they didn’t deserve to win.

I’m sure you all saw it, but for those of you who didn’t…the final chance they had was when the Rockets were down by 82-80 and fouled Deron Williams intentionally with 7.3 seconds remaining to put him at the line. Unbelievably, Williams missed both free throws to give the Rockets a chance to win the game, BUT 3 ROCKETS FAILED TO REBOUND THE SECOND MISSED FREE THROW, LETTING MEHMET OKUR GET THE BOARD, FOULING HIM, AND SENDING HIM TO THE LINE!

Of course, Okur made sure the Jazz didn’t blow a golden opportunity like the Rockets had just done. He stepped to the line and both free throws, and now the Rockets are only 1 game away from their season ending once again in the first round of the playoffs.

What an embarrassing way to lose this game. That play is going to be played on Sportscenter over and over. It’s Jeff Van Gundy‘s most hated play in basketball – failing to get the rebound after a missed free throw. If there was ever one play that showed the Rockets miss Yao Ming, this was it! But my question – as well as everyone else’s question — is this: why wasn’t Dikembe Mutombo in the game to try to grab a potential missed free throw? That’s one of several questionable personnel decisions by Rick Adelman in this game.

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Yao and his teammates react to an important play late in Game 3 of the Rockets-Jazz playoff series, a game the Rockets won 94-92, in part because of late game heroics by rookie Carl Landry. Click here for more photos from the game, which include some of Yao.

Carl Landry has returned! The man who proved to be so valuable during the Rockets’ 22-game winning streak, and who we thought could be the X-factor in the playoffs, finally made the impact we thought he could in the Houston-Utah playoff series.

Landry came up big with a block of a Deron Williams‘s drive into the lane and field goal attempt that could have won the game for the Jazz. Instead, it was the Rockets who won a game on a court where only 3 other teams had beaten the Jazz all season long.

Landry’s block coupled with him saving the ball as it headed out of bounds with less than a second remaining in the game helped the Rockets escape the night with the 94-92 victory. If Landry hadn’t blocked Williams’ shot, then chances are that Carlos Boozer would have tipped the ball in for the win. That would have absolutely sucked since the Rockets had blown a 7-point lead in about 40 seconds leading up to that possession where Landry blocked Williams’ shot.

Landry had been so effective earlier in the game hustling for rebounds and loose balls (he finished with 11 rebounds total, 7 offensive, 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting, and 2 blocks), the Rockets were loving the impact he was making on the game that had been missing during the first two games of the series.

But when Carlos Boozer threw a cheap shot at him during a blockout for a rebound a few minutes before halftime, Landry was rushed to the locker room holding his face and it looked like the energizer was going to be out for the rest of the game. Just the Rockets’ luck as they were making a series of it, right?

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I’m surprised to see that Yao made the trip to Salt Lake City for Game 3. Of course, he won’t play, but I guess he decided to go to provide his moral support in this do-or-die game since the Rockets are down 2-0 in the series.

Click here to see more photos from Yao’s shootaround on Thursday morning. Thanks always to Raymond for posting the pics.

As always, I’ll be providing a report after the game.

I’m too frustrated to write much about Game 2 between the Rockets and Jazz Monday night. Bad ref calls were pervasive throughout the entire game, the worst being Kirilinko flopping 45 seconds remaining and the ref buying it right before Bobby Jackson hits a 3-pointer to tie the game, which didn’t end up counting. I’m reeeaaallly getting tired of the terrible officiating in this league.

After the game, I’m glad Adelman ripped into the refs for making that call in that part of the game. I have alot of respect for him calling the idiot refs out. Click here for the video from Adelman’s press conference. McGrady had similar thoughts at the end of his press conference, too (click for video).

Add in 10 more missed free throws and missed buckets around the rim (Chuck Hayes blew 2 more layups). Despite 3 great quarters, McGrady settling for jumpers in the fourth quarter…again. Luther Head doing nothing….again. The Rockets defense getting picked apart and not being able to stop the Jazz…just like last year. And hardly any playing time for Carl Landry (0 minutes in the second half) or Steve Novak (0 minutes overall).

So that’s it. I’m done for tonight. Just try to think how the man below who sat on the bench Monday night will help them this time next year (Click here and here for more photos from Monday night).

In the meantime, try to have a good laugh (if that’s possible) from the videos I posted below from last Thursday’s roast of Yao.

Before it becomes a distant memory, I wanted to publish some of the highlights from Yao Ming‘s Roast and Toast last Thursday night.

Yao and his agents who accompanied him were surprised that a big stretch Hummer had been arranged to pick him up. It’s definitely not Yao’s style to have a ride that big and flashy, but everyone agreed is was probably best to go ahead and ride in it rather than delay the schedule by requesting another one.

Since Yao had arrived back in the U.S. from China only about one day prior, he was pretty tired and had a workout scheduled in the morning. But he was a good sport to hang in there since the event lasted about 1.5 hours longer (’til about 10:30pm) than the 9:00pm scheduled end time. So he probably didn’t get back home until close to midnight.

I’ve got several videos to share with you that I recorded of people close to Yao roasting him, with all having very humorous moments. The first one below is from “Team Yao” member Bill Duffy. The second and third is from Jeff Van Gundy. The fourth is former Chinese National Team coach Del Harris, and the final one is from Yao himself!

Forgive me for some camera shakes — I had to stoop down low so I didn’t block everyone’s view, which made it difficult to keep the camera steady crouching for more than 5 minutes panning between Yao and the roasters.

“Team Yao” member Bill Duffy (6 minutes, 32 seconds)…

Jeff Van Gundy (9 minutes, 47 seconds)…
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Yao Ming watches pre-game festivities of Game 1 of the Jazz-Rockets series on the Toyota Center big screen Saturday night in Houston. To see another photo of Yao in street clothes at the game, click here (updated with more photos 11:45am Central time).

With two starters out of their lineup (Yao and Rafer Alston), the Rockets were going to need an almost perfect game and at least 1 or 2 guys off the bench to step up and win Game 1 vs. the Jazz in Houston.

None of that happened as Utah bolted away late in the third and early in the fourth quarter to easily beat Houston 93-82.

There were several reasons why the Rockets lost this game, and no one can blame Tracy McGrady for all of it:

• The Rockets were killed on the offensive boards in the first half which put them in a big double-digit deficit. The Jazz had 7 offensive boards in the first quarter and 11 by halftime. It was like all that rebounding help the Rockets got after last season (Luis Scola, Carl Landry) didn’t make a bit of difference.

• Many missed shots around the rim against a scrapping Jazz defense down deep in the paint. Rick Adelman lamented after the game, “We didn’t finish all night long.”

• Too many missed free throws. 18-of-29 for 62% is NOT going to get it done.

• Alston’s replacement, Bobby Jackson, struggled mightily from the floor (3-of-15 shooting, including easy ones missed around the basket).

• Just not enough offense. They had only 67 points midway through the fourth quarter. That and their 36.7% shooting is not going to cut it. Neither will 6-of-22 shooting from 3-point territory.

• As Adelman and McGrady said after the game, after McGrady would pass out of a double-team, the guys who got the ball didn’t attack the Jazz defense like their game plan had dictated.

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I went to the roast of Yao Ming Thursday night in Houston and took alot of photos and video. I’ve got so much of it, it’s going to take me a couple of days to go through it all and pull out the best parts and publish it on this site.

However, I have posted some of the photos. If you want to see more photos from the event, click here or on the photo below of Yao and Clyde Drexler sitting next to each other at the event. Once you click on it, you’ll be taken to a page where you can check out more photos. Click on the Next button to see the next one in the sequence.

You can also find some of the photos that Raymond posted in the forum by clicking here.

I also had a chance to have a conversation with Yao and his agents Bill Duffy, Bill Sanders and ESPN The Magazine writer Ric Bucher. I’ll fill you in on some of the major takeaways from that conversation sometime Friday because I’ve got to get some sleep.

I will tell you one thing, though. Yao said his specialists in Houston said his progress is going great, that his healing is one week ahead of schedule, and that the fracture in his foot can no longer be seen in the images that were taken of it over the past day or two!

But don’t get your hopes up. That doesn’t mean it’s healed completely yet. There’s still no way that Yao will be able to play in this year’s NBA playoffs even if the Rockets make the NBA Finals. But it does give you comfort that at this rate of recovery, playing in the Olympics is not going to be an issue.

Okay, I’m too beat to continue any further. I’ll write more on Friday or Saturday.