In case you missed it, Kenny Smith is interviewed in this Yahoo! Sports video about the injuries the Rockets have experienced this season and in recent years. There’s not much new here, but it’s interesting the national media recognizes that the Rockets on paper are better than their current record indicates.

Also, I have a slight beef with Rick Adelman. I can’t remember the game when it occurred, but I remember Ron Artest injuring his ankle, or at least making it worse, late in a road game that was clearly out-of-hand when starters should have been pulled. It was in the final minute of a game as he drove the lane, dished it off, and came down wrong on his ankle. He has played some games since that injury, but he’s never been the same. Now there’s a chance the “area of stress” in his ankle could be much more serious as we await word on more tests.

This kind of reminds me of last year when Yao was having routine tests done on his foot, and then he ended up missing the rest of the season, dooming the Rockets’ playoff chances.

No one in the media is bringing up the coaches’ no-no of playing a starter like this during garbage time because of the risk of injury, but I thought I would bring it up. What do you guys think?

Saturday night’s 96-76 blowout win against the Knicks is the kind of game the Rockets should have had in Oklahoma City Friday night: a convincing victory against an inferior team. New York at 13-22 is much better than OKC. They average 104 points per game and can be dangerous. But the Rockets caught them on the second night of a back-to-back. However, the Rockets were on a back-to-back, too, so they both were on even footing. The way they handled them, though, you wonder why they couldn’t do that the night before against the Thunder.

It didn’t start off as a blowout, though. The Knicks got off to a good start, shooting 56% at one point. The Rockets led only 26-24 at the end of the first quarter, and the Knicks actually led 33-28 with 7:55 remaining in the second. But then the Rockets picked up the tempo and ended up taking a 46-45 lead at halftime.

The thing that concerned me was the Rockets jacking up 19 three-point attempts in the first half, and making only 4 of them. That’s way too many.

Luis Scola was benefiting from all the attention that Yao Ming was getting in the first half as he was double-teamed and fronted.

Yao Ming is double-teamed by David Lee and Jared Jeffries,
making it easier for Luis Scola to do some damage.
Click here for more game photos.

Scola scored 8 points in the first quarter. Yao checked out in the second quarter, obviously dragging because of all the running his team started doing. He only had taken 3 shots near the end of the first half, but finished the second quarter strong with 10 points.

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The Rockets did just about everything they could to give a league-worst 5-31 Oklahoma City team a victory Friday night. Not able to put them away after holding a 15-point lead in the second half, Houston committed numerous blunders and almost experienced what would have been their most humiliating loss of the season. That’s saying something for a team that has lost to Memphis, the Clippers, Washington, Toronto and Philadelphia, all teams with bad records.

Oklahoma City had their chances late to pull off one of their few wins of the season, but they couldn’t make big shots at the end of the game, and the Rockets escaped disaster, winning 98-96.


Yao Ming had about as ugly of a game as
Robert Swift’s tattoos. Click here for more game photos.

When the score was 83-83 entering the 4th quarter, I couldn’t believe the Rockets were in that kind of position against the league’s worst team. I understand that Ron Artest and Shane Battier weren’t playing, that Brent Barry had to skip the game because of a personal emergency that popped up, and the Rockets were probably tired playing their 5th game in a row on a grueling road trip.

But this is the Thunder we’re talking about, a team the Rockets should be streamrolling like almost every other team, take for example a 9-25 Minnesota team that beat them by 42 points on Wednesday night.

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Following up on Ren’s post last night….After Wednesday night’s terrible performance against the Philadelphia 76ers, I predicted there was no way the Rockets were going to beat the World Champ Celtics. Even though Boston had been struggling of late, I thought the Rockets, even though they had bounced back from poor games before, couldn’t defeat the Celtics on the second night of a back-to-back. Especially since the Rockets had lost 5 games in a row on the road, and 5 of their last 7 games.

It looked like it was going to be another loss late in the fourth quarter after several mistakes offensively and defensively gave the Celtics the lead. Ho hum, another collapse for a loss. But they proved me wrong, and I’m ecstatic to say I was wrong.

Some young Houston players stepped up big-time. Von Wafer‘s three-pointer from the corner was absolutely clutch. That’s going to do wonders for his career. The guy has GOT to have stones to be such a young player and have that crazy Mohawk haircut of his. 4-of-6 from behind the arc Wednesday night. Love it.

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This post was written by guest author Ren Hsieh:

I like Von Wafer. Getting put down by the rim is not the way anyone wants to make SportsCenter but recognize the kid has heart. He bounced right back, called for the rock and hit a big three to quell a burgeoning Celtic run. And he’d be back for more in the 4th. Wafer is the only guard on the team with that combination of size, 3-pt shooting and ability to finish… so long as it’s not baseline.

More importantly, he plays with that underdog intensity. How does a guy go from what what you could at best call a journeyman to such a solid commodity for the Rockets? A question for another time.

Rockets vs. Celtics should have been a battle of conference powerhouses and a potential Championship preview. Instead, both teams limped into the TD Banknorth Garden (which just sounds terrible) as the two most talented slumping teams in the league, both losing 5 of their last 7 and both dropping winnable games to very beatable opponents just last night. There was little on-court swagger.

Give it up to Boston though for coming out to support, their energy alone seemed to put the Celts up early as Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett couldn’t miss blindfolded. Boston converted roughly 65% of their FGs throughout 1st quarter and dropped 31 for the period.

Kevin Garnett defends Yao Ming by fronting him. Click here
for more photos from the game.

Good thing for Houston, the Celtic defense didn’t follow the lead, looking about as bad as it had throughout their slump. In fact, neither team locked it down on defense (which has likewise hurt the Rockets during their own slump) even with Ron Artest back in the Rockets lineup. Through 3 quarters, both teams were converting +.500 from the field.

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After the Rockets debacle of a defense let the Philadelphia 76ers slice their way to the rack all night long Tuesday night for easy baskets, I bet there will plenty of fans calling Houston sports talk shows Wednesday morning wondering if Jeff Van Gundy can come back to the Rockets.

Houston gave up 52 points in the paint to Philadelphia while allowing 56.2% shooting on their way to a 104-96 loss, their third in a row and their fifth loss in a row on the road.

Yao Ming sits on the bench exhausted as the 76ers offense kept him running all night long. Click here for more game photos.

Last year when the Rockets played such great defense, some people thought it was because Rick Adelman’s coaching staff had done something exceptional that he wasn’t very well known for doing – having a great defensive team.

Other people thought it was a carryover of the defensive attitude they had the prior season during the JVG era.

I know Shane Battier is out and he’s a good defensive player, as well as Ron Artest, and their absence makes playing great defense that much harder. But I think it’s becoming clear that last year was a fluke for an Adelman-coached team to play such great D, and that it must have been JVGs prior emphasis that had made them so great. On Tuesday there was just too much breaking down on defensive assignments to allow so many easy buckets like the Rockets gave up. The JVG attitude has worn off lately.

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With Ron Artest‘s sprained ankle forcing him out of the lineup for Saturday’s game in Atlanta (like Tracy McGrady and Shane Battier), the team’s poor play lately, and it being the second game of a back-to-back, the Rockets had almost no chance of beating the Hawks in Atlanta where they are 14-2 at home this season.

Yao Ming reacts after the refs don’t cut him any slack in a frustrating second half against the Hawks. Click here for more photos of Yao during the game.

But like other times this season after losing games in embarrassing fashion, the Rockets’ role players showed up and played with hustle and guts and almost pulled out a miracle win, but they lost on a last-second 3-pointer from Mike Bibby with 1.5 seconds remaining.

Aaron Brooks had a chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer at the buzzer, but the shot just rimmed out as time expired. Hawks 103, Rockets 100.

The Rockets have now lost 5 of their last 7 games, and their 21-14 record is not holding water in the ultra competitive West. With Saturday night’s loss, they are in a battle for 8th place: on the bubble for a playoff spot. Every loss like the ones they’ve had recently makes a big difference at the end of the season where one win or loss can make or break you.

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Well, my first game back covering the Rockets again on Yao Ming Mania was a complete disaster. The Rockets’ play was ridiculous in the first game of their road trip, getting their clock cleaned 94-73 by a 12-20 Toronto team. A team that also happened to lose their starting point guard Jose Calderon to a hamstring injury in the second quarter.

Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets have now lost 4 of their last 6 games, most against poor teams. If they keep playing like this, something major HAS to happen – like a big trade or a firing. This sort of play is completely unacceptable.

Tracy McGrady started the game with a plan to play only one game in each of their 3 upcoming back-to-backs. He was terrible again, hitting only 2-of-9 for 4 points in 28 minutes of play. He also had only 2 rebounds and 2 assists. In his past 5 games, he has only made 15 of his last 54 shots for an average of 10 ppg.

Yao Ming started the game scoring 6 of the Rockets’ first 10 points, but after that, the Raptors swarmed him and forced others to make shots. That strategy worked for Toronto because he got no help from the guards, who shot 3-of-15 in the half. That gave them a 39.5% shooting percentage as the Rockets trailed 38-28 at the half. They also scored a season-low 14 points for a quarter in the first.

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This little story from Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle…I didn’t realize Yao could be so persistent hunting down Dikembe…

If Yao Ming ever goes into college coaching, he might be a strong recruiter. Dikembe Mutombo said Yao called two or three times a day to convince him to come back, reaching the point where Mutombo said he considered turning his phone off.

“I do think when we practice,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman says, “it’s a huge benefit to Yao to have him go against him, because it’s someone his own size, or someone close to his size. ”

After semi-retiring from Yao Ming Mania for several weeks, I’m pleased to announce I’ll be resuming my coverage starting with either Friday or Saturday’s Rockets game! I’ve been able to work out an arrangement where I can resume covering Yao and the Rockets while we try to get an online store up that will sell new and cool Yao products and memorabilia. Of course, I’ll encourage you to check out those products in support of this site and Yao’s foundation. And I’ve communicated with Raymond in China, and he’ll be resuming his work on the site, too!

I’ve also implemented a new commenting system powered by Disqus that’s all the rage on alot of Web sites. It has several benefits, including:

– Reply to comments through email or mobile
– Edit and republish comments with one click
– Track and manage comments and replies
– Verified commenter reputations across sites
– More control over your own comments on websites
– Never lose your comments, even if the website goes away
– Build a global profile, or comment blog, to collect and show off what you’re saying
– Easier to comment on websites using Disqus

I wish I was coming back when the Rockets were playing a little better. The past few games they’ve struggled, like needing two OTs to beat a depleted Utah team, losing at home to a very bad team like Washington, and just squeaking by Milwaukee on New Year’s Eve.

Bad shooting is permeating the team. After consecutive games missing nine consecutive shots in the fourth quarter, they went 1-of-9 to end the loss to Washington and 5-of-13 overall in the fourth quarter against the Bucks. Before the Milwaukee game, Yao had only made 6 of his last 25 shots, including missing 3 important shots in the fourth quarter of the Washington game. And Tracy McGrady has made only 13-of-45 shots in his last 4 games.

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