The fourth quarter of Rockets-Suns game was one of the most exciting fourth quarters of regular season basketball I have seen in a long time, all which culminated in a 116-112 thrilling victory for Houston.

The offensive fireworks were jaw dropping as both teams traded baskets like Ali-Frazier trading blows in the ring. The defense wasn’t all that bad; it was just two very talented offensive teams playing at an extremely high level. If you missed it, try to find a friend who recorded it.

Yao Ming shoots a sky hook over Shaq Friday night in a game where the little guys stole the show. Click here for more photos from the game.

Scoring occurred every which way in the fourth quarter, too numerous to list here, but here are a few of the moments that stand out:

* Yao Ming delivered 3 assists in the post to Kyle Lowry (no-look flip pass over Shaq), Aaron Brooks (bounce pass), and Carl Landry for layups.
* Ron Artest hit two late-game shots that Tracy McGrady never could seem to deliver reliably.
* Brooks bounced back from a sub-par game against Utah to score huge buckets when they really needed it

There was a time just a few weeks ago when the Rockets’ roster that included Rafer Alston and McGrady wouldn’t have been able to amp up the offense like this to key 9 games out of their past 11, and 11 wins in a row at home.

You have to be really happy for Brooks who must have been feeling a little bit of pressure after not being all that effective in his last game in Utah, and Lowry’s performance to get the Rockets back in that game to overshadow him. AB hasn’t been the most consistent player this season, but when he’s on, he’s on. His record speaks for itself: as a starter this season, Aaron is now 13-3.

Brooks would score a career-high 30 points Friday night off 11-of-20 shots (4-of-7 from downtown), including 9 in the fourth quarter which included a 3-pointer, a runner in the lane, and an amazing scoop shot off the glass underneath Shaq’s outstretched arms. All these scores occurred when the Rockets needed buckets since Phoenix wouldn’t quit — they just kept coming at ’em.

Steve Nash was incredible by scoring 29 of his 32 points in the second half, but Aaron matched him better than any point guard I’ve seen in a Rockets uniform in a long time. This is a mind-blowing development for Rocket fans!

If Brooks can keep this up and have games that remind you of a Chris Paul or Tony Parker, then watch out NBA – this Rockets team is going to be extremely hard to beat for years to come given all the young talent they have on their roster.

Even Nash – one of the greatest point guards of all time — had to give Aaron props after the game: “He killed us and made a couple big shots at the end of the game. He’s really turning into a terrific guard and the Rockets are going to have a guy for a long time who can handle this position.”

The compliments don’t get much better than that.

Nash had a chance to win the game with a 3-pointer with just a couple of seconds left in the game, but Yao came out to the 3-point line to contest the shot, which was enough to force him to shoot the ball with a higher arc than normal…just enough to make the shot miss for the Rockets’ win. When that play developed, I was wondering who agent Bill Duffy was rooting for since he represents both Yao and Nash.

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Raymond sent me a link to this story on Rockets.com quoting Yao and Shaq about how unfair officiating has been against them simply because they are big guys. They also talk about how much they respect each other’s game leading into tonight’s matchup between the Rockets and Suns. Also, here’s a video of Shaq being interviewed about the same topic(s).

Sorry that I don’t have much posted here, but I am so pissed at Comcast and the NBA for making my watching of the Rockets-Jazz game so painful for me. After enduring hassle after hassle, I have no time to write anything.

I had set my DVR to record the game because I was knew I was going to be getting home after the game ended. So when I started watching the recording, stupid Comcast must have moved the game to another channel because I had nothing but 2 ½ hours of blank screen recorded. And yes, I set the recording perfectly. They just moved the game to another channel, which was a first all season for me.

As a backup plan, I figured I would watch the game online on NBA League Pass Broadband. It usually works okay, but skipping past commercials is a pain and would require the full 2 1/2 hours for me to watch it.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, the streaming sucked so bad tonight, the replay got ‘stuck’ dozens of times to where the final 4 minutes, the most critical part of the game, took over an hour to watch. Now it’s very late, and I have to stop because I have to wake up in a handful of hours for work

It wasn’t a good night for me, nor for the Rockets, who lost to Utah 101-94. I’m upset at the idiots who provided a terrible product tonight independent of each other: Comcast and the NBA.

Maybe tomorrow after I’ve cooled off and have had a little rest, I’ll comment about what went wrong tonight in Utah, and some of the encouraging signs I saw in the game.

Update: Raymond sent me this YouTube video of Yao being interviewed after the game about the unfair officiating that screwed the Rockets. You go Yao! Maybe the league will finally listen once the NBA’s classiest player calls out the refs for incompetence. YouTube tends to take stuff like this down fairly quick, so if it doesn’t play, you’ll know why. But you can read the transcript in Jonathan Feigen’s post-game story in the Chronicle.

This is going to be a relatively short game summary because the Rockets play the second night of a back-to-back Wednesday against arch rival Utah in Salt Lake, and like the team, I need to “pace” myself. 😉

Wednesday night’s game is going to be a war considering the Jazz have won 8 games in a row, are only 1.5 games behind Houston, and the Rockets have won 8 of their last 9 games after they beat Toronto 107-97 Tuesday night at Toyota Center.

It didn’t look like it would be easy as the Raptors came out and hit tons of outside shots, led by #1 draft pick of 2006 Andrea Bargnani, who gave Yao fits as he drew him out to the 3-point line. That was going to be challenge for Yao, who is more comfortable parking himself in the paint. It’s not that Yao played terrible defense, in my opinion, it’s just that a 7’6″ guy can’t get in the face of someone like Bargnani who can put it on the floor and drive past him.

On the flipside, Bargnani had to defend Yao down low in the paint much of the time, and you’d think that would be no contest given Yao’s size advantage. But he started off slow, only making 1 of his first 5 shots. However, the mismatch worked in his favor over the course of the game as he hit 6 of his next 7 shots, and would finish with 20 points on 9-of-16 shots in 31 minutes. He also had 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block. But he also had his obligatory 5 turnovers.


Yao scored 20 points and grabbed 11 boards as Chris Bosh could only look on. Click here for more photos from the game.

Giving Yao a little more rest than usual was Carl Landry, who played lights out in scoring a career-high 22 points on 7-of-9 shots, hit all 8 of his free throws, grabbed 6 boards and blocked 2 shots in 31 ½ minutes.

Landry is really making an impact after having missed 4 games and then coming back against Minnesota Sunday night and scoring 12 points on 4-of-5 shots. Just think if he had been healthy against Chicago to help prevent the 4th quarter choke job, the Rockets might be on a 9-game winning streak right now and a little closer to San Antonio in the standings for the Midwest division lead.

As much as the media is raving about Landry’s play, which is much deserved, Luis Scola continues to play at an amazingly high level and has turned into the player I knew he would be when the Rockets got him before last season. Scola, always fun to watch, scored on an array of shots on his way to 20 points on 10-of-17 field goal attempts, 16 boards, and blocking a shot.

Scola has now racked up 23 double-doubles this season, and has had 8 in his last 9 games.

I think Scola is so valuable, I am nominating him to be the 3rd piece of the Rockets’ “new Big 3.” After all, his fellow countryman Manu Ginobili is part of the Spurs’ Big 3 that includes Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, so why shouldn’t he? I think he’s just as deadly, but in a different way down low.

Von Wafer was huge in the fourth quarter as he scored 8 of the Rockets’ 10 points in one stretch, which included two 3-pointers in a row that gave the Rockets a nice cushion headed into the game’s final minutes. He would finish with 14 points, thanks to pushing the tempo, and also dole out 3 dimes.

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The game against an 18-40 Timberwolves team Sunday night was still a big game for everyone on the Rockets’ side. The fans, the players, the coaches, the GM, etc.

After the Rockets had won 6 in a row at home and looked like they had left behind the ghosts of choke jobs from the past, they go out Saturday night and blow the largest lead ever in franchise history in a fourth quarter (17 points) against Chicago and lose.

So which team would show up Sunday night in Minnesota? That’s what everyone in Rocketville was waiting to find out.

Fortunately they were playing a team that had lost 10 of its last 11 games, and were without man-child Al Jefferson because of a torn ACL.

They took advantage by building a 25-15 lead in the first quarter making their first 7 shots and 12 of their first 14. But you had to wonder by halftime why the Rockets hadn’t built a bigger lead, letting the T-Wolves hang around down only 54-53.

As a team, Houston was shooting 60% by halftime and Yao was leading his team in scoring with 12 points on 4-of-5 shots. It’s not the 8 to 10 shots I’d like to see him get by halftime, but hey, you take what the defense gives you.

But finally they made their move in the 3rd quarter by going on a 17-0 run to pop the lead to 81-64. During that stretch, Yao was challenged defensively in the paint, and he responded with 2 blocks to rack his tally to 5 rejections by that time. He would finish with 6 blocks, matching his block total in Minnesota earlier in the season.

An unusual photo for YaoMania: a photo that barely has Yao in it. But it shows how aggressive Yao can be defending the paint from behind the shooter, this time Minnesota’s Craig Smith. Click here for more photos from the game.

Poor Kevin Love. With Jefferson out for the season, the rookie is now having to play center, and has at least an 8-inch disadvantage to Yao. Love is going to be a great NBA player, but he’s not the best leaper in the world and Yao’s presence affected his box score: 1-for-5 in the second half, and 4-for-12 overall for 9 points.

Since we’ve all been following Yao for so long, we tend to take his height for granted. That’s why I like being reminded when players in the league still marvel at Yao’s size. Minnesota’s 6’4” Randy Foye had this to say about Yao:

“I walked past him and I’m at his waist. He’s a huge human being. It’s tough to go in there and get shots over him.”

Some of Yao’s fans tend to get on him because he can’t jump that high. But when you’re already an intimidating force just standing flat-footed, you don’t really need to be able to jump that well. Just hold your ground.

That’s exactly what the Rockets did throughout the rest of the game. There would be no 17-point blown lead like the night before in Chicago.

The starters played deep into the fourth quarter to make sure that wouldn’t happen again. Yao would only take 2 shots after halftime, making 1 of them, to finish with 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and hit all 7 of his free throws. He also grabbed 11 boards, but had 5 turnovers.

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This post is brought to you by Ren…

For 6 consecutive games the Rockets had found a way to evolve from their charitable ways—meaning they stopped giving away games in the 4th quarter. That streak is no more with a souring 105-102 defeat to the Chicago Bulls.

For 43 minutes the Rockets played dominant basketball and built as much as a 17 point lead with less than 6:00 minutes left in the game. But they never actually kept the Bulls from doing what they wanted to on offense; the Rockets were just somehow able to keep outscoring Chicago. It seemed like every time the Bulls made a run, the Rockets would follow up with a better one. Until that is, they stopped scoring the ball altogether.

Yao Ming scored 17 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, and had 3 blocks
in Chicago. But it wouldn’t be enough in a heartbreaking loss.
Click here for more photos from the game.

The last 5:00 minutes of this game should be a reminder to all of us fans that Houston is not that good. Artest was hot from the perimeter all game but he let it negatively alter his game in the long run by eschewing his Bogart ability on the drive and in the low post. He forgot he needed to get it done from the free throw line—the exact thing Houston had used to their advantage in their crunch time wins.

After the Bulls whittled the Rockets lead down to 12 late in the game, Houston put Yao back in the game only to not give him a single touch in the low post in the final 5:00 minutes. Traditionally, with a lead down the stretch, you win the game at the line but you can’t get there if you can’t get the ball in the low post. Yes, the Bulls did a great job of fronting Yao and playing a man behind him to discourage the lob but Houston gave up on Yao way to early in the possession, which is where Aaron Brooks comes in.

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