Not much could have been as devastating as the loss the Rockets had against Dallas Wednesday that dropped Houston from maybe getting the 2nd seed all the way down to the 5th seed and losing home court advantage. All the fans were down on them, I was down on them, and Portland had tons of momentum heading into the playoffs after beating their last 6 opponents at home by an average of 22 points per game.

But give the Rockets all the credit in the world for believing in themselves, coming out with a vengeance, being resilient like they have shown all season long, and thrashing Portland 108-81 to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Just like that, the Rockets have gained home court advantage.

This game tells us the Rockets have the talent and athleticism to win this series, and that it all comes down to their mental approach to the game, starting with Yao. He delivered Saturday night.

Yao came out focused and determined from the beginning of the game like he was trying to throw the monkey not only off HIS back for not ever winning a first round playoff series, but also McGrady’s, Steve Francis’ and every other teammate he’s had since 2002.

The power of Yao: Joel Pryzbilla had a hard time stopping Yao on Saturday night. It was perfection for #11: 9-of-9 from the field for 24 points as the Rockets rolled. Click here for more game photos.

Yao would score 9 of the Rockets’ first 11 points, 14 of their first 18, and had 24 by halftime on 9-of-9 shooting. He was unstoppable with his signature shots: the turnaround jumper and jump hook. I can’t remember a game in Yao’s career where he was so dominant from the get-go.

Give him credit for shouldering the load and taking the number of shots you’d expect your franchise player to take if he’s open. Even a terrible blocking call by the refs on Yao while he was stationary and standing OUTSIDE the semicircle when Rudy Fernandez barreled into him couldn’t stop him.

At halftime I thought there was no way he could keep up the pace he had set. Yao rarely plays two phenomenal halves together in one game. He’ll either get defended more aggressively, get tired, lose concentration, or a combination of all three.

One reason for his success in the first half is because he was played 1-on-1 by Joel Pryzbilla, not fronted. Portland probably did that so they could surprise him with a fronting defense in the 2nd half, like Dallas did the other day, so that he and the coaches wouldn’t have as much time to make the necessary adjustments.

But after Yao picked up his 4th foul 5 ½ minutes into the 3rd quarter, it really didn’t matter because the Rockets had such a commanding 74-53 lead, there was no way even the Rockets could blow a lead that big.

So that was it for Yao: Rick Adelman opted to rest him the remainder of the game, finishing with the same points (24) made on 9-of-9 shooting, 6-for-6 from the line, and 9 rebounds. He also was focused defensively, blocking 2 shots in his 24 minutes of play.

Dikembe Mutombo picked up most of his minutes the rest of the way, logging 18 for the game, probably the most time he’s spent on the court in one game in months, if not a year. Perhaps Adelman had been saving him all season for the playoffs. I loved Deke’s block of Brandon Roy at the rim with 1:17 remaining in the 3rd quarter. The Rockets need more of that.

The other player who really stepped up who everyone has been doubting lately as Houston’s answer at point guard was Aaron Brooks. Without him complimenting Yao in the scoring column (27 points), this game might have had a different outcome.

A.B. had the game of his life in front of fans from his Oregonian days: aggressive all night long, attacking the basket knowing the Blazer guards can’t keep up with him, and Adelman deciding to spread the floor to give him, and other Rockets, bigger lanes to the hoop.

Brooks scored 13 points in the first half on 5-of-8 shooting, hitting cold-blooded shots like we hadn’t seen from him in quite some time — all of which we had wish he had done on a more consistent basis this season.

The play that best typified Brooks’ speed and talent occurred at the end of the first half. With 4.4 seconds remaining on the clock, he took the ball from the opposite end of the court, weaved through defenders, and scored a runner off the glass at the buzzer to make it 62-44! That play got he and the entire bench fired up as they headed to the locker room for halftime.

In the past, only OTHER teams’ point guards seemed to be able to do that, but now Houston’s can.

Brooks’ 27 points came on an efficient 10-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-8 swishers from 3-point land. He’s young still, and he’ll continue to have ups-and-downs, but time will tell if he’s just a little better than Luther Head, or he’s on his way to Tony Parker-like status.

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I was asked by a certain basketball publication (online version) which I won’t name (yet) to provide my prediction for the Rockets-Blazers series. I was flattered they asked, and I sent it to them yesterday.

Well, I just found they posted it…but guess what? They changed alot of my words around to fit what they think I SHOULD have wrote to fit the theme of their article! WTF? Unbelievable! So just in case you’re coming over from that site (which I won’t reveal because I don’t want to give them ANY pub until they fix it), here’s what I wrote ORIGINALLY:

Before the Rockets blew their 14-point 3rd quarter lead to Dallas in the regular season finale, Houston was headed for a dream setup in the playoffs as the #3 seed: Home court advantage, a series against the Hornets/Spurs/Blazers, and they were out of the Lakers bracket for the next playoff round. Under that scenario, I predicted the Rockets would go all the way to the Western Conference finals.

After that, the off-season will be interesting with major changes expected. Except for Yao who is still untouchable, I expect Artest will not be signed, and Shane Battier, and maybe even Aaron Brooks, will be traded. They’ll do that in pursuit of trying to acquire a scorer who can complement Yao, and who can deliver with clutch performances late in games to put them over the top.

So there you go, my official prediction. [UPDATE: to their credit, the publication ended up updating my post to my original version right here. One of the commenters criticized the incorrect version posted because it didn’t make sense]. It ain’t pretty, but in order for the Rockets to get to the next level, they will have to go through a little more pain on their way to finding the right players. I really think they’re only 1 or 2 players away.

The only way I see Artest coming back is if there is NOT enough money for him to make elsewhere through free agency (in this economy, the $ may not be there), and he accepts a mid-range offer from the Rockets that doesn’t bust their bank so they can sign that big-time scorer I mentioned earlier. The decision for Ron to come back to the Rockets will be on him, but only at the right price for the Rockets.

Enough of the off-season talk: let’s see if the Rockets can go out there and prove me wrong!

Raymond has done it brilliantly again: spending several hours translating an interview that Yao Ming gave to a Chinese publication after the loss to Dallas.

In this interview, Yao talks extensively about the upcoming playoffs, his assessment of the regular season, how badly he wishes to get past the first round, and the pressure and responsibility on his shoulders for carrying the Rockets in the playoffs.

Thanks for the translation, Raymond!

If you’ve been following the Rockets for a few years, you never get used to the disappointment and underachievement. Chalk up another gag job in the annals of Rocket lore Wednesday night in Dallas.

Yao is fronted by Brandon Bass during a 95-84 loss to Dallas. Yao scored 23 points and grabbed 9 boards, but only took 5 shots in the second half and didn’t score in the fourth quarter, mainly because of the Rockets’ inability to take advantage of Dallas’ fronting defense. Sound familiar? Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets were sitting pretty headed into the final game of the regular season against the Mavericks where they could get as high as the #2 seed, but probably the 3rd seed, or at worst, the 4th seed. Falling anything further than the 4th seed, losing home court, and having to play the Lakers if somehow the Rockets won their first round series….well, that scenario was virtually unfathomable and would be considered an utter failure if it played out that way. The Rockets were too high in the standings for the past few weeks for too long to think they could drop that far in just one night.

Leave it to the Rockets to leave your head shaking once again. I could go into lots of details about what happened in this particular game, but there are plenty of places you can go to find that out. I’m frankly tired of writing about the same old things when they lose a big game like this.

Maybe I’ll go into more detail over the next couple of days when I watch the video of the game again, and do more of an analysis on Yao’s game, but not tonight.

This year’s path in the playoffs was supposed to be much more different than the past few seasons. A better seed, better match-ups. Instead, they don’t have home court now, and they have to play a dangerous and athletic Portland team.

So why does this keep happening to the Rockets, blowing double-digit leads and unable to win big games on the road against good teams when it really counts? Why didn’t they come out and play one of their best games, instead playing one of their worst over the past few weeks when the chips were down?

I think it’s because of one main thing: it’s really hard to find players who perform at their best when the pressure is on. The Rockets keep cycling through players to find the guys who can do that when the games are REALLY big, and they’re getting close, but they’re obviously not there yet. But you know Daryl Morey will keep trying.

Right now there’s got to be some second-guessing that the trading away of an experienced point guard like Rafer Alston, who ran the offense reasonably well, but wasn’t that great of a shooter, isn’t being made up with enough scoring output from Aaron Brooks, who scored only 7 points on 3-of-7 shooting in 19 minutes Wednesday night. The lack of offensive output from Brooks was made up somewhat by Kyle Lowry, who the Rockets got in return for Alston. Lowry scored 15 points, grabbed 7 boards, and had 5 assists in 30 minutes of play.

One question the Rockets’ coaching staff now face is the idea of giving more minutes to Lowry over Brooks, like they did Wednesday night, at the expense of affecting the confidence of Brooks.

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I like how after the Rockets victory over the Hornets Tuesday night, all the players took time to stop their post-game routine and show respect to former President George Bush and wife Barbara.

It’s clear in this photo all the players are sweaty and probably wanted to head to the shower, but showed their respect anyway by greeting them and posing for photos.

Earlier in the evening, Bush accepted a $100,000 check on behalf of the Bush-Clinton Coastal Recovery Fund raised by the Rockets from the Tux & Tennies Charity Gala.

Click here for more photos of George & Barbara’s visit at Toyota Center. Thanks to Raymond for finding the pics!

I enjoyed this article written by Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo Sports about how Daryl Morey should be named NBA Executive of the Year.

I especially liked this quote:

“Once you factor defense and usage in, Wafer is giving the Rockets exactly what McGrady was giving them, while working for about $800k a season. McGrady goes down, be it for the season or a fortnight, Wafer steps into some of those open minutes, and the team continues apace. In most cases, the team plays better, because Wafer doesn’t chuck and consider himself an All-Star, unlike McGrady.”

I have to admit the Rockets’ decimation of the New Orleans Hornets Monday surprised me. I thought with all that was at stake for the Hornets in regards to playoff positioning, there would be much more of a fight.

But something happened along the way. The Rockets played one of their finest games of the season, out-hustling the Hornets on the boards 46-37, dishing 21 assists on their way to 34 field goals, holding an opponent to a season low in points, and they now find themselves only 1 game away from winning the Southwest Division over the Spurs since the 1993-94 season.

Yao Ming dominated the Hornets’ front line with 22 points in
31 minutes. Click here for more photos from the game.

Full of confidence they can handle their division rivals to the east, they turned CP3 more into CP3O (or the much shorter r2d2?), holding Chris Paul to 9 points and 7 assists in about 30 minutes of action. Paul normally shoots 51% from the field against the rest of the league, but in the 2 games against Houston since the Rafer Alston trade, Aaron Brooks and Kirk Lowry have held him to 41% shooting.

Case in point: I loved the block that Lowry had on CP3 midway through the second quarter on a fast break, tracking him down, jumping high and blocking it at the peak of Paul’s leap. Lowry would block him again from behind later in the second quarter, but the refs blew the call by blowing a whistle on Lowry for a foul, which was bogus.

It doesn’t really matter much that Brooks and Lowry would score 5 and 4 points respectively. They held Paul to the sum of their collective points to neutralize him. You can’t ask for much more than that when playing an All-Star like Paul.

The game was pretty much in hand for the Rockets when they went on an 18-0 run WITH THEIR RESERVES to take a 43-31 lead in the second quarter. The Rockets would extend it to 20+ points in the third quarter, the Hornets would miss 17 of 18 shots during a big stretch, and the Rockets rolled the rest of the way.

Yao Ming started off hot hitting baseline jumpers and jump hooks guarded one-on-one by a Tyson Chandler-less defense. Without their 7-footer around to contest Yao on the block or in the paint, Yao would have his way with Melvin Ely, scoring 22 points on 8-of-13 shots, grabbing 7 boards, and blocking 2 shots (including an awesome rejection of Sean Marks who challenged Yao at the rim on a dunk attempt) before being pulled halfway through the fourth quarter after logging a little over 31 minutes for the game.

Losing Chandler to an injury has really hurt the Hornets down the stretch, who have now lost now 5 of their last 7 games. But give the Rockets’ defense credit for holding the Hornets to 13 points in the second quarter and 11 points in the third on their way to locking them down to 35% shooting overall.

The Rockets’ probably would have had a bigger halftime lead than 47-35 if Ron Artest hadn’t had such a bad first half, hitting only 1-of-9 shots and 2-of-13 overall for 9 points. Except for an amazing play in the 3rd quarter where he came around a curl and caught a Shane Battier bounce pass to throw it down one-handed, there were several possessions where he tried to take over, did too much dribbling, and put up bad shots that missed.

But the Rockets are so balanced offensively, they can actually withstand a little bit of Artest’s ballhoggish-ness. Not McGrady-like ballhoggish-ness, but Artest’s? You bet.

For example, Von Wafer is showing the Rockets don’t miss McGrady’s scoring punch, coming in with instant offense once again to score 9 points, starting with the final shot of the first quarter, and extending his hot streak with 7 more points in the second. He was the main guy who ignited the offense during their 18-0 run.

Von can get to the hole at any time with that slashing ability of his, like he did twice during that big scoring run. He’s one of the quickest guys his size I’ve seen get to the rack. When he turns on the jets, it’s almost impossible to stop him. You can’t teach athleticism like that. Wafer would finish 13 points on 6-of-11 shots. All I know is the Rockets better back up the Brinks truck for Von if they want to keep him after this season.

Then you’ve got Shane Battier picking up more of the scoring slack lately by racking up 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including two 3-pointers, and a nice tip-in off a Yao miss where Shane hustled along the baseline and extended his arm in mid-air from underneath the rim. He also had two very impressive blocks, one rejection coming against David West near the rim, and the other chasing down Rasual Butler on a fast break to block it from behind. I thought I was watching Tayshaun Prince tracking down Reggie Miller for a second!

Throw in Carl Landry’s 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting, Luis Scola’s 8 points, and the Rockets can still handle a bad shooting night from one of their top players.

At least Artest would make all 5 of his free throw attempts and would dish a team-high 5 assists.

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Late Sunday the Chronicle reported that the bone scan on Yao’s foot was negative, his foot is just a little sore, and he should be able to resume all normal activities, including playing in Monday’s game against the Hornets!

Earlier in the day, Yao practiced lightly then later heard the good news.

Click here for more photos from the practice. Click here for video from the practice, including Yao’s thoughts about the soreness he experienced this time around in his right foot, compared to last season the pain he had in his left foot that ultimately sidelined him for the playoffs.

Let’s all keep positive thoughts flowing after learning today after additional X-rays and a CAT scan that Yao has a bone bruise and will be listed as day-to-day. He’ll be evaluated further at Sunday’s practice. As the Chronicle notes:

“Yao has experienced soreness in the foot during games Tuesday and Thursday, but was not limited in any way. When it had not improved by Friday, he was held out of Friday’s game following his pregame warmup.”

Shockingly, Houston’s nemesis Utah lost to the Golden State Warriors IN SALT LAKE, meaning the Jazz are currently in 8th place and will probably face the Lakers in the first round UNLESS they get help (by losing) from Dallas or New Orleans who are just 1 1/2 games ahead of Utah. But guess what? Houston plays both Dallas and New Orleans, so if they lose to both, they’d improve their chances of keeping Utah in the 8th seed.

So what do you do? Do you hold Yao out to improve the Rockets’ chances of losing and avoiding the Jazz, or do you try to win the Division and get the #3 seed, or maybe even the 2nd seed (since the Rockets are 1 game behind Denver) and get in the bracket that would avoid the Lakers in the 2nd round?

It’s a tough call, but I say play Yao if he has no pain in his foot, try to go for the #2 or #3 seed, and hope Utah loses to the Lakers in the last game of the season (or New Orleans and Dallas finish 7th despite losing to the Rockets) and force the Jazz in a first round match-up with LA.

Well, the Golden State Warriors certainly made it more interesting than it had to be but for the most part, the Rockets 113-109 win was a restrained yet persistent sleeper hold on my cerebrum. Great idea to sit Yao out for this one–they didn’t need him and he deserves the break.

Some friends and I are going out to watch the season finale against Dallas and we all fully intend to buy rounds when Yao makes it through the regular season injury-free. Knock on wood. Getting a break against the Warriors gives such small but cherished relief.

As for the game, Luis Scola‘s career-high 28 pts on 10-15 FGs shows us that if Houston played Golden State every game, they wouldn’t need Yao. Dikembo Mutombo was huge with season highs 10 pts and 15 rebs along with 4 finger wags of the highlight variety. Ron Artest shot better than last night, finishing with 19 pts on 7-14 FGs and dropping 6 dimes before fouling out late in the 4th. Refs just haven’t gotten used to seeing a man push around professional athletes like he’s shoving small children into the dirt at the playground. I’m getting used to it though. It’s Queensbridge. Park style. You Bogart your way to the rim; no one calls offensive fouls in the park. It’s low down, gritty and grimy. Also, an adequate description of the Rockets’ methodology.

“Blue collar,” that’s what the Golden State Warriors announcers, Bob Fitzgerald and Jim Barnett, kept saying about Houston role players. They just beat opponents to the ball. Sure they have finesse guys like Yao and Aaron Brooks but the rest are working stiffs. Hard-nosed. Scola, Carl Landry, Shane Battier, Ron-Ron, Chuck Hayes, Deke and Kyle Lowry are the real Kings of the Blue Collar Comedy tour… except no one’s laughing when they’re getting out-rebounded by 20 boards. They must have said it 20 times… it’s an apt description.

Barnett, having little to speak of on behalf of the Warriors, is convinced that if Houston doesn’t get saddled with LA early on, they can beat any team that can’t push the tempo on them; and make a legit run to the Western Conference Finals. I don’t know about all that–I’ll believe it when I see it–but I do know the Rockets are already priming those playoff elbows. Which is a good thing. Looking at you, Deke.