The Rockets were just a few minutes away from their latest 4th quarter collapse and obtaining the same record as the hapless 1-7 Dallas Cowboys, their season seemingly on the brink against an Indiana team that had beaten the four times in a row, including a thrashing last April.  And against a team that had spanked the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday with 144 points.

But somehow with Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks out because of ankle sprains, the good guys got it done by willing themselves to a victory.  Players finally did something that coach Rich Adelman had been imploring someone to do in their 6 losses: “Make plays.”

For example, several players participated in a rugby scrum with about 1:20 remaining. Up 100-97, Danny Granger missed a driving layup, but Mike Dunleavy grabbed the rebound and missed, Granger rebounded it and was about to put up a point-blank layup, but Shane Battier came up with a gem of a defensive play by stripping Granger, with the loose ball getting grabbed by Kyle Lowry as he was mugged by Josh McRoberts.  These guys gutted out a defensive stop when they badly needed one to stave off another fourth quarter collapse.

But the Rockets weren’t very smart over the next couple of possessions.  Brad Miller missed a shot with 1:02 that could have put the game away.  I didn’t have a problem with the miss as much as I had with the what happened on the rebound.  Kevin Martin grabbed the board, and rather than milking the clock with a 3-point lead and trying to come up with a good shot, HE PUT UP A SHOT IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE REBOUND!  Luckily, the ball went in.  But if he had missed that shot and the Rockets had gone on to lose the game, you can bet Martin would have gotten some heat for not playing the percentages and letting the clock wind down and setting up a play.

Then another breakdown occurred with 41 seconds remaining when the Rockets fell asleep on defense and Darren Collison scored a layup easily on an INBOUNDS PASS.  That brought the Pacers to within 3 points, 102-99.

The last dumb play occurred with about 19 seconds left when the Rockets offense was terrible trying to come up with a set play, and resulted in Lowry just dribbling the ball on the perimeter and jacking up a low-percentage 3-pointer that barely hit the rim, if at all.  That’s the best play they have with the ballgame on the line?

Fortunately the Rockets played great defense on the Pacers’ final possession, defending the 3-point line well and Lowry playing great defense on Collison, who put up an off-balance 3-pointer of his own that missed.  The Rockets grabbed the rebound and that was the ballgame.

You can bet if the Rockets had lost this one, you would have heard a lot about the aforementioned late-game dumb plays on the Houston sports radio talk shows.  These breakdowns exemplified everything the Rockets’ haven’t done to lose 6 ballgames this season after holding late leads.

But you’ve got to give a ton of credit to Brad Miller, who started in place of Yao and led the team with 23 points, and had 8 boards and 5 assists.  He essentially saved them (along with Martin, who had a great game with 20 points, but 1-of-6 from 3-point land).  My only problem is that the Rockets offense was so absent of high-percentage plays, Miller had to bail them out with two 3-pointers in a row with 6:22 and 5:43 remaining.  Those 6 points turned Houston’s 90-87 deficit to a 93-93 tie and kept them in the game.  You’re telling me having your backup center put up 3-pointers, who was 1-for-3 on treys for the SEASON, is your best option late in a game to save you?  Man.  Thank God for Brad making shots when no one else could come up with one.

What this does tell you is that all the people on Houston sports radio who were saying after the Rockets’ 1-6 start that GM Daryl Morey hasn’t done anything can shut up for awhile.  After all, it was Morey who signed Miller this off-season.  It was Morey and his staff who were able to make a deal a couple of seasons ago for a relatively unknown backup PG out of Memphis named Kyle Lowry, and signed him to an extension this off-season rather than lose him to free agency.  Lowry willed his team to a victory with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists, and gave them the toughness they needed. He even took a blow to the head on a pick from a McRoberts elbow and managed to gut-out 34 minutes on the court with hardly any playing time this season because of injury and back spasms. What a winner this guy is (notwithstanding jacking up that ill-advised late 3-pointer that missed).

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Ever since Yao suffered his undetermined injury last night in Washington, there were predictably a bunch of idiots today who filled the radio airwaves and posted comments on Web sites and blogs saying that, “Yao is done,” or “Yao’s a bust,” or “They should get rid of him,” etc.

It amazes how many losers there are out there who just have to pop-off and spew sewage when they don’t know what the hell they are talking about. It was announced today that all Yao had was a sprained ankle, and he’ll only be out about a week. The sprain had nothing to do with his recent foot surgery. But you can bet these haters are now hoping Yao will get hurt again, and more seriously, so they can say, “You see, I told you so. Yao’s done.” Pathetic.

All I have to say to these imbeciles is shut up and go hate on some other teams’ players rather than one of the hardest working, loyal Rockets you could ever hope for a team to have. LeBron is still a good target for you.

As soon as Yao got hurt Wednesday night against the Wizards in the first quarter, I could hear all of the chatter on all the online forums from panicky Rocket fans about how Yao is washed up, they can’t count on him, his career is over, yada yada yada.

I say to those folks, “Relax.” We’ll learn more tomorrow after a scan is done on his foot. Maybe the good news is that Yao said after the game that the problem felt like it was more in his left ankle, further away from the surgically repaired area in his left foot.

Yao runs up the court in Washington a few minutes before checking out of the game with an injury in his left leg/ankle area. Click here for more photos of Yao from the game, as well as other Rocket players and Washington Wizard Yi Jianlian.

I know the Rockets are struggling, now with a 1-6 record after losing to Washington tonight. One more loss and they’ll have the same record as the Dallas Cowboys. Not good. But coming into this season, we knew there was a very good chance that Yao may not be able to play a full season. So if he’s out for a few games, or even a couple of weeks, you had to know they had built Yao’s prospective absence into their plans. That’s why they went out and got Brad Miller as his backup. And you know Miller had to think he might get significant minutes because of Yao’s health, which probably helped him make the decision to sign with Houston.

We all know Miller isn’t the answer to be the starting center for extended minutes, but there aren’t that many centers out there who are. Maybe talks will flare up again with Erick Dampier, who could give Miller some relief, after discussions were suspended a few days ago, thereby saving Jermaine Taylor‘s spot on the team. We’ll know more tomorrow about Yao’s ankle situation. If it’s an absence for more than a couple of weeks, you’ve got to think they’ll sign another big to provide more help to Miller and Jordan Hill, who has been coming along lately.

As far as the game went Wednesday night, the Rockets fought hard without Aaron Brooks and Yao. Kyle Lowry finally got some playing time. But the Rockets collapsed again in the 4th quarter, holding a one-point lead, only to get outscored 8-0 to have the game put away.

I won’t go into all the details of the game, but the main problem is the same as all of the other losses this season: no one can step up to score late in the game. Of course, Shane Battier disappeared in this game altogether, scoring 0 points in almost 24 minutes. That’s absolutely ridiculous. When Battier doesn’t score, the Rockets lose. I’m kind of getting tired of hearing about how Battier is a “glue guy” when the team is 1-6 and the Rockets need everyone to step up.

I love Luis Scola and I’m glad the Rockets signed him to a longer term deal, but I think the Rockets are really missing Carl “Mr. 4th Quarter” Landry. You could really count on that guy more than any other Rocket in the fourth quarter to step up, even more than Yao. He helped the Rockets win so many games in the when he was here, and his absence is deafening now. I think having Landry and Scola in the lineup at the same time in late-game situations would have been a formidable front line.

I like who we got in return for Landry — Kevin Martin. He’s been great overall, but in the fourth quarter he hasn’t really put the team on his back like Landry did. Maybe he will become that go-to guy. Someone needs to do that consistently. Is it time for the Rockets to try to pull-off the Carmelo Anthony deal? After going 1-6, not as many people, including me, could blame them for doing it.

The Rockets are playing against the Washington Wizards right now. Yao played 5 minutes of the first quarter, then later went to the locker room where he has been diagnosed with a tendon strain in his left ankle area.

It looks like Yao strained it jumping up into the air, then fell backwards. He didn’t land on anyone’s foot and didn’t grimace when he fell. Only after he took a few steps did he show any pain.

I wonder if Daryl Morey is calling Erick Dampier’s agent right now?

One thing I wanted to point out from the Rockets’ victory over Minnesota on Sunday night was that as a team, they only had 7 turnovers, thanks to rookie point guard Ish Smith. Smith only had 1 TO as the starting PG who played 41 1/2 minutes. And he only had 1 TO against San Antonio the night before. Two TOs in two games (his gamelog is here). Not bad. If he can only improve his shooting percentage. 7-for-27 in two games is not good at all.

Smith will be getting a ton of playing time with Aaron Brooks out 4-6 weeks because of his sprained ankle. It looks like my prediction of Brooks being out “several weeks” the night he got hurt, even before an MRI was done, turned out to be true when many people thought he would just be “day-to-day” or “a couple of weeks.” Maybe I should go into sports medicine. Or online betting.

One other bet I’m willing to make is that benchwarmer (thus far) and almost-released guard Jermaine Taylor will be getting more playing time since Brooks, and even Lowry, will be missing a lot of time over the next few weeks. I think Taylor has what the Rockets’ need — a scoring punch they’ll need (since Smith’s shooting is so poor) and some size to man-up on opposing shooting guards. He’s got the chance. Now he has to go out and prove his worth.

I’m a little late in this post since the Rockets finally got their first win of the season Sunday night about 48 hours ago. Even with their 0-5 start, it was a win that should have been expected against the Minnesota Timberwolves, by far the easiest team on the Rockets’ schedule the first six games of this young season. Sorry I didn’t post anything earlier about it. If you’re like me, a guy who has been very busy at work, the Rockets winning a game against a team they should beat — after such a terrible start to the season — isn’t the most urgent thing in the world you have to post.

If the Rockets had lost this game, it would have been a complete disaster, even without Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry out. Fortunately Kevin Martin was able to suck it up for the team and play through his slightly sprained ankle, scoring 21 points that they badly needed. Luis Scola led Houston with 24 points in just 27 minutes. And Shane Battier is finally starting to score more, racking up 12 points (but only on 3-of-9 shooting). But at least he’s been putting up more shots lately, having scored 14 points in San Antonio the night before. I think they’ll need more of Shane’s aggressiveness on offense. No more games with just 3 points, please.

The game was a blowout early, with the Rockets holding Minnesota to 13 points in the first quarter and leading 60-37 at halftime. They opened up a 30+ point lead in the second half, and even the Rockets couldn’t blow that kind of lead. Opening up big leads is probably the Rockets’ best chance of winning games until they can figure out a way to execute offensively in tight games.

With the big early lead, Yao only played 16 minutes and scored 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting and 7-for-7 from the line. It’s encouraging that now there are reports circulating that the Rockets are considering increasing Yao’s playing time from the 24-minute guideline and not playing in back-to-backs since his physical progress has been so encouraging. Let’s hope that’s the case, for our sanity and Yao’s.

Well, I was almost right. I predicted the Rockets were going to get their first win of the season against the Spurs Saturday night, and they did just about everything they could to almost pull it off.

Jordan Hill, Brad Miller and Yao react during a pretty intense game in San Antonio Saturday night. Click here for photos of Yao working out before the game.

Yao didn’t play Saturday night against the Spurs, and instead will play in the back-to-back against Minnesota on Sunday night in Houston. They could have used him late in the 4th quarter Saturday night when both Aaron Brooks and Kevin Martin were out with injuries. But the bench did a good job making a nice comeback in the 4th to take the lead, but as we’ve grown accustomed to seeing this season, the Rockets found another way to lose.

Courtney Lee missed two free throws that could have given them a 4-point lead with 16.8 seconds in the 4th quarter, which would have put the Spurs away. Instead, Manu Ginobili made him pay by hitting a cold-blooded jumper to tie the game with 9.9 remaining. Ish Smith missed a running jumper for the Rockets that could have won it with 2.8 seconds on the clock, then Manu almost made a desperation three-pointer that could have killed off the Rockets. Instead, both teams headed into overtime tied 113-113.

Then with the Rockets holding a 119-118 lead in OT, Chuck Hayes was inexcusably stripped of the ball by Tony Parker who took it the other way for a layup and a 120-119 lead. You can pretty much predict what was going to happen the rest of the way…the Rockets didn’t have enough horses to overcome the absence of Brooks, Martin, Kyle Lowry (back spasms), and Yao. They even had three 3-point attempts in the final seconds to tie the game (Shane Battier, Lee, Luis Scola), but couldn’t hit any of them.

Here is a photo of Brooks getting carried off the court at halftime.

I saw on video Brooks injure his ankle, and it was terrible looking. He threw up a half court shot by jumping up in the air after running at full speed, and landed on the side of his foot. Awful. I’m not a doctor, but I’m guessing this will take a few weeks to heal. If Chase Budinger‘s ankle took a few weeks to heal before training camp, this has got to be just as long, if not longer.

The Rockets are now 0-and-5 for the season. This is getting ugly, and fast.

Things are starting to get old with the Rockets, losing another game in the fourth quarter after holding a lead. Leading by one point with 3 1/2 minutes to go, the Rockets still lost 107-99 at Toyota Center to the New Orleans Hornets last night.

The Rockets are now 0-4 to start the season, and are starting to remind me of the UT Longhorns and the Dallas Cowboys — so much promise to start the season, but failing terribly to live up to expectations. At least for the Rockets there are still 78 games to play to right the ship. Remember the 22-game winning streak a few seasons ago? A streak just 1/3rd that long will make everyone forget about this bad start.

You’ve got to wonder if the Rockets’ problems executing in the fourth quarter is starting to make the Rockets want to get a Carmelo Anthony deal done sooner than later. I still don’t think Carmelo is the answer since the Rockets need more defense, not offense. And bringing in a ballhog would only make things worse.

As far as Yao’s game went, it was actually pretty good: 15 points in 21 1/2 minutes on 5-of-11 shooting, 5-of-5 from the line, five boards, and two blocks.

In crunch time, he took a baseline shot that missed, and then was replaced in the game by Jordan Hill (who had a good game with 9 boards and 3 blocks) after not grabbing a rebound that resulted in Chris Paul hitting a 3-pointer. To be fair to Yao, he wasn’t the only player who didn’t grab a board when they needed it. But it was a surprise that he finished the game about 1 1/2 minutes below his allotted 24 minutes.

It doesn’t get any easier with the Rockets playing the Spurs next in San Antonio Saturday night. Something tells me the Rockets are going to “rise up” and surprise the Spurs and steal a win there. Right when people start counting the Rockets out, they have a tendency to bounce back.