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.

For the first time in a long time, I’ll be out the next few days unable to watch Rocket games (yikes!) celebrating a family event on an out-of-town trip. But Ren is going to be blogging here after tonight’s game against Sacramento, and Friday night against Golden State. So the coverage here will continue.

I guess my trip couldn’t come at a much better time since the Kings and Warriors aren’t that good and are mired deep down in the standings. If there’s one game I’m worried about, through, it’s the game at Golden State. The Warriors run-and-gun style and athleticism always gives the Rockets fits, kind of like what Philadelphia does to them (who swept Houston this season). The Rockets have gone into Oakland before with lots to play for (this time home court in the playoffs) and have lost.

I’m going to miss seeing what happens in the standings as it plays out the next few nights. Here’s how it looks as of Thursday afternoon:

As you can see, the Rockets are tied with Portland and San Antonio at 50-28 with the 3rd, 4th and 5th seeds at stake. Denver, 2 1/2 games ahead of all 3 of these teams, has the #2 seed locked up, having gone on a pretty good tear late in the season, with a relatively easy schedule ahead of them. I don’t think anyone saw the Nuggets making the run they’ve had.

San Antonio has really struggled lately having lost 4 of their last 6 games, and with Tim Duncan’s knee giving him problems and Manu Ginobili officially out for the playoffs, they could lose home court advantage. Injuries are finally catching up with the Spurs, who were extremely lucky the past few years on the injury-front while winning their championships.

Another good thing for the Rockets is that Utah has lost 4 of their last 5 games, the latest loss coming last night in a blowout in Dallas. They’re now duking it out with Dallas for the 7th and 8th seeds. Two of Utah’s remaining 4 games are against the Spurs and Lakers ON THE ROAD, not their strong suit. So chances are high that Utah will stay at #7 or #8 and play either the Lakers or Denver in the first round, not Houston, unless they finally start bucking the trend of losing on the road against playoff-bound teams in the West.

The only caveat is that New Orleans, currently one game ahead of Utah, has a tougher schedule, having to play Dallas twice, Houston and San Antonio. If the Hornets crater, Utah could overtake them for the 6th seed, meaning the Rockets probably DON’T want to win the #3 seed and face them in the first round.

In case you missed it, after the Blazers game on Sunday, Yao heard that over 500 members from the local Chinese community had organized to come to the game together. So what did he do? He came out to greet some of them and take some photos. Good going, Yao!

Click here for more photos of Yao greeting his fans.

I thought it was inevitable that Yao Ming and Google would join forces somehow. They’re both too big not to work with each other. That hunch finally came to fruition today as Raymond reports in the forum that a music service that Yao invested in 4 years ago has partnered with Google China to launch a legal music search service in China.

Interesting how just last week Yao came out and did that public service announcement for anti-piracy in China. Now it all makes more sense.

Click here for more information.

Raymond has some good coverage in the forum about how recently laid-off Houston Chronicle columnist Fran Blinebury is now writing for Chinese publication Titan Sports!

Wow, first it was Yao Ming’s teammates who got Chinese shoe contracts, then Chinese companies buying sponsorship banners at Toyota Center, and now Blinebury’s columns being translated into Chinese! It all seems so symbolic considering what’s happening to American newspapers these days.

Click here for more coverage, including a pretty funny cartoon of Yao, McGrady, and Blinebury.

So many times I’ll have a little thought in my head about Yao or the Rockets, or I’ll come across a small piece of information about them, but writing a blog post for it either seems like overkill, or the information won’t get out fast enough to people who visit this Web site only once every day or two.

I tend to use this blog for major news, like post-game summaries or something that Raymond posts in the forum, but not for little tidbits of information.

However, I’ve felt sometimes those little thoughts or news snippets are relevant. Rather than have them go unstated, I’ve decided to create a YaoMingMania Twitter profile and see how it goes.

So I encourage you to follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/yaomingmania. And over on the right-hand side of each page above the “Categories” section, you’ll see a little Twitter widget that will display my last few tweets.

I’ll continue to write on the blog after games, breaking news, and Raymond’s updates in the forum, so make sure to keep coming back!

Raymond reports that for the 6th consecutive year, Yao topped Forbes China’s list of top 100 celebrities, including ranking first in 4 of the 5 categories. Click here for more details on who he beat out.

Also, Raymond reports that Yao is taking on another cause, but this time it’s not against a disease or earthquake victims. This time it’s against piracy in China. Interesting. Here’s his poster promoting anti-piracy:

Raymond has posted some photos of Yao’s lifesize wax figure at Madame Tussaud’s in New York City. The figure made its debut on Wednesday, and is on loan from their Shanghai location for the next 6 months.

Click here for more photos and details. Thanks Raymond!

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).

The Chronicle has a good recap of a press conference held yesterday with Rockets’ team physician Dr. Tom Clanton, who will observe the microfracture surgery that’s being done on Tracy McGrady‘s left knee today.

One thing that Clanton said in the press conference that was interesting was the following: “I think that I let him return to play a little too quickly. Perhaps if we had strengthened his knee more at the start, maybe he wouldn’t have had these symptoms.”

Does this change your mind about how all of the controversy played out with McGrady’s knee? Personally, I think McGrady still holds a big part of the blame because 1) he didn’t strengthen his knee enough during the off-season (he’s never been known to be a tireless worker like Yao Ming is), and 2) he said multiple times his knee felt good, until the end when it was convenient for him to find something to blame like his knee.

Also, the way he didn’t tell the team about his decision to have the surgery before announcing it publicly was a nightmare.