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).

Yao Ming scored 17 points, grabbed 7 boards and had 2 blocks in Sacramento Thursday night as the Rockets easily beat the Kings 110-97.

Yao slightly pulled his groin in the first quarter and went to the locker room for treatment, but managed to play 32 minutes total and rested during the entire fourth quarter. Hopefully he’s okay — he must be if coach Rick Adelman played him that long.

Click here for more photos from the game.

Ron Artest was the Rockets’ high scorer with 19 points in his first game back at ARCO Arena since being traded in the off-season. He also had 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.

You can probably tell I don’t get that fired up about preseason games, so I’m glad it’s finally over. The Rockets now have several days off before next Wednesday night’s season opener against Memphis.

Raymond has posted photos of Steve Francis and Tracy McGrady back at practice. Tuesday was McGrady’s third day in a row back at practice without any pain, and Francis’ first.

Click here for more photos from the practice that Raymond has posted in the forum.

After sitting out Wednesday’s game against Memphis, Yao Ming was back in the lineup Friday night against Sacramento.

Yao scored 15 points in 26 minutes, hitting 7-of-11 from the floor. But shockingly, he only made 1-of-5 free throws. He left the game in the fourth quarter after tweaking his ankle, but he’ll be fine.

Meanwhile, Ron Artest played well against his former team, scoring 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. He also had 3 steals and two assists.

Aaron Brooks had a fantastic game, scoring 23 points since he got more minutes (42) than normal because Tracy McGrady sat out to rest his sore right knee. Brooks made 7-of-16 field goals, including 4-of-8 from 3-point land.

Click here for more photos from the Rockets’ pre-game shootaround as well as the game. Click here for game coverage from the Houston Chronicle.

Yao was held out of a meaningless game against the Grizzlies Wednesday night in Memphis.

The Rockets seem to be sticking to their guns about managing Yao’s time wisely to avoid unnecessary wear-and-tear. After all, this was the Rockets third preseason road game in a row within a 5-day period.

Turns out they didn’t need him after beating the Grizzlies 101-97. Click here for the Chronicle story on the game, including some commentary on the Rockets’ decision to try to make up for not having the height of Dikembe Mutombo in the lineup using the quickness of their power forwards.

Click here for Raymond’s photos from Yao’s pre-game shootaround.

The Rockets lost their second preseason game in a row, this time in Oklahoma City where they lost to the Seattle Sonics….er, I mean the Thunder (that’s going to take me a few weeks to get used to that), by blowing another 4th quarter lead to fall 110-104.

In 24 minutes, Yao Ming scored 15 points and grabbed 16 boards in the loss. He also had 3 blocks and 2 assists. Check out the video below of Yao throwing one down…

Click here for the Houston Chronicle’s game story.

Houston lost a chippy game against the Celtics last night, losing 90-89. It took on the tone of a regular season game with several agitated episodes between players on both sides.

Yao scored 16 points in 24 minutes of action, shooting 4-of-7 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the line.

Tracy McGrady played his first game of the preseason, scoring 10 points. Luis Scola scored 14 points, Ron Artest scored 13, and Carl Landry scored 11.

Click here for Raymond’s photos from the game. Click here for the Chronicle’s game story.

The Rockets won their second preseason game Thursday night, this time against San Antonio, looking much better than they did in their first victory.

Yao played 24 minutes, hitting 4-of-8 from the field to score 8 points, and grabbed 4 boards. His timing is still a little off, though:

“He’s just got to keep playing through it,” coach Rick Adelman said. “I wasn’t going to play him that long. But I wanted him to keep playing, because he’s got to get his timing back. He’s kind of out of sorts right now.

“He did kick it out of the double-team a couple of times when they were coming at him. But I thought there were times when he re-established his post position, and he’s just got to be more aggressive and go ahead and take it. I thought he was hesitant and a lot of it is timing. We’ve got to keep playing him in longer stretches and let him get his timing back.”

Click here for Raymond’s photos from pre-game and the game itself. Click here for the Houston Chronicle’s full story.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Rockets won their preseason opener at Toyota Center against Memphis 96-93.

Here’s what the Chronicle wrote about Yao’s performance:

Yao Ming, despite struggling so much in the first quarter that he said he felt like a rookie again, looked fully recovered from last season’s stress fracture. On one occasion, he got the rebound on one end and was the first player down the floor on the other. After missing his first four shots, he dropped in a jump hook, scored on a spin move to a lefthanded layup, and finished with 10 points and nine rebounds in 22 minutes.

“It (felt) new,” Yao said. “I think eight months not playing NBA games — this high-intensity, high-speed game — in the first quarter, I felt like I am new here.”

Click here for more of the game story from the Chronicle. Click here for more photos.

I wrote alot of notes during the Rockets-Spurs game last night, which the Rockets lost 99-92, and was planning to put them in this blog post since I thought this final preseason game would be close enough to a real game to finally make my notes relevant.

But it was still too “pre-seasony” of a game to get a glimpse of where the Rockets stand as a team. Most starters didn’t play their regular minutes. For example, Yao Ming only played 29 minutes, scoring 12 points and grabbing 12 boards.

The Spurs rested Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen, along with Robert Horry who is tending to a family matter. With those guys out, the Spurs still shot 51% from the floor. I guess every Rocket fan is concerned about the drop-off in defensive intensity we’ve seen this preseason, but I’m still not convinced yet it’s that big of a deal. To modify a phrase Allen Iverson once used , “It’s preseason. We’re talkin’ about preseason.”

Maybe one of the reasons the Spurs were hitting so many outside shots (like 9-of-17 three-pointers) is that everyone legs’ are still fresh because it’s still early yet. Maybe once the grind of the season kicks in, those shots won’t be falling as easily. The Rockets did keep the Spurs out of the paint for the most part.

Instead, during this preseason I have looked more at what the Rockets are doing on offense. By halftime, the Rockets outscored the Spurs 24-8 in the paint and 12-0 on second-chance points. I can live with that.

Tracy McGrady looked great, getting to the hole with ease in the first half and scoring on multiple layups. Part of the reason for his ability to drive to the hoop was because the lane wasn’t as clogged with Yao now spending more time in the high post area. McGrady finished with 21 points in 29 minutes.

Not that Yao is spending too much time camped outside of the lane. All his points came in the low block, including an impressive basket in the first quarter. In the block, Yao spun baseline, faked like he was going to take a shot from underneath the basket, pulled the ball down, then spun away from the basket (and Tim Duncan) to score on a little baby hook shot. It reminded me so much of that famous play where Hakeem Olajuwon did the same thing against David Robinson in the 1995 playoffs. Maybe that was one of the things Hakeem taught Yao during their workout sessions during the off-season.

Yao scored his 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field. One of the concerns I had for him from this game is that he missed a few chip shots around the basket as he was moving toward the basket, showing a lack of touch. In one sequence alone, he missed two consecutive shots around the rim, then after getting the second rebound just decided to dunk it for the score. I think he missed those because of a lack of concentration, which should get better as his brain gets ‘warmed up’ as the season starts up.

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