I’ve always felt if you’re going to lose a big game, it feels better to lose big. That way you don’t tear yourself up about how one play here or there could have been the difference in the ballgame. A good shellacking can also get you extra motivated to improve your weaknesses.

That’s what happened Tuesday night as Boston blew out the Rockets in the third quarter and cruised to a 94-74 victory.

The Celtics’ defense was outstanding on Tracy McGrady, who didn’t attack the rack much in this game like he had been doing during the streak.

McGrady gave major props after the game to their defense, coached ironically in part by former Rocket assistant coach and defensive stalwart Tom Thibodeau. I was impressed the Celtics decided to play McGrady one-on-one most of the time, with former Rocket (and one of my favorites) James Posey manning up against him far away from the basket.

You may remember Posey being instrumental to Miami’s championship run a couple of seasons ago. Regardless, it would have been nice to see McGrady take it strong to the hole and draw some fouls, even if they were going to be hard fouls.

Instead, he only took 11 shots (mainly jumpers) and only made 4 of them for 11 points.

This game made it clear that Yao Ming and Carl Landry’s absence in the paint hurts immensely.

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Carl is out again and won’t play against the Celtics, but it sounds like he’s close to being game ready. Hopefully he’ll play Wednesday night against New Orleans, and that they’ll be gunning for #24 in a row if they get by Boston tonight.

Yao Ming elevates over Boston’s Kevin Garnett for a one-handed jam. However, Garnett would get the last laugh as he willed his team to a fourth quarter victory over the surprising Rockets.

The Rockets were outclassed in the beginning of their game against the Celtics Wednesday night, falling behind by as much as 20 points as Boston ran a clinic against them, embarrassing the Rockets, who left guys wide open for layups.

They also got outclassed at the end of the game, getting beaten by a superstar in Kevin Garnett, who hit big shot after big shot to score 11 points in the game’s final 7 minutes.

In between, the Rockets fought hard and made it an interesting game against one of the league’s best teams. But as expected, they didn’t have a guy to step up at the end of a close game, while Boston did. It was just a matter of time before one of the Big 3 (Garnett, Ray Allen, or Paul Pierce) of the Celtics put the Rockets away, and no surprise, it was KG, who hit several jumpers in the fourth quarter to push the Celtics record to an amazing 27-3 after beating Houston 97-91 in Boston.

Meanwhile, Houston’s superstar, Yao Ming, didn’t do anything in the clutch moments of the game, partly because he was swarmed by Celtic defenders who made it difficult for him to get the ball, and partly because he hasn’t been that clutch with his shot late in games. He was 1 of 3 from the field in the fourth quarter, scoring a garbage basket at the end of the game.

I have said before that it may not be fair for Yao to be considered the prototypical go-to guy since not many back-to-the-basket 7-footers don’t have the luxury of being able to dribble much to create their own shot. It’s also easy to double-team a guy when he’s not facing the basket and is down low in the paint in a confined area, unlike KG who can move around, face up and shoot jumpers over the defense as good as anyone.

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I would like to welcome to YaoMania! a friend of mine who has offered to provide some of his thoughts about Yao and the Rockets. His name is Tim T., and here’s his thoughts about Yao’s game against the Celtics last night.

Timing. It’s all about timing in this league. Yao Ming, in just his second game back from injuring his knee, doesn’t quite have his timing back yet. 11 points and 5 boards in just 19 minutes, Yao had a sub-par game against the lowly Boston Celtics. In every Yao-fan’s mind, there was some hope that Yao would come back with a bang. The Rockets were doing excellent in his absence, 20-12, and any wishful thinker probably believed Yao’s return would only catapult the currently seeded 5th best team in the West ahead into the top echelon of the NBA. But that will have to take time.

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Yao gets ready to shoot over Boston’s Michael Olowokandi Wednesday night. Yao finished with 11 points and 5 boards in a blowout victory over Boston, 111-80, to avenge their disappointing loss last week. Click here for photos from the game.

I love how the Rockets made a statement and blew out the Celtics 111-80 in Boston after that disheartening loss in Houston 9 days ago. Good job, Rox. Yao scored 11 and grabbed 5 boards, and only 1 turnover. Tracy McGrady scored 25 points on 7-of-16 shooting, but he had 6 TO’s.

Overall the Rockets shot 51.3% and made 15-of-28 three-pointers on an amazing 53.6% shooting. Yes, they shot better from behind the arc than inside it. Live by the three, die by the three. Tonight they lived it to the fullest.

Meanwhile the Celtics shot 35.9% and were 1-of-9 from three-point land.

When Yao scored his first bucket on a strong move in the middle of the paint, and later swatted Delonte West’s layup attempt with authority, the Boston crowd – with a large contingent of Asian-Americans who come to see Yao every year – ooohed and aahhed loudly. Nice to see he still draws his fans when on the road.

Yao would have scored more if the game hadn’t been a blowout (31 point lead at one point) and if he hadn’t dislocated his finger on a Michael Olowokandi dunk attempt. After the game, Yao said, “It’s fine. It’s fine. I will not miss 10 weeks or something.”

After the injury, useless Boston announcer Tom Heinsohn said, “That was his chopstick finger, too! He may not be able to eat any more!” Yeah, right.

The Rockets crisp passing for open shots was impressive – the best I have seen all year. They finished with heir highest number of assists this season: 31 assists on 40 field goals! They also had 12 steals.

Shane Battier was fantastic from behind the arc, hitting 5-of-11 three pointers for 15 points. They were a direct result of great passes for wide open shots.

Chuck Hayes played one of his best games as a Rocket, hustling for 11 boards and 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Rafer Alston shot well, hitting 5-of-9 shots for 14 points. And Juwan Howard was 6-of-10 for 12 points.

Now if the Rockets could just take this game and bottle it for the rest of the season and playoffs, you won’t hear me complain at all, except for stupid remarks by opposing teams’ announcers.

Yao adjusts his leg brace before the Rockets played the Celtics Monday night in Houston. Yao didn’t play as he continues his rehabilitation, and it’s easy to see by looking at the brace why Yao and Jeff Van Gundy are concerned about how it could alter the way he runs, creating even more problems down the road. Click here for more photos from Yao’s workout before the game.

The brace is just as ugly as how the Rockets played Monday against the Celtics, scoring a season-low 72 points in a loss without T-Mac who was sick with flu-like symptons.

I don’t care if Yao or T-Mac didn’t play Monday night, it’s unbelievable how the Rockets lost 77-72 at home to the team with the worst record in the NBA, a team had lost 12 road games in a row, and 22 of their last 23 games.

T-Mac had “flu-like symptoms.” If one of those symptoms was throwing up, then he and I may have the same sickness today. That’s what I feel like doing right now. Either that, or choke…just like the Rockets did.

Houston was outscored 28-10 down the stretch to a team that has Paul Pierce and a majority of their players with less than 2 years experience in the NBA.

Leading up to the Rockets’ fourth quarter collapse, it was probably one of the worst games played this season by two teams in the same game. In the first quarter, the Celtics shot 25% (6-of-24) and the Rockets were 6-of-21. Still, the Rockets led 22-14 after the first quarter. Bonzi Wells scored 10 points thanks to 6-of-7 shooting from the free throw line.

In the second quarter, the Rockets opened the lead up to 27-14, and I was thinking, “Okay, this is more like it.” But the Rockets let the Celtics chip into their lead, and by halftime their 13-point lead was down to six, 35-19, even with the Celtics missing 15 of 19 shots, 5-of-6 three pointers, and missing 6 of 12 shots. That’s because the Rockets didn’t shoot much better, missing 12 of 16 shots and missing 3-of-8 free throws.

In the third quarter, the shooting still sucked for both teams (Rockets made 35% of their shots and missed 4-of-7 free throws), but at least Houston had a 9 point lead on a hapless Celtics team, and that was without T-Mac in the lineup. I’ll take that kind of lead heading into the fourth.

They opened up a 13-point lead with 9 minutes remaining and 12-point lead with 7:30 minutes left on the clock. But that’s when the bottom fell out. The Houston offense stagnated, with Luther Head jacking up threes. It became so predictable, one of his three-pointers was blocked.

Then Head dropped a pass on the inbounds play. That was just one of several turnovers Head had (4) since he was handling the ball more with T-Mac out and trying to make too much happen.

Rafer Alston and Shane Battier also jacked up some three-pointers in the fourth quarter that missed. Then Juwan Howard took it upon himself to take it to the basket (not a high percentage shot), and was blocked on a controversial no-call. Then Alston threw a bad pass to Bonzi, and the ball was tipped by Boston’s Delonte West for a turnover.

Meanwhile, Boston outhustled the Rockets to go on a 10-0 run in 3 ½ minutes to come all the way back and take a 70-68 lead. Then Paul Pierce hit a tough fallaway three-pointer to make it 73-68 with 25.9 seconds remaining. That capped an unbelievable 24-6 run.

Houston went to a strategy to foul Boston and hopefully have them miss at the free thow line, but they were stupid in letting their best foul shooter on the floor, Delonte West (84% FT shooting), easily get the inbounds pass, requiring them to foul him and send him to the line. He made all 4 FT attempts down the stretch to seal it.

Okay, here’s the really ugly part — Houston’s shooting that contributed to their worst shooting percentage (32%) of the season. Shane Battier: 1-of-12 (shocking!). Alston: 1-of-11. Luther Head: 3-of-11. Three-point shooting: 1-of-22. In my mind, the Rockets missed a lot of those shots in the fourth (0-of-8 from behind the arc) not only because T-Mac wasn’t there to give them better looks. It was also because Boston’s younger legs and frenetic pace wore the Rockets down in the fourth quarter and they didn’t have their legs underneath them.

As a team, they shot 32% from the field, their worst for the season, and scored their fewest number of points. They were also out-rebounded 53-48, their fifth consecutive game where they lost the battle on the boards.

Van Gundy had this to say after the game: “I don’t like our transition defense. I abhor our rebounding and our pursuit of loose balls. What has bailed us out in a couple of those games (we have won lately) has been our three-point shooting. Tonight we didn’t make (3-point shots), so we had to rely on our foundation, which is defense, rebounding and low turnovers, and in the fourth quarter all three abandoned us.”

The only bright spot was Bonzi Wells scoring 27 points on 8-of-16 shooting, but he only made 11-of-16 free throws. The other was Jake Tsakalidas, who grabbed 10 boards and scored 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting. He played pretty well in the second half when the Rockets needed some offense, but having not played very much this season, he tired out in 21 minutes of action.

It was a tough loss for Houston since they are trying to keep up with the Spurs to get one of the top 4 playoff seeds in the Western Conference that would give them home court advantage in first round of the playoffs at least. They are now 3.5 games behind San Antonio. Looking at losses to teams like the Hornets, Hawks (Friday night), and now Boston, it will be painful if the Rockets miss getting home court because of lapses to some of the worst teams in the league.

Yao goes after a shot of Boston’s Paul Pierce Tuesday night in Houston. Yao was outstanding defensively, causing all kinds of problems for the Celtics. Yao finished with 12 points, grabbed 9 rebounds and had three assists in a 91-73 victory. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

TUESDAY, 12/06/05 - The kind of game the Rockets played on Tuesday night was the kind Rocket fans had been waiting for against a fairly decent team for quite some time. The Rockets finally put together an all-around game with great defense and pretty good offense and beat Boston handily, 91-73. The Rockets held the Celtics to 34% shooting while shooting 45% themselves.

After the game, T-Mac said he felt good and like his old self, scoring 35 points and hitting 14-of-20 shots. Combine that with 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and his holding Paul Pierce to 3-of-10 shooting, and you’ve got to think T-Mac is ready to put his recent injury troubles behind him and lead the Rockets out of their 5-12 hole. Anytime the Rockets looked like they were going to hit a scoreless stretch in this game, he would stop the bleeding by hitting a big bucket.

Yao played well, too. He scored 12 points on 4-of-9 shots, grabbed 9 boards and had 3 assists. Even though he only recored one block, he had numerous intimidations of Celtic shots down low in the paint and was able to stay out of foul trouble.

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The day after the debacle in Boston, check out a Boston writer’s perspective about Yao and the Rockets’ 102-82 loss against the Celtics on Sunday night. Even a Boston writer can tell how bad the Rockets were.

Yao tries to stop the Celtics’ Mark Blount Sunday night as Boston had a party at Houston’s expense, blowing them out 102-82. For more photos from the game, click here. Photo courtesy of NBAE via Getty Images.

by John

SUNDAY, 11/13/05 - I’ve got a couple of things to say after the Rockets got blown out of Boston Sunday night 102-82.

1) Coach Jeff Van Gundy coached one of his worst games in recent memory
2) The trade of Mike James for Rafer Alston continues to haunt Houston
3) The scoring punch we expected Derek Anderson to deliver is not happening

Regarding point #1 above, it was unbelievable how the Rockets kept leaving Celtic center Raef LaFrentz open for wide open three-pointers. LaFrentz was 7-for-7 from behind the three-point line in the first half alone. You would think after he hit the 3rd or 4th three-pointer, some defense would be put on him.

Alston was absolutely worthless (again), going 0-for-5 through the first three quarters and getting one assist. What were the Rockets thinking when they traded James, who scored 36 points (including 6 three-pointers!) for Toronto Sunday against Seattle? Oh yeah, I forgot. Point guards who play under the Jeff Van Gundy system shouldn’t be scorers. They should be passers first.

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Yao defends against scoring wizard Paul Pierce in Boston on Monday. Yao had a great game, outscoring Pierce 23 points to 22 to lead the Rockets in scoring on the way to a big 97-94 victory. Yao also grabbed 8 rebounds and blocked 2 shots. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

MONDAY, 1/31/05 - They always say if your NBA team is going to win a championship, you’ve got to have your role players step up. They say there’s no way one or two superstars are going to carry you to victory every night. Every once in awhile you need guys who aren’t in the limelight to pick up the slack.

The Rockets have had the good fortune this year to have guys like Bob Sura and Scott Padgett have big scoring nights while the big guns were struggling. On Thursday night in Boston, it was Jon Barry’s turn.

The game was a see-saw battle between the Celtics and Rockets, but after the Rockets crept back into the game in the fourth quarter, Mr. Barry scored 11 straight points, including a sizzling three treys in a row to put the Rockets up 78-68. [It would have been four three-pointers in a row if he hadn’t had his right foot on the three-point line when he made a long two-pointer.]

After Barry’s outburst, the Rockets held on thanks to some clutch shots, including Barry’s baseline jumper and a beautiful finger roll after willing his way down the lane when the Rockets really needed a bucket. Barry finished with 15 points in the fourth quarter alone (17 overall).

Yao was also clutch in the fourth by making 3-of-4 shots to finish with 7 points (23 points total on 11-of-15 shooting). Yao also got off to one of his best starts of the year, scoring 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting in the first half. He was getting most of his buckets the way I love to see him utilized: passes from other guys while he’s moving to the basket like after pick-and-rolls. Yao was able to break free time-after-time in the first half. Yao also bolstered his scoring by hitting fadeaways in the lane, shots he has been missing frequently this season.

Thanks to Yao’s productive first half, he ended up negating a bad shooting half for T-Mac (3-for-10) and David Wesley (0-for-4) and helped the Rockets gain a 16-point lead. But the Rockets couldn’t blow it out and they let the Celtics back in the game to reach striking distance, 49-40, even though Houston shot 48% from the field, out-rebounded Boston 25-16, and had 7 more assists (16-9).

Before I describe what happened in the second half, major props go to T-Mac for the one basket he made in the first quarter: a coast-to-coast job where he faked a Celtic player out of his jock, shifted direction and threw down a one-handed jam with a strong snap of the wrist. One of the more spectacular throw-downs this season from T-Mac, and that’s saying something with the highlight reel season he has had thus far.

The momentum shifted to the Celtics in the third quarter when they went on a 12-0 run to take a 63-57 lead as the Rockets relied too much on the outside shot, missing 11-of-16 attempts. During that run, Celtic center Mark Blount scored 10 points in the quarter by camping outside away from Houston’s big men and hitting 4-of-4 long jumpers.

But Houston pulled it together to take a 67-65 lead at the end of the third quarter, thanks to Bob Sura scoring six points in a row. Sura finished with an all-around game, scoring 10, dishing 10, and grabbing 6 boards.

While Sura was superb, Barry was a bit better as he launched his onslaught of long bombs to score 11 in a row and give Houston some breathing room at 78-68. It wasn’t over, though. Boston’s Ricky Davis went off and scored 17 of the Celtics next 24 points to help tie the game at 92-92 with 44 seconds remaining.

Down the stretch it turned into a free throw shooting contest, with the Rockets hitting five free throws. They were helped by a rare miss from Davis, whose three-pointer that could have tied it at 95-95 clanged off the iron. The rebound came down to the Rockets, and unlike the wasted performance by super-sub Scott Padgett against Sacramento last week, Jon Barry could enjoy a victory to go along with his clutch performance.

Just a few weeks ago, Barry was toiling away on the Atlanta bench. One Tyronn Lue trade later, Barry is showing he still has some game left in him. So what role player will step up in Philadelphia? I think David Wesley is due.

What do you think?

Before I sign out, I watched the Boston television coverage instead of Houston’s coverage of the game, and when the commentators said it was the third annual Asian-American night at Boston’s Fleet Center, I was disappointed the Celtics so blatantly use Yao’s appearance to make a few more bucks. I know many NBA teams did that while Yao was doing his first or second tour of duty, but c’mon, it’s his third year already. He’s no longer a novelty. Even worse, as they discussed on television the event, the cameras panned the crowd highlighting unsuspecting Asian-Americans sitting in their seats.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little offended by that. If it were Mexican-American night, would they have so explicitly shown Mexican-Americans in the crowd? Or if it were Martin Luther King night, would they have focused only on African-Americans? How about Greek night? I doubt it.

I just have a feeling that the guys who control what goes on the sports tube in Boston think that Asian-Americans are like cartoon characters who can be put in the spotlight without feeling like they are being exploited. I beg to differ. Why does it seem like there is a lower level of political correctness toward people of Asian descent? What do you think? If you feel like I do (or if you don’t), someone start a thread in the forum under the “Non-Yao Stuff” section and let’s all discuss it.

John
john@YaoMingFanclub.com

To read the Houston Chronicle’s post-game analysis, click here.