Bobby Jackson takes it strong to the hole against the Phoenix Suns, helping the Rockets beat the Suns 101-90 in a game where Jackson scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting off the bench. Houston’s bench was outstanding, scoring 43 points on 19-of-28 shooting.

If you had stopped watching the Rockets since Yao got hurt, or after their 22-game winning streak ended, then you probably missed one of their best games of the season Friday night.

I had written the other day that heading into the final 4 games of the season, I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised if the Rockets could get some quality wins against good teams like Phoenix, Utah and Denver.

After watching the Rockets Friday night against the Suns, I’m not only pleasantly surprised, I’m ecstatically surprised (if that’s a word).

Opening up a double-digit lead in the second quarter after falling behind 13-2, I can’t believe how badly they beat the big bad Suns with Shaq, Nash, Amare, Barbosa, and everyone else they have.

With a dominating 101-90 win in a game that meant alot to both teams for playoff seeding purposes, just like that, the Rockets have won five games in a row and are only 1 game behind New Orleans for first place in the West.

I thought this was going to be another game in which the Suns run the Rockets ragged. But Houston stayed tough and didn’t get down on themselves when they were getting killed to start the game. They not only got their offense turned around by going on a 14-3 run to tie the game at 16-16 and take over from there, but they also turned up their defense with their best defensive player — Shane Battier — sidelined with a sore foot.

On top of that, they were able to overcome a poor shooting night from his replacement in the starting lineup, Luther Head, who only scored 4 points (2-of-8 shooting) and starting point guard Rafer Alston only scoring 5 points on 2-of-11 shooting.

How in the world were they able to overcome numbers like that, as well as the loss of Battier?

There were several reasons…

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Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire was too much to handle for the Rockets as he scored 38 points, grabbed 13 boards, made 20-of-20 free throws, and blocked 4 shots on the way to beating Houston 122-113. This game continues to illustrate how much the Rockets are missing Yao Ming’s presence in the middle.

I did something I rarely do watching a Rockets game. They were stinking it up so bad in the first half in Phoenix Saturday night, I changed the channel.

I couldn’t take the massacre I was watching. As they fell behind by 17 points in the first quarter, they didn’t deserve any Rocket fan’s attention. Things got worse as they fell behind by 23 points in the second quarter. So instead, I watched a much better game between UCLA and Texas A&M, a hell of a game which the Bruins pulled out in the final minutes. That was the best decision I made all day.

For good measure, I decided to record the Rockets game just in case some fluke happened and they made a game of it. To my surprise, when I watched the recording I saw the Rockets end up closing the deficit to 8 or 9 points a couple of times in the second half. But the whole time I thought Phoenix was just toying with them. Anytime the Rockets got close, the Suns would turn it on and make the Rockets look like pretenders.

When I had earlier changed the channel away from the game, it was halftime and the Suns had shot an incredible 76% from the field, had 18 assists, and scored 30 points in the paint to lead 74-57. You’ve got to be kidding me — 74 points by halftime?

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Yao Ming shoots a huge jump hook over the Phoenix Suns’ Amare Stoudemire Wednesday night that gave the Rockets a 96-92 lead with 1:08 remaining in the game. Yao would finish with a monster game, scoring 31 points and grabbing 13 boards in the victory. Click here for more photos from the game.

Well, it didn’t take too long for Rocket fans who have been calling for Steve Francis to get quality minutes all season to prove to the head coach they were right all along.

Francis got significant minutes on Wednesday night against the Suns in Phoenix, and he was an important reason why they pulled out a big 100-94 win.

Francis provided a spark by scoring 9 quality points in 27 minutes. All of his buckets were huge at the time because for every shot he made, you knew it was going to force Adelman to give him more minutes in upcoming games, like most Rocket fans have been saying for weeks now.

But those shots he made did another thing – it made Rafer Alston realize that Francis is breathing right down his neck for playing time, and it paid off right away. Alston played much better on offense in this game, but believe me, it’s a fluke because Alston will always be a streak shooter. We’ll get to him more in a minute. Let me finish up on Francis.

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Yao Ming expresses his frustration to the ref during the Rockets-Suns game on Saturday, November 17th. Yao had a sub-par game against the running Suns, hitting only 4-of-17 shots for 12 points in a 115-105 loss, the Rockets’ fourth loss in a row. Click here for more photos from the game and here for photos that include Steve Francis, Luis Scola, and Tracy McGrady.

What an embarrassment. I’m not going to point the blame for the Rockets getting schooled by Phoenix Saturday night on playing five games in 7 days, like the Houston announcers did. I’m also not going to blame it on Tracy McGrady not being in the lineup. Those are cop-outs. (I’m kind of reminding myself of how JVG talks. Scary).

Instead, you’ve got to look at the major drop-off in defensive intensity under the Rick Adelman era. All the experts say he focuses on defense just as much as offense. But I have never, ever seen a team shoot 73% in a first half, and 62% overall, like Phoenix did Saturday night, and have as many open 3-pointers (which turned into 6-of-12 from behind the arc in the first half).

Sure, the Rockets’ offense looked good in the first quarter scoring 30 points to the Suns’ 37. But you knew they weren’t going to be able to keep up with the Suns, who kept pouring it on in the second and third quarters, hit half their shots in the third, hit three 3-pointers, and outscored the Rockets 25-19 in the third to take an insurmountable 94-76 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Rockets did cut the deficit down to 9 points in the fourth, but all Phoenix had to do was turn on the jets again by putting Steve Nash back into the game, and that was the ballgame.

Even Steve Francis’ first action of the season didn’t make any difference. With Adelman finally figuring out that Rafer Alston had to be replaced in this game starting in the second quarter (a little too late in coming, though), Francis was rusty, hitting only 3-of-11 shot to score 8 points. He did show an ability to penetrate into the lane a couple of times, including dishing a nice bounce pass to Yao for a layup attempt where Yao was fouled. But he also went brain dead a couple of times on defense trying to guard Leandro Barbosa. We’ll see if Adelman keeps playing Francis in lieu of giving Alston so many minutes. I wouldn’t mind it.

But to me, the second biggest story of the game right behind the Rockets’ bad defense was Yao Ming’s second bad night in a row. He was only 4-of-17 from the floor, which is about the worst I have seen him shoot when taking that many shots. He was having so many problems, he only played 22 minutes when Adelman decided to take him out and go small with Luis Scola playing center.

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Yao scrambles on the floor for a loose ball Monday night at Toyota Center against the Phoenix Suns. This play represents how scrappy the Rockets played to pull off an inspirational victory against the Suns to win home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs against the Utah Jazz. Yao finished with 34 points and 9 rebounds, while Tracy McGrady finished with 39 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists. Click here and here for more photos from the game. Click here and here for pregame photos during the shootaround.

Monday night was the kind of game you wait for all season. It was a game that everyone in Houston had marked on their calendar as an “L” against the amazing Phoenix Suns. In a great season that has had many memorable wins (remember beating San Antonio on the road earlier in the season?), the Rockets played an almost near perfect game to get a win when they really needed it.

With home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs at stake, the Rockets shocked the scoreboard watchers in Utah – and around the league – by pulling off a 120-117 victory over the heavily favored Suns.

I can only imagine what the reaction was in Salt Lake City when the fans at the Jazz-Portland game found out the shocking news when they heard Houston had beaten Phoenix. Taking a line from the old V-8 commercials while slapping their head, “Ohh, I could have had home court advantage!”

Instead, the Rockets were the ones savoring every last drop of their highly-caffeinated brew of run-and-gun offense, outscoring the highest-scoring team in the league for once.

On cue, the Rockets seem to be putting it all together. T-Mac is taking charge. Yao is a monster. The role players are hitting big shots.

Remember those games over the past two weeks where the Rockets have blown leads and Van Gundy has been grumpy about poor execution? All of that seems forgotten for now. I went on record saying I wasn’t concerned about those lapses because wins are still wins, and it shows the Rockets might have the stuff to create a lot of damage in the playoffs.

I may still be proven wrong, but right now, I think most of Houston is on a high this morning and thinking that way.
After losing to Utah at home on April 1st to drop 1.5 games behind the Jazz with only 9 games left in the season, the Rockets have not only risen from the dead to win home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs against Utah, but they did it by beating the juggernaut of a Suns team they hadn’t beaten in 6 attempts. Who would have thought on April Fools Day it would have come down to this?

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Yao Ming blocks the shot of Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire Monday night on a night where Yao made only 1-of-9 shots, scored 10 points and grabbed 8 boards. But the officials also ripped him off in the pivotal fourth quarter, thwarting a comeback attempt that led to a big Rockets loss, 102-83. Click here for more photos from the game.

This may sound like sour grapes. Sure, the Rockets lost 102-83 against the Suns on Monday night. No surprise. They had lost 5 games in a row to the Suns (now six). The Suns are awesome. It was the second night of a back-to-back for the Rockets. But Yao was robbed by the refs in the fourth quarter when the Rockets still had a chance to come back.

The Rockets were down only 78-71 after a Shane Battier 3-pointer with 10:07 remaining. Leandro Barbosa responded with a trey to make it 81-71, and that’s when the bottom started to fall out in the most distressed series of minutes I’ve seen Yao go through.

On the following possession, Yao went up for an easy layup, and Kurt Thomas brazenly went up to block his shot with no regard to caring if he was going to be called for a foul. Thomas hit Yao on the wrist, then got ball, and the ref didn’t call a foul. Is that what this game has turned into where you can get away with hard contact if you go up against a much bigger guy? Remember earlier in the season when Nate Robinson “blocked” Yao, drew blood, and no foul was called.

Thomas’ “block” wasn’t the first time that Yao was robbed in the game. Earlier in the game, Shawn Marion also got Yao’s wrist on a shot attempt with no foul being called.

Luckily after Thomas’ “block,” the ball went out of bounds, and on the very next play, the same exact thing happened! Thomas not only hacked Yao on the wrist on a layup attempt, but he went over his back to do it! Again, the same ref called nothing and let play continue! Yao reacted by throwing his fist in disgust, and for good reason!

I wish Yao had done more than that to draw a technical to get the refs attention. It was obvious that these refs had a bias against Yao because of his size. Just because he’s bigger and layups are easier for him, they let defenders get away with murder.

A couple of plays later, the same ref called Yao for a three-second violation. It might have been legit. I don’t know. I know for sure he had one foot in the paint, and one foot out of it right before the ref blew the whistle. Not sure if that means he’s still in the paint (I think it does), but it was obvious the ref was watching Yao much more closely than other players.

Yao’s disastrous episode with the refs wasn’t over. On the next Houston possession, Yao was called for a moving screen, which was a legitimate call. But obviously it wasn’t Yao’s night.

Then two possessions later, the worst call ever came against Yao. He was called for another 3-second violation when clearly he came out of the paint with BOTH feet long before the ref blew the whistle and well within 3 seconds. What the hell is going on here?

On the next possession, Barbosa scored to make it 87-73 with 7:20 remaining in the game, and that was about the end of it as the Suns had the momentum they needed to blow the game wide open.

I can handle the Rockets losing to the Suns. I can handle Tracy McGrady having an off night and making only 8-of-28 shots for 19 points. Or even Luther Head and Rafer Alston combining for 8-of-27 shooting.

But I can’t take Yao being singled out because of his size such that other players know there’s a good chance no foul will get called when they go up to hit Yao on the wrist. The Rockets will have no chance if that continues to happen.

All I know is that Ronnie Nunn (Director of NBA Officials) better get his refs in gear on how they call games when Yao is playing, or this sport will become a farce.

Coming into Wednesday night’s game against the Rockets, the Phoenix Suns had won 10 games in a row, and 29 of their last 32. We’re all realists here. We knew there was no way the Rockets were going to win.

Then compound the fact Tracy McGrady was not going to play because of stiffness in his back — plus the Rockets were on the second night of a back-to-back after losing to Dallas Tuesday night — and you finally had the makings of an old-fashioned blowout loss.

But I have to give the Rockets credit. Although they lost 100-91, they put a scare into the Suns. With the odds stack so much against them, the Rockets led by 15 points in the first half (the Suns’ largest deficit in almost two months!), and still trailed by only 4 points with about 3 minutes remaining.

But after coming within striking distance, the absence of Yao and T-Mac was profound. The Rockets missed their last 6 shots down the stretch for the loss.

However, with the heart the Rockets are showing, if the Rockets finish in one of the top 5 playoff seeds, I say Jeff Van Gundy may deserve consideration for Coach of the Year honors. This effort was incredible against a team as strong as the Suns.

Believe it or not, Rafer Alston was the key to the Rockets’ staying competitive, finishing with a season-high 29 points on 12-of-25 shooting and 8 assists.

It looks like Tracy’s back is going to be fine. It’s not related to the back spasms that knocked him out of a few games earlier in the season. He says he’ll play Friday against Denver.

For the Houston Chronicle story on the game, click here.

Yao contests a shot from Boris Diaw Wednesday night in a 102-91 loss. The Rockets were down 22 points, but Yao scored 13 points in the third quarter to help get the Rockets back in the game. Click here for the game story. Click here for more photos.

The Rockets blew a golden opportunity to come back from a 22-point deficit against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night. It would have been their second greatest comeback in franchise history, but because of poor decision-making and the fact that Phoenix had run them ragged, they fell apart in the fourth quarter and the Suns cruised to a 102-91 victory.

The first half was awful with the Rockets turning the ball over numerous times and shooting only 37%. Meanwhile, the Suns went to the line 19 times in the first half alone, making 17 of those attempts, and held a 57-40 lead at halftime.

One of the main problems was that T-Mac was settling for too many jump shots. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t taking it to the hole more. Everyone knows he’s struggling from the outside and that he needs to be more aggressive and drive to the basket more, but for some reason he kept shooting and missing from outside, and no one corrected him.

Jeff Van Gundy said before this season that one of the Rocket’s pitfalls last season was “Basketball IQ” issues. Well, I think T-Mac’s insistence to continually shoot from the outside ranks as one of those IQ issues.

In the fourth quarter, McGrady did make a three-pointer and a long two-pointer consecutively to give the Rockets a 74-72 lead to cap a 34-15 run to put them ahead for the first time all night. Before those shots, he had shot 4-of-19 from the field. But down the stretch, he again settled for three-pointers, even after Steve Novak had checked into the game for 3-point shooting purposes and had nailed his previous three-pointer. Dumb!

After the Suns had put the game away 98-82 with 1:38 remaining, T-Mac padded his stats by hitting three treys in a row, but the damage had already been done and the Rockets lost.

To cap off a strange evening, for some reason the Rockets broadcast crew gave T-Mac “Player of the Game” honors. Maybe that’s because no one else had scored over 20 points (T-Mac finished with 23) — Yao didn’t finish with that great of numbers (18 points on 6-of-11 shooting) because of foul trouble. But c’mon! T-Mac essentially shot the Rockets out of the game. And you have to give credit to Yao for scoring 13 points in the third quarter to get them back into the game.

Then Rocket broadcaster Matt Bullard had the intelligence to say McGrady put up a courageous effort, or something like that, because he had been injured the night before and was probably playing with pain.

Excuse me, but if this had been any other sports market, the media wouldn’t be so kind and would have been asking instead, “If your hurt so badly that you can’t even shoot right, why are you playing, risking further injury, and hurting your team?” or “Adjust your game to compensate for your injury – stay away from your weakness, like outside shooting.”

Finally, the broadcasters said the Rockets had run out of gas because they had played back-to-back games, and that this loss was expected. But the fact of the matter is that the Rockets had a chance to steal one, and because of basketball IQ issues, they let it slip away.

Now there were other reasons why they lost. Maybe because they had attempted 35 three-pointers and made only 10 before T-Mac’s meaningless 3 three-pointers at the end of the game, which may demonstrate the following: when the Rockets are chunking them up with tremendous frequency trying to make a comeback, or trying to score more points to keep up with the Suns, thus throwing them out of their rhythm, I can buy that. But I don’t believe in letting them off the hook by serving up old clichés like a “courageous effort,” “he was hurting,” or “they ran out of gas.” Some of it may be true, but don’t cite it as the main reason why they lost. It’s weak. And I think Van Gundy would agree.

Yao greets last year’s NBA League MVP, Steve Nash, Monday night at Toyota Center. Despite Yao’s 27 points and 18 rebounds, the Suns snapped the Rockets’ four game home winning streak, winning 111-94. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

MONDAY, 2/27/06 - As I mentioned in my blog entry last night, I was not going to be able to watch the Rockets game against the Suns Monday night because of a family commitment that conflicted with the game. But I was able to see online that the Rockets had a 44-43 lead with a little over two minutes remaining in the second quarter, but then had to go off-line for a few hours. I was hoping the Rockets would shock me and pull off an upset of the heavily favored Suns, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The Suns showed why they are so good and blew past Houston to win going away 111-94. Yao pulled his weight, tallying another double-double with 27 points and 18 boards. But T-Mac struggled with only 13 points on 6-of-18 shooting.

It’s performances like Yao’s that won him NBA Western Conference Player of the Week honors, as it was announced on Monday by the NBA (see more details below).

Oh well, the Rockets weren’t expected to win this game, so at least I picked the right game to miss.

John

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Yao and Tracy McGrady show their disappointment during the Rockets’ worst loss of the season, losing to the Phoenix Suns 109-75. Pulled from the blowout early, Yao scored only 6 points, and T-Mac scored 10. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

TUESDAY, 2/14/06 – After playing their best game of the season on Tuesday night in a blowout win over the Clippers, the Rockets played their worst Thursday night against the Phoenix Suns on national TV, losing 109-75. It really wasn’t even that close. At one point, the Suns had a 47-point lead in the third quarter.

All the gains the Rockets made wining 7 of their last 8 games entering this game were virtually wiped out with their most embarrassing loss since last year’s 40-point blowout against the Mavericks in Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs.

What a great way to go into the All-Star break…Not! I bet you T-Mac (10 points, 4-of-15 shooting) and Yao (6 points, 2-of-7 from the field) don’t feel like playing in the All-Star game after being part of such a bad loss.

The good thing is that if the Rockets somehow make the playoffs this season, chances are they will play the Spurs or the Mavericks, not the Suns. It will still be an early exit, but maybe just not as bad.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.