I’m still hurting after that loss against Sacramento on Tuesday night and how mediocre the Rockets have played since the 22-winning streak ended.

But Houston’s win against Portland on the road Thursday night makes me hopeful that the Rockets can get back to the way they were playing during their historic run.

They still had times where they struggled, like when they gave up a 16-point lead in the 2nd quarter and eventually fell behind by two points with 3:50 remaining in the third.

At that point, I thought they were ripe for a collapse. And all of this was happening without last year’s rookie of the year – Brandon Roy – playing for Portland because of an injury. Without Roy in the line-up this season, the Blazers had lost 6-of-7 games.

But give credit to Tracy McGrady for finally finding his shot. He had been 5-of-15 by the time the Rockets fell behind by two points, 63-61. But then he exploded by hitting 5 of his next 6 shots to help Houston go on a 13-0 run to finish the third quarter, giving the Rockets a 74-63 lead headed into the fourth.

The Blazers would cut the deficit down to 7 points a couple of times in the fourth, but the Rockets would respond and finished strong to win 95-86.

McGrady was in more of an attack mode in this game, and it made all the difference. On top of the 35 points he scored on pretty decent 14-of-29 shooting and 4-of-6 from three-point territory, he would dish 6 assists.

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Yao gets a hand on Portland’s Lamarcus Aldridge’s shot Monday night in Houston. Yao would lead all scorers with 25 points as Houston won its 7th game in a row, 95-83. Click here for more photos from the game.

Although the Rockets won their 7th game in a row Monday night against a team they are battling for a playoff spot, there are still enough issues the Rockets need to correct considering how they played in a 95-83 win in Houston.

Not to be a spoil sport, let’s first talk about the things they did well Monday night. Yao was the force in the middle we expect him to be against a smaller front line of Joel Pryzbilla and Lamarcus Aldridge, leading all scorers with 25 points on 7-of-11 shooting, 11-of-13 from the line, and grabbing 7 boards. Just another day at the office for Big Yao.

Houston’s defense was great in the second half, holding the Blazers to 15-of-34 shooting. Shane Battier really put the clamps on All-Star guard Brandon Roy, holding him only to 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting (it didn’t hurt that Roy missed 5-of-10 free throws).

The parts I didn’t like about this game, even in victory, were the following:

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Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Luther Head and other Rocket players cheer on their teammates during the 4th quarter of a big win in Portland. Yao only scored 11 points (but had 10 rebounds) as the Rockets ended the Blazers’ 12-game home winning streak.

With the way the Rockets played during big stretches of their game against Portland Friday night, you thought there would be no way they could beat the Blazers to make them lose for only the four time in 21 games at home this season. In addition, the Rockets are only 3-15 when trailing at halftime, which was the case in this game as they trailed 50-42 at the intermission. Their chances didn’t look good.

But with the help of the guys we have been saying for weeks are “for real,” rookies Carl Landry, Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks came up big in an 89-79 win to give Houston its fourth win in a row (fifth on the road!) and pull within 1 game of the Blazers and Utah to tie for the 8th seed in the Western Conference playoff race. Thank goodness coach Rick Adelman seems to finally realize the value of all 3 of these guys to play them in crunch time, like many of us have been saying all year long.

The Rockets needed all they could get from their reserves since Yao Ming only had two field goals for the entire game (2-of-8 overall), with no FGs in the first half, which had to be a first. But the Big Man made a big-time contribution from the free throw line, hitting 7-of-8 to finish with 11 points, and grabbed 10 boards.

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With all the excitement of Houston’s home opener Saturday night against Portland, the Rockets lived up to expectations that a revamped bench and a 2-0 record have created by taking command early and not being threatened too much by a young Blazer team.

The Rockets started off the first quarter on an 18-4 run, led by Yao Ming scoring 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting. In that first quarter, he hit a fallaway jumper, a jump hook, a wicked spin move on the baseline for a layup, and a dunk! Yao would finish the night with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Not a bad night for a guy who says he still feels uncomfortable spending 50% of his time in the high post.

Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for video from the game.

Yao missed several easy jump shots in the second half that makes me a little concerned about his shooting accuracy. That’s the second game in a row where he has hit a dry spell within a game. But hopefully it’s only temporary and he’ll get those fallaways and jump hooks on target soon.

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Yao and Shane Battier team up to block the Blazers’ Raef Lafrentz shot in the first quarter Wednesday night in Portland. The Rocket defense was stifling in the first quarter, and the Rockets eventually opened a 25-point lead in the third. But the Blazers fought back and were able to cut the deficit to 3 points late in the fourth. However the Rockets held on for the win, with Yao finishing with 27 points, 12 boards, and 3 assists. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for pregame photos during the shootaround.

During the third quarter of Wednesday night’s game for the Rockets against Portland, it couldn’t get much better for Houston.

They had a 25-point lead and were rolling to an easy victory, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming were tuning up well for the playoffs, Utah had lost to Denver and by night’s end the Rockets were going to be 1 ½ games up on Utah for home court advantage in their first round playoff series (unthinkable about 10 days ago).

So naturally with the game in hand, I was starting to think of what Houston had to do in their 3 remaining games to stay ahead of Utah to secure home court in their playoff series.

But just as I started to think ahead to the playoffs, I think the Rockets did, too.

Like so many times this season, the Rockets let their opponent back into the game. By the 4:24 mark of the fourth quarter, Portland had cut that 25-point deficit to five points, 87-82.

To make matters worse, with less than two minutes remaining in the game as the Rockets were trying to survive the Blazer comeback attempt, T-Mac went down with what looked like a season-ending and playoff-ending knee injury in a scramble for a loose ball. Brandon Roy landed on his leg and knee awkwardly, twisting it and making T-Mac writhe in pain on the court.

In that one instant, all those thoughts about winning in the playoffs went out the door. But luckily T-Mac was able to get to the bench and didn’t go to the locker room, so he might be okay. But we’ll find out soon enough on Thursday.

And as T-Mac watched from the bench, the Rockets held on for a 99-95 win.

After the game, Jeff Van Gundy was obviously disgusted by how the Rockets let the Blazers back into the game, just like other teams have done so often this season against the Rockets. It would seem almost impossible for Portland to come back without injured players on the court, like Zach Randolph, Lamarcus Aldridge, Darius Miles, and Joel Pryzbilla like they did.

Well, I have a theory on why it’s happening….

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In the top photo, Yao speaks with Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy in a session on Friday before their game against Portland later that night. It was decided later that Yao should sit out the game because of some type of contact he received during Wednesday night’s game against Golden State that hurt his back.

During Friday’s game, Yao joins T-Mac in the training room while their teammates played without them against Portland. The Blazers ended up beating Houston without Yao and T-Mac in the lineup, a significant blow to Houston’s hopes to catch the Utah Jazz for home court advantage during their first round playoff series. Click here for more photos of Yao and Van Gundy in their gameday session. Click here for more photos taken during the game.

What a frustrating game Friday night against the Trailblazers. Houston had all kinds of chances to beat a young, sub-500 team like Portland, and to do it on a night when Utah left the door open for the Rockets to get closer to the Jazz for home court advantage. Utah had a 5-point lead against Sacramento Friday night with 3 minutes to play, but they still managed to lose.

In the Rockets game against Portland, Yao and T-Mac played it safe by sitting out the game because of back issues, and the rest of the Houston veterans couldn’t beat a relatively inexperienced Portland team, losing 85-78, which is the Rockets’ third home game in a row to lose!

You can just about kiss goodbye any chance of the Rockets getting home court advantage against the Jazz now. They have blown all kinds of chances this week, losing to Utah and Golden State. But I guess it’s no surprise since the Rockets are 1-11 when both Yao and T-Mac don’t play.

The Rockets started off terribly Friday night, getting down 17-4 after Portland went on a 15-0 run. The Rockets made something like two of their first 13 or 14 shots, and turned the ball over 5 times in the first few minutes of the first quarter.

Houston ended up shooting only 30% in that first quarter and trailed 23-14 heading into the second quarter, and was still behind 40-33 at halftime. The deficit could have been much less if Dikembe Mutombo hadn’t blown a layup right before the halftime buzzer, and 4 other layups had not been missed by his teammates earlier in the half.

You just can’t blow easy shots like that. That is the difference between the Rockets and other teams – Yao and T-Mac are superior to most of their counterparts, but after that, there is a big drop-off in talent level, except for maybe Shane Battier.

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It’s really hard to find anything to nitpick in the Rockets’ 30-point thrashing of Portland, 99-69. They did blow a 12-2 lead to start the game, but then let Portland go on a run to actually lead 20-19 after the first quarter. By halftime, the Rockets still led only 36-34, and I thought this was going to be one of those games where a young or average team comes in and catches Houston by surprise (remember the Denver game last week?).

But that’s when Tracy McGrady turned it on in the third quarter, scoring 17 points to lead a Houston attack with 71% field goal shooting in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Rockets’ defense clamped down and held Portland to 14 points on 38% shooting in the third.

From there, the Rockets opened up a 35-point lead at one point (their largest lead of the season), with T-Mac resting the whole fourth quarter. He finished with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting, and 5 assists.

Big win. No complaints. Short blog. What a rarity. I like it.

To read more about the game and Tracy McGrady’s imitation of Jeff Van Gundy, click here for the Houston Chronicle story.

Yao posts up Portland’s Joel Pryzbilla on his way to scoring 34 points, grabbing 9 boards and blocking 5 shots. But it was all for naught as the Rockets lost their fourth close game out of their past five, losing 89-87 in Portland Wednesday night. Click here for more photos.

The Rockets lost another close one Wednesday night, this time against the red hot Portland Trailblazers, 89-87. Although Portland has now won 5 in a row, if you looked at the Rockets’ schedule before this 5-game road trip started, you would think this is the one they would have to win because the Blazers werer still the weakest of all the teams on the trip.

The Rockets just got outplayed defensively. Portland had 8 blocks against Houston, the most I can remember against them in quite some time. Meanwhile, Portland’s Jarrett Jack (13 points) and Brandon Roy (9 points) did just enough to put them over the hump with a few big plays, including Roy’s tough shot driving toward the rim with 19.9 seconds remaining that put them up 86-82.

The Rockets were down 70-60 headed into the fourth quarter, and they made a run to get it close down the stretch. With about 41 seconds remaining and the Rockets behind 84-82, Luther Head had a chance to tie it, but he missed a fairly close jumper at the corner of the paint.

To me, that’s what it really boiled down to – the Rockets needing a basket to put big pressure on Portland to respond, but falling short. That’s what great team do, and the Rockets haven’t had much of that lately on this road trip with T-Mac out because of his back problems. Yao will always have a few opportunities in crunch time to do it, but when he’s double-teamed and the Rockets need a player to create his own shot off the dribble with the pressure on, they don’t have that.

The same thing almost happened Sunday in LA when they blew a lead against the Clippers and had a terrible possession at the end of the game that looked like the Keystone Cops, but got lucky when they were bailed out with a foul during a loose ball chase.

Yao continued to showe his dominance, scoring 34 points (17 in the third quarter alone), grabbing 9 boards and blocking 5 shots. But he did only score 4 points in the fourth quarter as Portland played pretty good defense on him.

Other than that, nothing stands out in the boxscore for the Rockets. Chuck Hayes scored zilch, Shane Battier scored two, Juwan Howard scored 8, and Bonzi Wells (6 points) missed 8-of-10 shots, which really hurt. If he could have made just 1 or 2 shots in the final couple of minutes, which you hope to get from an offensive force like him, the Rockets could have won a game that was there for the taking.

Click here for the game story from the Houston Chronicle.

Yao posts up Portland’s Joel Pryzbilla Wednesday night. Yao had an off night, scoring only 13 points and grabbing 7 rebounds in an embarrassing 76-75 Rockets loss to one of the league’s worst teams. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 4/5/06 - The Rockets suffered one of their most embarrassing losses of the season Wednesday night, losing to Portland, the second-worst team in the league, losers of their last 11 in a row, and 21 of their last 23 games!! Not only that, but the Blazers’ last 6 losses were by an average of 18 points!

The Rockets showed absolutely no poise, and did just about everything to give the game away by blowing layups and committing 9 turnovers in the fourth quarter alone. Every one of those lost possessions was crucial in this close, 76-75 loss. It was like the Keystone Cops out there. When Yao is not on, the Rockets can be a very bad team.

So who were the culprits in this loss? Just about everyone, except maybe Luther Head.

Luther scored 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting, and went one-on-one against Theo Ratliff on a fast break to hit a sweet reverse layup with 1:17 remaining to give the Rockets a 75-74 lead.

But then the Rockets let Sebastian Telfair drive across the lane, stop, and pop a wide open jumper to give the Blazers a 76-75 lead. The Rockets had over 27 seconds remaining to win it, though.

On that last possession, Luther took the first shot, a three-pointer, with 7 seconds remaining that missed. Yao fought very hard to get the rebound with four seconds remaining, and then made a strong move in the lane with two guys on him to get off a tough shot. But it clanged off the back iron, and that was the ballgame.

The Rockets should have never been put into the position where they had to hit a last second shot to win it. After all, this was the freakin’ 20-53 Portland TrailBlazers. You had a feeling when the Rockets committed 3 turnovers in the first quarter on simple outlet passes alone, it was going to be a long night. It didn’t get much better from there, with the Rockets tying the Blazers at the end of the first quarter for an atrocious 17-17 tie.

If it wasn’t for Keith Bogans scoring 8 points in the second quarter, the game could have been out-of-hand by halftime. Instead, Portland only led 43-39 at the half.

But things went south in the third as the Rockets fell behind 51-41. Luckily Bogans and Luther Head kept them in the game, with Luther hitting all 4 of his shots to score 9 points, and the Rockets going on a 21-8 run to lead at the end of three quarters, 62-59. With Yao only having scored 8 points at that point, you had a feeling the Rockets were going to stop fooling around and let Yao take over.

Even though the Rockets’ defense was superb in the fourth quarter holding the Blazers to 6-of-17 shooting, Houston’s offense stunk it up, hitting only 5-of-13 shots. Yao scored 5 points in the fourth quarter, but missed two free throws late that really hurt. However, those 9 team turnovers in the fourth quarter (17 overall) were the killer.

For the game, Yao had 5 turnovers, and Luther, Juwan Howard, and Bogans all had three TOs each. In addition, Bogans blew an easy layup that could have given the Rockets a 3-point lead in the final minute.

When you couple those turnovers with lousy shooting from Rafer Alston (2-of-12) and Stromile Swift (1-of-5), you now know why Jeff Van Gundy called this team “undertalented” after the Rockets loss to Seattle Tuesday night. The problem is…he’s the guy who brought in most of these players. Does that make him an undertalented evaluator of talent?

You know what else hurts? On a night Alston scored 5 points on his 17% shooting, 10 assists and 3 rebounds, Toronto’s Mike James scored 34 points on 13-of-26 shooting, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished 8 assists. Daryl Morey (future Rockets GM), we can’t wait for you to make your impact!

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 shows great reaction to a loose ball to snatch it away from Portland’s Brian Skinner, then takes it strong to the hole for a score. Yao was incredible again with 32 points and 13 rebounds to overwhelm the Blazers in a 102-84 victory Sunday night. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

SUNDAY, 3/5/06 - For the past four years, I have waited for the time where stating, “Yao dominated another game” would get old, but I never had reason to say it consistently. I can now.

Yao went off on the Blazers Sunday night in Houston, scoring 32 points and grabbing 13 boards to put away Portland, 102-84.

Surprisingly trailing 40-39 at halftime, the Rockets turned it around in the third quarter when Yao scored 17 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field (and 7-of-9 from the line) to lead Houston to its highest scoring quarter of the season (37 points).

With those kind of stats, Yao was obviously unstoppable scoring down low with relative ease since Portland’s 7-foot center Joel Pryzbilla was out and their tallest starter was only 6’9”.

Portland’s coach Nate McMillan conceded how difficult it was to stop Yao. “Yao was too much for us,” McMillan said. “We tried doubling him and playing him straight up and he had an answer for whatever we put on him. When we double-teamed, he knocked down his shots.”

Portland’s Darius Miles agreed with McMillan: “(Yao) looked real good tonight. He was patient in the post and did what he had to. Yao is getting better ever year. You can see it.”

Jeff Van Gundy, who has been throwing a lot of compliments Yao’s way lately, had nothing but great things to say again about Yao after the game. Check this out from JVG:

“I think he is the best regular-season center in the NBA now. Some other guys may play better in the playoffs, but he’s the best during the season because he comes to play every night.”

“He’s had many good stretches, it’s just that sometimes we get caught up in the numbers. I look at the whole thing, his pick-and-roll coverage, his transition defense. I think he’s gotten better from his first game in the NBA through now.”

Teammate David Wesley acknowledged the same: “He’s becoming a powerful force inside for us. He’s doing a great job. Yao is becoming that dominating player we really need.”

Yao had the following to say:

“Since I came back (from toe surgery), my body feels the best it has ever felt. And I feel I’m playing my best. It’s a very special feeling right now. I can’t figure out what it is but I’m trying to keep it to the next game and the next game until the end of my career.”

More about the game:

Okay, enough about how great Yao is playing these days. He didn’t get off to that great of a start on Sunday night, going 2-for-10 from the field in the first quarter. But he recovered nicely, going 8-for-11 the rest of the way and making 12-of-15 free throws overall.

In that first quarter while Yao was struggling, T-Mac took over to score 12 points, equaling Portland’s offensive output and giving Houston a 25-12 lead. But their offense was dreadful in the second quarter, shooting 5-for-17 from the field, not scoring over a 5-minute stretch of play, and seeing Portland get back into the game with a 19-4 run.

I was a bit worried that they had let Portland – the team with the worst record in the Western Conference – back into the game and let them hang around. It would have been devastating if the Rockets had let Portland win this game since Houston needs to win as many games possible to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Luckily in that third quarter the Rockets finally got some separation from the Blazers thanks to Yao’s dominance, and took a 76-62 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Rockets didn’t let up in the fourth, staying aggressive and opening up a 92-70 lead at one point. They coasted the rest of the way.

It wasn’t all good news on Sunday, though. T-Mac (18 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals) had to leave the game near the end of the third quarter because of those back spasms again. Man, that’s all the Rockets need. Here they are playing a lot better, still have a chance to get the final playoff spot, and they get another injury. Hopefully it’s not serious, though. We’ll see before a big game Tuesday night in Minnesota, a team also battling the Rockets for that final playoff spot.

But even with Yao playing the way he is, they still won’t have a chance to win that spot unless T-Mac and Yao are in the lineup together for every remaining game left in the season. With the Lakers shocking upset of the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night, the Rockets are still four games behind the Lakers with 22 games remaining. I think the Rockets will have to go 15-7 the rest of the season and finish 42-40 to have a chance to play in the post-season.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

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