Yao gets defended by the Trail Blazer’s Ha Seung-Jin Sunday night in Portland. Yao got into foul trouble, fouled out, and scored only 9 points. But T-Mac picked up the slack, scoring a season-high 35 points to lead the Rockets to a 100-86 victory, their third straight win. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

SUNDAY, 12/11/05 - Remember a couple of weeks ago when the Rockets were in the midst of that tough stretch of games where every opponent was very good, they didn’t have T-Mac, and they were losing every game?

Well, things have started equaling out: the Rockets have played two struggling teams in a row (Sacramento and Portland), they have T-Mac back, and Houston now has a 3-game winning streak – their longest of the season.

Watching Portland against Houston on Sunday night, I couldn’t help but be thankful Houston wasn’t playing a better team. The Rockets were letting a very young team that had lost 8 of its last 10 games with a record worse than their own hang around through the first two quarters, holding only a 47-42 lead. You just wondered when T-Mac, who had 16 at halftime, was going to light it up and put the game away.

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Yao elevates for a slam dunk in the first quarter against the Trailblazers Wednesday night, just a few seconds after dribbling behind his back that blew away his teammates! Yao scored 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting as the Rockets beat Portland 100-84. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

FRIDAY, 3/30/05 - Yao had an outstanding game in Portland on Wednesday night, scoring 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting. But it wasn’t the stats that amazed the crowd, or even his teammates. It was what might go down in Yao history as “The Play.” With 8:24 remaining in the first quarter, Yao dribbled behind his back to get around an oncoming defender, started a fast break, and dribbled half the length of the court to finish with a dunk! It was ridiculously amazing to see a 7’6” guy do this; I think it’s a first in NBA history because there’s no way 7′6″ Shawn Bradley has ever made a move like this before.

After Yao’s behind-the-back dribble, his teammates rose from the bench astounded by what they saw. Even Portland fans were in disbelief with mouths agape of what they had just seen. This might be one of those plays where they ask, “Where were you when Yao made The Play?” [Sorry, I’m getting a little carried away, aren’t I?] It might even change the perception — when it’s certainly highlighted on SportsCenter Plays of the Week — that Yao is not some boring, stiff player.

The Play kind of overshadowed the 14 points he scored in the first quarter. He dominated by scoring on a variety of put-backs and layups, shooting 5-for-6 from the field. With Yao carrying the load, the Rockets had a 31-26 lead after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Yao chipped in another 4 points on 2-of-3 shooting, including an aggressive rebound and dunk that brought the bench out of its seats again. Meanwhile, T-Mac took over and scored 15 points on 6-of-11 shots. For the first time in a long time, Yao had outscored T-Mac after the first half, 18-17. More importantly, the Rockets led 57-47.

The Rockets really started to dominate and opened up a 19-point lead after three quarters with T-Mac and Yao scoring 9 and 4 points, respectively. The rest of the game the Rockets coasted to one of their easiest wins of the year, winning 100-84.

The victory wasn’t unexpected since the Blazers have lost 13 of their last 15 games and have lots of guys out with injuries, including Theo Ratliff, Derek Anderson, Darius Miles, Zach Randolph, and Nick Van Exel.

As a team, the Rockets shot 46% from the field and an impressive 89% from the line (16-of-18). They also out-rebounded the Blazers 42-34, dishing 23 assists, had a 12-6 advantage in steals, and only turned the ball over 10 times.

At the same time, T-Mac only had to play 27 minutes because of the easy victory, and he finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Yao played 30 minutes, and could have played less because of a big fourth-quarter lead, but for some reason Jeff Van Gundy decided to play him more minutes than necessary. It almost backfired when Yao crumbled to the floor after colliding with another player, grabbing his knee while writhing on the floor. I got the same sick feeling in my stomach about a week ago when T-Mac fell to the ground after getting hurt in New Orleans. But Yao got up, shook it off, and checked out of the game permanently. I guess Van Gundy wants to keep Yao in shape.

The one surprise of the game – other than Yao’s behind-the-back dribble — was Joel Przbilla, who had 7 blocks in the game. Przbilla, the 2000 draft choice of the Rockets, was traded on draft day for the rights to Jason Collier, who never really panned out for Houston. Meanwhile, Przbilla is starting to make the Rockets regret they traded him given the fact he had more blocks in March than any other player in the League, and has a good chance of winning the most improved player of the year award.

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

As he goes up for a dunk attempt, Yao is fouled by a Blazer player on Wednesday night in Houston. The Rockets won their 6th game in a row convincingly, winning 108-77. Because of the easy victory, Yao only played 21 minutes, scored 13 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 3/16/05 - You know when Tracy McGrady is your team’s third-leading scorer in a game and Yao is the fourth, and you still win 108-77, you’ve got a lot going for you as a team.

Not that T-Mac (19 boards, 6 assists, 6 rebounds) or Yao (13 points, 7 boards) played poorly. They just weren’t really needed, playing 28 and 21 minutes, respectively.

The Rockets game against the Portland Trailblazers in Houston Wednesday night was close until about the two-minute mark in the first quarter when the Rockets opened up a 30-23 lead, and finished the quarter on a 15-6 run in the last 4 ½ minutes to lead 34-25.

Houston’s shooting was a phenomenal 11-of-18 in the first quarter, with Bob Sura hitting 4-of-5 for 10 points.

In the second quarter, David Wesley continued his hot shooting, hitting an amazing 4-of-4 to add on to his 2-of-2 in the first. Wesley has been., shooting 53% over the past 5 games, and hitting 50% of his three-pointers. Unconscious.

And he wasn’t the only one. The Rockets offense hummed along, building an 18-point lead on a sweet fast break when Jon Barry threw a no-look, behind-the-head pass to Scott Padgett for a layup attempt that was blocked, but Dikembe Mutombo followed from behind to lay it in, bringing the Toyota Center crowd to a roar as the scoreboard read 49-31 Rockets.

By halftime, the Rockets were in command 57-43, and were shooting 57% as a team and 4-of-6 from behind the arc. And even with power forward Juwan Howard out for a month because of a sprained medial collateral ligament suffered on Monday night at Golden State, the Rockets had out-rebounded 21-14 a very young and inexperienced Blazers team. Although the Blazers are young, the Rocket “old men” were leading in fast break points 14-5.

When Wesley hit a 3-pointer – his seventh shot in a row — at the 10:38 minute mark of the third quarter, the Rockets led 60-45 and it was never really close after that. All that remained for Rocket fans was to enjoy the fireworks.

For example, Wesley got the ball on a fast break and drove to the basket, but his shot was blocked by a Blazer. However, Yao hustled down the court behind the break, grabbed the rebound in mid-air, and threw it down two-handed on a rare follow-up dunk to push the lead to 70-51! The Blazers called a timeout, and as Yao came back to the bench, he was greeted with high-fives and a rare mid-air chest bump by reserve forward Vin Baker. The good times were rolling!

The Rockets played out the rest of the game free and easy, outscoring the Blazers 51-34 in the second half. Wesley finished with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and Sura got back to his old scoring self by scoring 21 on 7-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-4 from three-point land. Collectively, Houston shot 8-of-16 from behind the arc.

Portland’s interim coach, Kevin Pritchard, said after the game, “When you shoot the ball that well and you have Yao Ming on the team, there is really no chance of beating them. They have so many pieces.”

The only suspense that remained was if the Rockets were going to hit the 100-point mark, which would send all fans home with the opportunity to get a free Big Mac the next day. Dikembe delivered at the free throw line when his first attempt dangled on the back rim for a few seconds, putting the Toyota Center crowd in suspense. As the shot finally fell through the net, the fans erupted with a deafening roar as Houston led 100-72 with 6:24 remaining in the game . In a rare show of emotion on the court, Deke couldn’t contain himself and broke out a huge smile because of the levity of the situation. Dikembe played the rest of the way, giving Yao a breather on the bench.

Outside of the Miami Heat, who have won 10 in a row, the Rockets are the hottest team in the league right now, having won 6 in a row. They are shooting great (51% on Wednesday) and playing very good defense (35% shooting for Portland). They also had an astounding 24-10 advantage in fast break points, and only turned the ball over 9 times.

The Rockets next play the Boston Celtics, winners of 9 of their last 10 games, in Houston on Friday night. It should be a high-scoring game considering Boston has scored over 100 points in four consecutive games.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

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

Yao blocks Portland’s Ruben Patterson’s shot on Sunday night in Houston as the Rockets escaped blowing a game where they had an 18-point lead in the third quarter. The Rockets prevailed 81-80 to win their seventh game in a row, but it wasn’t pretty. Yao had 23 points and 8 rebounds to lead the Rockets in scoring. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

SUNDAY, 2/13/05 - In every long win streak, you have to be lucky every once in awhile. That’s what the Rockets were on Sunday night. During the Rockets’ current 7-game winning streak–the longest in the league right now–the Rockets have faced close calls against Indiana, the Lakers, and Boston after blowing huge leads in the second half of each of those games. Sunday night against Portland had to be the biggest collapse of them all.

Up by 18 points in the third quarter, Houston let the Blazers back into the game, and even fell behind, but some fortuitous breaks for the Rockets gave them enough for an 81-80 victory.

After blowing the big lead, the Rockets fell behind 72-70, but then T-Mac threw up a prayer near the top of the three-point line, got fouled by Darius Miles, and the shot bounced high off the glass and through the net for the bucket, bringing Toyota Center to a roar! That was the first of several breaks to come for the Rockets.

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