Yao puts up a shot over a much smaller Johan Petro Friday night against Seattle. Yao scored 24 points and grabbed 14 points in an impressive 100-77 win. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

FRIDAY, 2/3/06 – I had tickets to Friday night’s game, but couldn’t make it. Bad move. I could have seen a game where Houston dominated for once.

Houston had one of its easiest victories of the season Friday night, beating Seattle 100-77 at Toyota Center. A 23-point margin of victory is a rarity in this abysmal season. But with T-Mac and Yao back together again, the Rockets won their second straight game at home (the first time that has happened this season) and are showing again they are tough to beat when healthy. They are now 11-6 this season when they play together.

T-Mac had 36 points, shooting over 50% (14-of-26) and made 4-of-7 three-pointers. He also had 9 rebounds and 3 steals. Meanwhile, Yao scored 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds. That was after Yao struggled in the first half, hitting only 3-of-10 shots.

T-Mac caught fire in the third quarter, scoring 14 points and launching them to a 73-57 lead heading into the fourth quarter after ending the third on a 23-8 run. The rest of the way, the Rockets didn’t let up, even showing some impressive fast breaks, and closed out the Sonics easily.

Just as impressive as the offensive explosion was the Rockets holding the Sonics to 77 points after Seattle had scored over 111 points in six of their last 7 games.

The Rockets got meaningful contributions from Luther Head, who scored 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. In 18 minutes of play, Stromile Swift also chipped in 8 points on 4-of-6 shooting, and grabbed 6 boards.

Rafer Alston was awful, hitting only 1-of-7 shots (missing all six of his 3-point attempts). He did have 11 assists, though. David Wesley was only 1-of-5 with two points.

Now that Yao and T-Mac are back, you have to look at the standings and see if they can possibly make the playoffs. Right now they are 17-29 and 6.5 games out of the last playoff spot. New Orelans/Oklahoma City currently holds that position with a 23-22 record (.511)

With that winning percentage being a benchmark, let’s assume it will take a 42-40 record for making the playoffs. That means the Rockets will need to go 25-11 the rest of the way. That’s a 69.4% record. Only Detroit, San Antonio and Dallas have better winning percentages this season.

It’s going to be tough for the Rockets to make it, but if any two guys can get them there, it’s T-Mac and Yao.

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 is double-teamed by the Sonics’ Ray Allen and Vitaly Potapenko Thursday night in Seattle. Yao played another great game, scoring 26 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to help Houston win it’s fifth game in a row, 104-98. For more photos from the game, click here.

by John

THURSDAY, 12/15/05 - For the second night in a row, a late game on the West Coast was worth staying up to watch for Rocket fans. Houston came through in a nerve-wracking fourth quarter against Seattle to astonishingly win their 5th straight game (104-98), fourth in a row on their longest road trip of the year, and they now have a rapidly respectable 9-12 record.

It’s strange to say it after having a 4-12 record only a couple of weeks ago, but I think the Rockets are now playing with the same confidence they were last year when they were making their incredible run to the playoffs, and they are doing it without a starting point guard (Rafer Alston) and sharpshooting veteran (Jon Barry). Just a couple of weeks ago they were playing their worst basketball in years. What a difference a McGrady makes!

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Yao sits out his second straight preseason game because of a toe issue. Tracy McGrady also sat out because of a minor injury, but the Rockets won their fourth straight preseason game, this time against the Seattle Sonics 93-85.

TUESDAY, 10/18/05 - I’m posting this game summary of the Rockets game much later than usual. I have a good reason: I was at the Astros-Cardinals game last night that Houston blew in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. They were one strike away from going to the World Series for the first time in this city’s history, yet they coudn’t finish out the game. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about, so I won’t go into the gory details. But you can imagine the city of Houston, and myself, are mentally rocked by what happened, and it was hard to think about anything else last night, including the Rockets. I’m now getting back up on my feet.

Luckily, I had a loyal visitor to my site provide a great recap of Monday night’s game between the Rockets and Sonics in Laredo, Texas, which the Rockets won 93-85 without Yao and T-Mac so they could rest minor injuries.

Here is some of what he wrote…

The new Rockets proved they are now a force that should not be taken lightly because of its deep bench, tenacity and strong will to win. One cannot help but fantasize about the great things to come for the new season.

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Yao relaxes with T-Mac during Wednesday’s game against the Sonics in a blowout victory over Seattle, 106-78. Since the Rockets had already clinched the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoffs, T-Mac didn’t suit up because of a sore back, and Yao played only 23 minutes in the meaningless game, scoring 13 points and grabbing 6 boards. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 4/20/05 - Look up the definition of “blowout” in the dictionary, and you’ll see the Houston-Seattle boxscore from Wednesday night’s season-ending finale, which ended with Houston winning 106-78.

As bad as the Seattle Sonics were without Ray Allen (ankle), Rashard Lewis (tendonitis), Vladimir Radmanovic (injured list), and Antonio Daniels (injured list), the Rockets shooting was that good. I have never seen such great shooting through three quarters in my life. Layup after layup. Three-pointer after three-pointer.

With 8:47 remaining in the game, the Rockets were shooting 62% from the field, and 71% (9-of-13) from behind the arc, and held a 38-point lead, 99-61. When Mike James hit another three-pointer with 8:00 minutes remaining, the Rockets had their biggest lead of 39 points (102-63).

By that time, little-played Moochie Norris and Torraye Braggs had been inserted into the game, and the Rockets finished disinterested the rest of the way. By the time the game was over, the Rockets’ overall shooting was 54% from the field and an amazing 11-of-16 from three-point territory.

And they did it all without T-Mac, who sat out because of back spasms.

But Mike James was unconscious, hitting 10-of-13 shots (24 points), mostly from the outside (4-of-5 three-pointers) to lead all Rockets in scoring. Everything he threw up seemed to go in, even a last-second desperation heave at the end of the third quarter where he was twisting in mid-air from way behind the three-point line.

Yao played 23 minutes and finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds. He had a couple of sweet moves down low that fooled Vitaly Potapenko so much, he looked like a mannequin standing in place as Yao went around him.

Since it was such a blowout win, there’s really no sense in my rehashing any other details from this game other than to point you to that impressive boxscore to see how the other Rockets fared statistically.

The main thing to point out is that the Rockets are rolling as they finished the season on a 7-game winning streak, with their final three victories having a winning margin was over 25.

Now the Rockets enter their first-round playoff match-up against a Dallas team, winners of 8 in a row just as hot as themselves and 17-2 under new coach Avery Johnson.

Although Dallas finished the season with a better record, it just doesn’t seem to matter that the Rockets don’t have home-court advantage. The Rockets are hot, and they are a very good road team. I don’t know who will win this series, but the best team should win.

JUDGEMENT DAY

Speaking of predictions, now that the season is over, I wanted to go back in time and recap my pre-season prediction of how the Rockets and Yao would do this season. I have included it below (you can go to the real page where I made the prediction by clicking here and scrolling to the “Predictions for 2004-05” section).

I’ll let you judge for yourself on how close I came to hitting the mark.

With all the new players on the Rockets this season, I predict the team will get off to a very slow start. (I know, that’s not much of a stretch given their mediocre preseason.) Their won-loss record will suffer as they try to get accustomed to each other. They will lose many of their games in the first couple of weeks of the season. In many ways it will mirror the season of the Houston Astros: by mid-season the Rockets will be hovering around .500, and the national media will be saying the Rockets trade for T-Mac might have been a mistake.

So here are my projected stats for Yao: 19.1 points, 10 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, 52% field goal percentage, and 82% free throw percentage. [Yao finished with 18.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.0 blocks, 55.2% shooting, and 78.3% free throw shooting].

Not bad, huh? Now only if my fantasy league team had done as well. ;-(

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

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

Yao moves laterally to defend the Sonics’ Luke Ridnour on Monday night in Seattle. Yao scored 20 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked 3 shots on the way to the Rockets winning their second straight, 90-78. Click here for more photos from the game.

ClubYao writer Chia-Chi attended Monday night’s game between the Rockets and Sonics. John also had commentary about the game, which is directly below Chia-Chi’s report below.

by Chia-Chi

MONDAY, 4/11/05 - The rest of the Rockets’ season all of a sudden seems much smoother with another convincing win on the road. The T-Mac/Yao one-two punch was in full force as the Sonics, missing four of its top six scorers, valiantly struggled to stay in the game but had no answer for T-Mac’s 38 points.

It took a while for the Rockets to get into gear in the first, with the Sonics playing a quick and faster pace. But after a timeout from Seattle, the Rockets defense stepped into gear, not allowing a single Sonics bucket for a six-minute stretch. But while the defense by the Rockets was particularly commendable, the defense of the Sonics was particularly rough.

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Yao shoots a jumper over Jerome James Tuesday night in Seattle in a shocking 97-95 victory against the Sonics, the third-seeded team in the West right now. Yao had a dominating fourth quarter, scoring 10 points and exhibiting much welcomed toughness. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

TUESDAY, 3/8/05 - The Rockets headed into Seattle’s Key Arena Tuesday night, a place that hasn’t been very friendly to them over the years. They have only won 5-of-17 games at Key, and are 23-54 overall in Seattle. Facing one of the top teams in the West, the task wasn’t going to be easy. ClubYao’s Chia-Chi was in the arena for Tuesday’s game, and he will be filing his up close and personal report on Wednesday morning.

Well, at first it looked like it was going to be easy when the Rockets took a quick 6-0 lead, but the Sonics then went on a 28-6 run by outclassing the Rockets, getting to the hoop very easily and hitting uncontested three-pointers. It was “bombs away” for the Sonics, who hit their five treys in a row in the quarter and held a 16-point lead at one point.

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Yao slams the ball over Seattle’s Vitaly Potapenko on Tuesday night on his way to scoring 30 points, but the referees ruined his performance and stole the game from the Rockets to end their 8-game winning streak, handing the Rockets an 87-85 loss. For more photos from the game, click here.

by Chia-Chi

TUESDAY, 2/22/05 - Oh what a heart breaker. With the Rockets doing so well over the past few games and with a good showing by Houston’s All-Stars over the weekend, it seemed anything was possible, including knocking off the current third-seeded Western Conference playoff team, the Seattle Sonics. A quick good start after the All-Star weekend would have been ideal. And for all but the last few seconds of the game it was within reach.

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