Yao Ming double-pumps in mid-air over Toronto’s Rasho Nesterovic before shooting the ball toward the basket, which bounced around the rim for a bucket in the fourth quarter. Yao led the way in the fourth quarter with 8 big points, and would lead all scorers with 25 points on 8-of-19 shooting, and 9-of-9 from the free throw line, to give Houston a 91-79 victory over the Raptors.

The Rockets found a way to win their second game in a row without Tracy McGrady and go 15-15 on the season, beating the Toronto Raptors 91-79. It wasn’t a pretty win, but when the Rockets needed to get over the hump in the fourth quarter, Yao Ming was The Man. In a stretch of about 5 minutes, Yao scored 8 points to help put the game away

At the 6:43 mark in the fourth, Yao calmly hit a turnaround jumper to make it 76-70. On the next possession, he elevated for a jump shot from just outside the left side of the lane, double-pumped in the air (pictured above), then threw up a shot that rattled on the rim a couple of times and dropped through to make it 78-72. When you’ve got a soft shooting touch, you’re going to get some nice bounces on the rim that will fall your way.

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Yao Ming shoots a hook shot over Toronto’s Kris Humphries. The Rockets played poorly in the second half, with Yao taking only 10 shots (while McGrady shot 21) and scoring 15 points in a humiliating loss, 93-80.

After the way the Rockets half-assed their way to a sorry loss against an average Toronto Raptor team Sunday afternoon, someone high-up in the organization needs to rip this team. It most likely won’t be head coach Rick Adelman because he has proven to be too easy going to do that. Maybe owner Leslie Alexander?

In the second half, this veteran Rocket team was outclassed by a bunch of Toronto bench guys, and thoroughly embarrassed as the Raptors scored 59 points in the second half vs. just 35 by the Rocks.

You expect All-Star Chris Bosh to get his points, even if this was his first game back in 5 games because of a groin injury. Bosh scored 21 points (16 points in the second half), grabbed 10 boards, and blocked 4 shots. But when you’ve got bench players like Kris Humphries scoring 16 points, Jason Kapono scoring 10, and Carlos Delfino scoring 12, you have to do some soul-searching on if you’re really the better team or not.

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Yao Ming gets ready to throw one down Friday night in Toronto after a beautiful T-Mac pass to him down low. Yao started off slow, but ended up having a great night, finishing with 23 points and grabbing 12 boards in a 114-100 victory. Click here for more photos from the game.

Many times Jeff Van Gundy will say that getting payback against a team should not be a motivating factor for teams. Instead, a game should be played without much regard for what has happened in the past, but to do what is expected of you and focus on the task at hand. That may be true. But it’s hard to believe that was all that was involved with what we saw Friday night for the Rockets in Toronto.

Here are the facts. Tracy McGrady had another outstanding game against his former team (22 points, 6 rebounds 5 assists), the team he averages the most points against.

Rafer Alston almost had a triple-double (23 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds) against the team that traded him before the start of last season (if he keeps playing like this, the rest of the league should watch out–the Rockets will be title contenders. But that’s a big ‘IF’).

And Houston came out fast in the first quarter and built a huge 22-point lead in the first half, making a statement against the same Raptor team that had spanked the Rockets 106-90 on February 28th in Houston. This time it was the Rockets’ turn, beating Toronto 114-100 in their own gym.

And this isn’t the first example of the Rockets getting payback. Just 9 days ago on March 7th, the Rockets came out with a vengeance against Boston to redeem themselves for a collapse against the Celtics eight days prior.

Another reason was because this was the first time Yao Ming had the opportunity to inflict pain on the Raptors in over two years, with the Raptors having won all 3 of those games since. Yao didn’t score the 40 points or grab 10 boards like he did on December 20th, 2004. But he did get a double-double in this one, scoring 23 points on 8-of-18 shooting, and grabbed 12 boards.

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Yao does some special exercises to rehab his injured leg before Wednesday night’s game in Houston against the Toronto Raptors. Click here for more photos from Yao’s workout before the game.

The Rockets cannot wait for Yao to return to the lineup since the Rockets were blown out by an improved, but much younger, Toronto team.

It looks like the wheels are starting to finally fall off in Houston without Yao in the lineup. The Rockets lost their 3rd game out of their last four, this time to the Toronto Raptors at home Wednesday night 106-90. Sure the Raptors are much improved, leading the Atlantic division with a 31-26 record and having won 9 of their last 12 games. But we’re talkin’ about the EAST!

The Rockets other two losses in their last four games were to Eastern Conference cellar-dwellers Atlanta and Boston. May day, May day! Now all they have to do is lose to Milwaukee on March 26th in Houston, and they will have pulled the trifecta of losing to the teams at the bottom of the three divisions in the East.

The Raptors jumped out to a 27-21 lead in the first quarter on 13-of-22 shooting. Then in the second quarter they shot even better — 80% to score 40 points! Yes, I said 80%. 16-of-20. The “80-40” rule must have been in effect: shoot 80%, score 40.

In that slaughterhouse of a second quarter, rookie Andrea Bargnani hit 5-of-5 (including 3-of-3 from three-point territory), Jose Calderon made 3-of-3, Juan Dixon made 4-of-7 and Chris Bosh made both of his field goal attempts.

Meanwhile, Houston didn’t shoot too badly. They scored 26 in the second quarter on 11-of-19 shooting. It’s just that their defense sucked. You know that if Yao had been in the middle, a lot of those shots would have been a little more difficult for the Raptors to hit.

The Rockets made up some ground in the third quarter, outscoring Toronto 21-12 and cutting the deficit to 9 points. They could have made up more ground, but Chuck Hayes plain-and-simple blew two consecutive layup attempts at the rim. It was indicative of the frustration the Rockets have had lately with their shot.

Then in the fourth, the Raptors went on a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 19, and that was the ballgame. Of course, just like the previous game against the Celtics when they were trying to get something consistent going, Luther Head jacked up an ill-advised three-pointer without ever having moved the ball around.

Then on the next possession, John Lucas jacked up a trey and missed. By the end of the fourth, the Rockets missed 6-of-7 three-pointers in the quarter (sound familiar?). For the game, they missed 14-of-21 treys. Better than against Boston, but still not good enough.

Meanwhile, for the game Toronto shot 8-of-17 from behind the arc, and hit 57% of their shots for the game.

The only thing that was more insane than Toronto’s shooting was this remark by the indelible Clyde Drexler, who topped his previous winning remark a couple of weeks ago when he said that Rafer Alston is a “great finisher” at the rim when Van Gundy has publicly stated that’s Alston’s biggest weakness, and everyone knew that already. With about 4:50 remaining in this game and the Rockets down by 21 points, Clyde “the Cliché” Drexler said, “There is plenty of time” for the Rockets to make a comeback.

Did this guy play the game? Hard to believe it. Just as hard to see the Rockets go down in flames at home against teams they should beat. Sorry, I have to vent toward someone, and Clyde just happened to pass through my crosshairs tonight. Yao can’t return soon enough.

FRIDAY, 1/6/05 - What else is there to say? I have said it over and over and over again this season. If there was ever any proof that the Mike James for Rafer Alston trade on October 4th was an idiotic move for the Rockets, this was it. While James was lighting up the Rockets for 30 points, eight assists and 7 rebounds, Alston scored TWO points and 7 assists in 35 minutes in a blowout loss to Toronto, 112-92.

James was also able to get payback after the game with the following facetious quote:

“I guess I’m not a point guard. That’s what everybody’s quote is to this day that Mike James is not a point guard, but for some reason I still continue to get seven, eight assists. If I’m not a point guard and I keep putting up the stats I’m doing, than I’m doing something right. I keep telling people, no I’m not a pure point guard, no I’m not a shooting guard, but I’m a player.”

Good for you, Mike. You proved how idiotic the Rockets were in trading you. Who is accountable for the Rockets for this dumb move? I want to know. Hey Mike, will you consider coming back to the Rockets after you become a free agent this season?

The only bright notes for the Rockets was T-Mac ’s 37 points (15-of-31 shooting) and David Wesley’s 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting. It didn’t help that Juwan Howard got upset at James for jawing at him after he was fouled, and shoved the ball in his face to get thrown out of the game. That was about as dumb of a move as the aforementioned trade.

That’s about all I can write after this game since I’m still on the road. Hopefully with my travels ending soon, I will be able to get back to my regular schedule of providing more extensive reports of Rocket games.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

WEDNESDAY, 12/21/05 - With all the injuries that have piled up for the Rockets — including two more in their game against the Toronto Raptors (Moochie Norris and Stromile Swift) – the Rockets were going to have to play almost perfect basketball to win Wednesday night…even against the 5-20 Toronto Raptors.

They did themselves no favors by turning the ball over 14 times, T-Mac struggling offensively (7 points on 2-for-11 shooting), their defense giving up 49% shooting (43% from three-point land), only shooting 42% themselves, and making only 12-of-17 free throws. With so little room for error and the Rockets not playing up to the challenge, they lost easily to the Raptors 94-81.

Meanwhile, former Rocket Mike James scored 19 points (50% shooting, 5 assists) and haunted the front office who traded him for Rafer Alston before the season started. With that kind of scoring punch — if he hadn’t been traded –maybe the Rockets would have had a chance tonight, and wouldn’t have lost 8 games this season without T-Mac in the lineup.

To make matters worse, Swift was kicked in the groin by Toronto forward Chris Bosh, forcing Stromile to miss the rest of the game. Replays clearly showed that Bosh didn’t go to great lengths to keep his foot from going upwards as it approached Swift’s groin. I think on plays like that, the refs should be more courageous and call a foul. This was no accident, folks. It didn’t help the Rockets to not have Swift out of the lineup given all of their injuries to their big men (Dikembe Mutombo and Yao). Fortunately Juwan Howard had one of his best games of the season (8-for-14, 21 points), but it wasn’t enough.

The Rockets looked their best in the second quarter when they shot 12-of-20 (60%) and scored 27 points. With the absence of so many players, the Rockets role-playing guards stepped up and showed some heart, like Luther Head (4-of-5 for 9 points), Moochie Norris (4-of-6 for 8 points), and David Wesley (4 points), including a spectacular steal that carried Wesley into the announcers’ table and assist to Head for a layup. The only problem was that the Raptors scored 27 points themselves in the second quarter, giving them a 48-43 lead at halftime.

The second half is when the Raptors pulled away while the Rockets only shot 14-of-41 from the field, with T-Mac going 0-for-5. After making a vow a day earlier that he was going to step up and take on more of the load like he did in Orlando and score lots of points, it’s strange to see him not come through. I guess he’s human after all.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.