I’m at Toyota Center and have Internet access, so I thought I would try something new and provide comments in the YaoMania! discussion forum on what I see and hear at the arena that you might not get on TV or video streaming over the Internet.

Click here for the discussion forum topic. Once you go there, you can click on the latest page number on the top-right and lower-right corners of the forum.

This Rockets-Jazz series already has some interesting sub-plots. But today we got another one when we found out that Andrei Kirilenko was shedding a few tears at the end of Sunday’s practice. Evidently it was because of the very little impact (2 points, 1 rebound, 1 block, 1 steal) he had in Game #1, and the fact Jerry Sloan pulled him in the third quarter right before the Rockets went on a 16-4 scoring run and only played 7 seconds at the end of the fourth quarter.

The Salt Lake Tribune writes how AK47 is upset that Sloan isn’t playing him, and how it’s an awkward situation that both Sloan and Kirilenko is going through.

Tonight on Inside the NBA on TNT, they reported that Kirilenko cried, and of course Charles Barkley asked, “You’re kidding?” and then said, “That’s ridiculous.”

You can bet the talking heads are going to jump all over this one because it’s an easy target to jump on. Just look at what they did with Dirk Nowitzki and his comment during the playoffs last season ridiculing him that the way he relaxed when shooting clutch free throws was to think of a David Hasselhoff song. Even opposing teams’ fans got into the act, jeering Nowitzki with signs about the Hoff. Let’s just hope Rocket fans don’t do anything classless to mock Kirilenko during Monday night’s game.

Then you’ve got the other storyline about the Jazz collapsing at the end of the season to lose homecourt advantage to the Rockets. And you’ve always got the standard T-Mac-has-never-advanced-past-the-first-round, which is getting very old.

Obviously, the Jazz are on the ropes mentally with diminished confidence, so the Rockets need to lower the hammer and not give the Jazz a chance to gain any momentum in the series by letting them win Monday night.

As I mentioned early this morning in my last post, I was able to capture a few things that you might, and might not, have observed through all the different media reports coming out of Toyota Center after the Rockets victory over the Jazz in Game 1.

First, if you didn’t know it, you can watch Jeff Van Gundy‘s post-game news conference for home games by going to Rockets.com. Here’s the video link for last night’s JVG conference, or if you want to read some of the noteworthy snippets from the conference, here are some of them:

* When asked what got T-Mac going in the second half, JVG first responded simply, “Tracy.” Then JVG later said, “Sometimes, when you want something so bad, it works against you a little bit. I think that’s what happened with him in the first half.”

* It looked like JVG was upset with a guy in the interview room behind me was finishing up a cellphone call (very quietly I might add). He looked at him seriously and asked, “You got a call?” then broke the tension by saying he was just joking with him.

* Commenting (and joking) on Utah’s 52.9% free throw shooting: “We defended the free throw really well tonight.”

* Speaking of the Rockets’ shaky play in the first half, “When the intensity rose, instead of doing what we do, we were scattered and frantic, and that’s a by-product of very good defense on Utah’s part, and some things we felt we could do better.”

“We actually would like to play a little quicker. In the first half, we were so discombobulated and so scattered, they had us all over the place. I didn’t even recognize what we were doing, and we were fortunate to only be down 9 at half.”

* “We obviously don’t want Yao out there on the three-point line with Okur.”

* On Rafer Alston‘s performance (9 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals in 46 minutes): “I thought Rafer was really good tonight defending…playing so many minutes. I think he did a great job.”

* On the play where Derek Fisher missed a layup and Yao converted the mistake into a dunk on the other end, JVG said “We got rewarded for poor play. Yao didn’t run back…Sometimes it is luck. We got lucky on that one…We got some good breaks tonight.”

* On T-Mac’s shaky start shooting 0-for-6 from the field in the first half: “There is an energy factor that he has to pace himself a little bit when you’re asking so much from the offensive end.”

In Jerry Sloan‘s press conference, I was very impressed with him that I thought I would be for such a tough-minded coach who has a feisty reputation. He was very professional, and downright pleasant, in answering questions after a tough loss.

Among other things, Sloan said, “We’ve got to try to get the ball out of his (McGrady’s) hands and we didn’t seem to have the desire to want to make that work. We’ve got a young team, and they’ve got to learn that, and in this type of game, you can’t lose your ability to compete and we went through a stage where we lost our ability to compete.”

“We have to play a full 48 minutes. We can’t have a quarter like we did where we were missing free throws and missing open jump shots.”

But while writing this post entry, I discovered that Rockets.com does a good job transcribing a lot of the quotes from the locker room and interview area. So rather than re-invent the wheel, I’ll direct you to this page if you want to read more quotes, especially from Yao.

Yao’s locker spot was the most crowded of any other player. That’s because T-Mac provided his comments in the interview room. There must have been 10 Chinese or Asian-American reporters waiting for him, so it was hard to get through and get good audio from him, or even ask a question. And Yao traditionally takes more time to get to his locker than anyone else, I think because he either lifts weights or gets some treatment.

The first few questions Yao answered were in English, with the majority of it being conducted in Chinese.

Instead, I’ll focus on observations and quotes that I know either you haven’t see anywhere else, or was lightly reported, like…

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Yao blocks the shot of Mehmet Okur Saturday night in an 84-75 victory over the Utah Jazz. Yao led all scorers with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for photos of Yao & T-Mac getting ready for the game. Click here for photos from Yao’s pregame shootaround.

I was lucky enough to go to Game 1 of the Rockets-Jazz series in Houston. Since many of you may have seen the game on ESPN, streamed online, or many of the highlights by now, I won’t go into a ton of details about the game. Instead, I’ll focus on some of the things you might have missed by not being at the arena.

And tomorrow (Sunday), I will post another blog entry with some of the comments and observations I gathered from the interview areas that you might not be able to read or see anywhere else (it’s so late, I don’t have enough time to do it tonight).

So let’s get things started…I don’t know if the Rockets do this before every game, or just the playoff games. But right before the pregame warmup drills, they showed on the big screen the Rockets in their huddle just outside the locker room area before they run out on the court.

That was cool to see because the fans got a chance to see the players get hyped up beforehand, and they responded with a roar of anticipation. Then when the players ran on to the court, each one of them had a small, red ball (I assume with a Rockets logo on it) and threw them into the stands as they transitioned directly into their layup drill.

The players never had thrown balls into the stands in past seasons. I had heard the team has done a lot of new and different things this season that was much better than in the past. Even the new public address announcer, who I know Van Gundy likes more than last season’s, got on the mic in the middle of the court before the warm-ups began to get everyone fired up and wave their “Red Rowdy” towels. He has a very impressive, booming voice and did a good job.

The introduction of the players was very well done, with imposing music and inspirational videos of the Rockets played on the screen leading up to the intros. The crowd got amped and the response from them was deafening!

Not only was the crowd’s decibel levels impressive, but I would say over 80% of them were wearing red. I have never seen that before at a Rockets game. It was like a college game the way the fans were all united in one color. They definitely were holding up their end of the bargain in not letting Utah get comfortable.

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Yao suited up and participated in pregame warmups in Utah Wednesday night, but as a precautionary measure didn’t play in a fairly meaningless game against the Jazz. Utah ended up winning the final game of the regular season for both teams, 101-91, and play again Saturday night in the first game of their playoff series.

Although they lost against the team they will be facing in the playoffs, Jeff Van Gundy did the right thing by not playing Yao, T-Mac and Dikembe Mutombo in the final game of the regular season. The risk was too great if an injury had occurred to one of these guys. Yao suited up but didn’t play, Deke wore street clothes, and T-Mac stayed in the locker room.

Even without those three players, I couldn’t believe it when the Rockets jumped out to a 19-5 lead in the first quarter. That made the Jazz fans restless, and they started booing before the Jazz got it together and pulled away in the fourth quarter while resting their own starters.

This is so strange to have the Rockets lose and for me not to be mad about it. I kind of like this. It’s like that last exam you take in school when you know you’re going to graduate and no matter how bad you do on the test, you’ll still get a passing grade in the class and get your diploma. I loved those rare days.

Even with Utah out-rebounding Houston 45-25, I’m not upset.

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Yao throws one down with Utah’s Mehmet Okur looking on. Yao carried the Rockets with 35 points, 16 boards and 4 blocks, but several breakdowns contributed to Houston losing a 9-point second-half lead and letting the Jazz sneak out of Houston with a huge victory. Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets lost a huge game to the Utah Jazz Sunday night in Houston. I was confident the Rockets were going to win after taking a 9-point lead late in the 3rd quarter. I thought surely they would make the necessary defensive stops and hit the buckets they needed to take a lead in the standings over Utah for home court advantage in the playoffs, especially after seeing the two clutch wins they had in Los Angeles this past week.

But they lost, and I narrow it down to four specific things that contibuted to Houston’s loss.

First: the officials. Carlos Boozer hit a huge bucket with 43 seconds remaining in the game, but he charged into Shane Battier. Battier had position to draw the charge, but the damn ref called it the other way, saying Battier was too late in sliding over. I vehemently disagree.

That was a huge call that put Boozer on the line for the penalty free throw, making it 85-81 and capping an 8-0 run. ^&#%@*! REFS! If anything, you don’t make that call. You let it go if you’re not sure at such a crucial juncture in the game. That 4-point edge with 43 seconds remaining was going to be hard to overcome.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rocket players continue to honor and respect Yao while he is out of the lineup, keeping his spot open during pre-game fesitivities. A few minutes later, the Rockets got off to a fast start thanks to Tracy McGrady’s aggressiveness, and they never looked back, beating a very good Utah Jazz team 100-86. Click here for more photos from the game.

The Dallas Mavericks are getting all the publicity, having won their 13th game in a row on national TV against San Antonio Friday night. Meanwhile, the Rockets are quietly humming along, beating a very good Utah Jazz team at Toyota Center Friday night, 100-86.

That’s okay with me. Let’s let Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix get all the pub and have everyone overlook the Rockets. Remember what happened with Miami last year when they flew under the radar for most of the season – just like the Rockets are doing – and shocked the world by winning a ring?

T-Mac was amazing once again, scoring the most number of points he has scored in Houston as a Rocket: 44 points, along with 9 boards. That’s his fourth game in a row with 30+ points. Absolutely no one expected McGrady to be this dominant after coming off the injured list from back spasms.

He was aggressive all game long, taking it to the basket every chance he could, it seems. He just knew that to beat a good 23-9 team like the Jazz, they were going to have to do something different to keep them on their heels. He started off the first quarter propelling the Rockets to an incredible 18-3 lead, scoring 17 in the first. He followed it up with 10 in the second, 8 in the third, and 9 in the fourth. And he had only one turnover all game long.

That was another key to this game: the Rockets turning it over only 7 times! And four of those were from one player – Juwan Howard, who didn’t have a good shooting night (3-of-11).

But Dikembe Mutombo had his back on the front line, racking up 19 boards (8 of them on the offensive glass) while playing a season-high 36 minutes.

Rafer Alston continued to struggle from the field, hitting only 5-of-17 shots and bringing the team FG% down to 41.5%. But the Rockets traditionally strong defense held the Jazz to only 40% shooting, and they outrebounded a very good rebounding team 48-43.

Alston is still attacking the basket, which is good to see, but he’s not making those running tear-drop shots he was making earlier in the season. He missed several of those Friday night, and if he hadn’t hit a surprising 4-of-9 from three-point land, his FG% would have been even worse.

So the Rockets have now won five in a row and are 5-1 since Yao’s injury. Many people may be thinking that Yao is overrated and/or the Rockets don’t need him after all, or that he could disrupt the chemistry that the team is currently developing when he returns. But I’ll have something to say about that in my next blog post.

Yao battles for a rebound against Utah’s Jarron Collins in both teams’ season opener on Wednesday night. Yao scored 22 and grabbed 9 boards, but his foul troubles and the Rockets poor play in general led to a 107-97 loss. Click here for the story. Click here for more game photos.

There was bad news and good news Wednesday night for the Houston Rockets.

The bad news is that they started off their season Wednesday night reminiscent of last season’s overall performance – disappointing.

The good news is that they didn’t lose by 42 points like the defending World Champions Miami Heat did the night before in their season and home opener. At least some other team with high expectations placed upon them failed to deliver more than the Rockets.

The Rockets shot poorly (T-Mac: 8-of-24 FGs, 8-of-13 FTs), missed too many layups, missed too many free throws (23-of-36), played poor defense (gave up 35 points in the first quarter) and gave up big shots down the stretch to lose in Utah 107-97.

The Rockets fell behind by 19 points in the second quarter, but Rafer Alston atoned for an 0-for-6 first half by hitting big shots in the second half (15 points, three treys in the fourth quarter). But that early deficit was too large for the Rockets to make up, even with a late surge that cut it to 99-94 with 3:30 remaining. That’s because Mehmet Okur, Deron Williams and Derek Fisher hit consecutive jump shots to send the Rockets home lamenting their poor start.

Yao scored 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and grabbed 9 boards, but he got in early foul trouble after picking up his third foul with about 8:30 remaining, and his fourth foul with 3:56 remaining in the third quarter.

Those two fouls were silly enough to take you back a couple years when Yao frequently got into foul trouble. I’m not sure what he was thinking. Maybe his mind is rusty after not playing much in the preseason. The foul trouble held him to only 32 minutes of action, and the Rockets missed his firepower since T-Mac was shooting so poorly.

The Rockets’ problems just didn’t exist on the offensive side of the court. Their defense made the Jazz offense look like the late Red Auerbach‘s championship Celtic teams from the 1960’s, unable to stop big shots from Carlos Boozer (24 points, 19 rebounds), Williams (18 points, 10 assists), and Fisher (13 points, 6 assists).

Speaking of Fisher, somehow he got away in the fourth quarter with barreling his way TWICE into Yao on double-teams to “steal” the ball away without being called for a foul by the refs. That’s another reason why I have always hated that guy – he gets away with flops and fouls all the time.

But this game came down to the Rockets playing poorly and not playing hard enough. All I know is that Jeff Van Gundy is sure to start his annual ritual of working long nights breaking down game footage, with the dark circles under his eyes soon to return.

Click here for the game story.

Click here for the box score.

by John

MONDAY, 4/10/06 – As shown above, Yao broke his foot in the Rockets game against Utah. He suffered a “Jones fracture,” and is obviously out for the rest of the season. He hurt it on a seemingly innocent play. “I was just fighting for position,” Yao said. “I think (Mehmet) Okur kicked my foot. That happens on the court. I believe he kicked it on the side of my foot.”

I looked it up, and here’s a definition of the injury:

A Jones fracture is a fracture of the fifth metatarsal of the foot. The fifth metatarsal is at the base of the small toe, and the proximal end, where the Jones fracture occurs, is in the midportion of the foot. Patients who sustain a Jones fracture have pain over this middle/outside area of their foot, swelling, and difficulty walking.

Jones fractures can become chronic conditions if the fracture fails to unite. If this is the case, surgery will likely be recommended to secure the fracture in place with a screw.

So Yao is out for the season, which only has four games remaining in it. Not a big deal. We all know he’s great, he doesn’t have much more to prove this season, and this injury should heal nicely during the off-season. In fact, it may not be all that bad since it might keep him from being overworked by the Chinese National Team and let him be more rested for next season.

His stats before exiting early in the game was 5 points, 2 rebounds and 1 block in eight minutes. As depressing as it was to see him leave the game early, the Rockets surprisingly hung in there the rest of the game and almost pulled off a major upset, but they couldn’t execute down the stretch. When the pressure got tough and the game was on the line in the last two minutes, they blew several chances and went scoreless to lose it 85-83.

Although Rafer Alston had a much better game (22 points on 8-of-19 shooting, 4 assists, one turnover) compared to the previous night’s game when he shot 0-for-11 and committed six turnovers, he bungled a golden opportunity that could have given the Rockets the lead with 1:11 remaining. After the Rockets forced a Utah turnover and had a 4-on-2 fast break, Alston was leading the break, but then decided NOT to push it to the basket and instead dished it off to Juwan Howard for a baseline jumper that missed. No guts, no glory!

Deron Williams rebounded the miss, and Chuck Hayes fouled him in frustration, which was a bad move considering the Jazz were in the penalty. Williams went to the line and made 1-of-2 free throws to make it 84-83 Jazz.

Alston came back and put up a tough, running jumper in the lane that missed. Utah missed on the ensuing possession, and the Rockets responded with a Keith Bogans shot in the lane that was blocked by Andrei Kirilenko, but Hayes grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Unfortunately, Hayes, who had a big game and was responsible for helping the Rockets come back in this game, missed both free throws.

Carlos Boozer grabbed Hayes’ second free throw miss and was fouled, sending him to the line. Boozer made the first one and missed the second, which the Rockets rebounded and called timeout with 3.7 seconds remaining trailing 85-83.

The good thing is that the Rockets were going to be able to inbound the ball on their end of the court. With 3.7 seconds remaining, you think that would be enough time to get off a shot in time. So what did Alston do? He took way too much time dribbling the ball and passed off to Howard for another jumper. Howard launched the shot and swished it, but it was obvious that he got the ball too late from Alston, as Howard released it after the game clock expired. Nice going, point guard.

When it was said and done, the Rockets missed four shots and two free throws in the final two minutes and didn’t score a point. That’s not going to cut it.

You have to give a little credit to the Rockets playing hard while Yao was out. They were down 70-61 at the end of the third quarter (it would have been only 67-61 if they hadn’t let Williams dribble the length of the court with 3 seconds remaining in the third quarter and hit a three-pointer at the buzzer).

Hayes really made a name for himself and probably secured an invitation back to training camp next season with the effort he put forth. Although he missed both of those late free throws, he had a great game, scoring 9 points, stealing the ball 3 times, and grabbing 10 boards, many in the heart of the Jazz interior, in only 22 minutes of action! He had one sweet move on defensive extraordinaire Kirilenko that I’ll never forget — posting him up, he did one of those quick spin moves like Yao does toward the baseline, leaving AK47 in his wake shocked, as Hayes laid it in for the easy score.

So I’ll forgive Hayes for the missed free throws with an effort like this one. He isn’t accustomed to pressure situations like that, and he needs to work on his free throw shooting form anyway. Because of this unfortunate experience at the end, and his obviously strong work ethic, you know he’s going to work hard on correcting it.

Now with Yao out, it will be good to see Hayes get more playing time for the final four games of the season.

Although Juwan missed that jumper after getting the late pass from Alston, Juwan had an outstanding game, scoring 25 points on 12-of-20 shooting. As old as Howard is, he’s still valuable enough to keep around if he keeps putting up numbers like those.

Finally, the Rockets’ chances of winning any of their next four games (Minnesota, Memphis, Denver and San Antonio) without Yao and T-Mac are extremely low. According to my estimates, barring any miracles with the ping-pong balls, if they lose these next four games, they could be selecting as high as 8th in the NBA draft, or as low as 13th. That’s a big difference in a draft that’s not all that deep.

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 scores on Mehmet Okur after a sweet move on the baseline that got him to the hoop in a big win against Utah Saturday night at Toyota Center. Yao scored a game-high 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting. grabbed 8 boards and blocked two shots. To see more photos from the game, click here.

by John

SATURDAY, 2/11/06 – The Rockets probably had one of their most impressive wins of the season Saturday night, taking an early lead against Utah and never relinquishing the lead in a 102-88 victory.

It reminded me of last year when they were playing so well in the second half of last season. Unlike the loss against the Lakers on Wednesday, the Rockets shared the ball (27 assists), shot well (49%), grabbed rebounds, and pushed the ball for many fast break points. You couldn’t ask for much more from the team as a whole.

Yao was amazing, scoring 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting in just 31 minutes, grabbing 8 boards, and blocking two shots. His teammates found him under the basket multiple times after they drove into the lane and drawing defenders, giving Yao easy dunks. He also had two scores on spin moves on the baseline, getting around defenders for easy dunks. He looked good and is really coming into his own.

T-Mac scored 25, grabbed 6 boards and had two blocks. Although he was 9-for-22 from the field, he took it to the rack more often rather than relying on jump shots as he has been doing alot lately without as much success.

David Wesley was third in Rockets scoring (17), playing efficiently by hitting 7-of-10 shots, and 3-of-4 three-pointers. It helped that Welsey only had to play 32 minutes, thanks to new Rocket reserve guard Keith Bogans making his debut in a Houston uniform.

Although Bogans, acquires a couple of days ago from Charlotte for Lonny Baxter, only had four points, but they were spectacular. His first basket as a Rocket occurred in the middle of the second quarter when Rafer Alston bounced a sweet no-look pass to Bogans as he was breaking toward the hole. Bogans then elevated, suspended in mid-air, drew a foul from Greg Ostertag, then shot it high off the glass as we as coming down for the bucket. A little over a minute later, he grabbed an offensive rebound in the middle of the lane and scored on a nice garbage basket to make it 38-25. That’s all that Bogans scored for the night, but they were impressive and welcomed.

The Rockets opened up an 18-point lead in the second quarter, but Utah was able to close the gap at 47-35. However, the way the Rockets were playing, it didn’t look like they were going to have any problems. They were clicking on many cylinders.

Yao fell to the floor as he bumped into T-Mac and a cluster of other players as he was running up the court in the middle of the third. It looked scary at first because he landed on his right elbow, checked out of the game and put an ice pack on it.

Without Yao, the Rockets opened up their lead to 80-58 at the end of the three quarters. The Jazz went on an 11-2 run to cut their deficit to 13 points with 8:47 remaining. But the Rockets didn’t collapse, held off the Jazz and managed to win their 5th game in 6 tries.

The Rockets turn right around and play the Knicks on Sunday night at Toyota Center on a rare back-to-back at home. I plan to be at that game, so it will be interesting to see if there is a discernable buzz in the building compared to earlier this season. I’ll let you know.

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.