The Rockets’ slide to the lottery continued Friday night, losing to the 3-8 Raptors 106-96. Houston now has the 3rd worst record in the league, behind the Clippers’ 1-12 and just barely under Philadelphia at 3-10. Sure, the Rockets have had a brutal road schedule to start the season, but if there ever was going to be a game that’s winnable, this one was it.

Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani had an easy time getting to the hoop without Yao in the middle to guard the paint (and Luis Scola losing track of him to let him take it to the rack without any problem).

It didn’t help that earlier in the day, the Rockets were dealt a psychological blow when they learned that Yao Ming will be out an additional two weeks because of a bone bruise that was found in his left ankle. I will have a more in-depth blog post about that in the next day or two. In the meantime, I’ll focus on Friday’s game.

Statistically, the Rockets outplayed the Raptors in many areas. They hit four more 3-pointers and had a higher 3-point shooting percentage (40% vs. 36.4%). They hit 91% of their free throws (20-of-22) while Toronto only shot 66.7%. They had 4 more assists (26 vs. 22), and had three more blocks (6-3),

The main problem was rebounding (37 vs. 44), giving the Raptors 7 more field goals and points in the paint (36 to 44). And through a statistical rarity, the Raptors shot no free throws in the first half, but shot 30 in the second half! 30! Obviously some adjustments were made at halftime, either in the Toronto locker room to be more aggressive, in the referee’s dressing room after the refs reviewed some videotape, or a little bit of both. The Rockets only shot 16 free throws in the second half.

And most importantly, the Rockets didn’t have anyone who stepped up late to hit big shots down the stretch. Kevin Martin statistically was great: 31 points on 8-of-16 shots and 4-of-7 from 3-point land, and hitting 11-of-11 free throws. The problem is that he, nor anyone else, made the big play when it counted: late in the 4th quarter after drawing close to the Raptors after Toronto had gone on a 15-5 run starting with 10:48 remaining and the game tied at 76.

Andrea Bargnani showed how great of a player he is, scoring 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting. He’s almost Dirk-like, and his #1 draft pick designation a few years ago is looking like it’s paying off. He can shoot from the outside and drive to the hoop with ease (especially against the Rockets’ porous defense). I think when Bargnani took it strong to the hole like he did at least a couple of times, someone needed to step in and take a charge or foul him very hard to make him think twice about doing it again. That didn’t happen.

The Rockets’ starters were okay, scoring 85 points. But when none of them step up to make plays in a tight game late, and the bench doesn’t come through, either, you’re going to have problems. Toronto’s bench outscored Houston’s 46-11. That’s pretty bad, but if you look at the stats, Toronto only got 6 points out of two starters (Jarrett Jack and Reggie Evans), and their bench played about 1/3rd more minutes (96 vs. 60). But still, for as hyped as the Rockets’ bench was before the season, that’s not good enough.

We have to remember that Kyle Lowry and Brad Miller have been forced to become starters because of injuries to Yao and Aaron Brooks, so that’s a huge blow to the backup brigade. But clearly Chase Budinger, Courtney Lee and Jordan Hill haven’t lived up to expectations. And for some reason, Rick Adelman decided not to play Jermaine Taylor after a good performance against Oklahoma City (8 points). Go figure.

I think I have come to realize what could be another source of the Rockets’ problems (they have many) these days. I’ll tell you in a second after setting the table here.

After the game, I think Shane Battier said it best:

“We’re loose with execution. We’re taking tough shots under duress. We don’t have a lot of guys who can break somebody down and get a good quality shot with the shot clock running down. To score, we have to run good offense. We have to have our spacing and maintain our responsibilities. When we don’t, it shows.”

If this is the case, then I see the problem as being good COACHING to run “good offense.” This has been the rap with Adelman in the past: giving his players too much free reign, and letting them freelance too much in late-game situations. Not that I want a JVG-type coach who is calling plays on every possession (seemingly). But I also don’t want a coach who just rolls the balls out (Rudy T?)

Rick Adelman had this to say after the game:

“We put people in the game; they have to step up and play. Everybody is in the NBA now so we can’t go in there and not be ready. If we can’t score or defend, then we have to rebound the ball. You have to do something to help the team win and that’s what we all have to look at from the coaches to the players. What can you do to help this team win?”

I think this is a little too vague. Adelman says that no one is “stepping up.” I can understand if that means they aren’t making open jumpers. But if it means having a player, like Battier said, who can “break somebody down and get a good quality shot,” well, if they don’t have that, then they have to go to the alternative: “running good offense.” That’s on the coach. If players aren’t following his instructions, then he needs to give more time to players who will.

Up until this time, I thought the problem was the injuries to Yao and Brooks. That’s a big part of it. But if you don’t have your top guys, then at least run plays that don’t expose the Rockets’ weakness to break anyone down or puts them in a position to put shots up under ‘duress.’ Is Adelman being exposed here?

Honestly, I think the players may have tuned him out. You don’t ever hear them talk about how he’s a great coach and they believe in the ‘system.’ I think Adelman has relied too much in Houston on the players to make plays. In Sacramento, it seemed like he had this great offensive system that was unstoppable. But he also had great players: Webber, Peja, Bibby, Vlade, Miller, Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson (am I missing anyone?).

I think the players could benefit getting motivated by a coach who can get them to play with more aggressiveness (offensively or defensively), and Adelman isn’t that kind of guy. I really like him as a person. Class guy. But I just don’t see the fire like you see from a Scott Brooks (Oklahoma City), or the constant strategic thinking during the game. I was really impressed with Chicago’s Tom Thibodeau when the Rockets played the Bulls last week. We all knew he would be a good head coach when he was in Houston, and it looks like that’s turning out to be the case.

I can understand that coaching alone can’t get you to the playoffs — you need guys who can win games based on their talent. But I would expect that good coaching can help you win 30-40% of your games if given a good roster of players like Houston supposedly has. Right now the Rockets have only won 25% of their games (3-9). So I think there has to be more scrutiny on the head coach because up until this time, there hasn’t been any. What do you think?

Random thoughts:

– Brooks should get a lot more respect from his haters when he comes back. The Rockets have obviously missed him. But they were losing close games with him in the lineup as well, so I’m not sure if he alone will fix their late-game execution problems.

– Maybe this year will be the Rockets’ “Tim Duncan year” like the Spurs had when they were a good team on paper, but had a terrible record mainly because their big man David Robinson was out most (or all) of the year because of injury. After drafting Duncan #1, they roared back and built a dynasty. At this rate, there’s a high probability the Rockets will get a great lottery pick. I sure hope the draft is strong next year. I’ll be paying more attention to college basketball this season because of the Rockets’ woes.

It was an ugly game Wednesday night in Oklahoma City. The Rockets lost 116-99, dropped to 3-8, and are looking overwhelmed and helpless without Yao, Aaron Brooks, and Chase Budinger in the lineup. Combine that against an athletically superior team like the Thunder, and with all the travel the Rockets have have had to do lately, and they look like a tired, worn-out team.

They have played 5 of their last 6 games on the road. Coach Rick Adelman brought up a good point on Wednesday:

“How do you go from a three-game Eastern trip, fly all the way back from New York, get in at 4 o’clock in the morning, play the next night at home, fly out after the game and come here? Now you got to go to Toronto.

“It does take a toll on you. I’m just facing the facts. It didn’t even seem like we were at home to me. I’m not going to say it to the players, but that’s how I felt.”

At halftime the Rockets were scoring fine, having shot 59% and racking up 53 points, which is their average as the #4 scoring team in the league. But the problem was that they gave up 65 points! Houston had 9 less offensive rebounds (11-2) in the first half and had 10 more turnovers (13-3). That’s not going to get it done.

I could go on-and-on about the problems with this team, but there are plenty of other forums online about that. I will take some pride, though, when I implored the Rockets in yesterday’s blog post to play Jermaine Taylor, and to my surprise, they did! And it wasn’t just garbage time. It was in the second quarter when Taylor saw his first action it quite some time, and he did pretty well, finishing with 8 points.

Taylor didn’t get the ball many times in the 2nd quarter. He was kind of like the new kid in school among his teammates, not getting many passes thrown his way. But when he did , he took it strong to the hole a couple of times and scored on impressive moves. He turned it over on another possession dribbling into traffic, and missed a 3-pointer. On the defensive end, he blocked Serge Ibaka impressively on a put-back attempt near the rim.

But the Rockets were so overmatched in the third quarter by Kevin Durant (24 points) and Russell Westbrook (21), they really had no chance as they ran out of gas, and OKC cruised to their biggest margin of victory this season. The silver lining is that maybe Taylor will get more playing time after doing well and proving me right.

The only thing that can give solace to the Rockets is that injuries occur to every team, so the ground they have given up to other teams at the beginning of this season could be made up as their competitors get hit by the injury bug themselves. Not a great strategy, but it is a reality.

After winning two of their last 3 games and righting the ship somewhat, on Tuesday the Rockets went back to their old ways and blew another 4th quarter lead.

Holding an 8-point advantage at the start of the 4th quarter after scoring the last 10 points of the 3rd, the Rockets were victimized by Chicago’s Derrick Rose, who scored 16 points in the 4th quarter and keyed the Bulls to 18 unanswered points in that final period, sinking the Rockets to a 3-7 record. During that critical 4th quarter stretch, the Rockets had 8 turnovers in a little over 9 minutes. In other words, they fell apart…again.

Although Kevin Martin has stepped up in most games this season, there’s not much margin for error if he doesn’t do it with Yao Ming, Aaron Brooks and Chase Budinger out with ankle sprains. Martin had a rare off-night, hitting only 5-of-15 shots for 18 points.

Meanwhile, Rose scored 33 points on 13-of-20 shooting. The NBA is a game where point guards have a huge advantage if they have the skills to exploit defenses given the rules that reward them for getting past their man and into the lane. If they can hit the 3 on top of that, look out. Rose isn’t that great of a 3-point shooter, but he was Tuesday night, hitting 4-of-5 from behind the arc.

With Aaron Brooks out and Kyle Lowry (7 points) and Ish Smith (0 points) not that great of shooters, they were going to need production from their bench. They only got 8 points, whereas Chicago had 29. Courtney Lee was 0-for-1 and had four turnovers in just 13 ½ minutes. I like Lee a lot, but I think it’s about time the Rockets gave Jermaine Taylor more of a chance while Budinger, Brooks and Yao are out. The guy was the 3rd leading scorer in the NCAA his senior year, averaging 26.2 ppg. Why not use him when desperate times call for desperate measures? We’ve seen what the guy can do to light it up. He reminds me a little bit of Von Wafer in how he can score points in bunches with his athleticism.

Taylor also reminds me a little bit of the Lakers’ Shannon Brown, who never really got a chance with several NBA teams. But when thrown into a deal to the Lakers as an afterthought, Brown has flourished as seen by how he torched the Rockets in Game 1 with all those 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. And Brown got his chance playing in the shadow of one of the best players ever — Kobe Bryant! If the Lakers can give a guy a chance to prove himself behind Kobe, you’d think the Rockets could do the same behind their shooting guard.

If the Rockets are going to draft big-time scorers, then you’d expect they would use them when they have problems scoring points in a game like this one. I kind of get tired of hearing about how a player may not “be ready” defensively. Right now, beggars can’t be choosers. Play Taylor and see what he can do to help the bench. Who knows, you may end up wondering why it wasn’t done sooner. There are countless other examples of teams who gave bench warmers an opportunity to contribute when they have struggled, and it worked out beautifully for them. Hasn’t the name ‘Arian Foster‘ taught professional teams to give backups more chances to shine?

One area where Taylor can help is shooting the three. On Tuesday night, the Bulls had a 9-point advantage from behind the arc, hitting 67% of their 3-pointers compared to the Rockets’ 33%. Rose’s 4 treys were daggers.

The Rockets got out-rebounded by the Bulls 40-32, meaning Yao’s absence hurt, although Brad Miller filled in admirably with 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting, and 5 boards. But when none of your players come up with more than 5 rebounds, that’s not good. Chicago’s small forward, Luol Deng, had 10 boards. Shane Battier had 5.

The Rockets had a golden opportunity to win since the Bulls only made 54% of their free throws (15-of-28), but couldn’t capitalize on such a rare night when they shot so poorly from the charity strip.

Tonight the Rockets face an explosive Oklahoma City team. We all know they’re going to need to play defense to have a chance in this one, but also score a bunch of points to keep up with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. I think it’s “Taylor time” to see if he can shine.

It’s funny how winning solves everything. Even though the Rockets have beaten pretty bad teams on their way to a 3-6 record, including thrashing the NY Knicks Sunday night, the panic that all Houston fans had when they started the season 0-5 seems like a distant memory. The Rockets have now won three of their last 4 games since then.

This Rocket victory reminded me of last year’s team when they used hustle, grit and ball movement to get a respectable record without Yao. Or a few years ago in how they played during their 22-game winning streak.

Leading 71-70 in the 3rd quarter, New York made only 2 of their next 21 shot attempts (nearly 12 minutes without a field goal) as the Rockets opened up a 19-point lead and cruised to a victory that has everyone thinking the Rockets aren’t so bad as they looked this time last week.

In reality, we still don’t have enough evidence the Rockets can execute their half court offense in the clutch to win tight games. They’ve done it once, against Indiana on Friday night. For now, the best way for them to win still appears to be opening up big leads and holding on, like they did against Minnesota in that blowout victory, and what they did Sunday night against New York.

Chuck Hayes did a great job on Amar’e Stoudemire (the Knicks’ highest paid player at $16.5 million this season) by holding him to 3 points after checking in with about 7 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter. Before then, Stoudemire scored 22 points in his first 22 minutes. Chuck’s value ($2.3 million this season) is a pretty good return holding a player to those kinds of stats who makes more than 7 times he does.

Coach Rick Adelman had the following to say about putting Hayes on Stoudemire:

“I knew I was going to put Chuck on him. I was just biding my time as long as we had the lead. We didn’t have to worry about doubling him. Chuck stays in front of him. He’s such a good defender. A lot of people don’t realize how good he is. Tonight, he showed it again.”

On offense, the Rockets had 28 assists, their season-high, on 36 field goals. Amazing.

It’s great how the Rockets remembered all of a sudden what made them so effective in previous seasons playing more as a TEAM, and to do it on the road. Maybe there is something to be said about bonding better with your teammates on the road, away from the distractions at home. You might remember the same thing happened when they started off the preseason playing poorly, and were dreading the long flights to/from China. But that’s when they really started playing better as a team as they swept the New Jersey Nets in Beijing and Guangzhou. Who knows, maybe those lunches and dinners they have with each other at the hotel or in restaurants might instill a better sense of trust among each other, manifesting itself in sharing the ball more.

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The Rockets were just a few minutes away from their latest 4th quarter collapse and obtaining the same record as the hapless 1-7 Dallas Cowboys, their season seemingly on the brink against an Indiana team that had beaten the four times in a row, including a thrashing last April.  And against a team that had spanked the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday with 144 points.

But somehow with Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks out because of ankle sprains, the good guys got it done by willing themselves to a victory.  Players finally did something that coach Rich Adelman had been imploring someone to do in their 6 losses: “Make plays.”

For example, several players participated in a rugby scrum with about 1:20 remaining. Up 100-97, Danny Granger missed a driving layup, but Mike Dunleavy grabbed the rebound and missed, Granger rebounded it and was about to put up a point-blank layup, but Shane Battier came up with a gem of a defensive play by stripping Granger, with the loose ball getting grabbed by Kyle Lowry as he was mugged by Josh McRoberts.  These guys gutted out a defensive stop when they badly needed one to stave off another fourth quarter collapse.

But the Rockets weren’t very smart over the next couple of possessions.  Brad Miller missed a shot with 1:02 that could have put the game away.  I didn’t have a problem with the miss as much as I had with the what happened on the rebound.  Kevin Martin grabbed the board, and rather than milking the clock with a 3-point lead and trying to come up with a good shot, HE PUT UP A SHOT IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE REBOUND!  Luckily, the ball went in.  But if he had missed that shot and the Rockets had gone on to lose the game, you can bet Martin would have gotten some heat for not playing the percentages and letting the clock wind down and setting up a play.

Then another breakdown occurred with 41 seconds remaining when the Rockets fell asleep on defense and Darren Collison scored a layup easily on an INBOUNDS PASS.  That brought the Pacers to within 3 points, 102-99.

The last dumb play occurred with about 19 seconds left when the Rockets offense was terrible trying to come up with a set play, and resulted in Lowry just dribbling the ball on the perimeter and jacking up a low-percentage 3-pointer that barely hit the rim, if at all.  That’s the best play they have with the ballgame on the line?

Fortunately the Rockets played great defense on the Pacers’ final possession, defending the 3-point line well and Lowry playing great defense on Collison, who put up an off-balance 3-pointer of his own that missed.  The Rockets grabbed the rebound and that was the ballgame.

You can bet if the Rockets had lost this one, you would have heard a lot about the aforementioned late-game dumb plays on the Houston sports radio talk shows.  These breakdowns exemplified everything the Rockets’ haven’t done to lose 6 ballgames this season after holding late leads.

But you’ve got to give a ton of credit to Brad Miller, who started in place of Yao and led the team with 23 points, and had 8 boards and 5 assists.  He essentially saved them (along with Martin, who had a great game with 20 points, but 1-of-6 from 3-point land).  My only problem is that the Rockets offense was so absent of high-percentage plays, Miller had to bail them out with two 3-pointers in a row with 6:22 and 5:43 remaining.  Those 6 points turned Houston’s 90-87 deficit to a 93-93 tie and kept them in the game.  You’re telling me having your backup center put up 3-pointers, who was 1-for-3 on treys for the SEASON, is your best option late in a game to save you?  Man.  Thank God for Brad making shots when no one else could come up with one.

What this does tell you is that all the people on Houston sports radio who were saying after the Rockets’ 1-6 start that GM Daryl Morey hasn’t done anything can shut up for awhile.  After all, it was Morey who signed Miller this off-season.  It was Morey and his staff who were able to make a deal a couple of seasons ago for a relatively unknown backup PG out of Memphis named Kyle Lowry, and signed him to an extension this off-season rather than lose him to free agency.  Lowry willed his team to a victory with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists, and gave them the toughness they needed. He even took a blow to the head on a pick from a McRoberts elbow and managed to gut-out 34 minutes on the court with hardly any playing time this season because of injury and back spasms. What a winner this guy is (notwithstanding jacking up that ill-advised late 3-pointer that missed).

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Ever since Yao suffered his undetermined injury last night in Washington, there were predictably a bunch of idiots today who filled the radio airwaves and posted comments on Web sites and blogs saying that, “Yao is done,” or “Yao’s a bust,” or “They should get rid of him,” etc.

It amazes how many losers there are out there who just have to pop-off and spew sewage when they don’t know what the hell they are talking about. It was announced today that all Yao had was a sprained ankle, and he’ll only be out about a week. The sprain had nothing to do with his recent foot surgery. But you can bet these haters are now hoping Yao will get hurt again, and more seriously, so they can say, “You see, I told you so. Yao’s done.” Pathetic.

All I have to say to these imbeciles is shut up and go hate on some other teams’ players rather than one of the hardest working, loyal Rockets you could ever hope for a team to have. LeBron is still a good target for you.

As soon as Yao got hurt Wednesday night against the Wizards in the first quarter, I could hear all of the chatter on all the online forums from panicky Rocket fans about how Yao is washed up, they can’t count on him, his career is over, yada yada yada.

I say to those folks, “Relax.” We’ll learn more tomorrow after a scan is done on his foot. Maybe the good news is that Yao said after the game that the problem felt like it was more in his left ankle, further away from the surgically repaired area in his left foot.

Yao runs up the court in Washington a few minutes before checking out of the game with an injury in his left leg/ankle area. Click here for more photos of Yao from the game, as well as other Rocket players and Washington Wizard Yi Jianlian.

I know the Rockets are struggling, now with a 1-6 record after losing to Washington tonight. One more loss and they’ll have the same record as the Dallas Cowboys. Not good. But coming into this season, we knew there was a very good chance that Yao may not be able to play a full season. So if he’s out for a few games, or even a couple of weeks, you had to know they had built Yao’s prospective absence into their plans. That’s why they went out and got Brad Miller as his backup. And you know Miller had to think he might get significant minutes because of Yao’s health, which probably helped him make the decision to sign with Houston.

We all know Miller isn’t the answer to be the starting center for extended minutes, but there aren’t that many centers out there who are. Maybe talks will flare up again with Erick Dampier, who could give Miller some relief, after discussions were suspended a few days ago, thereby saving Jermaine Taylor‘s spot on the team. We’ll know more tomorrow about Yao’s ankle situation. If it’s an absence for more than a couple of weeks, you’ve got to think they’ll sign another big to provide more help to Miller and Jordan Hill, who has been coming along lately.

As far as the game went Wednesday night, the Rockets fought hard without Aaron Brooks and Yao. Kyle Lowry finally got some playing time. But the Rockets collapsed again in the 4th quarter, holding a one-point lead, only to get outscored 8-0 to have the game put away.

I won’t go into all the details of the game, but the main problem is the same as all of the other losses this season: no one can step up to score late in the game. Of course, Shane Battier disappeared in this game altogether, scoring 0 points in almost 24 minutes. That’s absolutely ridiculous. When Battier doesn’t score, the Rockets lose. I’m kind of getting tired of hearing about how Battier is a “glue guy” when the team is 1-6 and the Rockets need everyone to step up.

I love Luis Scola and I’m glad the Rockets signed him to a longer term deal, but I think the Rockets are really missing Carl “Mr. 4th Quarter” Landry. You could really count on that guy more than any other Rocket in the fourth quarter to step up, even more than Yao. He helped the Rockets win so many games in the when he was here, and his absence is deafening now. I think having Landry and Scola in the lineup at the same time in late-game situations would have been a formidable front line.

I like who we got in return for Landry — Kevin Martin. He’s been great overall, but in the fourth quarter he hasn’t really put the team on his back like Landry did. Maybe he will become that go-to guy. Someone needs to do that consistently. Is it time for the Rockets to try to pull-off the Carmelo Anthony deal? After going 1-6, not as many people, including me, could blame them for doing it.

The Rockets are playing against the Washington Wizards right now. Yao played 5 minutes of the first quarter, then later went to the locker room where he has been diagnosed with a tendon strain in his left ankle area.

It looks like Yao strained it jumping up into the air, then fell backwards. He didn’t land on anyone’s foot and didn’t grimace when he fell. Only after he took a few steps did he show any pain.

I wonder if Daryl Morey is calling Erick Dampier’s agent right now?

One thing I wanted to point out from the Rockets’ victory over Minnesota on Sunday night was that as a team, they only had 7 turnovers, thanks to rookie point guard Ish Smith. Smith only had 1 TO as the starting PG who played 41 1/2 minutes. And he only had 1 TO against San Antonio the night before. Two TOs in two games (his gamelog is here). Not bad. If he can only improve his shooting percentage. 7-for-27 in two games is not good at all.

Smith will be getting a ton of playing time with Aaron Brooks out 4-6 weeks because of his sprained ankle. It looks like my prediction of Brooks being out “several weeks” the night he got hurt, even before an MRI was done, turned out to be true when many people thought he would just be “day-to-day” or “a couple of weeks.” Maybe I should go into sports medicine. Or online betting.

One other bet I’m willing to make is that benchwarmer (thus far) and almost-released guard Jermaine Taylor will be getting more playing time since Brooks, and even Lowry, will be missing a lot of time over the next few weeks. I think Taylor has what the Rockets’ need — a scoring punch they’ll need (since Smith’s shooting is so poor) and some size to man-up on opposing shooting guards. He’s got the chance. Now he has to go out and prove his worth.

I’m a little late in this post since the Rockets finally got their first win of the season Sunday night about 48 hours ago. Even with their 0-5 start, it was a win that should have been expected against the Minnesota Timberwolves, by far the easiest team on the Rockets’ schedule the first six games of this young season. Sorry I didn’t post anything earlier about it. If you’re like me, a guy who has been very busy at work, the Rockets winning a game against a team they should beat — after such a terrible start to the season — isn’t the most urgent thing in the world you have to post.

If the Rockets had lost this game, it would have been a complete disaster, even without Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry out. Fortunately Kevin Martin was able to suck it up for the team and play through his slightly sprained ankle, scoring 21 points that they badly needed. Luis Scola led Houston with 24 points in just 27 minutes. And Shane Battier is finally starting to score more, racking up 12 points (but only on 3-of-9 shooting). But at least he’s been putting up more shots lately, having scored 14 points in San Antonio the night before. I think they’ll need more of Shane’s aggressiveness on offense. No more games with just 3 points, please.

The game was a blowout early, with the Rockets holding Minnesota to 13 points in the first quarter and leading 60-37 at halftime. They opened up a 30+ point lead in the second half, and even the Rockets couldn’t blow that kind of lead. Opening up big leads is probably the Rockets’ best chance of winning games until they can figure out a way to execute offensively in tight games.

With the big early lead, Yao only played 16 minutes and scored 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting and 7-for-7 from the line. It’s encouraging that now there are reports circulating that the Rockets are considering increasing Yao’s playing time from the 24-minute guideline and not playing in back-to-backs since his physical progress has been so encouraging. Let’s hope that’s the case, for our sanity and Yao’s.