I’m going to do something that I rarely do. Because I have to wake up early in the morning, I’ve got to make this short. So I won’t be commenting much about the Rockets victory over the LA Clippers Wednesday night. They did what was expected of them, and that can’t be taken for granted compared to previous Rocket teams that underachieved in the past. So kudos go to them for taking care of business. Luis Scola led the way with 22 points.

Now we know they’re going to play the Jazz in the first round, and will have homecourt advantage in that series. What a relief! Thank you San Antonio (for once)! This time last week, I was hoping the Rockets would be a 1st or 2nd seed in the West which would match them up with Denver or Dallas. But I’ll take a first-round matchup against the Jazz. I’d much rather play them than the Suns or Spurs, which would be happening if they were the 3rd or 6th seed, respectively. If that had happened, I would have been pissed.

I like the fact the Rockets, not expected to beat the Jazz in the series, have some unfinished business to take care of from last season’s series loss. If this rematch can’t motivate the Rockets to play their best, then nothing will. So much pain was experienced from that series, the idea of getting revenge has GOT to be a factor for the Rockets. That’s why I liked Tracy McGrady’s quote after the game on Wednesday:

“I want to play the Jazz, because they are the team that beat us. That’s just being a competitor. As a competitor, you want to play them again.”

It reminds me a little bit when the Rockets had such a hard time beating the Sonics in the early to mid-1990’s, but finally beat them in a playoff series after acquiring Charles Barkley. It took awhile, but they finally made the adjustments to beat that team. Hopefully everything the Rockets did in the off-season in getting more athletic power forwards – Luis Scola and Carl Landry, an improved Rafer Alston (hopefully he can play starting in Game 3), speed in the backcourt (Aaron Brooks), and a veteran point guard (Bobby Jackson) will be enough.

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Raymond has photos posted in the forum of Yao leaving China to come back to Houston, where you’ll see he no longer needs crutches.

Raymond also has a report of what he Yao plans to do once he’s back in H-Town.

* Take a photo in front of the Hakeem Olajuwon monument

* Show up at the bench on the last home game versus LA Clippers

* Show up at the bench to support his teammates when the playoff starts

* Have a good laugh and enjoy the Roast & Toast Charity on April 17th.

* Start his rehabilitation aggressively with the Chinese medicine he brought back from Beijing

* Start watching video of his national team temmates

* Start asking the Rockets for video of Luis Scola so he can be well prepared playing against Scola during the Olympics.

Thanks for the scoop, Raymond!

Determined to win a big game that could decide homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs, the Rockets started Shane Battier in Utah Monday night, something they should have done the night before in Denver where they lost.

The Rockets also played Bobby Jackson, probably because Rafer Alston’s hamstring injury was worse than Jackson’s knee problem. Perhaps Jackson should have played in Denver, too.

Even with these two key players back in the lineup, it was still going to be tough since Utah was at home where they had been 36-4, they had everything to gain (like homecourt against Houston in the first round of the playoffs) and maybe a chance to move up to 2nd in the conference.

With all the improvements the Rockets have made this season since last season’s playoff series loss against Utah — role players like Luis Scola, Carl Landry, Jackson, Aaron Brooks, Mike Harris, and an improved Steve Novak – it still wasn’t enough as the Rockets went down again to their nemesis, 105-96.

So just like that, within the span of 27 hours the Rockets went from playing for a chance to win the Western Conference, to facing the likelihood they will be the fifth seed without homecourt advantage. What a disappointing way to close out the regular season.

The Rockets now have to hope that the Spurs beat the Jazz Wednesday night in Houston while the Rockets take care of the Clippers. If that doesn’t happen, the Rockets will not have home court advantage and will have to face the possibility of playing a potential Game 7 in Utah, an almost impossible game to win.

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Losing 111-94 Sunday night in Denver, it’s unbelievable how badly the Rockets stunk in such a big game. With San Antonio’s loss against the Lakers Sunday afternoon, did anyone tell the Rockets they were only 1 game behind the Lakers, and with a win could be only ½ game behind LA for first in the West?

It certainly didn’t look like it. They laid an egg in one of their biggest games of the season (at least if you consider getting the first seed in the conference a big deal, which the Rockets obviously didn’t). Their performance in such a big game reminded me of that 40-point blowout against the Dallas Mavericks in Game 7 of their playoff series 3 seasons ago.

Maybe there is some legitimacy after all behind the notion that all the other Western Conference teams want to match up against the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.

This was a disgrace of a performance. If the Rockets are going to play this way in such a big game, you can just about predict what the outcome will be in a 7-game series against any other team in this year’s playoffs.

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I didn’t want Friday night’s ceremonies for Hakeem Olajuwon to pass by without dedicating some time to it here on Yao Ming Mania. Hakeem was elected into this year’s class of the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Rockets’ owner Leslie Alexander did some wonderful things to commemorate the honor.

Before Friday’s game, the Rockets unveiled a new monument outside of Toyota Center with a ceremony, then at halftime they had another ceremony where a new banner was hung from the rafters with Olajuwon’s jersey as well as “Hall of Fame 2008″ inscribed on the bottom of it.

For more photos from the ceremonies, click here (thanks to Raymond for posting in the forum).

They were wonderful moments. It reminds me of the halftime ceremony a few seasons ago, which I attended, where the Rockets honored Hakeem after he anounced his retirement. I’m eternally grateful for what Hakeem did for the city of Houston. Those championships in 1994 and 1995 were some of my favorite sports memories ever, as well as the run his Houston Cougar teams made to the Final 4 back in the early 80’s.

And thank you Les Alexander for building a tradition here in Houston for honoring great players like Hakeem, Clyde Drexler and Calvin Murphy, coaches like Rudy Tomjanovich, and GMs like Carroll Dawson. Maybe the same thing will be done for Yao Ming in about 10 years.

Not to be a spoil sport, but I’m a little disappointed that Muslims are not allowed to have statues made in their likeness. Although the statue of the jersey is nice, it’s a little redudant since a likeness of Hakeem’s jersey is hanging from the rafters of Toyota Center. I don’t know what else the Rockets could have done, though, to have something that was a little more unique. A large photo of Hakeem shooting a fallaway jumper after a “Dream Shake” might have been okay, but large photos don’t have the same permanence as a statue or monument.

Anyone have any better ideas?

On a completely different note, I had a couple of thoughts from Friday night’s game against the Suns, but I’ll save that for later over the next couple of days. I want people to soak in all the photos from the ceremonies honoring Hakeem without me cluttering it up with other random thoughts. Hakeem deserves that.

The Sacramento Kings surprisingly beat the New Orleans Hornets late Saturday night, a game that New Orleans had everything to play for to hold on to the Western conference lead. So now the Rockets can’t feel so bad for losing against the Kings 6 games ago, a huge loss for Houston’s quest to lead the conference. And get this…Sacramento can continue to be the spoiler when they play San Antonio on Monday and the Lakers on Tuesday. I had said several posts ago (last paragraph) that Sacramento was the team to watch heading into the stretch, and it looks like that’s turning out to be the case.

So now the Hornets are tied with the Lakers at 55-25, and the Spurs are 1/2 game behind both of those teams with a 54-25 record and play the Lakers tomorrow on national TV. The Rockets are also 1/2 game behind both teams, but are in the fifth spot.

I would refer you to this page on NBA.com to give you the latest playoff picture, but at the time of this post they are slow in updating the latest standings (as is Yahoo), so it doesn’t reflect tonight’s games. I don’t understand why both these sites aren’t on top of updating these standings real-time. It can’t be that hard. I typically have to wait until the middle of the night for them to get updated. Sheesh.

But what I’m still trying to figure out is what needs to happen for the Rockets to finish in the spots I want them to finish. Ideally I’d like for them to finish in the 1st or 2nd spot so they can face the #7 or #8 seed in the playoffs, which will be Dallas, Golden State, or Denver.

In order for the Rockets to finish 1st or 2nd in the conference, they’re probably going to need to win all their games and hope that San Antonio, the Lakers and New Orleans lose. But it’s not that simple because San Antonio and the Lakers play against each other on Sunday, as I mentioned earlier.

So who should win that game if you’re a Rocket fan?

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Bobby Jackson takes it strong to the hole against the Phoenix Suns, helping the Rockets beat the Suns 101-90 in a game where Jackson scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting off the bench. Houston’s bench was outstanding, scoring 43 points on 19-of-28 shooting.

If you had stopped watching the Rockets since Yao got hurt, or after their 22-game winning streak ended, then you probably missed one of their best games of the season Friday night.

I had written the other day that heading into the final 4 games of the season, I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised if the Rockets could get some quality wins against good teams like Phoenix, Utah and Denver.

After watching the Rockets Friday night against the Suns, I’m not only pleasantly surprised, I’m ecstatically surprised (if that’s a word).

Opening up a double-digit lead in the second quarter after falling behind 13-2, I can’t believe how badly they beat the big bad Suns with Shaq, Nash, Amare, Barbosa, and everyone else they have.

With a dominating 101-90 win in a game that meant alot to both teams for playoff seeding purposes, just like that, the Rockets have won five games in a row and are only 1 game behind New Orleans for first place in the West.

I thought this was going to be another game in which the Suns run the Rockets ragged. But Houston stayed tough and didn’t get down on themselves when they were getting killed to start the game. They not only got their offense turned around by going on a 14-3 run to tie the game at 16-16 and take over from there, but they also turned up their defense with their best defensive player — Shane Battier — sidelined with a sore foot.

On top of that, they were able to overcome a poor shooting night from his replacement in the starting lineup, Luther Head, who only scored 4 points (2-of-8 shooting) and starting point guard Rafer Alston only scoring 5 points on 2-of-11 shooting.

How in the world were they able to overcome numbers like that, as well as the loss of Battier?

There were several reasons…

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Houston’s Luther Head drives the baseline Wednesday night against the Sonics. Head got the start since Tracy McGrady sat out the game because of a sore shoulder, and he came through with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting. The Rockets beat Seattle 103-80 to tie the Lakers and Spurs for second place in the Western Conference.

The Rockets took care of business Wednesday night by beating Seattle 103-80, their 7th victory in a row over the Sonics.

Houston played without Tracy McGrady because of his sore shoulder. They say the soreness came from the injection he received before his last game to relieve the pain, but this should be the only game he misses because of it.

McGrady’s absence didn’t matter, though. As we have come to expect this season, the Rockets role players stepped up to beat an opponent they were expected to beat.

With the victory, Houston is now in a 3-way tie for second place in the West since Phoenix beat the Spurs in San Antonio!

Now the serious business begins with a monster set of games to close out the season: the Suns on Friday in Houston, then road games against Denver on Sunday, followed by Utah on Monday. Thank you, NBA schedulers, for forcing the Rockets to play 3 of their biggest games of the season in 4 days. That doesn’t even happen in the playoffs.

The Rockets then close out the season against the Clippers next Wednesday.

If the Rockets lose 2 or 3 of their remaining games and enter the playoffs without homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs, we could always give them a pass and say, “It’s okay. It’s so tough to win games against such great teams, especially without Yao.”

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Almost everything went the Rockets’ way when it came to scoreboard watching the two big games Tuesday night that were relevant to their hopes of winning home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The Blazers’ defeat of the Lakers puts the Rockets just 1/2 game behind LA, and New Orleans’ loss to Utah puts Houston 2 games behind the Hornets for first place in the West. New Orleans and Houston have 5 games left to play in their season, and the Lakers have four.

Right on Houston’s tail is Phoenix, who won Tuesday night and are only 1/2 game behind Houston. Phoenix has four games remaining.

Although Houston wants Phoenix to lose to hold them off, I think we want to see them win Wednesday night, as crazy as it sounds. That’s because they’re playing San Antonio (on ESPN, I might add). If the Suns win that game, and the Rockets take care of business against Seattle, THEN THE ROCKETS WILL BE TIED WITH THE SPURS AND THE LAKERS with 4 games remaining in all 3 teams’ seasons. And all 3 of these teams will only be 1 1/2 games behind New Orleans for the Western Conference lead. Wow! I won’t even get into the tie-breaker situation because it’s so complicated.

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Calvin Murphy is involved in organizing a roast of Yao on Thursday, April 17th in Houston. I was lucky enough to speak to Calvin today, and he said that he would be able to provide a 50% discount to a select number of Yao Ming’s fans to the roast. Seat tickets normally go for $150 (proceeds go to charity), but if you mention the code word “ClubYao,” they should be able to hook you up for $75 per seat. This offer is limited until all the seats are sold out.

Here’s a description of the event from the Windsor Village United Methodist Church where the roast will be held:

This roast and toast dinner event will feature Charles Barkley (via video), Clyde Drexler, Rafer Alston, Steve Francis and other sports luminaries. All of the Houston Rockets are scheduled to be there. Proceeds will benefit The Leader’s Academy.

The Web site for the church is here. However, to get tickets, don’t call the number on the Web site. Instead, call 832-455-6565 during business hours (9:00am to 5:00pm Central time) and mention the “Club Yao” discount code.

A reception is being held from 6:30pm to 7:30pm, with the roast promptly starting at 7:30pm and lasting until 9:00pm.

I’ll also be there. They say the event is “black tie,” but I don’t know if that means guys have to wear a suit or a tux (I imagine it’s just a suit and tie). If you’re interested in going to the event, make sure to confirm what kind of attire they recommend you wear.

Here’s a map to the church location where the roast will be held.

If you have any questions, please submit a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them.