Yao throws one down in Cleveland Monday night in his first game back from a leg injury in 32 games. He scored 16 points, grabbed 11 boards and blocked two shots, but a controversial no-call against him was the deciding factor in a 91-85 loss. Click here for photos from Yao’s pre-game activities, and here and here for photos from the game.

As great as it was to see Yao Ming return to the court Monday night and score 16 points, grab 11 boards, and block 2 shots (close to my prediction of 17 points, 9 boards and 2 blocks), it also brought back some not-so-great memories – seeing Yao get physically abused and the refs not calling fouls against his defender(s).

It happened again in Cleveland, this time in a crucial part of the game. The score was tight: 86-82 on the Rockets’ end of the court with 1:02 remaining. Yao had grabbed a long rebound around the free throw line, took one dribble toward an undefended basket, and had a great chance of scoring.

That’s when Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas threw his body in front of Yao with a half-hearted attempt to swipe the ball away. Ilgauskas fell to the floor in front of Yao in what the Cleveland TV announcer described as an NFL-like “chop block” (which is illegal, by the way), and forced Yao to topple to the court and lose possession of the ball. Thank God that Yao was able to fall and avoid landing on his rehabilitated knee.

However, no foul was called. Instead, play continued, Cleveland pushed the ball up the court and LeBron James capped off the fast break with an alley-oop slam to make the score 88-82 with 57 seconds remaining, which was too big of a deficit for the Rockets to overcome.

It’s only fitting that Yao’s return to action would remind us of how little respect he still gets from the refs. Yao even said after the game that it was a bad no-call, but he wasn’t going to contest it because he knew the team couldn’t afford for him to get a technical foul. That no-call was incompetence at its finest. Just as ridiculous was LeBron saying after the game that “it was a great steal.”

I’m so frustrated, I could rant for paragraphs about it, but I’ll move on.

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Finally it’s going to happen! Click here for the full story. I wish it had happened a few games earlier before the Rockets started falling apart and lost 5 of their last 8 games, but I’ll take a 20-12 record since Yao was injured. Thanks, Dikembe and Juwan. You guys did a pretty good job filling in on the front line. Now you can get some rest as Yao comes back on the way to dominating once again.

Just for fun, how do you think he’ll do on Monday night? I think he’ll score 17 points, grab 9 boards and have two blocks in about 31 minutes of action. Make your prediction here in the YaoMania! discussion forum.

If you haven’t registered in the forum yet to post a message, I’ll try to check my email every couple of hours during the day to approve new registrations.

Yao gets in a great workout before the Rockets-Spurs game Saturday night at Toyota Center. He also likes his new leg brace, too. Click here for more photos from Yao’s workout. Later, the Spurs decimated the Rockets in a disturbing, lopsided 97-74 win.

The only good thing that happened Saturday for the Rockets was that Yao got in a great practice, as you can tell by the sweat in his t-shirt shown in the photo above and the link to more photos from his workout session. Yao also appears to like his new leg brace more than any of the other four he has tried out so far.

Later on Saturday night, San Antonio spanked the Rockets in a game that was played in front of the second-largest crowd in Toyota Center history. What a way to make an impression. The Spurs jumped out to an 18-5 lead in the first quarter, and led 40-20 by 8:23 remaining in the second. T-Mac cut the deficit to 12 right before halftime with a three-pointer, but once the second half got underway, it was clear the Spurs were the better team, especially when they built their biggest lead to 29 points.

Houston only shot 38.5% from the field and turned the ball over 18 times compared to San Antonio’s 52.2% shooting and 13 turnovers. That was the difference, as well as Tim Duncan’s dominance early.

The Rockets looked so good on Friday night in Denver against the Nuggets where they shot 46.7% from behind the arc, but they only shot 30.4% Saturday night. I’m actually surprised that Van Gundy has allowed his team to rely on shooting so many three-pointers because as they say, “live by the three, die by the three.” On Saturday night, they definitely died.

I’m also surprised a veteran team like Houston’s does not do well in the second game of back-to-backs back at home, where they have now lost 4-of-5 of those at Toyota Center. And you can’t say the Spurs were more fresh because they had just played the night before as well, albeit their game was at home in San Antonio.

Even worse, there was dissension on the Rockets’ bench after Van Gundy benched Rafer Alston . The Chronicle does a good job describing it in this article. I can’t remember when I’ve seen a Rockets’ team crack like that, but I’m the kind of guy where I like to see that kind of fire when players are underachieving. It can shake things up and teams can come out of those episodes stronger and more united.

Clearly, though, it’s going to be Yao’s insertion back into the lineup that will give Houston hope that they can keep this season from spiraling out of control.

Yao flew back early from Denver for a doctor’s appointment in Houston that was moved up one day early, as Jonathan Feigen of the Chronicle points out. At least he’s getting used to the NBA travel regimen again. After his first practice on Thursday since his injury on December 23rd, he checked out well with the doctor.

Rockets trainer Keith Jones said, “He did fine. No problems at all. He said he felt fine. Actually, he said he was sore everywhere except the knee. That’s what happens when you go back to work.”

Even though the doctors haven’t cleared him to play or set a date for his return, it has to be a good sign. And when he is allowed to play, Jeff Van Gundy is going to play him right away. There’s no question about it, as JVG mentions in this piece.

Meanwhile, Yao’s teammates took care of business in Denver and got payback for that crushing defeat against the Nuggets in Houston on January 20th.

Although the Nuggets shot 47.4% from the field vs. Houston’s 41.8%, the Rockets built an 18-point second half lead.

The key difference was that the Rockets got off 20 shots more than the Nuggets, thanks to 18 offensive rebounds for the Rockets (8 grabbed by Dikembe Mutombo) compared to only 5 offensive boards total for the Nuggets. Mutombo was a monster on the boards altogether, grabbing 22, the highest ever for a 40-year old in the NBA.

The other key was Houston hitting an incredible 14-of-30 three-pointers. Shane Battier was amazing, hitting 5-of-6 treys for 15 points total. Luther Head made 5-of-9 and scored 17 points.

Tracy McGrady led the team with 28 points on 11-of-30 shooting, with most of his damage coming in the first half. He also had 7 assists, and surprisingly Juwan Howard tied him with team-high honors with 7 dimes himself. Howard also made 9-of-19 shots for 18 points.

Now the tough part is that the Rockets have to come back to Houston and play San Antonio on Saturday night. The Rockets have lost 3 of 4 games in Houston on the second night of a back-to-back, and San Antonio is starting to roll, having won 7 straight games. They are also 4 games ahead of the Rockets for home-court advantage in the playoffs with both teams having 24 games left to play, so this will be a big game toward determining who gets home court.

Damien Pierce of Rockets.com writes about a joyous event today — Yao’s return to the practice court! Check it out by clicking here. If we find pictures, we’ll post them here.

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.

I’m sorry that we haven’t had more direct words from Yao in his journal. I was able to interview Yao in October, which is close to being the same as a journal entry from Yao. But part of the problem is my schedule syncing up with Yao’s since I don’t live in Houston now, and Yao is not an email or phone kind of guy.

Another reason is the delayed launch of a new ClubYao site, brought on in part because of Yao’s recent leg injury. We were planning to have Yao’s journal entries made first available exclusively to official ClubYao subscribers, with release to casual visitors of the site a few days later. That would have created more of an expectation for this content to be provided, but since he hurt his leg on December 23rd and hasn’t been playing since then, that delayed the launch of the new ClubYao site. Obviously, we want to launch the new site when he is active and playing, which is when fans are more interested in following what he’s doing.

Finally, Yao has been granting lots of interviews with Sohu.com, Titan Sports and other online publications, which we have been posting in the YaoMania! blog section of the site. Obviously the information he is giving these folks is most likely the same thing that would be posted in Yao’s Journal. Click here for recent interviews with Yao that we have linked to — or translated from Chinese to English — in YaoMania!, thanks to Raymond in China.

Regardless, looking ahead, we do have a strategy to get more direct communication from Yao in the next few months, and we’ll keep you posted.

Yao adjusts his leg brace before the Rockets played the Celtics Monday night in Houston. Yao didn’t play as he continues his rehabilitation, and it’s easy to see by looking at the brace why Yao and Jeff Van Gundy are concerned about how it could alter the way he runs, creating even more problems down the road. Click here for more photos from Yao’s workout before the game.

The brace is just as ugly as how the Rockets played Monday against the Celtics, scoring a season-low 72 points in a loss without T-Mac who was sick with flu-like symptons.

I don’t care if Yao or T-Mac didn’t play Monday night, it’s unbelievable how the Rockets lost 77-72 at home to the team with the worst record in the NBA, a team had lost 12 road games in a row, and 22 of their last 23 games.

T-Mac had “flu-like symptoms.” If one of those symptoms was throwing up, then he and I may have the same sickness today. That’s what I feel like doing right now. Either that, or choke…just like the Rockets did.

Houston was outscored 28-10 down the stretch to a team that has Paul Pierce and a majority of their players with less than 2 years experience in the NBA.

Leading up to the Rockets’ fourth quarter collapse, it was probably one of the worst games played this season by two teams in the same game. In the first quarter, the Celtics shot 25% (6-of-24) and the Rockets were 6-of-21. Still, the Rockets led 22-14 after the first quarter. Bonzi Wells scored 10 points thanks to 6-of-7 shooting from the free throw line.

In the second quarter, the Rockets opened the lead up to 27-14, and I was thinking, “Okay, this is more like it.” But the Rockets let the Celtics chip into their lead, and by halftime their 13-point lead was down to six, 35-19, even with the Celtics missing 15 of 19 shots, 5-of-6 three pointers, and missing 6 of 12 shots. That’s because the Rockets didn’t shoot much better, missing 12 of 16 shots and missing 3-of-8 free throws.

In the third quarter, the shooting still sucked for both teams (Rockets made 35% of their shots and missed 4-of-7 free throws), but at least Houston had a 9 point lead on a hapless Celtics team, and that was without T-Mac in the lineup. I’ll take that kind of lead heading into the fourth.

They opened up a 13-point lead with 9 minutes remaining and 12-point lead with 7:30 minutes left on the clock. But that’s when the bottom fell out. The Houston offense stagnated, with Luther Head jacking up threes. It became so predictable, one of his three-pointers was blocked.

Then Head dropped a pass on the inbounds play. That was just one of several turnovers Head had (4) since he was handling the ball more with T-Mac out and trying to make too much happen.

Rafer Alston and Shane Battier also jacked up some three-pointers in the fourth quarter that missed. Then Juwan Howard took it upon himself to take it to the basket (not a high percentage shot), and was blocked on a controversial no-call. Then Alston threw a bad pass to Bonzi, and the ball was tipped by Boston’s Delonte West for a turnover.

Meanwhile, Boston outhustled the Rockets to go on a 10-0 run in 3 ½ minutes to come all the way back and take a 70-68 lead. Then Paul Pierce hit a tough fallaway three-pointer to make it 73-68 with 25.9 seconds remaining. That capped an unbelievable 24-6 run.

Houston went to a strategy to foul Boston and hopefully have them miss at the free thow line, but they were stupid in letting their best foul shooter on the floor, Delonte West (84% FT shooting), easily get the inbounds pass, requiring them to foul him and send him to the line. He made all 4 FT attempts down the stretch to seal it.

Okay, here’s the really ugly part — Houston’s shooting that contributed to their worst shooting percentage (32%) of the season. Shane Battier: 1-of-12 (shocking!). Alston: 1-of-11. Luther Head: 3-of-11. Three-point shooting: 1-of-22. In my mind, the Rockets missed a lot of those shots in the fourth (0-of-8 from behind the arc) not only because T-Mac wasn’t there to give them better looks. It was also because Boston’s younger legs and frenetic pace wore the Rockets down in the fourth quarter and they didn’t have their legs underneath them.

As a team, they shot 32% from the field, their worst for the season, and scored their fewest number of points. They were also out-rebounded 53-48, their fifth consecutive game where they lost the battle on the boards.

Van Gundy had this to say after the game: “I don’t like our transition defense. I abhor our rebounding and our pursuit of loose balls. What has bailed us out in a couple of those games (we have won lately) has been our three-point shooting. Tonight we didn’t make (3-point shots), so we had to rely on our foundation, which is defense, rebounding and low turnovers, and in the fourth quarter all three abandoned us.”

The only bright spot was Bonzi Wells scoring 27 points on 8-of-16 shooting, but he only made 11-of-16 free throws. The other was Jake Tsakalidas, who grabbed 10 boards and scored 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting. He played pretty well in the second half when the Rockets needed some offense, but having not played very much this season, he tired out in 21 minutes of action.

It was a tough loss for Houston since they are trying to keep up with the Spurs to get one of the top 4 playoff seeds in the Western Conference that would give them home court advantage in first round of the playoffs at least. They are now 3.5 games behind San Antonio. Looking at losses to teams like the Hornets, Hawks (Friday night), and now Boston, it will be painful if the Rockets miss getting home court because of lapses to some of the worst teams in the league.

Raymond has translated another interview that Titan Sports conducted with Yao Ming last Friday at the beginning of the Rockets’ recent road trip to Atlanta and Orlando. In the interview he talks about the brace support that concerns Jeff Van Gundy about his return to the court in mid-March. Thanks Raymond for all the hard work in translating this very long interview!

TITAN: So how do you feel now that you’re back to the days of traveling by plane, living in hotels, coming in and going out of visiting team’s changing room, and sitting with your teammates in the same place?

TITAN: You mentioned earlier you must maintain 6 hours per day for your rehabilitation such that you can return to competitive form and shape as soon as possible. How can you guarantee that 6 hours of rehab now that you’re traveling with the team?

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Uh-oh. Just when you think Yao’s return by mid-March is going to happen, we get this on the wire.

“What we’ve seen in the brief things he’s able to do with us, you get the sense he’s a lot further away from playing NBA basketball than maybe the timetables would suggest,” Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle before Sunday’s game at Orlando. “He does not look comfortable at all with the brace. He does not look agile. Last year, he looked on the cusp of [returning]. To me, he looks like we have problems to solve there to get him back.

“Remember two years ago when I wore the arm brace?” Yao said. “I had a lot of trouble with that and that was on my arm.”