Yao greets former Rocket teammate Steve Francis before Monday night’s game between the Rockets and Knicks in New York. Each player’s career has taken different directions since Francis was traded 3 seasons ago from the Rockets. Yao had 26 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks Monday night, whereas Francis scored 7 points, had 4 rebounds and 3 assists due to limited time after being benched most of the second half by Knick coach Isiah Thomas. Click here for the game story. Click here for more game photos.

I’ve got to make this short since I am tending to a major illness in my family, and I probably won’t be able to watch any Rocket games for a week or so because my life and schedule has been thrown completely out of whack because of it. But that’s life.

With the bad news I have had lately, it was nice to see the Rockets put a little bit of happiness into my day. The Rockets beat the Knicks in New York and didn’t blow a lead in the fourth quarter for once. They actually pulled through in the fourth quarter by outscoring the Knicks 32-28 and beat a scrappy New York team 97-90.

Yao scored 26 points (14-of-16 from the line), grabbed 9 rebounds and had 3 blocks. He had 15 at halftime, and the Rockets shot 60%, but they still only had a 58-55 lead at halftime and had too many turnovers.

T-Mac had 24 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds, including 6 points during a 10-1 run in the fourth to seal the victory. And Rafer Alston had an excellent game – 17 points, 3 assists and two steals. He also nailed a three-pointer in the final quarter along with Luther Head to keep the Knicks at arms length.

The bad news is that Kirk Snyder broke his hand and will be out for awhile, but Vassilis Spanoulis played great by drawing a charge, going to the hole strong and allowing Yao to clean up on the boards for a put-back.

Click here for the game story.

Click here for more photos.

Okay, so that’s about all I can post. Things are getting kind of crazy around here. I’ll probably be back on this blog in the next week or so.

Yao comes out to the perimeter to limit Tayshaun Prince offensively in Detroit Saturday night. Yao had a monster night statistically (33 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists), but was limited to two points in the fourth quarter on the way to a 104-92 Rockets loss. Click here for the game story. For more photos from the game, click here.

The Rockets had a golden chance to make a statement about the kind of team they are Saturday night against Detroit in Auburn Hills, and for 3 quarters, they were looking pretty good.

Yao was dominating through those first 3 quarters, scoring 31 points.

T-Mac had started the game hot, scoring 8 of the Rockets first 10 points, and 13 of their first 19, not missing a shot and looking like he was on his way to a 30+ point night.

But the problem was that the other Rocket players weren’t shooting well (12-of-35 for 34%), and when Yao (two points in the fourth quarter) and T-Mac cooled off, and the defense couldn’t stop the Pistons in the final quarter, it was a recipe for disaster and a 104-92 loss.

Detroit had gone on their own dry spell in the second quarter when they missed 10 shots in a row and fell behind 34-26. But you knew the Pistons, only two seasons removed from a World Championship, were too good of a team to fold and die.

They came roaring back and managed to close their deficit to 52-50 at halftime. Both teams played to a stalemate in the third quarter (26-26), leading to the Rockets collapse in the fourth quarter where they were outscored 28-14.

Giving up 104 points to the Pistons is surprising considering the Rockets headed into the game giving up the least number of points per game this season on the road (about 91) and Detroit averaged about 90 ppg.

Even T-Mac admitted the Rockets’ shortcoming on defense:

“Our defense in the fourth quarter was bad, really bad. Until we change that, we’re going to keep having those results.”

Detroit’s defense did a good job forcing Yao and T-Mac farther from the basket, making the Rocket offense bog down, resulting in turnovers and bad shot selection. T-Mac only hit 2-of-7 field goals in the second half and scored 24 points. He was also limited in playing time because of foul trouble, a rarity, but considering he was playing against Richard Hamilton, it’s somewhat understandable.

Pistons’ coach Flip Saunders revealed after the game his strategy in using Rasheed Wallace and the rest of his big men against Yao, who was 1-for-5 in the fourth:

“Sheed (Rasheed Wallace) is smart. Last year at times when we played (Yao Ming) we actually put Sheed on him and he did a nice job. He fought him and fought him. I told our guys going into the game, Yao gets a little bit tired in the fourth quarter so you got to keep running, keep on pushing and keep on fighting in there and try to wear him down to the fourth quarter. I think we did that.”

Chauncey Billups said after the game, “(Wallace) played Yao really well, we cut Yao out running so many pick and rolls and making him play out on the perimeter because he is really unstoppable.”

The Rockets turned it over at least 5 times in the fourth quarter (two by Yao), went 7 minutes without a field goal, and shot only 26% (5-of-19) while Detroit went on a 13-0 to put the game out of reach.

One thing is for sure. T-Mac needs to stop shooting 3-pointers. He was 1-for-5 in the game, and is shooting 28% from behind the arc for the season.

Yao was phenomenal in those first 3 quarters, giving the Ben Wallace-less Pistons problems down low, getting fouled numerous times, and making them pay by hitting 17-of-20 free throws.

He also threw several nifty passes for 4 assists, and only committed one personal foul. On the downside, he turned the ball over 8 times total.

The Rockets next play the Knicks in New York, and I have a bad feeling about that game. The Knicks are very explosive and gave the Rockets all kinds of fits last week in Houston.

Ben Wallace goes after one of Yao’s shots Thursday night. Yao scored 20 points on 7-of-19 shooting and grabbed 12 boards in a 101-100 win over the Chicago Bulls.” Click here for the game story. For more photos from the game, click here.

Okay, so the Rockets lost another big lead last night to the Bulls. I’m not too concerned. They still won. Before they lost their 21-point third quarter lead, the Rockets were probably playing a little above their heads. For example, the Rockets came out shooting extremely hot in the third quarter, hitting 9 of their first 10 shots. For them to keep up that kind of shooting percentage is not realistic.

Furthermore, the Bulls are no slouch of a team, and they were probably playing below their capability when they fell behind so much. In the long run, the hot and cold streaks tend to even out for both teams, and the better team will usually win, which I believe the Rockets were. And the final score of 101-100 made the game look closer than what it really was, with Andres Nocioni hitting a three-pointer with no time left.

Sure, the Rockets made some mistakes, but they will learn from them, even if the same mistakes and turnovers have been a common occurrence lately. But I would rather have those mistakes happen now than later in the season or the playoffs. They need something to work on over the next 73 games, right? If they didn’t, the games would be kind of boring to watch, don’t you think?

And I kind of like it when the Rocket players are mad and want to fix problems, as evidenced by Tracy McGrady‘s quote after the game:

“I’m not happy at all. You’ve got to be happy about the win, but the overall picture is not good. We can’t throw away games like this.”

Surprisingly, even Jeff Van Gundy is not being as doom-and-gloom as he normally is, even after wins.

“We’re doing some good things to get ahead. If you had looked at our schedule coming into the year knowing we were down a couple of guys and had played our last three games against Miami, San Antonio and Chicago and won two of the three, regardless of how the game ended, you would say (our team) is doing some good things. (But) I’m not happy at all with not playing up to our capabilities.”

One of those good things was the Rockets hitting their free throws down the stretch, hitting 9 of 10 free throws to finish the game. That was pretty clutch and is something the Rockets are not known to do well as a team.

Yao had a rough first half, hitting only 3-of-10 shots, but still had scored 10 points and grabbed 9 boards at the half. Ben Wallace got props from Bulls coach Scott Skiles for playing the best defense he had seen played against Yao. Yao made 4-of-9 shots in the second half and finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. He also finished with only two turnovers.

After the game, Yao described what he thinks the Rockets need to close out games better:

“Intelligence. More intelligence, I think. Know the time, know the score, know the penalties, know the number of timeouts. We need every player to know that and to know those situations.”

The Rockets showed some resilience in the first half, turning an 8-point deficit in the first quarter into an 11-point halftime lead, thanks to Scott Padgett scoring 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting. I had mentioned the other day the Rockets were smart in signing Padgett again since he was their best 3-point shooter two seasons ago before letting him go. The Rockets extended the lead to 21 points in the third quarter before Ben Gordon got hot and got the Bulls back into the game.

I like the intelligence Padgett showed after the game in analyzing the Rockets second half collapses.

“When you miss 2 or 3 (baskets) in a row, then the next time, you need to get the ball into Yao (Ming)or get the ball into the paint to get a higher-quality shot. Sometimes, I think, when you get hot, like when we were hot for awhile, sometimes you fall in love with it (perimeter game). Sometimes when you’re wide open, it’s better to force-feed the big guy than to shoot up another 3.”

T-Mac had a sensational boxscore and showed signs that he may be breaking out of his slump, hitting 8-of-17 shots, scoring 21 points, grabbing 11 boards and doling out 7 assists.

Before closing, I had to mention one note about the TNT coverage. Analyst Doug Collins was surprised the Rockets were pushing the ball on fast breaks, saying the Rockets are not a running team. Well, if he did his homework, he’ll see that Van Gundy has emphasized running when the opportunity is there since he has the horses, like McGrady and Luther Head. They also have added Kirk Snyder (who was running on one of those breaks Thursday night), who is much quicker than the recently departed David Wesley and Jon Barry. Do your homework, Doug.

This story is one of the reasons why I have respect for Jeff Van Gundy. I love how he speaks his mind, and isn’t worried about fines and such.

Yao gets swarmed by Tim Duncan and Tony Parker Tuesday night on his way to a 7-for-21 shooting night and 20 points. The Spurs showed why they are so good, rallying from 19 points down to defeat the Rockets 92-84. Click here for the game story. For more photos from the game, click here.

The Spurs showed Tuesday night why they were only a play or two away from going to the NBA Finals last season.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about it. You can read this Houston Chronicle story to find out more about the Rockets’ collapse and the Spurs’ big scoring runs in the 3rd and 4th quarters to win 92-84. The numbers aren’t pretty.

But I knew when the Rockets closed out the half with a scoring run of their own thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers by Scott Padgett — capped with a trey by T-Mac with .1 seconds remaining before halftime — their 13-point lead was going to be fleeting.

Actually, it wasn’t fleeting for awhile. The Rockets opened up a 19-point lead on the Spurs in the third quarter, then everything went south. Offense. Defense. You name it.

Yao only shot 7-for-21 (when is the last time we saw numbers like that?) for 21 points. Once the Spurs put Tim Duncan on him, he showed why he is a former league MVP. Duncan, along with his teammates, pretty much shut down Yao, and the rest of the Rockets for that matter.

For some reason I’m not too upset about this loss. Of course I love to see the Rockets win, but they have been getting so much recognition the past week or so having won 4 in a row, it can serve some good to get slapped back into reality.

The Rockets now know there is another level to which they need to aspire. They know they can’t coast to a win after building a big lead, and need to play hard against great teams like the Spurs.

Yao’s teammates know he is not going to dominate every night, and that they need to provide some help on the scoring side.

Bonzi Wells really knows now his team needs him because there will be some nights where they need his scoring punch.

Jeff Van Gundy knows that when the Rockets’ shooting is suffering, he needs to consider bringing Steve Novak off the bench. Novak didn’t play.

On the bright side…

T-Mac was the T-Mac of old in the first half, scoring 21 points (3-of-4 three-pointers). We’ll forget he only scored 5 points in the second half. He finished with 26.

Thank God the Rockets brought Padgett back to Houston after they let him go two years ago. He was their best 3-point shooter that season, and he showed he still has the touch. Those two 3-pointers he hit late in the second quarter almost brought the house down. He finished 2-of-3 from 3-point territory, and the Rockets were 7-of-11 in the first half.

That first half was unbelievable, with the fans and the bench showing lots of enthusiasm when the Rockets went on their run. It’s going to be fun at Toyota Center this season.

Dikembe Mutombo showed he still has it, blocking Tim Duncan twice in the first half.

Houston only committed 3 turnovers in the first half. They finished with 9. Luther Head had four, though. Tough night for a dude who has been playing pretty well this season.

In the first half they scored 56 points and shot 50% from the field. Although they shot 24% in the second half and scored 28 points (9 in the fourth quarter), we know that kind of poor shooting won’t happen too many times this season. It will probably be more in between those figures.

Look for the Rockets to come out with a vengeance all four quarters against the Bulls Thursday night.

This from SportsTicker…

NEW YORK (Ticker) – Atlanta Hawks swingman Joe Johnson and Houston Rockets center Yao Ming on Monday were named the NBA Players of the Week.

Other players nominated were Denver forward Carmelo Anthony, Golden State guard Baron Davis, Indiana forward Al Harrington, Los Angeles Clippers guard Sam Cassell, Miami guard Dwyane Wade, Milwaukee guard Michael Redd, Portland forward Zach Randolph, Sacramento swingman Kevin Martin, San Antonio guard Tony Parker and Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer.

Yao contests a shot of Shaq’s Sunday night in Miami. Yao got the better of Shaq with 34 points and 14 rebounds, and arguably is now the NBA’s best center. Click here for the game story. For more photos from the game, click here. Photo courtesy Getty Images.

Despite Yao’s contention and humility, an official “changing of the guard” took place last night in Miami.

Yao dominated Shaq, scoring 34 points and 14 rebounds compared to Shaq’s 15 points and 10 boards. In my opinion, Yao is being too nice when he said the following after the Rockets 94-72 victory:

“He (Shaq) is the dominant center in this league, even at his age (34). He’s not the same in the regular season as he is in the playoffs. Like last year. If it was the playoffs, I would have seen a totally different Shaq. I would say the regular season doesn’t matter. Maybe one day I could meet him in the Finals.”

Yao forgets that Shaq’s NBA Finals performance last season was just so-so, averaging less than 14 points and scoring less than 10 points twice in the 6-game series. There’s almost no way that Yao would put up that low of numbers in a Finals the way he’s playing now. And he’s putting up bigger numbers than Shaq (14 ppg) all the time now.

The entire country — having access to watching the game nationally on ESPN – could see for themselves just how good Yao is. He’s hitting fallaway jumpers with consistency, hook shots in the lane, running the floor for layups, even throwing up tough left-handed shots while falling to the floor, and most of them are going in. 11-of-19 went in last night.

He’s also money from the line, which Shaq is definitely not. Yao made 12-of-13 free throws. It’s clear just how much of a force Yao is now in the league.

He’s also playing pretty good defense. After Shaq made his first 4 shots with relative ease against Yao, he only made 2-of-10 the rest of the way (6-of-14 was the final total).

Sure, Yao is not playing a perfect game. He still got blocked a couple of times, but he’s better than any other center in the league.

I even like how he’s keeping his cool. Shaq doesn’t like the notion of having been replaced as the NBA’s ‘best center’ or even ‘most dominant,’ so he threw a couple of shots at Yao that showed how much of a thug he can be. Battling for position for a rebound, Shaq threw an obvious elbow at Yao’s head that sent him falling to the floor in pain. Later he pushed Yao with his left arm while Yao was vulnerable in mid-air while going up for a rebound.

Yao didn’t lose his composure and retaliate against Shaq because of these cheap shots. I probably would have, but that just shows how much Yao is under control mentally of his game right now.

This game was also a statement game for the Rockets. They showed the world how good they are, beating the defending World Champions and extending their record to 5-2. And they are doing all of this with Tracy McGrady struggling from the floor.

T-Mac only hit 6-of-18 shots for 12 points, but he’s showing how great of a difference maker he can be by making excellent decisions with the ball and dishing out a game-high 8 assists.

Until T-Mac gets back to normal with his jump shot, I think he should just continue going to the rack to get easier shots, which he did a few times Sunday on some highlight reel plays.

As far as the other Rockets, most notable was Shane Battier continuing to make solid contributions with 11 points (5-of-10 shooting) and 3 assists. I remember seeing a couple of weeks ago the results of a survey of NBA General Managers asking them what was the most consequential trade during the off-season, and the Rockets acquisition of Battier for a draft day trade of Rudy Gay ranked #1. After seeing Battier play this season in the Rockets lineup, I think I would have to agree with them. I also think a lot of people who didn’t like that trade might have changed their mind by now.

Chuck Hayes also made his presence felt by battling hard for rebounds (6) and scoring on some nifty moves around the basket using the rim well to shield against getting his shot blocked. He did run into Shaq in the second half and hyperextended his left knee. Looking at the replay on TV, you can tell it really hurt. Hopefully he will be okay because they really need his garbageman mentality.

Juwan Howard came in to replace Hayes, and he did a pretty good job, 2-of-5 shots and grabbing four boards.

Luther Head continues to play extremely well, hitting 4-of-9 shots (3-of-6 treys) to score 11 points.

But the night belonged to Yao. Even T-Mac got caught up in the excitement after the game when he stated:

“The big fella is playing at his best. I don’t know if he can get better. He’s phenomenal out there, man.”

“Now, I know what it feels like to sit back and watch a great player right before your eyes. Guys I played with in the past got caught up in the moment of just watching something great. That’s what I’m doing right now, watching something great.”

Yao goes after a shot from New York’s Eddy Curry Friday night in Houston. Yao was unstoppable, scoring 35 points, grabbing 17 boards and blocking 7 shots in an 103-94 win. Click here for the game story. For more photos from the game, click here. Photo courtesy Bill Baptist / Getty Images

The dominance of Yao we saw last year is back. Yao had put up decent numbers this season before Friday night’s game against the Knicks at Toyota Center. He had a monster game against Dallas 4 games ago at home, but since then, he had averaged “only” 21.3 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block.

Returning home after a three-game road trip, Yao put up the amazing numbers we loved seeing so much last season. Friday night’s line:

35 points, 17 rebounds, 7 blocks

If he does that well Sunday night against Miami and Shaq on Sunday night on ESPN, he should win Player of the Week honors.

Yao abused Eddy Curry and the rest of the Knick front line all night. It was clear that Curry didn’t want to have anything to do with Yao, putting up very little defense on most possessions. The Knicks also opted not to double-team him much.

Yao took advantage of it, hitting uncontested fallaway jumpers and layups most of the night, and started by scoring 10 of the Rockets first 12 points of the game. He even hustled down the court a couple of times for a dunk and layup.

Midway through the second quarter, he had 14 points and 5 blocks. On defense, he was even smart enough to back off of Curry and “pull the chair” from him to make him tumble to the floor and call a timeout. The trick that several players had pulled on Yao in previous seasons is now part of his own repertoire. He does it all.

As strong as Yao and the Rockets looked by shooting 50% in the first half, they still only led 51-46 with a couple of seconds remaining before halftime. Dribble penetration by the Knick guards had broken down the Rockets’ offense on numerous occasions, keeping the game somewhat close. But Tracy McGrady gave the Rockets the wider margin they deserved by hitting a fallaway 3-pointer off the glass at the buzzer!

By that time, Yao had 18 points to go along with those 5 blocks.

Yao continued his onslaught by hitting a fallaway jumper in the lane to start the second half. The Rockets continued to roll, and opened up an 18-point lead with 7:30 remaining when Chuck Hayes blocked Jamal Crawford ‘s shot, which started a fast break where Rafer Alston threw it to T-Mac at the top of the three-point line for a dagger!

McGrady, who had started the game 0-for-5, made 4 of his next five shots to give Yao some help, and the Rockets were cruising into the fourth quarter with an 82-66 lead.

But just like their previous game against Milwaukee, the Rockets couldn’t put the Knicks away in the fourth quarter. Houston turned the ball over four times in the first 3 ½ minutes of the quarter while New York scored 6 straight points.

But just like the Milwaukee game, Alston came threw when the Rockets were reeling and scored on a tough hook shot at the baseline to stop the bleeding. But the Knicks still kept it close, and with a little over 3 minutes remaining in the game and the Rockets only up by 8 points, Alston came through again with a HUGE buzzer-beating 3-pointer a couple of feet behind the three-point line to give them a 95-84 cushion.

I bashed Alston plenty of times last season, but I have to give him props for playing pretty well in this young season. He has hit big shots and is hitting a respectable 39% from three-point territory this season, with many of those shots being hit during clutch moments. Skip-to-my-Lou finished with 13 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. If he continues to play at this rate, he could become a candidate for most improved player of the year.

Back to the game…the Rockets led 99-86 with about 2 minutes remaining after Yao hit a jump shot, and it looked like the game was in hand. But within 45 seconds, the Knicks had gone on a 7-0 run to cut it to 99-93 with 1:15 remaining, a run that included an amazing rebound and dunk by 5’9” Nate Robinson which even got Houston fans sitting behind the goal out of their seats!

On the Rockets’ ensuing possession, Yao had the ball and Robinson came by and hacked him on the arm as he was passing to Alston (no foul was called), which made the pass go off line and made Alston mishandle it and the ball went loose. A mad scramble occurred, with the Rockets desperately needing to gain possession since they couldn’t afford to have New York score again. That’s when Alston dove to the floor for the ball, knocked it to another Rocket to save possession, and T-Mac was fouled and drained two free throws to make it 101-93 with 48.7 seconds remaining.

Then on the next possession, Stephon Marbury missed a free throw that could have made it 101-95, and Yao grabbed the rebound. But once again, Robinson mugged Yao and slapped him purposely in the face. A technical should have been called, but it wasn’t. Very quickly Robinson has showed to me he’s a bit of a thug by playing so physical. He better be careful, or he’s going to get hurt one day.

After the hack in the face, Yao kept his cool, and drained two free throws to make it 103-94 to put the game out of reach, and finish with an incredible night 35 points on 15-of-21 shooting.

Although Yao committed 8 turnovers, you can’t complain much considering the other columns in his boxscore.

Speaking of boxscore, the Rockets had all five starters plus Luther Head score in double-figures, with all players shooting 54.8% collectively. Luther, who was sort of the “forgotten man” during all the preseason hype about new players joining the team (Steve Novak, Vassilis Spanoulis, Shane Battier, Kirk Snyder, Bonzi Wells) continues to amaze from three-point territory, hitting 3-of-4 shots.

And Chuck Hayes (10 points on 4-of-4 shooting, 6 rebounds) continued to impress on offense. One of those scores was a whirling dervish spin move in the lane for a layup that would leave even LeBron James impressed.

Battier (12 points on 5-of-9 shooting, 5 assists) was also huge, blocking out and tipping a rebound to Yao late in the game on a key possession. But my most favorite play of Shane’s was when he took a charge with 6 minutes remaining, and the entire Rocket bench got up to salute him! When teammates are applauding each other for taking a charge, you know the defense that Jeff Van Gundy is emphasizing must be working.

I could keep going on with this game and Yao’s dominance, but I’ll stop here and recommend you read some of the quotes from Yao in this Houston Chronicle story.

Yao drives the baseline on Milwaukee’s Andrew Bogut Tuesday night in Milwaukee. Yao won the battle between the two former #1 draft picks, scoring 23 points and grabbing 7 boards, compared to Bogut’s 7 points and 3 rebounds. But for Yao, it was still an “off” night, making only 10 out of 24 shots. Still, the Rockets escaped with a 97-93 win to complete their road trip. Click here for the game story. For more photos from the game, click here.

Okay, I’m finally getting back on schedule. I have been traveling the past 4 days and it has been hard for me to watch Yao and the Rockets play “live” and provide timely analysis. As a patchwork solution, I have been using a Slingbox to watch the games from my DirecTV Tivo late at night from a hotel room, or from a free wi-fi hot spot.

Obviously, the Slingbox isn’t as good as watching on a TV because the picture is grainy, especially when the players are moving fast. Because it’s difficult to see what actually happened with the grainy picture, I have to constantly ‘rewind’ to see a play over again. And when you’re doing that on a Slingbox, it takes about three times as long to get it to the right place in the recording because of the delay involved. It’s even worse when you’re watching it over a Windows Mobile phone, which I had to do last night because I couldn’t find a wi-fi hotspot.

It takes awhile to watch an entire game, but I at least I got a pretty good gist of what happened during last night’s Rocket win against Milwaukee. But since I had to wake up extremely early to catch a flight back to Texas, I didn’t have time to post my report until now. So here you go…

It was a weird night for Yao Ming last night in Milwaukee. Once again, he got in foul trouble, a problem we thought he had finally conquered last season. He picked up his third foul late in the second quarter, and because he was playing limited action, he was held to only 6 points in the first half.

Luckily, Dikembe Mutombo did a great job subbing for him. Deke grabbed 8 rebounds and scored 8 points in ten minutes of work in the first half alone! The Rockets led 48-39 at halftime, thanks also to great team shooting (47%), three-point shooting (5-of-7), and 26 rebounds, which led to 10 second-chance points and 15 points from the bench.

Then Yao came out in the third quarter on fire, seemingly determined to put the Bucks away. In the first six minutes of the second half, he made 6 of his first 7 shots and scored 12 points. Meanwhile, Milwaukee struggled in their shooting and when the Rockets opened a 17-point lead, a chorus of boos rained from the rafters.

The Rockets continued to impress with a run-and-gun offense in the third quarter, opening up a 73-50 lead at one point and hitting 65% of their shots in the third. I was impressed — and surprised — the Rockets could play so well at the end of a long road trip, along with it being their fourth time in five nights.

But just when I started to think the Rockets were going to slide out of Milwaukee with an easy win, the wheels fell off. As solid as he was in the third quarter, Yao completely lost his shooting touch. The Rockets went to him early in the fourth quarter to try to put the Bucks away, but Yao hit a cold spell and missed 7 of his last 9 shots.

I don’t know if fatigue finally hit him or what, but often when Yao gets a hot shooting hand, he tends to cool off dramatically. I think it has a lot to do with confidence. Once he’s on a roll, he’s tough to stop. But once he starts missing jump shots, I think it can get into his head a little bit.

That dry spell let the Bucks back into the game. Fortunately, Rafer Alston came up with some big shots, hitting a jumper from the top of the key, and a three-pointer a few minutes later to stop some of the bleeding.

But the Bucks’ Michael Redd and Charlie Bell continued to pour in points, and the Rockets missed 7 of their last 8 shots in the game’s final four minutes. As a result, the Rockets’ once insurmountable lead was whittled down to 5 points with just a few minutes remaining.

T-Mac came to the rescue, though, making 4 free throws in the waning moments of the game to fend off the pesky Bucks, sealing a 97-93 win that almost slipped away – a typical game that the Rockets frequently lost last season.

Overall, it was probably McGrady’s best game this season when he has been struggling so much since the season began. T-Mac finished with 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting, hit 3-of-5 three-pointers, and had 6 boards, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. Fantasy Leaguers who have T-Mac on their team can finally breathe a sigh of relief that he’s back on track.

Now the Rockets have a respectable 3-2 record and come back for some home. Based on the only game they have played at Toyota Center this season when they destroyed Dallas, the Rockets may have a much better chance of creating a true home court advantage. The Rocket Rowdies with their constant screaming may have made a huge difference. We’ll find out soon enough starting Friday night against the Knicks.

Oh yeah, speaking of Dallas, have you noticed they are now 0-4? Wow, how fleeting can good times be? Enjoy them while you can, I guess.

Yao Ming fell on his knee and bled, turned an ankle on an opposing player and fell to the floor in pain, was posterized by rom Dahntay Jones on a massive dunk, got hit in the eye with no foul called, and turned the ball over six times in the first three quarters.

But when it came time for the Rockets to put the Memphis Grizzlies away Tuesday night, Yao put all those bad things behind him, put his team on his back and scored 9 of the Rockets first 10 points of the fourth quarter to help them win 86-80.

I am traveling this week on business and don’t have as much time to do a full report because of all the commitments I have on this trip, but I did record the game and watched it on my Slingbox late last night before falling asleep. When I’m traveling like this and the Rockets are playing a back-to-back like they are tonight against Milwaukee, I’ll put together a “joint” report where I’ll combine my analysis from two games into one.

Well, the hotel front desk just called, and they are pressuring me to check out. So I’ll check back here later, probably on Thursday afternoon when I get back into town.