Yao shoots over New Orleans/Oklahoma City’s Tyson Chandler on Sunday night in New Orleans. Yao picked up 3 early fouls in the game’s first five minutes, which limited his playing time, leading to the Rockets losing 96-90. Click here for the story. Click here for more game photos.

For the second game out of the Rockets first 3 games of the season, Yao has reverted to getting in foul trouble again, something we thought he had conquered late last season when he went on his phenomenal run.

It’s questionable if some of the fouls being called on him are legit, but it’s clear Yao needs to understand once again that he is more prone to having the refs call fouls on him simply because he’s a bigger guy who will attract more attention from the refs’ whistles.

On Sunday night in New Orleans, Yao picked up 3 fouls in the game’s first 5 minutes, and it restricted him to just 27 minutes of play and 11 shots, leading to just 17 points coming on the heels of his huge 36-point game the night before against Dallas. The Rockets could have used his help, who lost to New Orleans 96-90.

But it’s not all Yao’s fault. The rest of the team struggled, too, hitting only 40.5% of their shots collectively and turning it over 20 times while New Orleans shot much better (47%) and kept much better control of the ball (15 turnovers).

Tracy McGrady continues to struggle, making only 5-of-15 shots and committing 5 turnovers. Perhaps T-Mac is having a hard time adjusting to the new Spalding basketballs. Like Jeff Van Gundy said after the game, I believe in the greatness of McGrady and I think he’ll straighten things out soon.

Luckily the Rockets have more scoring power at other positions to help out this season when T-Mac struggles, as we saw Saturday night against Dallas. Shane Battier hit 5-of-13 three pointers to lead the Rockets in scoring in this game.

But unlike the Dallas game, no one else really stepped up. Rafer Alston, who looked so good Saturday night, reverted to his old ways by missing 3 shots (including a layup) in the first quarter, and committed 3 turnovers. Overall, he finished with 13 points (5-of-12), only 3 assists, and 4 turnovers.

One trend is starting to become evident in this young season. Last year Houston was very strong on the road, finishing with a better road record than home one. This year is shaping up to be the opposite. They are 0-2 on the road, and 1-0 at home.

I was able to watch the Rockets beat up on the Mavericks, then I pulled an all-nighter doing some work on another project. Now I have to head to the airport and won’t be online all day Sunday, but I will provide some analysis late Sunday night after the Rockets-Hornets game.

In case you missed it Saturday night, the Rockets looked unbeatable in a 107-76 win over Dallas at Toyota Center. I can’t believe how well everyone (well, almost) played. These guys played like they wanted to make an early statement that they will be a force in the league this season. Yao scored 36 points on 12 of 16 shooting, and made all 12 of his free throws.

I can’t contain my excitement after this one. Good thing I have to shut down my computer and head to the airport, or I would be writing for hours!

Yao’s frontcourt mate on the Chinese national team, Yi Jianlian, has been given permission by his Guangdong Tigers team to enter next year’s NBA draft. However, he still needs the approval of the Chinese Basketball Association and an exemption from a CBA rule that Chinese players are not eligible for the NBA draft until they turn 22.

There has been lots of questions about Yi Jianlian’s true age. He is listed as being 18 or 19 years old, although he reportedly told Shane Battier he was 24 this summer during the World Championships, which Yi later denied. Regardless, when he does enter the draft, he is expected be a high draft pick.

Click here for more on the story. Click here for more about Yi.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click here for the game story.

Click here for the box score.

As Yao prepares for the start of the NBA season on Wednesday in Utah, Raymond in China has worked hard to translate a long interview that Yao granted to Titan Sports. Click here for the translated interview.

Thanks, Raymond!

Yao sprained his left ankle last night in Orlando in his 14th minute of play. It’s minor and he said he won’t even miss the Rockets’ next practice on Saturday. He sprained it when he was boxing out for a defensive board, and was pushed from behind.

In those 14 minutes, Yao had 13 points and 4 rebounds. Later in the second half, the Rockets held a 13-point lead but the reserves blew it when the Magic went on a 19-0 run, and the Rockets ultimately lost 94-90. Good thing it was only a preseason game, but it was there last warmup game before next Wednesday’s regular season opener against Utah in Salt Lake.

Yao corrals Shaquille O’Neal in a preseason game Wednesday night where Shaq only scored 9 points on 3-of-8 shooting and grabbed 5 rebounds in 22 minutes of play. Yao struggled with his shooting as well, only hitting 1-of-7 shots that were away from the rim (5-of-12 overall), finishing with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks. However, the Rockets still won the game 96-71. Click here for the game story. For more photos from the game, click here.

I watched Wednesday night’s game and was deeply impressed with the Rockets’ 96-71 victory over Miami, who played Dwyane Wade and Shaq significant minutes. If the Rockets play this well in the regular season, it’s going to be a fun one. 55+ wins wouldn’t be out of the question. They are loaded, and Bonzi Wells hasn’t even played in the preseason yet.

Yao looked good on pick-and-rolls where teammates like T-Mac and Vassilis Spanoulis delivered nice, soft passes to him near the rim for easy layups. He also had a sweet left-handed hook shot over Shaq from the middle of the lane. But he missed the rest of his shots away from the basket to finish 5-of-8 from the field for 12 points. I like what Yao said after the game, though:

“He (coach Jeff Van Gundy) wants me to score, score, score. If I score five times in a row, don’t think about passing the sixth time. I need to learn this.”

Amazing! Maybe Yao will average close to 30 points per game this season with these instructions.

On the down side Wednesday night, he got his shot blocked and stolen a couple of times and he threw an easy pass too high over Rafer Alston‘s head where he acknowledged it was ‘his bad.’ Despite five turnovers, he made up for it somewhat with 13 rebounds and 3 blocks.

T-Mac also struggled, but Shane Battier (10 points, 6 boards) continued to play solid ball. Alston (13 points, 6 boards, 5 assists) looks very improved compared to last year, hitting 3-of-6 three pointers on Wednesday (7-of-13 in the preseason) and committing only one turnover in 27 minutes.

Rookie Steve Novak (17 points, 4-of-7 from three-point land) was impressive to make up for Yao and T-Mac’s shooting woes. I don’t think anyone thought that Novak would shoot so well in his rookie season from 3-point territory (12-of-21 so far). But it’s still early, and once he hits the drain of the long, NBA regular season, I expect his shooting will taper off.

Kirk Snyder looked great scoring around the hole and going to the basket. As Van Gundy stated a couple of weeks ago, it’s clear Snyder is very athletic and strong. He scored 11 points Wednesday night, but he needs to stop being tempted by the 3-point shot as much. He missed all three of his attempts, includine one attempt from an angle that hit the backboard first, and missed all four of his attempts in his last game.

Barry is back

It was interesting to hear former teammate Jon Barry, now an ESPN game commentator, provide his perspective on Yao. He stated:

“I’m just a big Yao fan. I really think he could be one of the top 6-8 centers ever to play this game. I love his game.”

We know that most people love Yao’s game, but to say Yao has the potential to be up in the upper echelon of centers all-time is something I hadn’t really thought about since Yao is only in his fifth season and had his breakout year only last season.

On an different note, I laughed when Barry said that coach Jeff Van Gundy has no problem calling out his players during film sessions, and that Barry was highlighted so much during these sessions, he was the “Brad Pitt” of the team.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

Yao and Juwan Howard read to some kids at Toyota Center at Read to Achieve event on Monday, October 23rd. Click here for the story and more photos from the event.

At Read to Achieve on Monday, the understated Yao quipped in typical fashion, “”I (wanted) to listen, not read. I (wanted) to sit with the kids.” But then got serious and followed up with, “But no, I do like reading to them.”

I love how Yao is using his celebrity to make statements on various topics, like not eating sharks’ fin soup. In this story, he wants his fellow countrymen to show courtesy to visitors during the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

This is nothing new for people from host Olympic countries to ask their fellow citizens to be more welcoming of visitors for the Games. I remember during the 1984 Olympics in LA and 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, city leaders asked local residents to stay off the roads to prevent traffic jams. And during the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, the Mormons were asked not to proselytize visitors to their religion.

There are countless other examples of these kinds of recommendations being made. So anyone who thinks Yao is overstepping his bounds needs to keep things in perspective. After all, these statements were part of a 2008 publication released by Olympic organizers.