Yao clears out for a rebound against San Antonio’s Tim Duncan Saturday. Yao grabbed 10 boards and scored 20 points, but the Rockets lost to the Spurs again, this time 92-77. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

SATURDAY, 3/18/06 – The Rockets surprised no one by losing 92-77 to the Spurs on Saturday night. In fact, they have surprised no one over the past four games against tough opponents, losing all four. They have also lost all 12 of their divisional games this season, and are 2-17 without T-Mac.

There is really no point to go into the details for this game, other than…

* The Rockets got to within 5 points of the Spurs (60-55), but then Robert Horry stole a ball and hit a three-pointer to create a bigger cushion, and that was the beginning of the end for the Rockets. Houston climbed within 7 points at the end

* Focusing on playing more defense (holding Tim Duncan to 14 points), Yao scored 20 points and grabbed 10 boards, but was only able to take one shot in the game’s last 7 minutes.

* The Rockets couldn’t stop Tony Parker, who burned them for 23 points. Overall, the Spurs shot 48.7%.

* While Juwan Howard improved his play from recent games with 18 points on 8-of-12 shots, Rafer Alston was awful, hitting 2-of-14 for 8 points. At least Alston had some insightful comments after the game when he talked of another Houston failure to win a game down the stretch: “You’re supposed to get better. When other teams turn it up a notch or two levels, we turn it down a notch or two. Teams make it hard for us to get it to our best player (Yao Ming). We don’t make it hard to get it to some of their best players.”

* I am really getting tired of the Rockets losing to the Spurs. Surprise me for me once, won’t you?

The Rockets are now 4.5 games behind the Lakers with 16 games to play. The season is over. So let’s start thinking about next year and getting a high lottery pick. Can the Rockets get lucky again like they did in 2002 and get the #1 pick? Adam Morrison or J.J. Redick could really help the Rockets. Fat chance they’ll get one of them.

You go, JVG

As much as I have been underwhelmed by Jeff Van Gundy‘s coaching this season, I have to give him props for a comment he made Saturday. Discussing how players around the league celebrate when one of their teammates dunks on Yao, like in last Sunday’s game against the Spurs when Michael Finley supposedly dunked on Yao (although Yao just came over to help at the last second because Finley had driven past Rick Brunson):

“I think some of those same people that like to mock Yao’s negative plays are the same people who predicted that he wasn’t good and would never really (make an impact). So instead of just saying, ‘I’m wrong, I’m an idiot, I have no idea what I’m talking about,’ they try to pick out a couple plays where it may not have gone as well for Yao. Saying you’re wrong is difficult.

“A lot of players, if you remember, tried to say he was not that special. I think a lot of it, player-wise, is just talk. A lot of players never appreciated Yao’s slow and steady improvement. There’s something beyond it, but I’m sure natural size has something to do with it.”

Update from Ric

On a different note, I had a chance yesterday to speak to Ric Bucher, the co-author of Yao’s book. Like myself, even Ric is amazed at how well Yao is playing this early in his career. That’s saying something considering how much time Ric had spent with Yao in writing that book.

Ric also is impressed with how great Yao’s English has improved and how he can now understand the nuances and subtleties of the language. We both agreed that Yao is one smart dude.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Take a look at some of the photos taken at the Rockets’ annual Tux & Tennies benefit on Thursday night.

Yao shoots over a cluster of Mavericks on his way to 36 points. But Houston’s defense couldn’t stop Dallas, while the rest of the Rockets shot less than 30% in a 95-81 loss. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 3/15/06 – Very rarely have I seen a player dominate a team in one half, and still be down 12 points at halftime.

That’s what happened Wednesday night in Houston as Yao scored 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds by halftime (36 points and 12 boards overall), yet the Rockets still trailed Dallas 57-45.

The Rockets got within 6 points in the fourth quarter thanks to three-pointers, but the Mavericks just turned on the jets and pulled away to win 95-81

Yao was 8-of-10 shooting by halftime while the rest of the team shot 7-of-20.

On top of that, they couldn’t stop any of the Mavs, who shot 60% in the first half and 52% for the game. And that’s with four of their top eight players out because of injury.

It looked like Yao was on his way to 60 points the way he was playing. It reminded me a lot of Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game where his numbers just kept going up and up. He just couldn’t be stopped. I was looking forward to buying this game on Google Video so I could save it for my personal collection.

Dallas’ Jason Terry described Yao after the game: “An animal. He is playing like a beast. He is playing real aggressive. This is the best I have seen him play since he’s been in the league.”

Jerry Stackhouse said, “This is the best I have ever seen him play. He’s the best center in the NBA right now on one end (offensive) of the court. Every team has to focus on him more than any other center in the NBA, even Shaq (O’Neal).”

After that monster first half, the Mavericks blanketed Yao down low, and only shot 7 times, making four. So Yao would kick the ball out to his teammates for open shots, but they couldn’t make the Mavs pay.

Some of the same culprits as the last game were the Rockets’ Achilles’ heel. Keith Bogans, playing in place of T-Mac, was 2-of-12 for six points. Juwan Howard was 3-of-11 for 7 points.

Houston’s bench was outscored 20-6 in the first half. Believe it or not, that’s all the bench scored the entire game – six.

Despite Yao’s monster offensive game, coach Jeff Van Gundy still though there was improvement ahead for Yao.

“We can expect much better from (Yao) defensively and on the boards. He had one rebound in the second half, and he was not active defensively. He’s been playing great on offense, really great, and he’s not been as good on the boards or defensively in the last three games.”

This type of criticism toward Yao may be unfounded since he is playing so well while everyone else isn’t. I think the good thing is that these kind of words from JVG doesn’t really faze Yao. I think he takes it and uses it to motivate himself even more. That’s probably why he is as good as he is right now.

Houston is now 4.5 games behind the Lakers with 17 games left to play. It’s over folks. Time to start thinking about next year.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Yao shoots over New Jersey’s Nenad Krstic on his way to scoring 36 points and grabbing 9 boards. But several of Yao’s teammates shot poorly, leading to a disappointing loss, 90-77. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

MONDAY, 3/13/06 – Behind three games in the standings for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with only 19 games to play, the Rockets could not afford to lose to the Nets on Monday night. Although the Nets are good, they are beatable since the Rockets had beaten them 3 games in a row. Second, it was a home game for Houston at Toyota Center. Earlier in the season that didn’t mean much, but lately they have won their last 3 games at home.

Yao put his team on his back, scoring 36 points, making 18-of-20 free throws, and grabbing 9 boards. But without T-Mac and David Wesley in the lineup, the Rockets had to rely on Yao’s supporting cast to shoot decently. They didn’t. The Nets ended up with an easy victory, winning 90-77, and IMHO virtually dooming Houston’s chances of making the playoffs. They are now 3.5 games behind with 18 to play, but they still have to play Dallas, San Antonio, the Clippers, and Dallas again over their next four games.

The Rockets shot a season-low 34.2% against the Nets. Here were the culprits:

Stromile Swift: 1-for-5 overall, 2 points
Rafer Alston: 1-for-5 from three-point territory
Keith Bogans: 1-for-12 (ouch), 2 points
Juwan Howard: 3-for-13 (ouch), 9 points

This report is going to be very short because of work deadlines I’m facing this week. In fact, my reports all week will probably be short because of my work duties, and if the Rockets continue to lose as the season winds down. It’s kind of depressing to write much about a game where the Rockets’ role players shoot awful while the season slips away before our eyes.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili goes to the rack and throws down a left-handed jam late in the fourth quarter for a huge bucket on the way to defeating the Rockets 88-81. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

SUNDAY, 3/12/06 – On a pure coincidence, I was in San Antonio today during the Rockets-Spurs game. But I wasn’t at the game. Instead, I was stuck in the worst traffic jam I’ve ever been stuck in that backed up cars for 10 miles, on the verge of missing a flight out of San Antonio’s airport.

I couldn’t believe how bad the congestion was, and it didn’t even look like there was an accident! Instead, it looked it was all because of construction. Good going, San Antonio. Do construction on one of the most heavily-trafficked arteries on the one of the busiest afternoons of the week.

Needless to say, I wasn’t very happy with the city of San Antonio today, and I have even a bigger disdain for the city when the Rockets play the city’s team that has beaten them 16 games in a row at home.

Luckily when I got to the airport late, my flight was delayed. So I thought maybe my good luck would rub off on the Rockets and they could pull off an upset of the Spurs. I even had enough time to check out an airport TV and see that the Rockets held a 42-38 lead at halftime, and Yao had scored 17 points at the half.

But then I heard David Wesley was not going to be coming back into the game because of a rib injury. And that’s on top of T-Mac’s absence with a bad back.

Then I saw the Rockets fall apart in the third, with Yao getting only 3 shots in the quarter while the offense showed poor shot selection, scoring 11 points, their worst third quarter of the season.

Meanwhile, San Antonio had their way with Houston offensively in that third quarter, scoring 26 points. By the time the third was over, the Rockets were down by eleven, 64-53.

I had to cease watching the game and go catch my flight with the sinking feeling the Rockets were going to lose yet another game to the Spurs. However, after my plane landed, I heard the Rockets had made a run and almost pulled off a major upset, but they couldn’t close the deal and lost 88-81.

I had recorded the game on my Tivo and really wanted to see how the Rockets played in the fourth quarter. So I decided to watch what happened. I was pleasantly surprised to see a valiant comeback attempt.

Luther Head hit a big three-pointer to cut the San Antonio lead to 77-75 with 3:20 remaining. The Rockets’ prospects were still looking good with Houston trailing only 79-77 with about 2:30 remaining. But the game turned on the next 3 possessions.

Rick Brunson was guarding Michael Finley fairly well in the corner, but then he made a mistake in positioning and got caught in a pick, giving Finley a clear path to the basket for a slam dunk to make it 81-77.

On the ensuing possession, the Rockets turned it over, and the Spurs came down and Manu Ginobili threw a tough left-handed fallaway floater in the lane for a bucket, and that was about it, 83-77 with two minutes remaining.

For good measure with 1:08 remaining, Ginobili took Luther Head to school by getting him caught in a Tim Duncan pick, broke into the lane, shifted direction to fake Yao out, and threw it down with a left-handed dunk, giving them an 85-79 lead.

Finley rubbed some salt in Houston’s wound with 40 seconds remaining, hitting a wide-open three-pointer, and that was the ballgame.

In that fourth quarter, give credit to Luther for making 2-of-4 shots for four points, and Rafer Alston going strong to the hole and scoring 7 points on 3-of-6 shooting. Even the newest Rocket, Brunson, hit two treys in the fourth quarter to score 6 points.

Yao finished with 25 points on 9-of-19 shooting, made all 7 of this free throw attempts, and had 3 blocks. But he was smothered in the second half by San Antonio’s double and triple-teams, and Yao’s teammates couldn’t make the Spurs pay, especially in that third quarter.

One small concession is that Alston had his best shooting game in a long time, hitting half of his shots (7-of-14 for 15 points) and dishing five assists.

Keith Bogans (5-of-10 shooting for 11 points) played very well in place of T-Mac, out with a bad back for the next 5 weeks.

What’s sad is that the Rockets either beat or tied the World Champion Spurs in almost every statistical category, like:

Field Goal %: 46.4 (Rockets) vs. 45.6
FT%: 72.7 vs. 69.2
Rebounds: 39 vs. 40
Assists: 19 vs. 17
Steals: 8 vs. 8
Blocks: 4 vs. 3
3-pointers: 7-of-16 vs. 5-of-17

But they couldn’t make the plays down the stretch, which is that clutch performance championship teams like the Spurs are known for doing. Take T-Mac out of the Houston lineup, and the chances of Yao doing it all by himself against a team like the Spurs is extremely low.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Yesterday it was announced that Tracy McGrady could miss up to 5 weeks because of his injured back. Oh boy. Click here for the story.

This is going to make a serious dent on Houston’s playoff hopes. Yao has been playing fantastic lately, and the Rockets have won their last two games without T-Mac, but to finish out the majority of the season without T-Mac and still make the playoffs is going to be tough.

Hopefully everyone else can pick up the slack, like Keith Bogans, who scored 14 points in T-Mac’s absence Wednesday night. But the Rockets’ chances aren’t good.

Let’s think positive, though, starting Sunday afternoon against the World Champion San Antonio Spurs.

Depressing, huh?

In case you didn’t see, I love this article from John Lopez from the Houston Chronicle.

Man, all the respect that Yao is getting around the league now is so sweet. His hard work has really paid off.

Yao goes up to score two of his season-high 38 points on Wednesday night, leading Houston to a 17-point comeback win against the Indiana Pacers. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 3/8/06 – You can’t beat what you saw Wednesday night if you’re a Yao Ming and Houston Rocket fan.

Down 17 points late in the third quarter, the Rockets came back to win one of their most electric – and important – games of the season, 103-99 against the favored Indiana Pacers.

Yao was absolutely unstoppable, scoring a season-high 38 points (14-of-21 from the field, 10-of-10 from the line), grabbing 10 boards and blocking 5 shots. What else can you say about him?

This was his third game in a row where he had scored at least 30 points and grabbed at least 10 rebounds. He scored 20 points in the first half, and scored 13 in a row for Houston starting near the end of the second quarter and the start of the third.

Needless to say, Yao knows what he’s doing down low and shooting with so much confidence, there is no way to stop him when he’s playing this well. He is playing at the level we all knew over the past four years he could reach. Hopefully he can keep it going. If he can, he could be one of the most dominant big men in NBA history.

Scoring 6 points in the fourth quarter, Yao had a lot of help in the fourth with Juwan Howard hitting 2-of-2 from the field in addition to the four points he scored at the end of the third. Keith Bogans scored 7, and Stromile Swift scored six. Altogether, the Rockets shot 7-of-10 from the field and 10-of-12 from the line in that pivotal quarter, while holding the Pacers to only 4-of-25 shooting.

Toyota Center was rocking like a college fieldhouse during the comeback, especially when Swift threw down a dunk off a sweet dish from Luther Head with 3:53 remaining that put the Rockets ahead 94-93 for their first lead since the first quarter!

The lead see-sawed a couple of more times, and then Stromile had another huge play with 2:13 remaining. Indiana’s Scot Pollard caught a long pass on a fast break underneath the basket and was about to lay it in to put Indiana up 99-98, but Stromile came out of nowhere to reject Pollard’s shot at the rim!

It didn’t look like the Rockets were going to be able to pull this game out since they committed 4 straight turnovers in the final few minutes, and gave up 4 offensive rebounds in one possession to the Pacers when Indiana was still down 98-97. After that series of offensive boards, the Rockets gave up a layup to Peja Stojakovic on an inbounds play to give Indiana a 99-98 lead.

But Yao intimidated two shots by Jeff Foster and a block on the next Pacer possession. After Houston got the rebound, Rafer Alston pushed it on offense and got it to Bogans for a hard driving layup that put Houston ahead for good 100-99 with 25.3 seconds remaining.

The rest of the way the Rockets held on defense and sank 4 free throws to get their biggest win of the season.

What’s amazing is that the Rockets went through most of the second half without T-Mac, whose back flared up on him again. T-Mac finished with “just” 15 points in 20 minutes of action.

But his teammates picked up the slack. Bogans, who replaced T-Mac in the second half, scored 14 points and grabbed 8 boards. Juwan Howard scored 16 points, and Rafer Alston dished a season-high 14 assists (and scored 5 points).

Altogether, the Rockets shot an amazing 53% from the floor, 81% from the line, and held Indiana to 39% shooting.

Now the Rockets will have a full 3 days of rest after winning their fourth game in a row, and their 7th win in their last 9 games. But it’s not going to get any easier. They play a brutal stretch of games against San Antonio, New Jersey, Dallas, San Antonio again, the Clippers, Dallas, New Orleans and Cleveland.

This stretch of games will make or break the Rockets season. No doubt about it. I have predicted sour results before against tough competition, but with the way Yao is playing, anything is possible – even without T-Mac.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

Yao rises above the T-Wolves for a beautiful hook shot on his way to 30 points, 13 boards and 4 blocks in an impressive Rocket win over Minnesota without T-Mac in the lineup. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

TUESDAY, 3/7/06 – Before the Rockets game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, it was announced that T-Mac wouldn’t play so that he could rest his back.

I then wrote down a note to myself that said, “If the Rockets win this game, it will be quite an accomplishment.” After all, the odds were stacked against them. They were playing without T-Mac (2-13 without him) on the road against a Minnesota team that also is vying for the 8th and final spot in the Western Conference playoff race.

And as we continue to witness the evolution of his greatness before our eyes, Yao Ming came up with yet another dominating performance, scoring 30 points, grabbing 13 boards and blocking 4 shots to propel the Rockets to a huge 93-87 victory Wednesday night in Minneapolis.

The chips were on the line, and he delivered big-time. The only thing he didn’t do was hit all of his free throws. He missed all four of his FT attempts in the first half (0-for-4), but he made all eight of his attempts in the second half to finish 8-for-12 from the line.

Also coming up big was Houston’s team defense. The Rockets trailed at the beginning of the fourth quarter 67-61, but then locked down on D and forced the T-Wolves to make only 1-of-19 shots in the quarter while the Rockets went on an amazing 18-3 run to take a 81-70 lead with 1:52 remaining.

It would have been cool if the Rockets could have played good defense through the final 1:52 and hold Minnesota to 3 points overall in the quarter, but then they (e.g. Rafer Alston) started committing stupid fouls and putting Minnesota on the line.

The T-Wolves ended up scoring 17 more points in garbage time to salvage their reputation, but give credit to Houston and their defense. It was a thing of beauty as they forced Minnesota to take bad shots.

Houston was awful in the first half. In the first quarter, the Rockets shot only 35% and trailed 25-16. In the second quarter, both teams shot terribly, with each team shooting 1-of-7 to start the quarter. But that’s when Yao made his move, shooting 4-of-7 from the field. Excluding Yao, the rest of the team shot only 3-of-15.

Except for that fourth quarter stretch where the Rockets clamped down, it was frustrating through the whole game watching lots of boneheaded plays, like missed layups (Keith Bogans, Alston), traveling on the way to an easy layup (David Wesley), throwing dumb passes when they had wide-open layups (Luther Head, among others), and missing 17 free throws!! (28-of-45)

Even with all those mistakes, Yao came through when the Rockets needed him most. He also got help from Alston, who hit 4-of-7 three-pointers. Without those threes, Minnesota would have run away with this game in the first half. Also chipping in was Stromile Swift, who went strong to the hole, finishing with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, and playing great D.

Houston is now only 3 games behind the Lakers for that final playoff spot, but they have a tough back-to-back on Wednesday night against Indiana at Toyota Center. The Pacers are in the middle of a pack of teams in the Eastern Conference where only two games separate the fifth team (currently Indiana) and the #8 team.

john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To see the boxscore from the game, click here.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s article about the game, click here.

The Houston Chronicle has an excellent article about Yao now that his scoring and rebounding averages are both in double figures (a.k.a. “double-double”). I love the sarcastic comments that Jeff Van Gundy makes. Click here to read the story.