Yao takes it strong to the hole over the Clippers’ Elton Brand as the Rockets dominated LA 115-90. Yao led the Rockets in scoring with 24 points, 7 rebounds and two blocks. With the victory, the Rockets clinched the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoffs and will face the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

MONDAY, 4/18/05 – For those of you who wanted the Rockets to tank their final two games of the season so they could face the Seattle Sonics in the first round of playoffs, I’ve got some bad news for you. The Rockets not only clinched the fifth seed in the playoffs on Monday night to set up an opening series with the Dallas Mavericks, but they did it in convincing fashion by blowing out the LA Clippers 115-90.

It was the second game in a row the Rockets scored 115 points, having scored the same against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday in another dominating performance, 115-87.

The Rockets picked up where they left off from Saturday night, coming out in the first quarter with guns a-blazin’, scoring 40 points in the first quarter – the most points scored by the Rockets in the first quarter this year. It was also the most points scored against the Clippers in a quarter this year. Yao came out aggressive, cutting to the basket and getting nice feeds from T-Mac to score 10 points down low on 5-of-6 shooting in the first quarter.

Throughout the game Yao continued to dominate against the smaller Clippers, finishing with 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting in 28 minutes of play. He shot all of his fadeaway jumpers decisively and most of them hit nothing but net.

David Wesley was just as hot, making all four of his shots, including two treys, to score 11 points in the first quarter.

The Rockets shot an amazing 16-of-21 from the floor (76%) in the first, including 5-of-6 from behind the arc. The Rockets’ incredible shooting overshadowed an awesome performance by the Clippers’ Elton Brand, who scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting in the first quarter alone. He would go on to score a career high 36 points.

The Rockets extended their 9-point first quarter lead to as many as 23 points in the second quarter, helped by Scott Padgett hitting 2-of-3 three-pointers.

They took a commanding 70-49 lead into halftime, the most number of points scored in a first-half this season by the Rockets. But the Clippers weren’t playing that poorly. LA shot 61% from the field, but Houston was unconscious themselves, shooting 64% and hitting six more three-pointers (7-of-15) than the Clips.

At the beginning of the second half, the Rockets experienced their only lapse of the game, turning the ball over and missing all of their shots for the first 3 minutes while the Clippers went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 70-57.

But because the Clippers jammed up the middle defensively and left Houston’s shooters on the perimeter wide open, the Rockets finally responded with a Bob Sura three-pointer at the 8:44 mark in the third to stop the momentum, 73-57. Then Sura hit another wide-open trey to make it 77-57, and the Rockets never looked back. The rest of the game was a yawner, with the Rockets winning handily 115-90.

Houston’s bench played fabulous, with Mike James scoring 11, Dikembe Mutombo scoring 9, Wesley 13, and Sura 15.

But the guy who has stepped up recently when the Rockets have needed it is power forward Scott Padgett, whose 15 points were much welcomed since the Rockets have missed Juwan Howard’s scoring punch after getting hurt a few weeks ago and who will miss the entire playoffs. Padgett hit 5-of-6 three-pointers and had 9 rebounds. He reminds me of former Rockets’ three-point specialist Matt Bullard, but with better rebounding capability and hustle. Hopefully Padgett and Clarence Weatherspoon will be able to slow down Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki just a bit on his way to 30+ points when the Rockets start playing the Mavericks later this week in the first round of the playoffs.

Not to be forgotten, T-Mac had 16 points and 10 assists, with 8 coming in the first quarter alone. That’s 26 assists in three games, which is close to the average of league assist leader and MVP candidate Steve Nash! T-Mac also had some humorous moments. During a break in the action as he was preparing to inbound the ball into play along the sideline, there was an empty fan seat next to where he was going to inbound the ball, so he sat down in it to rest in between two fans. And after Yao got fouled hard on the left arm, T-Mac came over and massaged his elbow and forearm for several seconds, making Yao himself crack up a bit.

The Rockets have now won six games in a row, and hope to make it seven in their final regular season game on Wednesday against the Seattle Sonics, who may be back on track now that Rocket-killer Rashard Lewis is back in the lineup. Lewis was a key component in the Sonics’ last victory against Minnesota, eliminating the T-wolves from the playoffs. Maybe, just maybe, the Rockets are better off playing Dallas in the first round after all. It doesn’t hurt that Houston is only a one-hour flight from Dallas, so travel should not pose a problem to either team.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s post-game analysis, click here.

Yao lofts a hook shot Saturday night at Houston’s Toyota Center against the Denver Nuggets on his way to 13 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks in a stunning Rocket victory over Denver, 115-87. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

SATURDAY, 4/16/05 – I was fortunate enough to attend the Rockets-Nuggets game on Saturday night in Houston, and I couldn’t have picked a better game to attend than this one. If you’re a Yao or Rockets fan, you probably saw the game on ESPN or have read the AP news story. The Rockets stunned the Nuggets 115-87 in dominating fashion on Saturday night. Like any other news story, I will give you many of the facts you would expect from any sports story. But I’ll also try to give you a sense of what it was like to be there.

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Yao puts up a sweet finger roll in the fourth quarter to help lead the Rockets to a 100-92 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies Wednesday night in Houston. Yao scored 12 points in the pivotal fourth quarter, and finished with 29 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

WEDNESDAY, 4/13/05 – It’s something you can’t say for every game this season, but without Yao on Wednesday night, the Rockets would have lost. Yao was clutch when the Rockets needed him most, scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter in a very tight game against the Memphis Grizzlies, leading the Rockets to a 100-92 victory. Yao finished with 28 points, 9 boards and 4 rejections. Although Yao has always been known for his high percentage field goal shooting, Yao’s defense and shot-blocking skills have improved over the past few weeks and made a difference in this game.

Yao got off to a great start in the first quarter, hitting all four of his shots with confidence for eight points. T-Mac was the reason for at least two of those made shots, dishing two assists to Yao down low for easy buckets. T-Mac also scored 8 points in the first quarter, but the Grizzlies still led at the end of the quarter, 26-24, thanks to Mike Miller’s 9 points.

In the second quarter, the Rockets went on an 8-0 run to take a 40-30 lead, and a few minutes later they held a 46-33 lead. Yao scored 6 points thanks to 4-of-4 shooting from the free throw line, and point guard Mike James shot an amazing 3-of-3 from three-point territory. Miller continued his hot shooting, scoring another six points on 3-of-4 shooting. By halftime, the Rockets led 52-42 thanks to 44% shooting in the first half and five three-pointers. T-Mac and Yao both had 14 points each.

In the third quarter, the Rockets opened up their largest lead of the night at 62-46 after running off an 8-0 run. But the Grizzlies came storming back, thanks to a 20-7 run sparked by a McGrady-like scoring binge by Miller, who scored 13 points and three treys to bring them to within 69-66.

The fourth quarter was a nail-biter, with the game nip-and-tuck the entire quarter. Every time it looked like the Rockets were going to pull away, the determined Grizzlies would battle back and stay within striking distance. It wasn’t until T-Mac dished a nifty pass to Yao who was cutting down the middle of the lane to lay it off the glass for the deuce, and was fouled with 1:08 remaining. Yao then went to the line and hit the penalty free throw to give the Rockets a 93-88 lead. Twenty-seven seconds later, Mike James (15 points) hit his fourth three-pointer of the game at the 41 second mark to give the Rockets a 96-90 lead to basically seal the deal. It was great to see James hit a big shot when the Rockets needed it.

Mike Miller (career-high 37 points) gave the Houston fans lots of headaches during the game, but he won their favor by fouling T-Mac with only .2 seconds remaining when the game was in the Rockets’ hands 98-92. That foul gave T-Mac a chance to go to the line and shoot two free throws to hit the 100-point mark and give the attendees free Big Macs. Needless to say, after T-Mac drained both free throws, the Houston crowd was ecstatic.

With the victory, the Rockets kept the Grizzlies, currently battling Minnesota for the 8th and final seed in the Western Conference playoffs, from clinching a playoff spot. The Rockets also stayed neck-and-neck with the Denver Nuggets for the sixth playoff seed.

Denver won their game on Wednesday night against New Orleans. So if the Nuggets beat Memphis in Denver on Friday night, the Rockets and Nuggets will have the same record (48-31) with only three games remaining. One of those games involves a duel between the two teams on Saturday night in Houston, which will most certainly be a showdown for that 6th playoff spot (or maybe the 5th) to play Seattle (or Dallas) in the first round of the playoffs.

I will be at that game, and I can’t wait to file my report…unless the Rockets lose, of course.

John
john@YaoMingFanClub.com

To read the Houston Chronicle’s post-game analysis, click here and here.

Yao moves laterally to defend the Sonics’ Luke Ridnour on Monday night in Seattle. Yao scored 20 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked 3 shots on the way to the Rockets winning their second straight, 90-78. Click here for more photos from the game.

ClubYao writer Chia-Chi attended Monday night’s game between the Rockets and Sonics. John also had commentary about the game, which is directly below Chia-Chi’s report below.

by Chia-Chi

MONDAY, 4/11/05 – The rest of the Rockets’ season all of a sudden seems much smoother with another convincing win on the road. The T-Mac/Yao one-two punch was in full force as the Sonics, missing four of its top six scorers, valiantly struggled to stay in the game but had no answer for T-Mac’s 38 points.

It took a while for the Rockets to get into gear in the first, with the Sonics playing a quick and faster pace. But after a timeout from Seattle, the Rockets defense stepped into gear, not allowing a single Sonics bucket for a six-minute stretch. But while the defense by the Rockets was particularly commendable, the defense of the Sonics was particularly rough.

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Phoenix’s Steve Nash drives against Yao Ming on Saturday night. It was a crazy game, with the Rockets lucky to escape with a win, 98-97. Plagued with foul trouble, Yao scored 10 points, grabbed 8 boards and had 3 blocks in 24 minutes of action. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

SATURDAY, 4/9/05 – The Rockets escaped with one of their luckiest wins of the season Saturday night, and the timing couldn’t have been better. Leading by only one point against the Phoenix Suns, point guard Bob Sura went to the line with a 98-97 lead and could have at least guaranteed overtime if he hit both free throws.

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Yao snares a rebound against Golden State Tuesday night in Oakland, one of 11 rebounds Yao had to go with his 23 points and 3 blocks. But it wasn’t enough as the Rockets lost their third straight. Click here for more photos from the game.

by Chia-Chi

TUESDAY, 4/5/05 – What a heartbreaker. In tonight’s game against the Warriors the Rockets were competitive the entire time but could not muster enough defensive power to earn the victory. In a game where all of the Rockets did well, the Warriors did exceedingly well. Behind a career night from Baron Davis the surging Warriors simply beat the Rockets for the win, 122-117.

While the Rockets have been struggling of late and plagued with a variety of injuries Yao’s swollen calf, T-Mac‘s hip, Jon Barry ‘s sore back, etc), the Warriors have been on a roll, winning 8 of their past 9 games, including wins over Seattle, Phoenix, and the Kings.

Heading into the final weeks of the regular season, the older Rockets are feeling the pains more than a younger Warriors team that will not make the playoffs.

The first quarter started at a quick pace with the Warriors taking the reins. Center Troy Murphy, who was rock-solid for the Warriors in the previous match up, started the game with a quick three and was followed by Baron Davis’ two-point jumper. On a steal from McGrady, Davis assisted Jason Richardson for one of his slam dunk contest-winning jams. At this point the Warriors lead 7-0 and had the sold-out Oakland crowd on its feet.

But Jeff Van Gundy‘s constant plea to stick with the game plan in good times and bad finally sunk in as the Rockets started playing their game. The Rockets came back from a strong start by T-Mac. While the Rockets wanted more touches for Yao, the Warriors doubled and triple-teamed him throughout the quarter. Yao was constantly defended from the back and front, even when he didn’t have the ball! The Warriors challenge in the paint was a dare to shoot from the outside. While the Rockets shot fairly well, mostly behind T-Mac and Sura, six first-quarter turnovers laid the foundation for 26-18 Warriors lead.

The second quarter was more competitive. Yao came out strong and scored six points and had a nice block of Richardson. In a highlight-reel worthy play, Yao got the ball deep in the paint and dunked it while surrounded by three Warriors’ players!

Unfortunately, Zarko Cabarkapa, whose three point shooting proved to be a nightmare in the last matchup between the teams, came out strong and drained two three-pointers. But the Rockets played their game with T-Mac being his usual self, scoring effortlessly from outside and by slashing inside. However, Baron Davis matched him tit-for-tat, including the last nine points for the Warriors to maintain their lead.

Near the end of the quarter Sura was upset about a non-call and was walking down the court when he inadvertently bumped into Warrior’s coach Mike Montgomery. After being called for a technical, he was led off the court by a Rocket’s security guard whom Sura also pushed away. The first half ended with the Warriors leading 53-50.

Starting the third quarter the Warriors stopped guarding Yao as much so they could put more coverage on T-Mac. The single coverage freed up Yao in the paint where he had a field day with Adonal Foyle, shooting a variety of hooks and post up moves for easy points. T-Mac also had a huge quarter as well, scoring 12 of his game-high 44 points. Sura, who was booed on nearly every possession, was 2-2 from the three point line.

But the story of the quarter was Baron Davis, who seemed invincible on the court. Not only did he score 17 points from all over the place, but he also distributed the ball to his teammates for easy buckets. Davis ended the game with a career-high 40 points and 11 assists.

T-Mac pushed the Rockets forward with an incredible shooting display. By the end of the third the Rockets were down 89-84 and the momentum and energy seemed to be with the older and more experienced Rockets team.

But the confidence of knowing how to win in the fourth can often transform to arrogance and laziness. The lesson from the last game against the Warriors was, “Live by the three and die by the three.” The Warriors remembered, but the Rockets forgot. Down by 5 points at the start, the Rockets relied on three-point shots that never dropped. The Rockets shot 10 three point shots in the fourth, but only hit two. In desperate need for high percentage points, the Rockets fed Yao in the fourth and he delivered, scoring eight points in the quarter.

Jason Richardson attempted another highlight dunk over Yao but was fabulously rejected. You know that if he would have made it to posterize Yao, Sportscenter would have replayed it a hundred times. Conversely, those even more amazing rejections don’t get the attention they deserve.

But the high offense of the Rockets was not balanced with a strong defense and the Warriors never relinquished their lead.

How Did Yao Do?

Yao’s all around game today was excellent. He was aggressive around the basket, grabbing offensive rebounds for dunks, blocking shots, and defending well. Yao finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks, on 8-12 shooting and was 7-7 from the line. He had the type of game where he was solid in every area, and you wish he had on a consistent basis.

One area that has been lacking of late is David Wesley. Such an integral factor of the winning streaks that resulted in the Rockets having the best away game record, he has lost his shooting touch.
Tonight he shot 3-13 from the field and 1-6 from the three point line.

The Rockets are now only one game ahead of the 7th spot in the West.

As a side note, status was given for injured Rockets power forward Juwan Howard. While recovering and doing exercises in a pool, Howard is still expected to be out at least 4 weeks. While it is possible that he will be active during the playoffs, from all coaching indications, his recovery is not expected.

Chia-Chi
zenithnadir@YaoMingFanClub.com

To read the Houston Chronicle’s post-game analysis, click here.

Yao walks off the court Sunday with a bandage on his chin after getting accidentally elbowed in the paint. Despite Yao’s return to the lineup and leading the team in scoring (19 points) and rebounds (12), the Rockets lost their second consecutive game because of poor shooting, this time against the Phoenix Suns, 91-78. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

SUNDAY, 4/3/05 – Through almost three quarters of play, it looked like the Rockets had a chance to keep up with the heavily favored Phoenix Suns. Houston was only down 64-62 with about a minute remaining in the third when Shawn Marion made a layup. Up until that time, there had been 11 ties and 18 lead changes in a tightly contested battle.

But like their losses against the Hornets on Friday and the Spurs last weekend, the Rockets fell apart in the fourth quarter and lost another game that was winnable, losing 91-78 at Toyota Center.

The Suns started off with their high-octane offense, and surprisingly, Houston revved up its own engines and managed to keep pace with much more fluidity in their offensive game compared to how they played against the Hornets in that humiliating loss Friday night. Yao got off to a great start, making a dunk on Houston’s first basket, and showed just how missed his inside presence was on Friday. Houston was only down 31-25 at the end of the first quarter, with Yao hitting 3-of-4 for six points.

In the second quarter, the game quickly became more defensive-oriented, with the Rockets limiting the Suns to 10 points on 5-of-25 (20%) shooting. Yao was playing extremely well defensively, tipping passes, blocking two shots, and coming up with numerous intimidations. And he wasn’t getting into too serious of foul trouble, either.

But Houston’s offense didn’t really capitalize, scoring only two more field goals (7-of-23) and 17 points overall to lead 42-41 at halftime.

Other than free throw percentage (1-of-6 for Phoenix, 6-of-8 for Houston), all of the stats were pretty much even. So the second half was going to come down to who wanted it most.

At first, it looked like Phoenix was going to run away with it when they started off on a 6-0 run. Jeff Van Gundy called a timeout, probably not happy about how the Rockets’ Ryan Bowen — not confident after a 1-for-4 shooting performance in the first half — had passed up a couple of open shots. For the fifth time this season, Bowen was starting in the lineup since Jon Barry experienced back spasms before the game. So T-Mac moved over to shooting guard and Bowen came in to fill T-Mac’s small forward spot.

After the timeout, their offensive liability (Bowen) soon turned into an asset. Van Gundy positioned Bowen on the low block, and he scored on a layup and was fouled for a three-point play. Energized, Bowen stole the ball on the ensuing Suns possession, dribbled it down court with one defender in his way, then dished to an oncoming Yao who beat everyone down the floor and threw it down for a one-handed jam to tie it at 47-47.

Steve Nash came back to hit a three-pointer, but Bowen responded and hit a 17-footer to close it to 50-49, Phoenix with the lead. Bowen came back and hit a wild 8-foot hook shot from the baseline to put Houston up 53-52.

In a span of about 4 minutes of action, Bowen showed he could play by scoring 9 consecutive Houston points, getting a steal and dishing an assist. Perhaps Bowen was going to be yet another un-sung hero that emerged from the Rockets’ bench this season, just like Jon Barry and Scott Padgett have been able to do this season. Bowen had a decent track record, being 4-0 as a starter this season, but never performed like this before. He was sitting on 14 points and the Rockets looked like they were going to make it competitive.

Not for long, though. Bowen didn’t score the rest of the game, and not many other Rockets did either. Houston’s shooting continued to head southward, and the Suns finished off Houston for its 30th road win of the season.

Although they did a great job on defense, the Rockets’ final shooting stats were horrific. 34% overall, 22% from three-point land. T-Mac (13 points) hit only 6-of-21, and was 0-for-5 from three. That’s his second bad shooting game in a row. Bob Sura (10 points) was 4-of-15, David Wesley (8 points) was 3-of-11, and Mike James (7 points) was 3-of-15. If it wasn’t for Yao’s great return, 19 points and 12 rebounds, this one would have been over much, much sooner.

What seemed to be a strength (good shooting) during recent win streaks is now turning into a weakness. Perhaps you can chalk it up to the chemistry imbalance that has arisen since Juwan Howard got hurt, but the Rockets are going to have to get over it and compensate somehow, or their playoff run will be as short as some of the jump shots we saw on Sunday night.

Even though Phoenix’s Amare Stoudemire (9 points) wasn’t much of a factor because of foul trouble, one ironic twist was that Jim Jackson returned to his former arena and haunted them like no else has in a long time, scoring 15 points and hitting 3-of-5 treys. In 21 minutes Jackson, a reserve, scored as many points as Wesley and James combined in 69 minutes of play.

Now the Rockets head to the Bay Area where they face a very hot Golden State team. Houston was lucky to win their last game there a few weeks ago. With the way Houston is shooting, look for another loss and more risk of Houston’s hold of the sixth playoff spot unraveling before our eyes and having to face either the Suns or San Antonio in the first round. Yikes.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s post-game analysis, click here.

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy agonizes over a humiliating performance by his team to the lowly New Orleans Hornets, the team with the worst record in the league. The Rockets lost 76-73 in part because Yao Ming did not play because of a calf injury. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

FRIDAY, 4/1/05 – Yao was held out of Friday’s game night against the New Orleans Hornets because of swelling in his calf resulting from an injury that occurred late in Wednesday’s game against Portland.

What a difference it made. Without Yao, the Rockets struggled offensively more than anyone could expect, losing to the second-worst team in the league 76-73. The Hornets are now 17-54.

Ironically, like Yao, yours truly is not in very good shape. I have been laid up because of a bad case of the flu, so I’m going to have to punt on covering this game. If I had to skip one game to cover, this one is it since Yao didn’t play and the Rockets shot a dismal 31% from the field.

Now excuse me as I go back to sleep.

Yao elevates for a slam dunk in the first quarter against the Trailblazers Wednesday night, just a few seconds after dribbling behind his back that blew away his teammates! Yao scored 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting as the Rockets beat Portland 100-84. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

FRIDAY, 3/30/05 – Yao had an outstanding game in Portland on Wednesday night, scoring 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting. But it wasn’t the stats that amazed the crowd, or even his teammates. It was what might go down in Yao history as “The Play.” With 8:24 remaining in the first quarter, Yao dribbled behind his back to get around an oncoming defender, started a fast break, and dribbled half the length of the court to finish with a dunk! It was ridiculously amazing to see a 7’6” guy do this; I think it’s a first in NBA history because there’s no way 7’6″ Shawn Bradley has ever made a move like this before.

After Yao’s behind-the-back dribble, his teammates rose from the bench astounded by what they saw. Even Portland fans were in disbelief with mouths agape of what they had just seen. This might be one of those plays where they ask, “Where were you when Yao made The Play?” [Sorry, I’m getting a little carried away, aren’t I?] It might even change the perception — when it’s certainly highlighted on SportsCenter Plays of the Week — that Yao is not some boring, stiff player.

The Play kind of overshadowed the 14 points he scored in the first quarter. He dominated by scoring on a variety of put-backs and layups, shooting 5-for-6 from the field. With Yao carrying the load, the Rockets had a 31-26 lead after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Yao chipped in another 4 points on 2-of-3 shooting, including an aggressive rebound and dunk that brought the bench out of its seats again. Meanwhile, T-Mac took over and scored 15 points on 6-of-11 shots. For the first time in a long time, Yao had outscored T-Mac after the first half, 18-17. More importantly, the Rockets led 57-47.

The Rockets really started to dominate and opened up a 19-point lead after three quarters with T-Mac and Yao scoring 9 and 4 points, respectively. The rest of the game the Rockets coasted to one of their easiest wins of the year, winning 100-84.

The victory wasn’t unexpected since the Blazers have lost 13 of their last 15 games and have lots of guys out with injuries, including Theo Ratliff, Derek Anderson, Darius Miles, Zach Randolph, and Nick Van Exel.

As a team, the Rockets shot 46% from the field and an impressive 89% from the line (16-of-18). They also out-rebounded the Blazers 42-34, dishing 23 assists, had a 12-6 advantage in steals, and only turned the ball over 10 times.

At the same time, T-Mac only had to play 27 minutes because of the easy victory, and he finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Yao played 30 minutes, and could have played less because of a big fourth-quarter lead, but for some reason Jeff Van Gundy decided to play him more minutes than necessary. It almost backfired when Yao crumbled to the floor after colliding with another player, grabbing his knee while writhing on the floor. I got the same sick feeling in my stomach about a week ago when T-Mac fell to the ground after getting hurt in New Orleans. But Yao got up, shook it off, and checked out of the game permanently. I guess Van Gundy wants to keep Yao in shape.

The one surprise of the game – other than Yao’s behind-the-back dribble — was Joel Przbilla, who had 7 blocks in the game. Przbilla, the 2000 draft choice of the Rockets, was traded on draft day for the rights to Jason Collier, who never really panned out for Houston. Meanwhile, Przbilla is starting to make the Rockets regret they traded him given the fact he had more blocks in March than any other player in the League, and has a good chance of winning the most improved player of the year award.

To read the Houston Chronicle’s post-game analysis, click here.

Yao reacts in disbelief to a call against him in Utah on Monday night. Yao scored 15 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and had three blocks, but the night belonged to T-Mac, who scored 22 points in the second quarter and 44 points overall to lead the Rockets to a 99-85 victory in Salt Lake. Click here for more photos from the game.

by John

MONDAY, 3/28/05 – Although T-Mac finished the fourth quarter in San Antonio on Sunday afternoon with just one basket, who can complain after seeing him collapse to the floor with a very painful hip strain injury just 3 days ago in New Orleans?

Well, after the Utah Jazz saw what he did to them on Monday, they probably want to break that hip, his leg, his knee, and his ankle. You get my drift. T-Mac exploded for a magnificent game that no one will forget anytime soon as he redeemed himself from Sunday’s fourth quarter against the Spurs, beating the Jazz 99-85.

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