The fourth quarter of Rockets-Suns game was one of the most exciting fourth quarters of regular season basketball I have seen in a long time, all which culminated in a 116-112 thrilling victory for Houston.

The offensive fireworks were jaw dropping as both teams traded baskets like Ali-Frazier trading blows in the ring. The defense wasn’t all that bad; it was just two very talented offensive teams playing at an extremely high level. If you missed it, try to find a friend who recorded it.

Yao Ming shoots a sky hook over Shaq Friday night in a game where the little guys stole the show. Click here for more photos from the game.

Scoring occurred every which way in the fourth quarter, too numerous to list here, but here are a few of the moments that stand out:

* Yao Ming delivered 3 assists in the post to Kyle Lowry (no-look flip pass over Shaq), Aaron Brooks (bounce pass), and Carl Landry for layups.
* Ron Artest hit two late-game shots that Tracy McGrady never could seem to deliver reliably.
* Brooks bounced back from a sub-par game against Utah to score huge buckets when they really needed it

There was a time just a few weeks ago when the Rockets’ roster that included Rafer Alston and McGrady wouldn’t have been able to amp up the offense like this to key 9 games out of their past 11, and 11 wins in a row at home.

You have to be really happy for Brooks who must have been feeling a little bit of pressure after not being all that effective in his last game in Utah, and Lowry’s performance to get the Rockets back in that game to overshadow him. AB hasn’t been the most consistent player this season, but when he’s on, he’s on. His record speaks for itself: as a starter this season, Aaron is now 13-3.

Brooks would score a career-high 30 points Friday night off 11-of-20 shots (4-of-7 from downtown), including 9 in the fourth quarter which included a 3-pointer, a runner in the lane, and an amazing scoop shot off the glass underneath Shaq’s outstretched arms. All these scores occurred when the Rockets needed buckets since Phoenix wouldn’t quit — they just kept coming at ’em.

Steve Nash was incredible by scoring 29 of his 32 points in the second half, but Aaron matched him better than any point guard I’ve seen in a Rockets uniform in a long time. This is a mind-blowing development for Rocket fans!

If Brooks can keep this up and have games that remind you of a Chris Paul or Tony Parker, then watch out NBA – this Rockets team is going to be extremely hard to beat for years to come given all the young talent they have on their roster.

Even Nash – one of the greatest point guards of all time — had to give Aaron props after the game: “He killed us and made a couple big shots at the end of the game. He’s really turning into a terrific guard and the Rockets are going to have a guy for a long time who can handle this position.”

The compliments don’t get much better than that.

Nash had a chance to win the game with a 3-pointer with just a couple of seconds left in the game, but Yao came out to the 3-point line to contest the shot, which was enough to force him to shoot the ball with a higher arc than normal…just enough to make the shot miss for the Rockets’ win. When that play developed, I was wondering who agent Bill Duffy was rooting for since he represents both Yao and Nash.

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Raymond sent me a link to this story on Rockets.com quoting Yao and Shaq about how unfair officiating has been against them simply because they are big guys. They also talk about how much they respect each other’s game leading into tonight’s matchup between the Rockets and Suns. Also, here’s a video of Shaq being interviewed about the same topic(s).

Sorry that I don’t have much posted here, but I am so pissed at Comcast and the NBA for making my watching of the Rockets-Jazz game so painful for me. After enduring hassle after hassle, I have no time to write anything.

I had set my DVR to record the game because I was knew I was going to be getting home after the game ended. So when I started watching the recording, stupid Comcast must have moved the game to another channel because I had nothing but 2 ½ hours of blank screen recorded. And yes, I set the recording perfectly. They just moved the game to another channel, which was a first all season for me.

As a backup plan, I figured I would watch the game online on NBA League Pass Broadband. It usually works okay, but skipping past commercials is a pain and would require the full 2 1/2 hours for me to watch it.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, the streaming sucked so bad tonight, the replay got ‘stuck’ dozens of times to where the final 4 minutes, the most critical part of the game, took over an hour to watch. Now it’s very late, and I have to stop because I have to wake up in a handful of hours for work

It wasn’t a good night for me, nor for the Rockets, who lost to Utah 101-94. I’m upset at the idiots who provided a terrible product tonight independent of each other: Comcast and the NBA.

Maybe tomorrow after I’ve cooled off and have had a little rest, I’ll comment about what went wrong tonight in Utah, and some of the encouraging signs I saw in the game.

Update: Raymond sent me this YouTube video of Yao being interviewed after the game about the unfair officiating that screwed the Rockets. You go Yao! Maybe the league will finally listen once the NBA’s classiest player calls out the refs for incompetence. YouTube tends to take stuff like this down fairly quick, so if it doesn’t play, you’ll know why. But you can read the transcript in Jonathan Feigen’s post-game story in the Chronicle.

This is going to be a relatively short game summary because the Rockets play the second night of a back-to-back Wednesday against arch rival Utah in Salt Lake, and like the team, I need to “pace” myself. 😉

Wednesday night’s game is going to be a war considering the Jazz have won 8 games in a row, are only 1.5 games behind Houston, and the Rockets have won 8 of their last 9 games after they beat Toronto 107-97 Tuesday night at Toyota Center.

It didn’t look like it would be easy as the Raptors came out and hit tons of outside shots, led by #1 draft pick of 2006 Andrea Bargnani, who gave Yao fits as he drew him out to the 3-point line. That was going to be challenge for Yao, who is more comfortable parking himself in the paint. It’s not that Yao played terrible defense, in my opinion, it’s just that a 7’6″ guy can’t get in the face of someone like Bargnani who can put it on the floor and drive past him.

On the flipside, Bargnani had to defend Yao down low in the paint much of the time, and you’d think that would be no contest given Yao’s size advantage. But he started off slow, only making 1 of his first 5 shots. However, the mismatch worked in his favor over the course of the game as he hit 6 of his next 7 shots, and would finish with 20 points on 9-of-16 shots in 31 minutes. He also had 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block. But he also had his obligatory 5 turnovers.


Yao scored 20 points and grabbed 11 boards as Chris Bosh could only look on. Click here for more photos from the game.

Giving Yao a little more rest than usual was Carl Landry, who played lights out in scoring a career-high 22 points on 7-of-9 shots, hit all 8 of his free throws, grabbed 6 boards and blocked 2 shots in 31 ½ minutes.

Landry is really making an impact after having missed 4 games and then coming back against Minnesota Sunday night and scoring 12 points on 4-of-5 shots. Just think if he had been healthy against Chicago to help prevent the 4th quarter choke job, the Rockets might be on a 9-game winning streak right now and a little closer to San Antonio in the standings for the Midwest division lead.

As much as the media is raving about Landry’s play, which is much deserved, Luis Scola continues to play at an amazingly high level and has turned into the player I knew he would be when the Rockets got him before last season. Scola, always fun to watch, scored on an array of shots on his way to 20 points on 10-of-17 field goal attempts, 16 boards, and blocking a shot.

Scola has now racked up 23 double-doubles this season, and has had 8 in his last 9 games.

I think Scola is so valuable, I am nominating him to be the 3rd piece of the Rockets’ “new Big 3.” After all, his fellow countryman Manu Ginobili is part of the Spurs’ Big 3 that includes Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, so why shouldn’t he? I think he’s just as deadly, but in a different way down low.

Von Wafer was huge in the fourth quarter as he scored 8 of the Rockets’ 10 points in one stretch, which included two 3-pointers in a row that gave the Rockets a nice cushion headed into the game’s final minutes. He would finish with 14 points, thanks to pushing the tempo, and also dole out 3 dimes.

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The game against an 18-40 Timberwolves team Sunday night was still a big game for everyone on the Rockets’ side. The fans, the players, the coaches, the GM, etc.

After the Rockets had won 6 in a row at home and looked like they had left behind the ghosts of choke jobs from the past, they go out Saturday night and blow the largest lead ever in franchise history in a fourth quarter (17 points) against Chicago and lose.

So which team would show up Sunday night in Minnesota? That’s what everyone in Rocketville was waiting to find out.

Fortunately they were playing a team that had lost 10 of its last 11 games, and were without man-child Al Jefferson because of a torn ACL.

They took advantage by building a 25-15 lead in the first quarter making their first 7 shots and 12 of their first 14. But you had to wonder by halftime why the Rockets hadn’t built a bigger lead, letting the T-Wolves hang around down only 54-53.

As a team, Houston was shooting 60% by halftime and Yao was leading his team in scoring with 12 points on 4-of-5 shots. It’s not the 8 to 10 shots I’d like to see him get by halftime, but hey, you take what the defense gives you.

But finally they made their move in the 3rd quarter by going on a 17-0 run to pop the lead to 81-64. During that stretch, Yao was challenged defensively in the paint, and he responded with 2 blocks to rack his tally to 5 rejections by that time. He would finish with 6 blocks, matching his block total in Minnesota earlier in the season.

An unusual photo for YaoMania: a photo that barely has Yao in it. But it shows how aggressive Yao can be defending the paint from behind the shooter, this time Minnesota’s Craig Smith. Click here for more photos from the game.

Poor Kevin Love. With Jefferson out for the season, the rookie is now having to play center, and has at least an 8-inch disadvantage to Yao. Love is going to be a great NBA player, but he’s not the best leaper in the world and Yao’s presence affected his box score: 1-for-5 in the second half, and 4-for-12 overall for 9 points.

Since we’ve all been following Yao for so long, we tend to take his height for granted. That’s why I like being reminded when players in the league still marvel at Yao’s size. Minnesota’s 6’4” Randy Foye had this to say about Yao:

“I walked past him and I’m at his waist. He’s a huge human being. It’s tough to go in there and get shots over him.”

Some of Yao’s fans tend to get on him because he can’t jump that high. But when you’re already an intimidating force just standing flat-footed, you don’t really need to be able to jump that well. Just hold your ground.

That’s exactly what the Rockets did throughout the rest of the game. There would be no 17-point blown lead like the night before in Chicago.

The starters played deep into the fourth quarter to make sure that wouldn’t happen again. Yao would only take 2 shots after halftime, making 1 of them, to finish with 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and hit all 7 of his free throws. He also grabbed 11 boards, but had 5 turnovers.

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This post is brought to you by Ren…

For 6 consecutive games the Rockets had found a way to evolve from their charitable ways—meaning they stopped giving away games in the 4th quarter. That streak is no more with a souring 105-102 defeat to the Chicago Bulls.

For 43 minutes the Rockets played dominant basketball and built as much as a 17 point lead with less than 6:00 minutes left in the game. But they never actually kept the Bulls from doing what they wanted to on offense; the Rockets were just somehow able to keep outscoring Chicago. It seemed like every time the Bulls made a run, the Rockets would follow up with a better one. Until that is, they stopped scoring the ball altogether.

Yao Ming scored 17 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, and had 3 blocks
in Chicago. But it wouldn’t be enough in a heartbreaking loss.
Click here for more photos from the game.

The last 5:00 minutes of this game should be a reminder to all of us fans that Houston is not that good. Artest was hot from the perimeter all game but he let it negatively alter his game in the long run by eschewing his Bogart ability on the drive and in the low post. He forgot he needed to get it done from the free throw line—the exact thing Houston had used to their advantage in their crunch time wins.

After the Bulls whittled the Rockets lead down to 12 late in the game, Houston put Yao back in the game only to not give him a single touch in the low post in the final 5:00 minutes. Traditionally, with a lead down the stretch, you win the game at the line but you can’t get there if you can’t get the ball in the low post. Yes, the Bulls did a great job of fronting Yao and playing a man behind him to discourage the lob but Houston gave up on Yao way to early in the possession, which is where Aaron Brooks comes in.

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Right after the All-Star break when the Rockets traded Rafer Alston, McGrady was going to be out for good, and many were uncertain about the Rockets’ future, I said the following after the win over Dallas: “I absolutely love this team more than ever.”

As confident as I was with that statement, I never thought they would make me so proud so soon.

The Rockets trounced Cleveland for probably their most impressive win of the season, firing on all cylinders and playing solid defense yet again for a 93-74 victory. I felt a whole bunch of Houstonians jump on a bandwagon Thursday night.

Without having to defer to, or tolerate, McGrady’s erratic shot taking, Yao Ming is clearly the #1 option on offense now (maybe for the rest of his career in Houston), and Thursday’s game in my mind was a statement game that has made it obvious that this is HIS team. There’s no more confusion among his teammates about who needs to get the ball. No more egos are distorting that view. It’s Yao time.

Yao throws one down from under the basket after a dish from Kyle Lowry.
Click here for more photos from the game.

He proved it by dominating a very good Cleveland team with 28 points on 13-of-15 shooting. His turnaround jumper from the post was automatic, and it’s clear it has become his patented move – a la Hakeem’s Dream Shake or Kareem’s Sky Hook – that can carry him into the Hall of Fame. It’s almost unstoppable because it really can’t be blocked.

Even though this shot isn’t Yao’s turnaround jumper, it’s another shot that’s almost just as unblockable.

And you have to love the throw-down that Yao had over Lebron in the third quarter. He almost posterized him. Love it! Here’s a video that Raymond found of it on Chinese TV. I love the reaction from the fans behind the basket…

Even Cleveland coach Mike Brown had to remark after the game, “Yao was awesome.”

Meanwhile, Lebron James was held by Shane Battier (4 blocks, drew a couple of charges) and Ron Artest to one of his most blah games of the season: 21 points on 7-of-21 shots. And in 40 minutes, he also failed to get an assist for the first time in his NBA career, and only had 1 REBOUND. I think Hell just froze over.

I said a few games ago that the Rockets should not have been toying with the idea of trading Artest before the All-Star break, and that they should do everything in their power to sign him to a longer term deal before he gets tempted in free agency to leave. The guy lives up to his self-proclaimed warrior reputation. With him manning up Lebron, you actually have to feel even more confident that a guy with a body as close to Lebron’s build can actually hold his own against him. That can’t be said very often for whoever is assigned to defend the King.

And did you see the crossover that Ron-Ron threw on Lebron to fake him out of his jock, followed by blowing past him into the lane, then dishing off to Yao for a dunk? That got the Houston crowd to ooh-and-aah. And how about that one-handed tomahawk jam with his left hand with about 4 minutes remaining in the second quarter. That got the bench and fans up off their feet after that one. The man is fun to watch.

Under the radar who gave Cleveland’s defense fits, especially Ben Wallace, was Luis Scola in the lane faking out the former Defensive Player of the Year to score on whirling dirvish moves a couple of times. That’s impressive. I didn’t think Scola could play so well in the lane against a real physical defender like Big Ben. Luis never ceases to amaze me. He finished with 14 points on 5-of-7 shots and led the team in rebounds with 9.

Vonnie “the Microwave” Wafer scored 19 points, with 14 coming in the fourth quarter alone as Houston held off a late push by the Cavs, only to see Von finish ‘em off. It was kind of a coming-out party for Wafer to a national TNT audience, many who had never seen him play before. He made a great first impression to casual NBA fans by hitting 4-of-6 three-pointers.

As great as they played on offense, their defense was even better. They held the Cavs to the lowest number of points in the first and third quarters, 11 and 10 points respectively. Oh my goodness! I’ve heard of one low scoring quarter like this for an NBA team in the same game, but for two of them to occur in the same game is unheard of. And 33.8% shooting for an NBA champion contender? Houston’s defense is baaaaack.

It’s unbelievable that Charles Barkley said after the game that he doesn’t think Houston is a contender, even after this big victory. And before the game, I don’t know why he and Kenny Smith kept saying that trading Rafer Alston was going to mean a big drop-off in production for Houston’s offense. And that they didn’t think Brooks was ready to run a team because he’s too inexperienced. Have they been watching their former team at all this season?

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I never thought I’d say an ugly win could be so beautiful as it was Tuesday night when the Rockets beat the Blazers 98-94.

Houston had blown a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter with less than 6 minutes remaining, a lead that got whittled down to 2. But rather than collapse like they did several times before the All-Star break, this time the Rockets found a way to win.

Rather than jump on them and lament how the team continues to struggle in putting teams away like they did so many times this season with McGrady and Alston, it’s hard to do that this time. That’s because we know they finally have a cancer off their team that will allow their healthier “cells” to grow over the time.

Also because they’ve got a starting point guard who can actually hit big shots and free throws down the stretch, like Aaron Brooks did by draining 2 big free throws to make it 94-90 with 21.5 remaining.

The rest of the way the Blazers fouled Ron Artest twice, and like a true superstar, he hit his free throws when the chips were down. Those 4 FTs were a majority of the points the Rockets would score (7) in the last six minutes, all coming from FTs.

Artest may not have had the best shooting night (5-of-13), but he made 9-of-10 free throws on his way to a team-high 20 points. He also had 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and only 1 turnover.

Two of my favorite plays from the night involved Artest when he did a pick-and-roll with Luis Scola in the lane, dumping it off to him for a layup. Then later, Artest grabbed a defensive rebound, dribbled it coast-to-coast on a semi-fast break to the other end, and dumped it off to Scola for another layup! It’s rare to see a player this versatile: a burly small forward who can play power forward and post-up in the lane, or start in the backcourt with Brooks and be dishing dimes on fast breaks.

Scola would finish with 15 points on 5-of-9 shots, plus 11 rebounds, including 2 or 3 in the clutch that kept Houston possessions alive and staved off the Blazers’ comeback attempt.

Aaron was fantastic with 20 points on 8-of-20 shots, but it was the way he made those shots that was impressive. It just wasn’t off 3-pointers (2-of-5). He attacked the basket more than Rafer Alston did, blew by defenders, and scored on at least 4 layups Tuesday night because of that aggressiveness.

He also had some sweet dribble moves to get into the lane, then would elevate and pop a jumper over defenders who were backing up because they thought he was taking it to the rack. It’s a sweet move, and almost impossible to defend.

Yao had a so-so game. He ‘only’ scored 15 points on 6-of-15 shots. He missed his first 4 shots, which included 2 back-to-back dunk/layup attempts within a few seconds of each other in the first quarter. The first dunk attempt was a one-handed jam attempt over Joel Pryzbilla, who appeared to get a hand between the ball and the rim.

But Yao’s second miss was a flat-out blown layup from underneath the rim, and Yao had to slap his hands frustration that he had missed such an easy shot.

Yao’s night was even more frustrating because referee Scott Foster fell for two Pryzbilla flops by calling them as offensive fouls on Yao. They were absolutely ridiculous calls.

Pryzbilla flopped on Yao 4 times in the game, getting caught only once.
Click here for more photos from pre-game and the game itself.

But fortunately Foster would finally expose Przybilla for what he was when Pryz went to the well too often in the fourth quarter with 2 flops on Yao within a few seconds. The second flop is when Foster called him for a defensive foul, giving a little bit of payback for Yao.

The first half for Houston was incredible as they scored 60 points, and in the second quarter the reserves came in – like Von Wafer, Chuck Hayes, Kyle Lowry – who actually widened the lead after Yao went out, going on a 34-17 run without him. During that scoring outburst, I loved how the bench (including Yao) was on their feet cheering them on and pumping their fists!

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The Chronicle has a good recap of a press conference held yesterday with Rockets’ team physician Dr. Tom Clanton, who will observe the microfracture surgery that’s being done on Tracy McGrady‘s left knee today.

One thing that Clanton said in the press conference that was interesting was the following: “I think that I let him return to play a little too quickly. Perhaps if we had strengthened his knee more at the start, maybe he wouldn’t have had these symptoms.”

Does this change your mind about how all of the controversy played out with McGrady’s knee? Personally, I think McGrady still holds a big part of the blame because 1) he didn’t strengthen his knee enough during the off-season (he’s never been known to be a tireless worker like Yao Ming is), and 2) he said multiple times his knee felt good, until the end when it was convenient for him to find something to blame like his knee.

Also, the way he didn’t tell the team about his decision to have the surgery before announcing it publicly was a nightmare.

With the Rockets playing the same day as the Oscars were handed out, I was going to make a crack that compared Tracy McGrady’s salary drain on the Rockets with Slumdog Millionaire, but I won’t go there.

Even with team executive Michael Jordan at Toyota Center, the Rockets blew out the 22-34 Charlotte Bobcats 99-78 Sunday afternoon to win their fourth in a row, avoiding suffering the lapses they encountered against sub-par teams so many times before the All-Star break.

The Rockets are now 14 games over .500 for the first time all season at 35-21.

I feel true momentum building here.

Yao Ming only took 6 shots in the first half and made 3 of them. At first it didn’t look like the Rockets would need much of his scoring since they got off to a great start, shooting 55% in the first quarter and opening an 11-point lead in the first half.

Charlotte’s Emeka Okafur had little chance of blocking
Yao Ming’s jumpers and hook shots Sunday afternoon.
Click here for more photos from the game.

But then they hit a dry spell and the Bobcats whittled the lead down to 2 points by halftime, 44-42. That’s when you had to ask yourself if the Rockets were going to go back to their old ways and struggle against teams they should handily beat.

I knew there was no way, though. This team is just too balanced to have that happen again after all the optimism from the past few days. But you never know. That’s why they play the games.

It didn’t take long for them to finally make their statement. Yao Ming was more aggressive to start the 3rd quarter, scoring the first 6 points. He followed that up with a sweet no-look pass in the post over the head of his defender to Shane Battier for a reverse layup, which gave the Rockets a 54-46 lead.

Yao later followed that up with a block of Gerald Wallace, who challenged him by taking it strong to the hole. The blocked ball led to a 3-pointer by Shane on the other end, extending the lead to 61-50. Then less than a minute later Yao threw a long pass from the post across the court to Battier again for his second triple in a row. After that, the Rockets cruised the rest of the way.

After the game, Yao said, “We have some adjustments made at halftime. I think I don’t give them enough pressure in the paint, so I need to be a little more aggressive. Make them play me, make them double-team me, try to find the open man. That’s when I was able to come out and score three shots in a row.”

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