The Rockets did just about everything they could to give a league-worst 5-31 Oklahoma City team a victory Friday night. Not able to put them away after holding a 15-point lead in the second half, Houston committed numerous blunders and almost experienced what would have been their most humiliating loss of the season. That’s saying something for a team that has lost to Memphis, the Clippers, Washington, Toronto and Philadelphia, all teams with bad records.

Oklahoma City had their chances late to pull off one of their few wins of the season, but they couldn’t make big shots at the end of the game, and the Rockets escaped disaster, winning 98-96.


Yao Ming had about as ugly of a game as
Robert Swift’s tattoos. Click here for more game photos.

When the score was 83-83 entering the 4th quarter, I couldn’t believe the Rockets were in that kind of position against the league’s worst team. I understand that Ron Artest and Shane Battier weren’t playing, that Brent Barry had to skip the game because of a personal emergency that popped up, and the Rockets were probably tired playing their 5th game in a row on a grueling road trip.

But this is the Thunder we’re talking about, a team the Rockets should be streamrolling like almost every other team, take for example a 9-25 Minnesota team that beat them by 42 points on Wednesday night.

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Following up on Ren’s post last night….After Wednesday night’s terrible performance against the Philadelphia 76ers, I predicted there was no way the Rockets were going to beat the World Champ Celtics. Even though Boston had been struggling of late, I thought the Rockets, even though they had bounced back from poor games before, couldn’t defeat the Celtics on the second night of a back-to-back. Especially since the Rockets had lost 5 games in a row on the road, and 5 of their last 7 games.

It looked like it was going to be another loss late in the fourth quarter after several mistakes offensively and defensively gave the Celtics the lead. Ho hum, another collapse for a loss. But they proved me wrong, and I’m ecstatic to say I was wrong.

Some young Houston players stepped up big-time. Von Wafer‘s three-pointer from the corner was absolutely clutch. That’s going to do wonders for his career. The guy has GOT to have stones to be such a young player and have that crazy Mohawk haircut of his. 4-of-6 from behind the arc Wednesday night. Love it.

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This post was written by guest author Ren Hsieh:

I like Von Wafer. Getting put down by the rim is not the way anyone wants to make SportsCenter but recognize the kid has heart. He bounced right back, called for the rock and hit a big three to quell a burgeoning Celtic run. And he’d be back for more in the 4th. Wafer is the only guard on the team with that combination of size, 3-pt shooting and ability to finish… so long as it’s not baseline.

More importantly, he plays with that underdog intensity. How does a guy go from what what you could at best call a journeyman to such a solid commodity for the Rockets? A question for another time.

Rockets vs. Celtics should have been a battle of conference powerhouses and a potential Championship preview. Instead, both teams limped into the TD Banknorth Garden (which just sounds terrible) as the two most talented slumping teams in the league, both losing 5 of their last 7 and both dropping winnable games to very beatable opponents just last night. There was little on-court swagger.

Give it up to Boston though for coming out to support, their energy alone seemed to put the Celts up early as Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett couldn’t miss blindfolded. Boston converted roughly 65% of their FGs throughout 1st quarter and dropped 31 for the period.

Kevin Garnett defends Yao Ming by fronting him. Click here
for more photos from the game.

Good thing for Houston, the Celtic defense didn’t follow the lead, looking about as bad as it had throughout their slump. In fact, neither team locked it down on defense (which has likewise hurt the Rockets during their own slump) even with Ron Artest back in the Rockets lineup. Through 3 quarters, both teams were converting +.500 from the field.

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After the Rockets debacle of a defense let the Philadelphia 76ers slice their way to the rack all night long Tuesday night for easy baskets, I bet there will plenty of fans calling Houston sports talk shows Wednesday morning wondering if Jeff Van Gundy can come back to the Rockets.

Houston gave up 52 points in the paint to Philadelphia while allowing 56.2% shooting on their way to a 104-96 loss, their third in a row and their fifth loss in a row on the road.

Yao Ming sits on the bench exhausted as the 76ers offense kept him running all night long. Click here for more game photos.

Last year when the Rockets played such great defense, some people thought it was because Rick Adelman’s coaching staff had done something exceptional that he wasn’t very well known for doing – having a great defensive team.

Other people thought it was a carryover of the defensive attitude they had the prior season during the JVG era.

I know Shane Battier is out and he’s a good defensive player, as well as Ron Artest, and their absence makes playing great defense that much harder. But I think it’s becoming clear that last year was a fluke for an Adelman-coached team to play such great D, and that it must have been JVGs prior emphasis that had made them so great. On Tuesday there was just too much breaking down on defensive assignments to allow so many easy buckets like the Rockets gave up. The JVG attitude has worn off lately.

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With Ron Artest‘s sprained ankle forcing him out of the lineup for Saturday’s game in Atlanta (like Tracy McGrady and Shane Battier), the team’s poor play lately, and it being the second game of a back-to-back, the Rockets had almost no chance of beating the Hawks in Atlanta where they are 14-2 at home this season.

Yao Ming reacts after the refs don’t cut him any slack in a frustrating second half against the Hawks. Click here for more photos of Yao during the game.

But like other times this season after losing games in embarrassing fashion, the Rockets’ role players showed up and played with hustle and guts and almost pulled out a miracle win, but they lost on a last-second 3-pointer from Mike Bibby with 1.5 seconds remaining.

Aaron Brooks had a chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer at the buzzer, but the shot just rimmed out as time expired. Hawks 103, Rockets 100.

The Rockets have now lost 5 of their last 7 games, and their 21-14 record is not holding water in the ultra competitive West. With Saturday night’s loss, they are in a battle for 8th place: on the bubble for a playoff spot. Every loss like the ones they’ve had recently makes a big difference at the end of the season where one win or loss can make or break you.

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Well, my first game back covering the Rockets again on Yao Ming Mania was a complete disaster. The Rockets’ play was ridiculous in the first game of their road trip, getting their clock cleaned 94-73 by a 12-20 Toronto team. A team that also happened to lose their starting point guard Jose Calderon to a hamstring injury in the second quarter.

Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets have now lost 4 of their last 6 games, most against poor teams. If they keep playing like this, something major HAS to happen – like a big trade or a firing. This sort of play is completely unacceptable.

Tracy McGrady started the game with a plan to play only one game in each of their 3 upcoming back-to-backs. He was terrible again, hitting only 2-of-9 for 4 points in 28 minutes of play. He also had only 2 rebounds and 2 assists. In his past 5 games, he has only made 15 of his last 54 shots for an average of 10 ppg.

Yao Ming started the game scoring 6 of the Rockets’ first 10 points, but after that, the Raptors swarmed him and forced others to make shots. That strategy worked for Toronto because he got no help from the guards, who shot 3-of-15 in the half. That gave them a 39.5% shooting percentage as the Rockets trailed 38-28 at the half. They also scored a season-low 14 points for a quarter in the first.

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This little story from Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle…I didn’t realize Yao could be so persistent hunting down Dikembe…

If Yao Ming ever goes into college coaching, he might be a strong recruiter. Dikembe Mutombo said Yao called two or three times a day to convince him to come back, reaching the point where Mutombo said he considered turning his phone off.

“I do think when we practice,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman says, “it’s a huge benefit to Yao to have him go against him, because it’s someone his own size, or someone close to his size. ”

After semi-retiring from Yao Ming Mania for several weeks, I’m pleased to announce I’ll be resuming my coverage starting with either Friday or Saturday’s Rockets game! I’ve been able to work out an arrangement where I can resume covering Yao and the Rockets while we try to get an online store up that will sell new and cool Yao products and memorabilia. Of course, I’ll encourage you to check out those products in support of this site and Yao’s foundation. And I’ve communicated with Raymond in China, and he’ll be resuming his work on the site, too!

I’ve also implemented a new commenting system powered by Disqus that’s all the rage on alot of Web sites. It has several benefits, including:

– Reply to comments through email or mobile
– Edit and republish comments with one click
– Track and manage comments and replies
– Verified commenter reputations across sites
– More control over your own comments on websites
– Never lose your comments, even if the website goes away
– Build a global profile, or comment blog, to collect and show off what you’re saying
– Easier to comment on websites using Disqus

I wish I was coming back when the Rockets were playing a little better. The past few games they’ve struggled, like needing two OTs to beat a depleted Utah team, losing at home to a very bad team like Washington, and just squeaking by Milwaukee on New Year’s Eve.

Bad shooting is permeating the team. After consecutive games missing nine consecutive shots in the fourth quarter, they went 1-of-9 to end the loss to Washington and 5-of-13 overall in the fourth quarter against the Bucks. Before the Milwaukee game, Yao had only made 6 of his last 25 shots, including missing 3 important shots in the fourth quarter of the Washington game. And Tracy McGrady has made only 13-of-45 shots in his last 4 games.

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The Rockets lost a heartbreaker to Portland on a 30-foot buzzer beater by Brandon Roy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the game, and I’m glad I didn’t. You can read and weep the game story here at the Chronicle site.

I do have something I need to tell you that’s pretty important, though. I have decided after running YMM for over 6 ½ years, I’m going to have to take a break from the site, and it could be permanent (gulp!).

I could have just disappeared and not said anything, but then all of you would be wondering what happened. I owe more to you guys than that.

I had decided several months ago that heading into this NBA season, I can’t continue to sacrifice my time, money and health without making a reasonable financial return on the site. It has been like a second job to me. Even moreso now since I’m not in Texas as much as usual because of a time-consuming job which makes it very difficult for me to watch Yao’s games. Also, every extra hour I can get back in my life is precious. I have become extremely busy over the past year, and it’s not going to let up.

Many of you know I have accepted donations in the past, but I refuse to take those any longer. I very much appreciate your past contributions, but after seeing what was donated the past few years, it’s far from being enough to make it financially viable.

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What geniuses at the NBA league office in New York scheduled a game as big as the Rockets-Celtics on the same day as election night, one of the biggest nights in the nation over the past 4 years?

Because of the importance of the evening, there was no way I could watch the game AND the election results on TV. Well, I actually tried to watch the game online through NBA’s League Pass Broadband offering because I’m not in Texas right now, but after multiple attempts their video wouldn’t load, and I just said “screw it.”

It turns out I didn’t miss much considering the Rockets lost their first game of the season, and Yao Ming had a crappy night, getting in early foul trouble, and scoring only 8 points on 4-of-14 shooting, which included getting his shot blocked 3 times. On the bright side, he only played 28 minutes (sarcastic tone inflected).

After the game, Yao said, “The early fouls changed a little bit of my game but cannot be my excuse. I played a bad game, probably one of my worst games in a long time. I need to figure out what happened besides just thinking about those early fouls. I think I hesitated, worried about getting another foul. I think I moved not quick enough.”

I’ll refer you to the Houston Chronicle for the rest of the game story.

Here’s a link to Raymond’s photos from the game.