Pretty cool how many Chinese have volunteered to help make sure the Games go smoothly.

Tracy McGrady takes it strong to the hole for a jam after blowing by Denver’s Eduardo Najera (not pictured) in the first quarter Sunday night. In Yao Ming’s absence, Tracy McGrady led all scorers with 22 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in one of his finest games of the season. The Rockets beat the Nuggets for their 15th game in a row, which ties a franchise record. Click here for more photos from the game.

I am almost out of adjectives to describe how well the Rockets are playing and continuing to improve, even as they keep winning.

Victorious for the 15th straight time Sunday night against a decent Denver Nugget team fighting for playoff position, you just have to savor what we’re witnessing and realize that it may be a very long time until we see something like this happen again (maybe another 14 years?).

It’s one thing to SAY it, but it’s another to SEE it as represented in the standings below…note how Houston’s streak stands out from all the other Western Conference team’s streaks, as well as being ahead of Phoenix and Dallas (barely) for 5th place in the West (for now). When is the last time you saw that?

Sure, the Rockets have benefited the past few weeks to have played 12 of their last 15 games against cupcakes, but they deserve it since they played such a tough schedule at the beginning of the season. A little bit of luck has been involved in scraping out victories against Seattle and Sacramento during this stretch, but you’ve got to hand it to them for beating good teams like Golden State, New Orleans and Denver. Later this month is when the schedule gets much tougher again, so savor this streak while you can.

During their run, they have continued to get better with everyone raising their game, especially in the last 3 games with Yao Ming out because of his injury. [Note: Yao wasn’t at Toyota Center during the game because of the early morning surgery he’ll have on his foot Monday morning].

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No surprise in the announcement today that Yao will undergo surgery to repair the stress fracture in his left foot rather than just do rest and rehab. Evidently the second opinion he got yesterday from another specialist in Charlotte, NC confirmed the same thing he heard from Dr. Tom Clanton in Houston.

It looks like the surgery to insert several screws into the bone to help it heal will be done on Monday. For more on the story, click here.

Yao Ming talks with Tracy McGrady before the Rockets try to win their 14th game in a row that would give the team an undefeated record for February. ‘Mission accomplished’ as Houston soundly beat the Grizzlies 116-95. Earlier in the day, Yao Ming flew to Charlotte, North Carolina to get a second opinion of his injury from another doctor, then returned the same day to cheer his team to victory. Click here for more photos of Yao before the game.

There’s something about this Houston Rockets team that is unique from many previous editions. For example, there was a time when you had to get nervous about them reaching a milestone (like winning all the games in a month, or lay claim to the longest winning streak in an NBA season), even against a poor team like Memphis. Like most Houston teams (except for a few exceptions), they just couldn’t stand too much prosperity, right?

Not these Rockets. Houston took care of business and put the Memphis Grizzlies away early by exploding with a fast break offense, and clamping down on defense to take leads of 14-0, 20-2, and to lead 37-17 by the end of the first quarter. After that, the Rockets cruised to a 116-95 victory to win their 14th game in a row.

Since the 1991-92 season, only five other NBA teams have won all their games in a month. They also beat Portland’s 13-game winning streak earlier this season. Houston’s victory Friday night positions the Rockets to tie a franchise record of 15 in a row Sunday night against Denver.

The way the Rockets are playing, you’ve got to be as confident as you can be they will deliver on tying that record as well as break the franchise record against Indiana on Wednesday March 5th.

All this success lately makes you take a look back at all the acquisitions and draft picks the Rockets have made to build their current roster, and how almost all of them have turned out as good as could be expected. It would be hard to name one player who has underachieved during this 14-game streak. From Yao to Luis Scola to Carl Landry to Dikembe Mutombo, all the way down to Aaron Brooks and Steve Novak (too numerous to name everyone).

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Raymond has done a fantastic job translating this long interview that Yao provided to Titan Sports after it was announced that Yao will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. In this translation, we learn:

– Yao and the Rockets trainer initially thought the pain was because of bone spurs before they started checking it out further
– Maybe the stress fracture started back in November in a game against Dallas
– The injury, and the surgery he’ll have, is very similar to what Zydrunas Ilgauskas had done
– He probably could have only played another 2 or 3 games before the pain would have become unbearable
– He probably won’t return to China until late in the recuperation stage because long flights are not good for his ankle
– Much, much more

In my mind, since Yao says he will only be able to work on his upper body during most of the recuperation period, there might be a bright side to all this. Since it’s doubtful he’ll be 100% when the Olympics start, he will probably work hard so he can improve his jump shooting ability so he can provide sure-fire scoring for the Chinese team during the Olympics.

This potential emphasis on outside shooting might help him score more effectively in the long-run since his outside shooting has dropped off since becoming more of a low-post player.

Thanks for the translation, Raymond!

Yao Ming greets in street clothes his teammates as they prepare for their matchup against the Washington Wizards. Inspired to play well without Yao the rest of the season, the Rockets soundly beat the Wizards 94-69. For more photos from the day’s events, click here.

What a day. After all the drama from this afternoon regarding the shocking news about Yao, there was a game to play against the Washington Wizards Tuesday night. It was probably a good thing for Yao’s teammates to focus on a game right away rather than let any depression and/or doubt get a chance to fester over a day or two.

If there is one small consolation about the loss of Yao (and I do mean small), it probably gives the Rockets even more determination to prove their doubters wrong, like the talking heads on ESPN Tuesday afternoon who were saying the Rockets are now “done.”

I think the Rockets are the only team in history who have had a 12-game winning streak where people have said they have “no chance” to win a ring because of the loss of one player, no matter how great that player is. In essence, they have quickly become a “Rodney Dangerfield” – “no respect, no respect at all.”

Last time I checked, the Utah Jazz don’t have a dominating big man in the middle, and the Rockets have just as much talent as them, yet the Jazz get more respect (they probably don’t get enough IMHO). Almost the same situation with Dallas, too. They don’t have a dominant big man in the paint, and the Rockets roster is probably just as dangerous as theirs.

Another small consolation is that with the Rockets banding together in perhaps an “us against the world” mentality, it takes their mind off the distraction of their winning streak. Suddenly their win streak doesn’t seem as important as proving everyone wrong that they can win without Yao. It’s a slight distinction, with the difference being the streak is something you’re afraid to have end, whereas winning without Yao is something you can’t wait to prove to others you can do. Passive versus active.

Well, the Rockets came out Tuesday night as strong and determined as you could ever hope them to be in beating the Wizards 94-69. Dikembe Mutombo started at center, not Luis Scola or Carl Landry.

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Okay, I’ve had more time to put together my thoughts beyond what I wrote at the bottom of the post earlier today (see below) about what the Rockets should do with Yao’s loss from the lineup for the season and the playoffs.

I cleared a shoulder rehab appointment off my calendar today so I could take in all the talk and chat occurring on the Web about today’s bad news. I have never seen more comments on this site and the Houston Chronicle site in my life! I expect the number of page views this site gets will be more than what I received on the highest traffic day I’ve had in years: that day in August when Yao got married.

When the news was announced around noon Central time on Tuesday, I couldn’t help but think of all the Chinese who are 14 hours ahead of Houston’s timezone who were still in bed when the news broke. As I write this, many Chinese will be waking up to hear or read the news. If you think Houston is blowing up right now, you can expect the same thing to happen on the other side of the world.

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Here’s the video of Yao talking about his injury in a press conference from 6:15pm today.

You can tell how depressed Yao is about this news. So sad.

I am absolutely devasted about the news. Stress fracture in his left foot. Out for the season. I can’t remember being so knocked over the head by unexpected news in the NBA — maybe back in 1991 when Magic Johnson had to retire because he contracted the HIV virus. No one saw this coming. I feel like crying.

The stress fracture didn’t occur because of a single event, but occurred over time. Yao had complained of soreness in his left foot during All-Star weekend, so the doctors did lots of tests and finally found out the reason.

I’ll have more analysis later about what happens next for the Rockets. I’m still in too much shock to collect my thoughts. What do you think? Do the Rockets have a chance now? How will they play tonight against the Wizards? Will there be a big let-down? Should they have kept Bonzi for his low-post presence as an insurance policy?

Here’s Ric Bucher’s take on video.

Update: Here are some of my thoughts since my original post above:

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In cased you missed it, I wanted to bring attention to a translated interview that Raymond posted in the forum with former Rockets’ coach Tom Thibodeau conducted during All-Star weekend last week.

Thibodeau is now with the Celtics, and in this interview he talks about the similarities and differences of Yao to Kevin Garnett, how Rick Adelman has adapted to Yao’s game (not the other way around), where he has seen Yao improve this season, and much more!