Raymond has done a great job translating this short article from Titan Sports about how Yao and his teammates expect Tracy McGrady to fit in with the Rockets’ improved offense, not the other way around. Keep in mind that I can’t vouch for the accuracy of some of Yao’s reported statements. Raymond is just translating what is being reported over in China by a writer living in Houston who is assigned to cover Yao and the Rockets.

Yao Ming shoots over Antawn Jamison on Tuesday night in a 92-84 win over the Washington Wizards. Yao scored 21 points and Luther Head added 24 to help the Rockets win their third straight game. Click here for more photos from the game.

It’s kind of strange to write about a Rockets win on the road that came fairly easily, this time in Washington against the Wizards. The Rockets won 92-84 in a game where they led by as much as 14 points. Sure, it got close at times, but the Rockets always found a way to keep the Wizards at arms length most of the way. Their defense was fantastic, holding them to just 41% shooting, and the out-rebounded them 46-28.

Luther Head (24 points) and Yao Ming (21) scored 45 of the Rockets’ 92 points. Half of Luther’s points came on 3-pointers, hitting 4-of-6 from behind the arc.

This came only one game after it looked like he might be the odd man out with Aaron Brooks‘ emergence as a legitimate scoring threat. Brooks scored 22 points Saturday night against the Knicks and is on his way to a very bright future in the league. Add Tracy McGrady’s imminent return to the line-up soon, and Rafer Alston‘s dramatic scoring improvement recently, and things didn’t look good for Luther in getting as many minutes this season.

But if Luther continues to shoot like he Tuesday night, then for the first time this season it looks like the Rockets will have some scoring depth at guard after all, even with Steve Francis and Mike James riding the bench. Who would have thought that at the beginning of the season? Before training camp it looked like Alston was on his way out of town, Luther was an afterthought once again, and Brooks was ‘only’ a rookie.

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Yao Ming goes up for a dunk over the New York Knicks’ David Lee on Saturday night. Yao was dominant, finishing with 30 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocks in a 103-91 win. Aaron Brooks was also incredible, scoring 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and amazing everyone with his speed and three-point shooting. Click here for more photos from the game.

Saturday night’s game between Houston and New York represents the reason why I love NBA basketball. Not just because the Rockets beat a team they were expected to beat — a Knick team that has been trashed in the media because of their 8-23 record, underachieving roster, and embattled head coach.

I loved this game for a variety of reasons other than the 103-91 final score might indicate. I loved this game because a player who many people questioned being worthy of a first round draft pick showed everyone — except for the die-hards that believed in him early on — that he not only deserved to be a first round pick, but that he should be playing significant minutes in this league. Not only that, but he could also be the surprise of the NBA draft, and perhaps (hopefully) become a member of the league’s elite point guard fraternity (Tony Parker, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Baron Davis, just to name a few) that the Rockets have been seeking for years. Wow.

Of course, we’re talking about Aaron Brooks, drafted 26th in last year’s draft. Brooks has been showing everyone lately, including Rick Adelman, that he is a force who is extremely difficult for anyone to defend. Many of us knew that for weeks as it took Adelman way too long to figure out. But better late than never.

Adelman gave Brooks the most number of minutes (24) he has played all season Saturday night, and AB delivered again. Hopefully it wasn’t just because there happened to be a just-as-small point guard on the Knicks in Nate Robinson who probably made Adelman feel that it was “safe” to put AB in there from a matchup perspective.

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Yao Ming throws down a dunk over Orlando center Dwight Howard Friday night. Yao finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Rockets to a victory. He had plenty of help though, including Rafer Alston, Aaron Brooks, Luther Head and Luis Scola. Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets came up with one of their most impressive games of the season, beating the Orlando Magic 96-94 at their “Amway Arena” after losing a heartbreaker against Boston just a couple of nights before.

Man, it feels good to write about a win after 2 disappointing losses to Golden State and Boston. I really liked the effort that most of the Rockets gave. You have to give them a lot of credit for their resilience. Orlando is a good team, having a 22-12 record before the game, although they had only won 7-of-14 games at home this season (15-5 on the road).

It wasn’t easy, though. The Rockets seemingly had the game well in hand with a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter, but they blew that lead and Orlando tied the game up on a Rashard Lewis 3-pointer with 19.9 seconds remaining.

That’s when Rafer Alston probably had his biggest play in ages, penetrating into the lane and scoring on a tough left-handed layup for a two-point lead. The Magic almost tied it up when Adonal Foyle tipped the ball in at the buzzer after a Rashard Lewis miss, but the replay showed that the ball left Foyle’s hand about a millisecond too late. It was the correct call by the officials. Congrats to the refs! (You don’t hear me say that phrase too often).

It was a team effort for the Rockets, with players like Big Yao scoring 26 points and grabbing 10 boards in playing well against his new rival, Dwight Howard, who only scored 16 points and grabbed 8 boards before fouling out.

Alston probably had his best game offensively, scoring 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-4 three-pointers, and had 8 assists. He had lots of problems defensively, which I’ll get into later.

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Yao Ming elevates over Boston’s Kevin Garnett for a one-handed jam. However, Garnett would get the last laugh as he willed his team to a fourth quarter victory over the surprising Rockets.

The Rockets were outclassed in the beginning of their game against the Celtics Wednesday night, falling behind by as much as 20 points as Boston ran a clinic against them, embarrassing the Rockets, who left guys wide open for layups.

They also got outclassed at the end of the game, getting beaten by a superstar in Kevin Garnett, who hit big shot after big shot to score 11 points in the game’s final 7 minutes.

In between, the Rockets fought hard and made it an interesting game against one of the league’s best teams. But as expected, they didn’t have a guy to step up at the end of a close game, while Boston did. It was just a matter of time before one of the Big 3 (Garnett, Ray Allen, or Paul Pierce) of the Celtics put the Rockets away, and no surprise, it was KG, who hit several jumpers in the fourth quarter to push the Celtics record to an amazing 27-3 after beating Houston 97-91 in Boston.

Meanwhile, Houston’s superstar, Yao Ming, didn’t do anything in the clutch moments of the game, partly because he was swarmed by Celtic defenders who made it difficult for him to get the ball, and partly because he hasn’t been that clutch with his shot late in games. He was 1 of 3 from the field in the fourth quarter, scoring a garbage basket at the end of the game.

I have said before that it may not be fair for Yao to be considered the prototypical go-to guy since not many back-to-the-basket 7-footers don’t have the luxury of being able to dribble much to create their own shot. It’s also easy to double-team a guy when he’s not facing the basket and is down low in the paint in a confined area, unlike KG who can move around, face up and shoot jumpers over the defense as good as anyone.

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Yao Ming pleads his case to referee Eddie Rush during the Rockets-Warriors game in Houston on New Year’s Eve. Yao had some very questionable calls that got him into foul trouble and limiting his minutes. Without him playing a full game, the Rockets made a game of it, but they couldn’t hold on to a third quarter 11-point lead and lost 112-95. Click here for more photos from the game.

I knew coming into the Golden State game on New Year’s Eve that the Rockets had no chance of beating the Warriors. So I’m not surprised they lost 112-95 like they did. But I am surprised that the Rockets actually made a game of it midway through the 3rd quarter when they were up by 11 points.

However, that’s when the bottom fell out. The Rockets started missing shots, turned the ball over way too many times, the Warriors made the run everyone knew they would, and they blew the Rockets out the rest of the way just like everyone expected.

I thought when the Rockets had their big lead, it should have been bigger, but they didn’t put the Warriors away when they had all the momentum behind them. When you have Steve Novak playing his first game of the season and he has 8 points by halftime, you’ve got to like your chances.

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It became known late Sunday (see article) that Tracy McGrady is having more of a problem with his left knee than earlier thought because of a “deep bone bruise.”

I know alot of skeptical fans may think McGrady may be faking or dogging it, but I have to come to his defense a little bit. That’s because I had the exact same injury 3 years ago on my left knee, and it hurt like hell. At first I was hoping it would heal and the pain would go away, but I was surprised it took longer than I thought. In fact, I still feel it to this day. I have had it MRI’d since the injury and the doctors say they can’t see anything, but I still feel it.

So personally, I’m actually going to give McGrady the benefit of the doubt because I have suffered the same injury. Ironically, I hurt it at a Rockets game at Golden State when I fell flush on my knee on concrete, and I have never been in so much pain in my life.

In a way, there’s a bit of silver lining to McGrady’s expected absence for the next 7 games (or more, or less, who knows). It will give everyone the opportunity to really see how well the Rockets can play without him over an extended period of time. If the Rockets tank while McGrady is out, like they did last year, then everyone will appreciate what he brings to the team and the calls for him to be traded should subside.

However, if they play extremely well with players like Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks, (who weren’t there last year), Bonzi Wells (who basically wasn’t there), Luther Head, and maybe even Mike James or Steve Francis, then we’ll all know that McGrady may be more expendable. If that’s the case, I’m hoping that the injury doesn’t reduce his physical ability — like it has mine — to the extent it diminishes his overall value. That would be even worse. Given his pain is gone and he’s now rehabbing his knee and leg for more strength, he should be okay, but it wouldn’t surprise me if his pain came back.

Raymond has done a great job of translating this interview with Yao after the Rockets win against the Raptors where he was suffering terribly from the flu. Yao is such a gamer. It’s truly inspirational how selfless he is.

When you read the translation, think about how sick Yao must have felt. Then think about this: as sick as he was during this game, why in the world did Rick Adelman pick this game to play him the most amount of minutes in his entire NBA career in the first half: 23 out of 24 minutes!?

How could he have done that when Yao was at his weakest and sickest, and doesn’t even play him that kind of minutes when he’s healthy? You know Yao is such a pro, he wasn’t going to complain. But I just don’t think Adelman knows all that’s going on sometimes, as seen by how slow he was in giving more playing time to Aaron Brooks and Luis Scola.

Yao Ming double-pumps in mid-air over Toronto’s Rasho Nesterovic before shooting the ball toward the basket, which bounced around the rim for a bucket in the fourth quarter. Yao led the way in the fourth quarter with 8 big points, and would lead all scorers with 25 points on 8-of-19 shooting, and 9-of-9 from the free throw line, to give Houston a 91-79 victory over the Raptors.

The Rockets found a way to win their second game in a row without Tracy McGrady and go 15-15 on the season, beating the Toronto Raptors 91-79. It wasn’t a pretty win, but when the Rockets needed to get over the hump in the fourth quarter, Yao Ming was The Man. In a stretch of about 5 minutes, Yao scored 8 points to help put the game away

At the 6:43 mark in the fourth, Yao calmly hit a turnaround jumper to make it 76-70. On the next possession, he elevated for a jump shot from just outside the left side of the lane, double-pumped in the air (pictured above), then threw up a shot that rattled on the rim a couple of times and dropped through to make it 78-72. When you’ve got a soft shooting touch, you’re going to get some nice bounces on the rim that will fall your way.

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Yao Ming shoots over Memphis’ Stromile Swift and Pau Gasol on his way to 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting in a convincing Rockets victory over the Grizzlies. Yao also finished with 12 rebounds and 5 blocks.

What else can be said other than the obvious? Although they were playing against a struggling 8-20 Memphis team, the Rockets played very well Friday night in the absence of the injured Tracy McGrady, and beat the Grizzlies soundly 103-83.

It was another good performance by the Rockets without McGrady around (remember the 2OT game against Denver last week where the Rockets played pretty well?), and you’ve got to think it’s not just a coincidence.

As much as I see on Internet Web sites comments from Rocket fans saying McGrady should be traded, I have been a little more conservative on that notion (shocking, huh?) because I have thought if McGrady doesn’t go crazy with stupid jump shots, he can still be a very effective weapon.

But I think there is something even better that’s happening when the Rockets play without him. Unlike last year, other players now seem to be stepping up in his absence. Part of the reason is because the talent on this roster that the front office has assembled seems much more comfortable stepping out from behind McGrady’s shadow.

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