With the holidays being so busy, I didn’t notice until now this article that was published 10 days ago. I don’t take too kindly to it. It’s another example where Tracy McGrady seems to say the wrong thing, even if you can understand why he thinks that way.

It’s okay for a player to say they respect another player’s game, but when McGrady was recently asked if he thinks about what it would have been like to play with Dwight Howard of the Magic, he responded:

“Oh yeah, I think about that a lot. And when I’m with my (Orlando-based) trainer (Wayne Hall), we talk all the time about how good me and Dwight could have been together.”

So is Yao not good enough for you, McGrady? A guy who never has dissed you?

When later asked about the idea of playing with Howard after his current contract held by Houston ends in 2010…

“I’ve thought about it. You never know.”

You just don’t say these things, even if it’s true. He should have responded by saying he is thinking about today, not two years from now.

In your mind, does the drumbeat to trade McGrady get even louder after these statements?

Our Raymond has pics in the forum of Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo making an appearance Christmas Eve at the Dave & Buster’s restaurant and video arcade in Houston at Steve Francis‘ charity event for 100 children of the Boys and Girls’ Club of Houston.

Pictured below is Francis, Yao and Steve’s little girl in Yao’s lap. Awww, isn’t that cute?

It’s good to see the players are doing something Christmas-y during their break to benefit others (unlike that “Casino Night” at Toyota Center with season ticket holders on Sunday, December 19th.) Although Steve has been struggling on the court, I’ve got to give him props for being so involved with the community in his adopted hometown. The city of Houston definitely appreciates him.

Click here to see more photos of Yao, Deke, Francis, and the kids from the Boys and Girls Club.

Yao Ming walks off the court in the second half of the Rockets-Detroit game after bumping into Luther Head, producing a cut above his eye that required four stitches. Yao would score only 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting in 26 minutes of action. Click here for more photos from the game.

After an exhilarating game against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night, I was so looking forward to the Rockets game against the Pistons Sunday night. Would the Rockets show they have turned the corner and play an inspiring game against one of the league’s best teams? Or would they melt under the pressure?

After the Rockets took a step forward Saturday, they took another step backward Sunday, losing 94-82 at The Palace in Auburn Hills. The game wasn’t as close as the final score would seem to indicate.

It’s easy for the national headlines to blame the loss on the Rockets losing Tracy McGrady to injury in the game (more on that later), but the Rockets have shown they can be very competitive without him. The Rockets still had a chance to win this game, but for some stupid reason Rick Idle-man didn’t play Aaron Brooks when he should have. Has this coach learned anything about his players yet? Why does it always take him about 3 times longer than everyone else to figure out who should be playing?

Read the rest of this entry »

Yao Ming shoots a jump hook over Chicago’ Ben Wallace in a game the Rockets won handily, 116-98. Yao scored 18 points and grabbed 8 boards in a game where he sprained his thumb, but x-rays were negative, and Yao would come back into the after the injury to play for a few minutes with a bandage on his thumb. Click here for more photos from the game.

You’ve got to give credit to the Rockets for bouncing back from that heart-breaking 2OT loss against the Denver Nuggets Thursday night, and playing better offense Saturday night in a big 116-98 win over the Bulls. It was the most points scored by the Rockets all season, and had to be one of their best shooting games (48.4%) while also shooting 10-of-22 from three-point land (46%).

It looks like Rick Idle-man has finally learned — a couple of weeks later than what many of us have been saying — that he’s had a stud point guard on the bench in Aaron Brooks who can likely solve some of the offensive problems that have plagued them all season. At least Idle-man is learning, folks. Better late than never.

Brooks continued to show his speed is extremely tough to defend, as seen when he went coast-to-coast on a highlight-reel layup in the second quarter that reminded you of a Tony Parker. Even though it doesn’t surprise me, IT LOOKS LIKE THE ROCKETS CHRISTMAS WISH OF GETTING A POINT GUARD THAT CAN SCARE THE DEFENSE HAS COME TRUE!!

Kudos go out to Rockets’ GM Daryl Morey and the rest of the staff who wanted Brooks, when just about everyone was saying they should have drafted a power forward with their first pick in the draft. Their selection is starting to pay off in a big way.

Brooks pushed the ball most of the time he got the ball, which encouraged his teammates to hustle to get into position so he could deliver the rock to them for some easy buckets. And that he did. In a little over 17 minutes, Brooks dished 6 dimes and only had 1 turnover.

He also made 2-of-5 shots, but that’s not as important as the decision-making he showed in not trying to wow us with his 3-point shooting acumen (which he has), and just played good solid PG play, unlike some other guards have been doing this season, tempted by the glory of hitting the three when they have no business shooting them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yao Ming calmly shoots a second free throw that gives the Rockets a one-point lead in double-overtime against the Denver Nuggets, but the Rockets lost the game a couple of minutes later on a last second shot by Denver’s Anthony Carter. Yao was a force in the game, showing leadership, and scoring 26 points and grabbing 19 boards in 52 minutes of play. Click here for more photos from the game.

I wasn’t too disappointed in the double-overtime loss to Denver last night. I have been saying for a few days now that the objective for the Rockets is to get the 8th seed in the playoffs. Forget about getting home court advantage. The Western Conference is so tough anyway, there isn’t much difference between an 8th-seeded team and a 3rd- or 2nd-seeded one.

It would have been great if the Rockets were at the top of the conference, but since that’s not going to happen this season, the important thing is for the Rockets to try to become a dangerous team that no one wants to play in April and May.

It was really interesting to watch the Rockets move the ball better than they have all season without Tracy McGrady in the lineup. Coincidence, or not? I think we all know the answer to that one.

TNT analyst Magic Johnson even said at halftime what many people have been thinking, but no really has had the balls to say at a national level. When asked the question what the “real problem” was with the Rockets, Magic replied:

“The real problem? You’ve got to trade one of them. Yao Ming or Tracy McGrady’s gotta go.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the studio after that statement. Magic continued:

“It’s not working out. It’s really not working out. We’ve seen it for all these years. They get eliminated in the first round. I thought they were going to play well together. It doesn’t work. Even tonight, I’m seeing the ball move more than I’ve ever seen it move watching a Houston Rocket game. (The ball goes) into Yao Ming, it’s rotating, it swings. But they can’t play together. The ball don’t move when they are together. You would almost have to keep Yao Ming, he’s still going to be the guy who sets the shots up for people. But one of them has to go because it’s not working for me.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Yao Ming shoots a jump hook in the lane against Orlando on Wednesday, December 19th. Yao finished with 19 points and 17 boards in a game where the Rockets shot 34% as a team and lost 97-92. Click here for more photos from the game. Click here for photos from the pre-game shootaround where former assistant coach Patrick Ewing paid a visit.

At first I was upset how the Rockets couldn’t make a shot and blew an early 16-5 lead to let a struggling Orlando team beat them 97-92 Wednesday night. This is a Magic team that had lost 5 of their last 6 games, and in their past 7 games their defense was atrocious, giving up a whopping 107.3 points per game.

So their coming to Houston was just what the doctor ordered, with Houston hitting only 28% of their shots by halftime, 34% overall, and scoring 15 points on average below everyone else who has played Orlando the past 7 games.

But now that I’m a realist and have come to the conclusion that this Rockets team is going to be mediocre for awhile, it’s time to start thinking how the Rockets can salvage this season. Forget about going deep in the playoffs. For me, the goal for this team is to make a late, strong run to get at least the 8th playoff seed, get their offense humming, their defense back to par, and then acquire a few key pieces in the off-season to make a stronger push next season.

Read the rest of this entry »

Because of travel and other commitments over the weekend, I was finally able to watch Saturday night’s game against Dallas. We all know most of the Rockets had a tough time hitting shots, which is par for the course in this season of underachievement. But there are many other problems with this team. The biggest thing that stood out to me during Saturday night’s game was the poor play of Steve Francis, who started in place of the injured 0-fer Alston.

Francis not only missed 7-of-8 shots and turned the ball over 5 times, but it was the way he turned them over. There were a couple of possessions where he either dribbled it out of bounds, or it was easily stolen, like by Dallas’ Devin Harris.

Even Francis had to admit how poorly he played, when he said the following:

“Yeah, it was really tough. For me, it was really embarrassing coming back playing and having five turnovers. The timing for myself wasn’t very good and it kind of snowballs when your point guard turns the ball over. That’s really going to hurt your team.”

Hey, if a player swallows his pride and ego and admits he was awful like Francis did, then you won’t see me piling on. That’s what I call taking responsibility. You’ve got to have hope that since he realizes it was an embarrassing performance, he has a chance to work back from it. That’s the kind of guy you really want to pull for, and shows his increased level of maturity compared to his first go-round with the Rockets.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday night, the Rockets’ players participated in their annual season ticket holder event where they had to hob-nob with the people who pay their salaries. Here Yao plays some blackjack.

You can check out more photos by clicking here (courtesy of Raymond). I had a few observations after looking at these photos.

*It was really crowded on the floor of Toyota Center. You can bet the players weren’t too excited about having any wahoo be able to walk up to them and ask them questions about why they aren’t playing better. When you’re playing bad as a team, it must not be fun to talk to anyone (at least it wouldn’t be for me).

*It seemed odd that it was a casino night theme just 9 days before Christmas. It seemed like it would have been a better night to raise money for charity or something. Casinos and Christmas don’t seem to jibe with each other.

*I didn’t see GM Daryl Morey on the floor wheelin’ and dealin’. Hopefully he was on the phones upstairs talking with other teams about potential deals, because so far this season has been a ‘bust,’ or a pair of ‘snake eyes’ (or make up your own gambling metaphor).

As many of you know, I wasn’t able to watch the Rockets-Mavericks game on Saturday night, but Raymond posted some photos of the game in the forum, like this one:

Click here and here if you’re interested in seeing more photos from the game.

As I anticipated, I didn’t miss much since the Rockets lost again, this time 96-83. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes in this story how bad it was, except for Yao Ming‘s 28 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

Meanwhile, Tracy McGrady made only 5-of-18 shots for 12 points, while Steve Francis (who started in place of the injured Rafer Alston) was 1-of-8 for three points.

This is really pathetic. From what I’m guessing, rookie Aaron Brooks will be getting some important playing time soon, especially since the Rockets called him up from the D-League.

So I’m glad I didn’t see the game. However, I did record it, and I will try to watch it remotely using my computer and give my supplemental thoughts about the debacle sometime late Sunday, time permitting. Or I may be so disgusted by what I see, I may turn it off and say, “screw it, I’ve seen enough.”

Hey everyone, I’ll be traveling today and will have a conflict later tonight in watching the Rockets-Mavericks game that I can’t get out of, so I probably won’t be able to watch the game and blog about it. This usually happens maybe a handful of times throughout the 82-game season (I haven’t missed one yet this season).

It will be interesting to see what happens tonight. The Mavericks have been struggling lately, too. I wish I could watch it. I’m already starting to think of the withdrawal pains I’ll be having during the game.