I have gone ahead and created a new photo gallery that has many of the photos from this past year of Yao’s activities. It’s basically the same photos you have seen on YaoMingMania, but all on one page. It’s a cool way to find interesting photos you like of Yao, as well as see a chronology of Yao’s life in pictures in 2007.

Just click on the “Photo Gallery“ link in the navigation bar. You’ll then see two “sets” to choose from — one set of photos without Yao, and another titled ‘2007’ with photos that include Yao. Click on that 2007 set, and you’ll see thumbnails of the Yao photos. You can then hover over each thumbnail to get a short description of the photo. To see a larger photo, just click on the thumbnail image.

Over time, I hope to get all the photos I’ve posted in this gallery and apply descriptions to all the photos, but it’s alot of work, so please be patient as I try to do that over the next several weeks (or months).

Enjoy!

In case you missed it in the discussion forum, Raymond has translated an interview that Yao gave recently after the Rockets win against Denver on Saturday night. I recommend it, and you can read it here.

Thanks Raymond!

Yao Ming shoots a jump hook over LA Clipper Chris Kaman on Monday, November 26th in Los Angeles in an 88-71 Rockets win. Yao finished with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting, 8 rebounds and 1 block. Meanwhile, Kaman came out strong and scored 22 points on 7-of-20 shooting, and 13 boards. Click here and here for more photos from the game.

Well, we’re going to have to wait at least another game to see if the Rockets’ renewed emphasis on ball movement will be effective. Despite Rick Adelman‘s vow to not lean on Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady (especially) to have so much of the scoring load placed on their shoulders, in the second half he absolutely threw that philosophy out the window Monday night in a victory over the hapless LA Clippers.

In the third quarter when the Rockets finally got some separation from the Clippers due to them missing tons of shots (Sam Cassell’s injury in the first quarter really hurt their cause), they just kept feeding McGrady who put the entire offense on his shoulders by scoring 9 points in the third, and 19 in the fourth. This was quite a change from their commitment in the first quarter when I thought McGrady did a good job taking it to the hole and not settling on jump shots.

In the second half, I can understand the philosophy of “feeding the hot hand,” but this was ridiculous. There was no ball movement at all – just McGrady going one-on-one as he scored 28 of the Rockets’ 48 second-half points, and 36 overall.

Where is the commitment and the will power to stay the course, and not to be tempted to go back to the “old way” of scoring points (which we know doesn’t work in crunch time), and work out the kinks in the new system?

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Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports that when the Rockets were flying back from Miami to Houston after losing their 6th game in a row, that the players (especially Yao and McGrady) had discussions with coach Rick Adelman on how the offense should focus more on Adelman’s new system as opposed to keeping remnants of the old one around.

Evidently Adelman hasn’t been comfortable making a complete switch to his new offensive system. But after several losses in a row where guys were “standing around” and the shot selection was terrible at the end of games, I would have thought it would be a no-brainer for him to go to a more motion-oriented offense much earlier than after losing 6 games. That’s what Adelman had been brought into to do in the first place, right?

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Yao Ming comes over defensively to help Shane Battier defend against Denver’s Carmelo Anthony taking it to the hoop Saturday night. Yao finished with 22 points on 9-of-18 shots, and grabbed 13 boards in a rare 109-81 blowout against a Nugget team that has now shot below 40% for three straight games. Click here for more photos from the game.

For all of us who tuned into the Rockets game Saturday night against the Nuggets to see if they would crash-and-burn in the game’s final minutes…well, we’ll all have to wait until Monday night when the Rockets play the Clippers in LA.

Having lost 6 in a row, the Rockets came out like a caged animal and opened huge 20+ point leads against a poor-shooting Nugget team. Although Denver came into the game 9-4, they had shot less than 40% their last two games, and aren’t really as good as their record indicates. They made it 3 games in a row Saturday night, making only 35.4% of their shots in a 109-81 loss to the Rockets.

The core of their offense, Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony, made only 15-of-38 shots to score 35 of their 81 points. So it’s really hard to tell just how well the Rockets will fare once some real pressure is applied to their defense. But the Rockets will take the ‘W’ any way they can get it to get their record back to 7-7.

It was clear the Rockets were going to go all out to stop their 6-game losing streak, showing lots of energy and resolve to build a lead so big that no team could really blow. It’s just too bad it took this long for a sense of urgency to set in.

Tracy McGrady was aggressive going to the hole, and his shooting percentage reflected it, making 13-of-23 shots for 35 points. Not intentionally wanting to be a party-pooper, I still think he fell in love with too many outside shots. Everything he shot close seemed to go in, so I think that emboldened him to take four 3-pointers (he missed three) and take three other unnecessary jump shots.

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Raymond has translated an article that Titan Sports’ Wang Meng wrote after interviewing Yao Ming about how the coaching change has dramatically changed how things get done at Toyota Center before games. One word of caution: this writer sometimes has quoted Yao for saying some almost unbelievable things, but this story sounds very believable to me.

It’s clear that Rick Adelman is an “old school” players’ coach whose pre-game preparation doesn’t stand up to Jeff Van Gundy‘s. There probably aren’t very many coaches who could match JVG’s control freak-ism. So I don’t have too much of a problem with coaches who don’t spend as much time obsessing as JVG did. I think too much obsessing can make a team tight. But it’s obvious this season, by looking at the product on the court, there is very little dedication to defense, and that the pendulum may have swung too far the other way. Adelman is clearly letting the players do what they want more than JVG would have ever dreamed.

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Yao Ming meets with former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy before the Houston-Miami game Friday night, November 23rd. Van Gundy was the ESPN television analyst for the game. This happened to be the most interesting photo from the night because the Rockets didn’t do anything interesting on the court, losing to a struggling Miami team. Houston has now lost 6 in a row and dropped below .500. Click here for more photos of Yao with Van Gundy, as well as more photos from the pre-game shootaround and the game.

I’m tired of it, so this is going to be short.

The Rockets lost to a very bad 2-9 Miami team that was 0-5 on their home court before beating the Rockets Friday night. Houston has now lost 6 in a row, with no end in sight. My, oh my, how this season has cratered so quickly.

Miami gave them every chance to win, but the Rockets are so bad, you knew they wren’t going to be able to do it.

Rick Adelman looks like he’s a deer caught in the headlights.

McGrady: 7-of-20 from the floor. 5-of-10 from the free throw line. Inexcusable.

Yao Ming got schooled by Shaq down low: 26 points and 14 rebounds. Shaq was obviously tired of being written off as a force. Yao scored 20 points on 8-of-13 shots.

I feel bad for Luis Scola, who may be the Rockets’ best offensive player (9-of-15 for 18 points), and except for points from Yao, isn’t getting any help. Too bad it took idiot Adelman this long to figure out that he should be playing more.

Adelman inexplicably keeps playing “0-fer” Alston: who was 1-for-6, and 0-for-3 from three-point territory. HOW LONG DOES IT HAVE TO TAKE?

LESLIE ALEXANDER: PLEASE FIRE ADELMAN BEFORE THIS SEASON IS DOWN THE DRAIN!

In words that Stephen A. Smith would use, this team is “a piece of garbage.”

I’m out.

Yao Ming goes up for a shot against the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night. Yao’s numbers were phenomenal: 30 points, 15 rebounds, 6 blocks. But the Rockets blew a big lead and lost another one in the clutch. Click here for more photos from the game.

The Rockets choked another game away, blowing a 17-point lead in the third quarter and a 5-point lead with 1:40 remaining, this time to Dallas on national TV. I knew it was going to happen even when they were up by 17. Now that’s pretty pathetic when you know the Rockets are going to blow a lead that big. I wasn’t happy with what I saw as the lead started disintegrating. This choke job was inevitable. Choke City II, anyone?

I’m furious about this loss because this Rockets team hasn’t changed one bit from last year’s team that blew a nice lead against Utah in Game 7 of last year’s playoffs.

I’m not going to hold back like the Houston Chronicle columnists probably have to do because they are getting paid to write professionally, whereas I’m a blogger that doesn’t get paid one cent to do what I do, so I’m beholden to no one. I’m going to let it fly, so forgive me if it sounds like I’m a kid ranting in a discussion forum, or if I have typos. Like that famous line from a movie, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”

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I wanted to bring attention to the “PamBee” ad I put on the right-hand side of the page a few days ago underneath the calendar. If you’re looking for a unique holiday gift, this is a really good one to consider. Just click on the ad to be taken to the PamBee home page.

This is the first time I’ve put an ad on the site that wasn’t provided by Google (which pays virtually nothing), so if you purchase a PamBee, it would really help me out since I get paid a little something for each sale, rather than each click on the ad.

PamBee offers free shipping, and to reward you for your patronage, you can get an extra 10% off if you use the promotional code “YaoMania” when you checkout, so make sure to consider a PamBee as a gift or travel accessory this holiday season. Thanks!

Yao Ming expresses his frustration to the ref during the Rockets-Suns game on Saturday, November 17th. Yao had a sub-par game against the running Suns, hitting only 4-of-17 shots for 12 points in a 115-105 loss, the Rockets’ fourth loss in a row. Click here for more photos from the game and here for photos that include Steve Francis, Luis Scola, and Tracy McGrady.

What an embarrassment. I’m not going to point the blame for the Rockets getting schooled by Phoenix Saturday night on playing five games in 7 days, like the Houston announcers did. I’m also not going to blame it on Tracy McGrady not being in the lineup. Those are cop-outs. (I’m kind of reminding myself of how JVG talks. Scary).

Instead, you’ve got to look at the major drop-off in defensive intensity under the Rick Adelman era. All the experts say he focuses on defense just as much as offense. But I have never, ever seen a team shoot 73% in a first half, and 62% overall, like Phoenix did Saturday night, and have as many open 3-pointers (which turned into 6-of-12 from behind the arc in the first half).

Sure, the Rockets’ offense looked good in the first quarter scoring 30 points to the Suns’ 37. But you knew they weren’t going to be able to keep up with the Suns, who kept pouring it on in the second and third quarters, hit half their shots in the third, hit three 3-pointers, and outscored the Rockets 25-19 in the third to take an insurmountable 94-76 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Rockets did cut the deficit down to 9 points in the fourth, but all Phoenix had to do was turn on the jets again by putting Steve Nash back into the game, and that was the ballgame.

Even Steve Francis’ first action of the season didn’t make any difference. With Adelman finally figuring out that Rafer Alston had to be replaced in this game starting in the second quarter (a little too late in coming, though), Francis was rusty, hitting only 3-of-11 shot to score 8 points. He did show an ability to penetrate into the lane a couple of times, including dishing a nice bounce pass to Yao for a layup attempt where Yao was fouled. But he also went brain dead a couple of times on defense trying to guard Leandro Barbosa. We’ll see if Adelman keeps playing Francis in lieu of giving Alston so many minutes. I wouldn’t mind it.

But to me, the second biggest story of the game right behind the Rockets’ bad defense was Yao Ming’s second bad night in a row. He was only 4-of-17 from the floor, which is about the worst I have seen him shoot when taking that many shots. He was having so many problems, he only played 22 minutes when Adelman decided to take him out and go small with Luis Scola playing center.

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