Yao Ming drives to the hole against San Antonio’s Tim Duncan on Friday night in a game the Rockets lost 90-84 in San Antonio. Yao had a sub-par game, scoring only 14 points on 7-of-16 shooting and turning the ball over 7 times, but he did grab 9 rebounds and block 3 shots. But boards and blocks don’t really matter because the Rockets have now lost 3 in a row. Click here for more photos from the game.

I knew that even with Tracy McGrady out of the lineup for Friday night’s game against San Antonio, the Rockets had a very good chance to win, even after one night after the Spurs got beat by the Mavericks on national TV. On paper, the Rockets still have enough talent to beat anyone. But in order to have a shot of beating the Spurs, the Rockets were going to have to play a near perfect game. They didn’t, losing 90-84, and it’s starting to bug me how they are losing.

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A few days ago I posted a trivia question at the end of a very long post. A few people wanted to know the answer, so I thought I would post the question by itself to bring more attention to it before providing the answer. So here’s the question one more time:

What common term have I not used this season, which I had used alot over the past couple of seasons, and why?

You can provide your answer by submitting a comment below. The first one who gets it right will earn bragging rights as a top YaoManiac!

Yao Ming goes up for a shot against the L.A. Lakers Wednesday night. Yao had 26 points and 13 rebounds, but it was an off-night for him since he made only 6-of-18 field goals, and uncharacteristically missed 6 free throws (one was missed intentionally). The Rockets had their chances in the end to win the game, but couldn’t make shots down the stretch in a 93-90 loss.

This is probably going to be short since many of you in the U.S. probably saw the game on ESPN Wednesday night, it’s late, and Tuesday night’s loss against the Memphis Grizzlies compelled me to write a longer post than normal that kept me up fairly late Tuesday night.

Wednesday night’s game against the Lakers had so much drama that it could take me hours to recap it, but I’ll try to boil down my key observations for you.

As I’m sure you heard, Tracy McGrady injured his elbow, and as I write this late Wednesday night, it looks like the MRI results show it’s just a strain, and that he may miss only a week. It’s a pretty big week to miss with all the important games they are going to play, which includes San Antonio on Friday, Phoenix on Saturday, and Dallas on Wednesday.

In the first quarter, I decided I was going to start tracking all the questionable shots that McGrady threw up, and it didn’t take long to find one. At the 4:40 mark, McGrady could have passed it to Luis Scola, who had hustled down court on a fast break, but McGrady didn’t reward Scola’s hustle with a pass to the baseline where he was wide open. Instead, he shot a three-pointer on a freakin’ fast break, and missed. The Rockets didn’t get the rebound.

So McGrady was “down one” on my questionable shots tracker.

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The Rockets went back to their old style of play Tuesday night in a 105-99 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. I swear, if Rick Adelman hadn’t been seen on the bench, I would have thought I was watching the 2006-07 version of the Rockets, but this time with a worse defense.

Before I start talking about the Rockets’ offensive struggles, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a bad defensive effort where the Rockets couldn’t stop the likes of Mike Miller (6-of-11 for 17 points), Pau Gasol (26 points on 6-of-11 from the field, 14-of-17 from the line), Darko Milicic (20 points on 9-of-14 shooting), and Rudy Gay (6-of-11 for 15 points). Memphis was 1-4 team before Tuesday night. They looked like an All-Star squad considering how easy it was for them to make baskets.

I had hoped the Rockets could have made a run at signing Milicic this off-season, but the price tag was way too high. Alot of people like to think that Milicic is a stiff because he never got off the bench at Detroit and people made fun of him since he was such a high draft pick, but that was mainly because the Pistons were a championship team his rookie year, and also because Larry Brown was being too JVG-like and not giving the rookie some playing time. Now he’s proving alot of people were wrong about him. I digress. At least the Rockets got Luis Scola, but Scola’s transition to the NBA game doesn’t appear it’s going to happen overnight. He needs more time, just like Milicic needed.

Sorry to say it, but a couple of times Yao Ming got caught napping on defense, like when he allowed Milicic to make a strong move into the lane for a hook shot without much resistance, and then in the fourth quarter Yao easily could have pinned Stromile Swift under the basket after Swift had grabbed an offensive rebound underneath the boards. But Yao let Swift off the hook by jumping up into the air on a pump fake, thus giving Swift the little room he needed to go up and put a shot off the glass for a very important basket in a tight game.

Not that I want to harp on Yao for this loss. He made 7-of-12 shots and hit all 8 of his free throws to score 22 points. He was the least of the Rockets’ worries. Instead, let’s focus on a bigger problem that was also evident in most of Sunday night’s game: the offense.

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No surprise here after Yao racked up the numbers he did this past week. Check it out here at NBA.com. Considering the way Yao is playing, I think there will be several more of these to come.

Yao Ming blocks a shot by Charlotte’s Raymond Felton Sunday night where Yao recorded 3 rejections on the night. But Yao did even more damage on the offensive end, hitting 13-of-15 shots and making 8-of-8 free throws to score a season-high 34 points. He also grabbed 8 rebounds and dished 4 assists in the 85-82 victory. Click here to see more photos from the game.

The Rockets had no business winning Sunday night in Charlotte. Except for Yao Ming, who was absolutely fantastic, the Rockets shot poorly, had no production from their bench, and turned the ball over way too many times. But thanks to Tracy McGrady finally taking it to the basket in the fourth quarter (rather than settle for jumpers), and Yao’s consistency throughout the game, the Rockets pulled out an impressive 85-82 come-from-behind victory.

Yao put together a game that makes you think, at this rate, that the league MVP could be a real possibility, just like it was last season before he got hurt. Yao made an incredible 13-of-15 shots to score 34 points, making all 8 of his free throws along the way, including two FTs that put the Rockets up 83-82 with 20.4 seconds left. He also had 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks.

It was fun to watch this game because there seemed to be a large contingent of Yao fans in Charlotte, of all places, cheering Yao when he scored, more than most small market arenas that Yao visits.

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Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian faced each other for the first time in an NBA game on Friday night in Houston. Yao got the better of his protege, leding the Rockets to a 104-88 win over Yi’s Milwaukee Bucks. Click here to see more photos from the game.

With the enormity of the viewing audience for the Rockets-Bucks game on Friday night (for obvious reasons), it’s almost impossible to write anything here worthy of matching the size of the Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian fan base in China. But I’ll try my best.

Watching the game, it felt a lot like a playoff atmosphere (try a few Super Bowls all rolled up into one) and you could sense that both Yao and Yi felt the eyes of the world on them.

I guess Yao was a little nervous, only hitting 1-of-6 shots in the first quarter, most of them around the rim, including a missed dunk that caromed out of bounds. But as much as Yao struggled on offense, he was very good on defense, coming up with 2 blocks in the first quarter and numerous intimidations. He also didn’t foul that much, never getting in foul trouble, and finishing the game with only two personals.

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Our Raymond has translated an interview from Titan Sports of Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian before tonight’s big game in Houston between the two Chinese countrymen.

In the photo below, Yao is seen picking up Yi on Thursday night at the Houston Four Seasons to go to dinner.

The interview questions were asked separately of both players, and they meshed the responses into one article.

I don’t know about you, but through Yi’s responses, he doesn’t have near the personality that Yao does. He’s kind of a dud in how he answers the questions. That’s not good in building his persona here in the U.S. Here’s the translation:

Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian have never donned different jerseys and confronted each other in any regular basketball competition. But now the time has come for that to materialize. November 10, 2007. Houston Rockets versus Milwaukee Bucks. Those experiences of playing against each other in team scrimmages of the national team suddenly become meaningless, because this is going to be a NBA regular season game, a genuine match-up. So right before the clash of the titans, Titan Sports conducted the following interview by asking the same questions to the 2 of them (at different locations).

Yi Jianlian: (After pondering for a long while) Long time no see.

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It was announced today that Luis Scola became the fourth Rocket to sign an endorsement deal with a Chinese athletic shoe company. Click here for photos from the press conference. Hmmmm. I wonder if all of these signings have anything to do with Yao Ming being a teammate. I wonder….

Scola joins Steve Francis in endorsing Anta. Shane Battier endorses shoemaker China Peak, and Chuck Hayes currently endorses Li Ning. Click here for the story. Yao should get a percentage of these deals, don’t you think?

I’m also wondering if Anta and Li Ning would be interested in signing me? Seems like anyone remotely associated with him is getting a deal. I’m associated with Yao to some degree, and there are probably 20 people who could see me each day wearing their shoes.