<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>HOUSTON, March 8 (Ticker) -- Unlike his All-Star teammate, Yao Ming's back appears healthy enough to carry the Houston Rockets.Yao had a dominant effort with a season-high 38 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks as the Rockets posted their fourth straight victory, a 103-99 triumph over the Indiana Pacers.Houston's leading scorer at 24.6 points per game, McGrady once again was listed as questionable with a nagging back injury that has caused him to miss all or parts of 18 games this season. The 26-year-old superstar decided to give it a go Wednesday and scored 15 points in 21 minutes before aggravating the injury early in the third quarter.Fortunately for the Rockets, Yao has elevated his play of late. The 7-5 giant took advantage of the Pacers' undersized front line, making 14-of-21 shots and all 10 of his free throws.Yao's hook shot with 8:33 remaining sliced Houston's deficit to 91-89 and capped a pivotal 17-3 run for the Rockets.After the teams jockeyed back and forth for several minutes, Yao and Peja Stojakovic engaged in a mini-competition of their own. Stojakovic made a layup to give Indiana a 95-94 lead with 3:35 left, but Yao answered with a layup. Stojakovic made two free throws 16 seconds later before Yao sank a pair from the line.The Rockets took the lead for good at 100-99 on a transition layup with 25 seconds left by Keith Bogans, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half.Indiana's Steven Jackson misfired on a 3-pointer and, after Houston rookie Luther Head split a pair of free throws, Anthony Johnson missed badly on a turnaround jumper.Bogans made two free throws to seal the victory, Houston's 14th in 18 games.Juwan Howard scored 16 points and Rafer Alston dished out 14 assists for Houston, which shot nearly 53 percent (38-of-72) and made 25-of-31 free throws.Stojakovic scored 29 points and Jackson added 23 to pace Indiana, which connected on only 4-of-24 shots in the fourth quarter and lost for the third time in four games.</div>wow, yao is stepping up as of late. he's being a true leader. :rock:
:yahoo: :worthy: Yao was amazing, and so was Alston. T-Mac played well too when he was in, 6-12 for 15 points in first half is pretty good. Unfortunately, we are gonna be playing some VERY tough teams this months (Dallas and SA multiple times), but I looked at schedule and we can go 15-5 or so in this next month and a half. That is, assuming T-Mac can play good ball. I feel if we are a game or so ahead of whatever team catching us for 8th seed, the last 2 games T-Mac should sit out and rest for playoffs. He is really starting to worry me. I even hear on XM radio he is considering retirement.Let's say we go 13-7 over the next month and a half. That would be good enough to catch the badly slumping Hornets, who are pretty much guarenteed to finish out of playoffs, and possibly Lakers, although they are playing well lately.
gawd t-mac shouldn't retire.. he still has so much left in him.. he just needs to take sometime off.. seriously..anyway i can't believe we have so much success even w/o t-mac playing as much as he has before.. it shows the quality of our team.
Prediction: Rockets and Kings make the playoffs while the Lakers and Hornets fall out of the playoffs.
Lol...Hes not considering retirement...It would be in the Houston Chronicle if he was.I agree McGrady should sit out for 2 or probably 4...Im saying this to see if Yao can win a lot of games without Mac.And I want McGrady all rested up for next year. It scares me that my fav. player is going through this.
Rockets were DEFINITELY overrated coming into the season, but nice win by Houston. They'll need to go almost unbeatable for the rest of the season to make the playoffs, but right now...Rockets are 4.5 games back of Sacramento, but if Kings go on a cold streak and Rockets win a few in a row, look out..they need T-Mac to keep on playing.
Are you retarded? This game was 2 weeks ago, and since then they are like 1-5. T-Mac is out for rest of season because of back.
