The Next Lamb: The Houston Rockets

Game 37: Houston (16-21) at Boston (28-8)

Monday, January 10

7:30 p.m. Eastern

NBA League Pass

As NBA injury stories go, the story of Yao Ming certainly rivals that of Portland's Greg Oden in terms of basketball tragedy. Yao missed all of last season with a foot injury, came back for the first few weeks of this season, then suffered a stress fracture in his foot while rehabbing a strained tendon in his leg. Another season gone, and there are very real concerns that he's played his last NBA game.

Trying to re-incorporate Yao into the offense at the beginning of the season (while dealing with his minutes cap and unavailability on the second night of back-to-backs) cost Houston at the start of the year, as the Rockets dropped their first five games. After Yao got hurt, the team struggled through the end of November, in part due to an ankle injury to point guard Aaron Brooks.

They seemed to be turning things around at the end of 2010, going 11-4 in December and winning five of their final six games of the calendar year. But a brutal schedule -- five games in seven days, all against current playoff teams -- combined with a more minor ankle injury to Brooks has the Rockets slumping, losers of their first five games of 2011.

When Brooks is healthy, he's the Rockets most dangerous offensive weapon, a true scorer with no fear and great range. He's not healthy, though; he never made it into the starting lineup after his injury (coming off the bench for 20-25 minutes per game in the six games he played before getting hurt again) and clearly isn't the same player yet. So even if he does play, Boston's defensive focus should be on shooting guard Kevin Martin, a wispy shooting guard with an uncanny knack for getting to the line, and Luis Scola, their terrific power forward. Kevin Garnett may be back for Boston, which would be a huge boost. I'm assuming the Rockets took notice of the way that Chicago's Carlos Boozer took advantage of Glen Davis in the post last night, and if KG is out of the lineup, I would expect a heavy dose of Scola.

In the absence of Yao, 6-6 Chuck Hayes was getting the majority of starts at center, but he's out until later in the month with an ankle injury of his own. Second-year player Jordan Hill has been getting the starts with Hayes out, but veteran Brad Miller -- an old favorite of coach Rick Adelman's from their glory days in Sacramento -- has been getting the majority of the minutes. Miller is a hard-nosed center with great passing ability and good range for a man his size, but his lack of mobility means that Shaquille O'Neal shouldn't have as much trouble with him as some other centers in the league. Hill might give Shaq more trouble, at least on the glass, but his lack of polish will hurt him, and he's not as aggressive as some of the other young bigs in the league. Rookie Patrick Patterson has made his way into the rotation due to the injuries and provides rebounding and a little bit of scoring.

Houston's starting point guard is Kyle Lowry, a brawny six-footer who isn't flashy but gets the job done on both ends of the court. He's a passable three-point shooter at 37.1 percent, but his overall field goal percentage is just 39.2 percent, so I imagine Boston will be more than willing to let him get his own shot rather than deal to Martin and Scola. The Rockets have a variety of effective perimeter players, including veteran Shane Battier and young guns Courtney Lee and Chase Budinger. Defending the three-point line will be a big key for Boston.

In conclusion, I love watching Houston because of how hard they play. There's no team in the league that brings it every night harder than the Rockets do. Boston's had a tendency to sleepwalk through games in past years. It's not as big a problem this year as it has been, but they better be ready to play from the beginning, or they might find themselves slapped with an unexpected home loss -- despite all of Houston's injuries.

Muy Beno: Yao's Minutes Cap, Getting Technical, and Links

(As a reminder, when I wish to write about NBA topics that are general in nature, I tag the post "Muy Beno" in honor of the best Slovenian point guard the league has ever seen.)

Yao's Minutes Cap

After the Celtics game, I caught the Lakers' narrow win over the Rockets. It marked Yao Ming's return to the court after missing the last season and a half with a foot injury. Due to that injury (really, due to an accumulation of such injuries over his career), it's been widely reported that Yao will be on a strict minutes limit this season: No more than 24 minutes per game, with no "carryover" minutes if he doesn't play his full allotment one night, and no back-to-backs.

Last night, Yao fouled out after 23 minutes and 21 seconds of court time, so the minutes limit didn't become an issue. What I found interesting, however, was how coach Rick Adelman chose to allocate those minutes. Yao started the game and played the first seven minutes before giving way for Brad Miller. Yao then returned for Miller at the 8:25 mark of the second quarter, playing five minutes before yielding to Miller again. The second half saw a similar pattern; Yao played the first six minutes of the third quarter and the first five and a half minutes of the fourth quarter before fouling out.

If this pattern continues, it means that Yao will not be on the court at the end of games, which is unusual for a starter and almost unheard of for one of Yao's abilities. Miller is a decent fill-in; a skilled big man who excelled in Adelman's system in Sacramento and every bit the free throw shooter Yao is. But Yao's a better shotblocker and commands more attention from opposing defenses, or at least he does when he's healthy. It may be that Adelman is simply planning to ease Yao back in, and will change up the rotation as the big man re-gains his conditioning. It might mean changing up the rotations -- perhaps starting Miller in the third quarter so he doesn't have to play a double shift in between Yao's stints -- but the Rockets probably will want Yao on the court at the end of games.

Getting Technical

Another big story this offseason was the NBA's new guidelines for technical fouls. The new rules in essence prescribe a technical foul for demonstrative reactions towards officials.

The Lakers' Derek Fisher and the Rockets' Kevin Martin were the only two players to receive technicals on the NBA's opening night. Fisher got rung up for a forearm or elbow to the chest of a Rockets player who was setting a screen, but Martin's was clearly a product of the new guidelines: after being whistled for a foul on a Kobe Bryant jumper, Martin turned and took a few steps downcourt, swiping his arm rather tamely through the air while uttering a few choice words.

Martin's tech was certainly justified within the letter and spirit of the new guidelines. However, it was considerably less demonstrative than the reaction Dwyane Wade had to a no-call on a late drive against Boston; Wade actually jumped and clapped right in front of the official after that play, the kind of reaction that garnered techs last year, before the new guidelines.

I was against this new emphasis on curbing player behavior entering the season because I was afraid too many games, players, and teams would be plagued with technicals. However, I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of demonstrative behavior from the players during the games I watched on Tuesday. A game that included not only Wade but LeBron James and the Boston Celtics would have almost certainly resulted in multiple techs last year. The sample size is too small to say that the players have got the message, but David Stern may be on to something here.

With that said, we need consistency. If Martin deserved a tech, so did Wade; if Wade deserved to get off scot-free, so did Martin. While a single technical foul may be trivial to the outcome of a game, it starts to matter when you consider the suspensions that accompany technicals once players reach 16 for the season. Substantial inconsistency from officials in the implementation of these guidelines could result in some serious inequity as the season goes on. (While officials' dispositions certainly varied widely last year, now that a wider range of conduct will presumably be punished by a technical foul, more players might be affected by the rules that set suspensions for accumulation of technicals over the season.)

Links of the Day

• The New York Knicks may have violated NBA rules regarding workouts of college players, according to Yahoo! Sports. Check out the story for the details of the allegations; what I'm most interested in are the possible penalties. The linked article mentions that penalties for similar infractions in the past have been fines for the organizations involved and suspensions for the team officials involved. However, the article also indicates that there may be factors in this case that make the Knicks' conduct more severe than those past incidents, which raises the question of whether additional organization penalties might be handed down. When the Minnesota Timberwolves were caught tampering with Joe Smith back in 2000-01, it cost them three-first rounders and hamstrung their franchise for years. The Knicks have traded away a bunch of their upcoming first-rounders, and I'm sure the NBA would be reluctant to really stick it to one of its flagship franchises, particularly since New York seems to be climbing out of the hole it's been in over the past several seasons. However, it seems worth mentioning as a possibility.
• SLAM Online has a nice little question-and-answer session with veteran NBA play-by-play guy Mike Breen.

Boston 106, Chicago 80

[recap] [box score]

We had seven guys in double figures. Rajon Rondo put up 16/7/14 with three steals. Brad Miller is a meanie.

That's all I have time for.