HoopWatch

Tracy McGrady has already missed his seventh straight game due to back spasms. But they are still in the thick of the fight in the highly competitive Western Conference. Thanks to the stellar play of Yao Ming.

But earlier today, in their game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Yao fell to the floor six minutes into the game after trying to block a shot. He did not get up for quite some time and was wincing in pain. Yao’s knee appeared to be under the body of Clippers forward Tim Thomas. He was diagnosed with a fractured bone under his right knee, and will be out for at least six weeks. Ouch!

The Rockets were ahead 14-12 at that point. But Chris Kaman sparked a 14-3 Clipper run in the third to take the lead for good. The Clippers beat Houston, 98-93.

Thomas led L.A. with 21 points. Kaman contributed 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Mobley and Brand had 18 and 16.

Shane Battier led the Rockets with a season-best 28 points on 9-of-15 shooting, and had four triples. Head and Alston added 22 and 21 points respectively.

Yao was enjoying a career-best 27 points and nine rebounds a game for the season. That was too bad for him. Other Rockets need to step up to avert a repeat of last season’s performance. Both Yao and McGrady missed 60 games combined last season, and Houston went 34-48, missing the playoffs. If only both were healthy for at least half of those games, it could have been a different story. Also, Houston went 1-8 when both stars were out. Pressure, pressure, pressure!

The guys coming off the bench has to get involved and double their effort. Houston leads the league in defense, but they need a lot of help at the offensive end. Bonzi Wells was acquired during the off-season to boost that lackluster offense dominated by T-Mac and Yao, but he hardly helped at all. Wait, he made things worse! Houston was in the game before Wells came in. He disrupted the rhythm of the Rockets offense, played 20 minutes, was a dismal 1-of-6 from the field, scored just four points and had six turnovers! More TOs than points! Whoa! Get out of here Bonzi! He has a major attitude problem, and I clearly do not understand why he is still being signed. His underachievements overshadow his skills. Talking about bad investment.

Bottom-line: veteran Dikembe Mutombo needs to play like he did when he was still with Denver and Atlanta, the “D” that is. And Head, Battier and Alston should all team-up to score the points to keep the team afloat before either T-Mac or Yao returns.