NBA Basketball Betting: Betting on the Houston Rockets After Losin

by Bodog Sportsbook | Feb 26 2008

Just when you thought the Houston Rockets were finally stepping up, they've been dealt a huge blow. Six-time All-Star Yao Ming will be sidelined for the season with a stress fracture in his left foot.

While the headlines were all about the blockbuster moves in the Western Conference, the Rockets quietly moved up in the West with 12 wins in a row and a 10-2 record against the spread.

But with this shocking development, you can officially bury any chance of this squad finally meeting the lofty expectations in place since Yao and Tracy McGrady were put together. How can the Rockets ever build around a center that's averaged just 53 games in the past three seasons?

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Yao Ming Had Finally Arrived

Back when Yao couldn't speak English, the knock on him was that he couldn't bang with the NBA big men. He was the Asian remix of Shawn Bradley, avoiding contact, settling for fadeaways and making regular appearances on posters as the "dunkee" not "dunker."

TNT analyst Charles Barkley once said that Yao needed a summer in the ghetto to learn how to use his 7-foot-6-inch, 310-pound frame to aggressively own the paint.

But this season, it was starting to look like he'd been spending his summers at Rucker Park.

"To me, [Yao] was way more aggressive tonight than he had been in the past at trying to catch the ball," Warriors forward Al Harrington said after the Rockets beat them 111-107 on Jan. 29,  the first win in Houston's 12-game winning streak.

"Before, it was a little bit easier fronting him. Tonight, he wasn't having it. It seemed like he was [very angry] for those last games we've played him, and he showed it."

Ming's newfound aggressiveness was making him a force in the paint. He was having his most consistent season ever with 22 points, almost 11 boards and two blocks.

In late December, an injury to All-Star guard McGrady forced the Rockets to become Yao's team, and they thrived. The Rockets went 8-4 without McGrady, and the averages of point guard Rafer Alston and former Rocket Bonzi Wells (he was traded to the Hornets before the deadline) bumped up to double digits. Since T-Mac healed up, he had to take a backseat to Yao and become more of a distributor in the offense. McGrady was averaging 6.7 assists compared to 5.3 dimes earlier in the season, and it helped the Rockets maintain their winning formula.

"It's been Tracy McGrady's team the last few years, but when he went out, it became Yao Ming's team," Barkley explained on Feb. 20. "The biggest difference in this team is they made it Yao Ming’s team."

Houston, We Had an Offense

With Yao taking over and McGrady finding a new role on the team, the offense had actually become watchable.

The Rockets have been known as one of the most boring teams in the NBA ever since Yao came to Houston, but the inclusion of offensive-minded coach Rick Adelman seemed to be paying off. The Rockets were averaging just 95 points per game as of Jan. 9, but during their recent streak, they've been dropping 99.9 per game.

"It's all about resiliency and trying to get the guys on the team to maintain a consistent attitude game in and game out," Adelman said of the team's gradual improvement on offense on Feb. 23. "Accept what you're not doing well, but don't overreact to it. It's not always as bad as it seems.

"That's the key: You can't panic. You always tell players to trust each other. I have to trust them, and they have to trust the coaching staff."

What hurts most about this turn of events is that the Rockets were trusting each other. For the first time, they were getting help from young role players who were filling up the boxscore nightly.

Rookie forward Luis Scola is averaging 11 points and six rebounds as a starter in February. Alston has maintained his double-digit scoring since McGrady's return. And the spark forward Carl Landry brought off the bench (averaging 7.4 points and five rebounds) had allowed Houston to deal Wells to New Orleans for former Adelman student (from his Sacramento Kings days) Bobby Jackson.

"I'm coming to a system where I know I can thrive and get back to where I was at," Jackson said. He had 14 points off the bench in his Rockets debut on Feb. 24. "Rick, he caters to everyone's needs. He understands players' weaknesses and their strong points and he's done that for me. He just kind of lets you go and play your game."

The Rockets had always been a solid team defensively (they rank fourth in the league, allowing just 92.6 points per game) because of Yao's inside presence, but it was encouraging to see that they were generating on offense. With Yao gone, expect production from both ends of the court to drop significantly (the Bodog Sportsbook had the Rockets listed as 12.5- favorites versus the Wizards; that line has been changed to -10.5 after the news).

"This is the best we've played since the championship era," owner Les Alexander told KRIV-TV. "Yao was an integral part of that.

"We have great players and hopefully they can support what Yao gave us and go deep into the playoffs."

The Rockets Have the Schedule on Their Side

One contributor to their recent success was the ease of Houston's schedule.

From opening night until the new year, the Rockets had arguably the toughest schedule in the NBA. Nineteen of their first 30 games were against teams above .500, and 18 of 30 were on the road. Things had been a little easier during their streak with only four of the 12 wins against teams above .500.

With the NBA playoffs, especially in the West, usually coming down to which team can get hot down the stretch, the Rockets were sitting pretty. Just nine of their last 26 were against NBA contenders.

"I have no doubt that if we get to the playoffs, we're going to be a tough matchup," Adelman told the Houston Chronicle on Feb. 23. "There's nobody we can't beat."

Unfortunately, at this point, the playoffs are likely a stretch. Eight teams in the West will probably hit 50 wins this year, and without Yao, the Rockets will probably be the odd man out.

"This is unbelievable," Alexander said. "This is the most heartbreaking. This is the worst I've felt."

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