Houston Chronicle Thursday highly praised Chinese
basketball player Yao Ming, saying that Yao's big night led the
Houston Rockets to fourth straight victory.
There were poster-quality dunks, jump hooks, rebounds and
putbacks and there were swarms of defenders rushing to guard him
and failing on Wednesday when the Rockets pulled away for a 101-92
win over the New York Knicks on the road, according to the
newspaper.
"With the Madison Square Garden crowd cheering him nearly as
vehemently as they booed New York coach Isiah Thomas, Yao Ming was
at his most dominant Wednesday," said the report, "When the Knicks
twisted their defensive knots around Yao, every Rockets player on
the floor also scored."
"We wanted to go to him whenever we had the opportunity,"
Rockets coach Rick Adelman said after Yao scored a season-high 36
points and added 11 rebounds. "We didn't think they had anybody who
could guard him."
"I don't think there are too many people on this planet that can
guard Yao Ming," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "When he is
single-teamed, we tell him to shoot the ball every time because
it's the best shot we can get. If we can get consistency in that
other scoring option, we'll be a tougher team to beat."
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2008)