The bad gets worse. Rockets team doctor Tom Clanton confirmed to the Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen that Yao Ming's broken foot is so serious it could end the center's career. Earlier Monday, Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that outside general managers had gotten the sense in dealings with Houston's Daryl Morey that Yao's injury is much worse than anyone had thought, to the point the Rockets could be without their talisman for the entire 2009-10 season.
But the coda from Clanton -- marking this fracture as the most serious injury in Yao's accursed reign -- bodes more doom than one more lost season. As you well know, the Rockets without Yao is like a jazz quartet without the bass or piano. He's not just the face of the franchise. He's the spine, the legs and the arms, too.
Dire news out of Houston, if reputable Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! has the right information. The Rockets announced last week that Yao Ming would remain out "indefinitely" -- in other words, the broken foot suffered in the playoffs that was set to be healed by now has not healed. But there's plenty of time until opening night, right?
Maybe not enough time. Woj reports the prognosis could have Yao on the bench for all of 2009-10, and there's a chance his basketball career is completely finished. The info comes from general managers who have talked trade with Houston GM Daryl Morey over the past weeks.
Here's a nice little mix from the NBA of some of the funnier highlights from this year's postseason press conferences. Besides the irony of LeBron James saying that "talking is what he really does," there's some good stuff from Gregg Popovich wondering if he's getting "punk'd," and Stan Van Gundy using the proceedings to ask a local high school to vote for his daughter for student council.
The real stars though are Ron Artest, Aaron Brooks (or at least his choice of attire), and Yao Ming, who in my opinion delivers the funniest line of them all as the clip comes to an end.
HOUSTON -- Unexpected achievement in the face of incredible adversity isn't quite how the Houston Rockets saw their playoff run unfolding.
But that was certainly the theme that carried the Rockets, minus injured stars Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, to within one game of reaching the Western Conference finals this season. One amazing night by McGrady or just the presence of aging Dikembe Mutombo in the paint might have been all the Rockets needed to avoid a Game 7 Semifinals in Los Angeles and overcome the Lakers.
It wasn't meant to be, but still it was enough to re-energize a franchise that seemed in serious trouble a few weeks ago because of it's often-injured stars and nondescript supporting cast. The Rockets hadn't been out of the first round of the playoffs in 12 years prior to this season.
The undermanned Rockets were able to battle their way into a Game 7 with the heavily-favored Lakers, and this turn of events left much of the NBA world doubting L.A.'s championship aspirations.
On Sunday, however, there was absolutely no doubt who would be advancing to the Western Conference Finals. Behind huge games from Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum (and a not-so-great one from Kobe Bryant), the Lakers finally completed their expected elimination of the Rockets.
It's time to give Rockets coach Rick Adelman some credit before it's too late. After all, who knows what's going to happen Sunday? But it must be noted that he's doing quite the job on the bench this postseason, like he's done time and time before.
The mere fact that Adelman has been able to guide the Rockets to two victories over the L.A. Lakers since Yao Ming went down makes Houston's coach the MVP of this series right now.
It was one thing to shock the Lakers in Game 4 on Sunday, the first game without Yao. It's quite another to handle the Lakers again in Game 6 on Thursday -- by a score of 95-80 -- to force an anything-can-happen Game 7 back in L.A.
Rockets 95, Lakers 80: Recap | Box Score Series Tied 3-3 | Next Game: Sunday @ Los Angeles, 3:30 PM ET
After stunning the Lakers in Game 4 in Houston, the Houston Rockets actually played like a team that was missing its two best players. As well, Phil Jackson finally got the memo that Yao Ming wasn't in the lineup, and came up with a game plan that took advantage of the undersized and undermanned Rockets.
Jackson re-inserted Andrew Bynum into the starting lineup Tuesday night, and Bynum and Pau Gasol combined to punish the Rockets inside.
With Bynum and Gasol clicking on the inside and Kobe Bryant in Mamba mode (20 first half points), the Lakers pretty much had this game wrapped up by the halftime buzzer en route to a 118-78 laugher. It was basically an ultimate reversal of the results in Game 4, complete with Sasha Vujacic breakaway dunks and Jordan Farmer 35 foot buzzer beaters.
Lakers 118, Rockets 78: Recap | Box Score Lakers Lead 3-2 | Next Game: Thursday @ Houston, 9:30 PM ET
There's too much going on in the NBA playoffs right not to try to touch on every series. Let's take a look ahead to Monday's games, as well as a look back at Sunday's games ...
-- It's really too bad that Game 3 of the Dallas-Denver series had to be decided the way it did, with the officials missing an intentional foul and allowing Carmelo Anthony to hit a game-winning 3-pointer.
But now on Monday we're really going to find out about the Mavericks, and it could go a long way toward whether they're completely dismantled this offseason. Do the Mavericks have a little Houston in them?
The Houston Rockets, playing a day after learning star center Yao Ming is lost for the remainder of the playoffs, stunned everyone but themselves with a convincing wire-to-wire 99-87 win over the Los Angeles Lakers during Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal game Sunday at the Toyota Center.
Suddenly, a day after this series seemed all but over, the Rockets have again made things interesting with the series tied and Game 5 headed back to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Coming into Game 4 against the Lakers, and playing without Yao Ming, the Rockets knew that they'd have to out-work, out-hustle, and out-shoot L.A. for 48 minutes if they were going to have a chance to win.
That's exactly what they did.
Houston jumped on the Lakers from the opening tip, and led by as many as 29 points on their way to evening the series at two games apiece.
The bad gets worse. Rockets team doctor Tom Clanton confirmed to the Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen that Yao Ming's broken foot is so serious it could end the center's career. Earlier Monday, Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that outside general managers had gotten the sense in dealings with Houston's Daryl Morey that Yao's injury is much worse than anyone had thought, to the point the Rockets could be without their talisman for the entire 2009-10 season.
UPDATE: 
Here's a nice little mix from the NBA of some of the funnier highlights from this year's postseason press conferences. Besides the irony of 
HOUSTON -- Unexpected achievement in the face of incredible adversity isn't quite how the Houston Rockets saw their playoff run unfolding.
The undermanned Rockets were able to battle their way into a Game 7 with the heavily-favored Lakers, and this turn of events left much of the NBA world doubting L.A.'s championship aspirations.
It's time to give Rockets coach 
After stunning the Lakers in Game 4 in Houston, the Houston Rockets actually played like a team that was missing its two best players. As well, 
There's too much going on in the NBA playoffs right not to try to touch on every series. Let's take a look ahead to Monday's games, as well as a look back at Sunday's games ...
HOUSTON -- No Yao? No problem.
Coming into Game 4 against the Lakers, and playing without 
