- There will be an actual NBA game played tonight in the Toyota Center. If that doesn’t make you want to take your shirt off and spin it like a helicopter, I’m not entirely sure what will. The Rockets’ home opener against the San Antonio Spurs will be missing some names surely (mostly due to that whole “preseason business), but Yao Ming will get to continue his parade of trying to recuperate against the NBA’s top pivots. The large man will likely be matched up against part-gamer, part-killing-machine Tim Duncan thanks to an injury to the aged rookie Tiago Splitter (whom you all may remember as not being Luis Scola), an interior matchup sure to draw some intrigue but less likely to feature the prominent fronting done by Dwight Howard Tuesday night that has long tormented those trying to zip Yao Ming passes in the post. Perhaps our recovering giant will get his touches more easily against one of the greatest defenders of all-time. Maybe. Isn’t preseason a sanctuary for unreasonable hopes?
- FreeDarko keeps pumping out the jams, of the Hakeem Olajuwon variety no less. Yesterday, Dan Devine wrote of a time when giants ruled and the 6’6″ deity who stole their reign was taking batting practice in Alabama. In this time, we all know exactly where Hakeem stood among his even-bigger foes, and Devine’s description of Dream’s evisceration of Ewing and Robinson should stand as one of the seminal pieces on the Rockets’ championship runs. Reading it should give any basketball fan who watched the type of precision and sheer will involved in Olajuwon’s dismantling of the best the kinds of chills all felt when watching the cadre of pump fakes and juke moves live. Today? Eric Freeman talks about Olajuwon’s NBA Jam brilliance, an occurrence that mostly came about because the Rockets’ back-to-back titles coincided with the game’s explosion on to the market, and how it mirrored his performance on the actual hardwood.
- Speaking of the Houston Rockets’ greatest player of all-time, I am going to guess that you’ve seen this. If you haven’t, enjoy.
- Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle will likely find a lot more to say about Rockets post play this year than he did last, but as the team itself is finding out, trying to build offensive strategies around one huge man recovering from a year off and another who cannot play for at least another week seems kind of hard, meaning Feigen may have to wait a second before he gets to dissect the Rockets’ interior work too throughly. Feigen wrote and talked to coach Rick Adelman about trying to integrate the big men while concurrently trying to deal with their current limitations: “Building around the offensive skills of Yao and Miller, however, is difficult when Yao plays only a fourth of each game and Miller has not played at all. There is only so much that can be done in walk-throughs and video sessions. ’It’s a hard thing to judge because you’re trying to put (Yao) in spots where he can be effective, and with the minutes limitations we have, it’s really hard to get any type of feel for it and any type of rhythm for the team,’ Adelman said. ‘We’re worried about trying to get him the ball.’ Yao did get touches, but many were far from his customary spot in the low post. Beyond that part of the process, however, the problems continued when he was out of the game, with the Rockets running only a part of their offense and running it into the strength of the Orlando defense.”
- In case you were wondering, throughout all of the injuries, outside pressures and incredible fame, Yao Ming is always happy. According to this Rockets.com interview at least.
- The new NBA Jam seems like it might make me have to buy an actual game system because I’ve always wanted to hit jumpers in the face of former U.S. Presidents (although the presence of Trevor Ariza as a Houston Rocket is bothersome, if only for the sake of verisimilitude). If you want to unlock those guys (as well as the Beastie Boys, Dr. J. and a gajillion other basketball players), check out this guide to the hilarious ways with which to do so (my personal favorite is the fact that dunking 10 times in one game unlocks Rony Seikaly, that flashiest of dunkers).
