Yao broke his foot. Again.
Okay, whatever. So Yao is out for the playoffs. But should he be? Everyone who watched the game on Friday saw that Yao was hurt and hobbling in the second quarter. Everyone also saw that by the fourth quarter, the Rockets simply were not going to win. Yet Yao played another 40 minutes and was not removed from the game until a minute was left. At some point he went from being "hurt" to being "injured." This should have been avoided.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but what the f--k was Rick Adelman thinking?!?
Sleepy strikes again.
Between the refusal to adjust his rotation, to the refusal to play the "hot hand," to the undying loyalty to his starters (even when that included Tracy McGrady), Adelman has steadfastly refused to pay attention to the events unfolding before his eyes. It was funny when the Rockets were winning in spite of him, but now it's indirectly caused a major injury to the franchise center. This is unacceptable.
So, now Yao joins McGrady and Mutombo on the sidelines for the rest of the playoffs. I could try and sugar-coat this news and say that Daryl Morey's genius has allowed the Rockets to maintain depth and overcome this kind of bad news. That would also be a lie. You simply do not replace Yao Ming.
I'll be at the game tomorrow. I'll be ready to see the Rockets win (and I fully believe they win tomorrow afternoon). I just don't see the Rockets winning another game after that. Landry, Scola and Hayes will do everything they can to make up for Yao's absence. But as much as I love those guys, they aren't Yao. No one is.
It would be like the Lakers losing Kobe. Or the Magic losing Dwight Howard. Or the Mavericks losing Dirk (not that they'd be any worse than 0-3 right now).
Quite simply this news sucks. God has found yet another way to mess with me. Though the "injure Yao at an inopportune time" way of messing with me stopped being funny about five years ago. It's merely piling on now. And that's just mean.
Ummmm, GO ROCKETS!! (!??!?)