Subject: Von Wafer

• Rockets-Suns: Brooks, Lowry Bring Small Ball to Houston

  If the Rockets needed any additional evidence to the potential success of a two point-guard system, they only needed to look on the other end of the court on Friday night at Toyota Center. The Phoenix Suns (34-28) have been the model of up-tempo basketball in recent years, routinely playing small guards Steve Nash and Leandro Barbosa together to wreak havoc on opposing defenses with electrifying speed and dribble penetration ability. But three times in the past five games, the Rockets (40-23)

  March 7, 2009

• Rockets-Pistons: Can Yao Be the Closer?

  Photo by Wootang01 Remember the notion from earlier this week that the Rockets' late-game offense might be better off without Yao Ming? That didn't last long. With the Rockets trailing by four late and in the midst of yet another fourth-quarter funk, Yao snapped the Rockets out of it in a major way. Houston's star big man scored 15 points in the final five minutes of regulation and in the two overtime periods, leading the Rockets to a 106-101 double-overtime victory over the Pistons on Wednesd

  March 19, 2009

• Rockets-Pistons: Can Yao Be the Closer?

  Photo by Wootang01 Remember the notion from earlier this week that the Rockets' late-game offense might be better off without Yao Ming? That didn't last long. With the Rockets trailing by four late and in the midst of yet another fourth-quarter funk, Yao snapped the Rockets out of it in a major way. Houston's star big man scored 15 points in the final five minutes of regulation and in the two overtime periods, leading the Rockets to a 106-101 double-overtime victory over the Pistons on Wednesd

  March 19, 2009

• Rockets-Suns: Brooks, Lowry Bring Small Ball to Houston

  If the Rockets needed any additional evidence to the potential success of a two point-guard system, they only needed to look on the other end of the court on Friday night at Toyota Center. The Phoenix Suns (34-28) have been the model of up-tempo basketball in recent years, routinely playing small guards Steve Nash and Leandro Barbosa together to wreak havoc on opposing defenses with electrifying speed and dribble penetration ability. But three times in the past five games, the Rockets (40-23)

  March 7, 2009

• Rockets-Cavaliers: Yao's Revenge

  Photo by Wootang01 LeBron James has a lengthy history of poster-quality slam dunks. But on Thursday night, Yao Ming emphatically turned the tables on the Cleveland superstar. Yao overwhelmed James on two game-defining plays, sparking the Rockets to a 93-74 home victory over a Cleveland (44-12) team that entered Thursday with the NBA's second-best record. It was by far the most impressive of Rockets' (37-21) six consecutive wins, all of which have come without Tracy McGrady. "It's awesome to s

  February 27, 2009

• Rockets-Hornets: Point Guards Finally Get Defensive

  Photo by Aaron Sprecher(Note: This is written by Ben DuBose. We're working on that byline  glitch, honest.) At least for one night, the Rockets answered their only remaining defensive questions in a resounding way. Since dealing incumbent point guard Rafer Alston at the February trade deadline, skeptics have wondered if the Rockets could defend at the point with diminutive 6-footers Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry. On Monday night at Toyota Center, New Orleans (49-32) offered quite a challenge

  April 14, 2009

• Do You Believe In Miracles? Rockets Advance

  May 17, 1997.Aaron Brooks and Von Wafer were in sixth grade. The Oilers were only a year removed from their Houston existence. The Texans were still more than five years from their birth. The Astros had yet to make the playoffs in the Biggio-Bagwell era. Then-President Bill Clinton was still eight months from being outed for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Oh, and that's also the last day the Rockets had won a postseason series.But it all changed Thursday night, as a long chapter of mediocrity

  May 1, 2009

• Second Round Preview: Lakers Defense May Pose Biggest Threat To Rockets

  The Rockets finally got the first-round monkey off their backs  last week, so what did the NBA give them as a reward? Only a second-round date with the prohibitive title favorite Lakers, beginning tonight at 9:30 in Los Angeles. It's a terrifying matchup by nearly every quantifiable method. The Rockets lost all four games to the Lakers in the regular season. Ron Artest made headlines with his constant trash talk with Kobe Bryant, but the talking was the only true competition. Bryant t

  May 4, 2009

• Game 3 Preview: Rockets Need More From Wafer, On And Off Court

  Photo by Jeff BalkeThe Rowdies get rowdy for the playoffsVon Wafer was a hero in the first round, scoring 21 points in 27 minutes in Game 2 and sparking the Rockets with an emotional return in the series-clinching Game 6 just two days after suffering a bulging disc in his lower back. He was supposed to be a hero in the second round, too. It was the ultimate underdog story -- Wafer against the team that drafted him and gave up on him. That's how it played out in the regular season, when Wafer t

  May 8, 2009

• Game 3: Early Missed Opportunities Haunt Rockets

  The box score to Game 3 shows the second period as the only frame in which the Rockets weren't outscored on Friday night at Toyota Center. But in reality, it proved pivotal in Houston's 108-94 loss, which allowed Los Angeles to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. The normally dynamic Lakers missed eight consecutive shots over a three-plus minute stretch. For the half, Rockets outshot the Lakers from the field, 49 percent to 46 percent, and from behind the arc, 57 percent to 40 perce

  May 9, 2009

• The Rockets, Joining The Pantheon Of Those Who Gave Up Surprising Momentum

  Hey, how'd those Rockets do last night?!Oh.In case you missed it, Our Rockets (and by "Our," we mean "team we started cheering for a week ago"), got shellacked by the Lakers 118-78. Everyone had expected the injury-riddled Houston team to lose like that -- in Sunday's game, which they had won.That Sunday victory immediately and inexplicably raised the hopes of Rockets fans that this was a Team of Destiny, who could then go on to finish the the job of upsetting the best team in the west in the s

  May 13, 2009

• Despite Loss, These Aren't Same Old Rockets

  Photo by Katharine ShilcuttThe ending was all too familiar, but the ride was so, so different. Sure, history will show another Rockets season concluded without a title, this time on an 89-70 second-round, Game 7 loss to the Lakers on Sunday afternoon at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. And like so many seasons before, the 2008-09 campaign really ended when an X-ray displayed a fracture in a bone on Yao Ming's left foot.  "In games like this, it would have been nice to have a low

  May 18, 2009