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Yao Breaks Foot
Topic Started: Tuesday Apr 11 2006, 12:15 PM (140 Views)
WeatherManNX01
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The Yanks are coming!

From FOXSports and the Associated Press:
Quote:
 
Yao breaks foot in Monday's game
Associated Press 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -
First, Tracy McGrady. Now, Yao. The Houston Rockets are ready for the summer.

Yao Ming, the Rockets' All-Star center and leading scorer among the active players, broke his left foot Monday in the first quarter of an 85-83 loss to the Utah Jazz. With the playoffs well out of reach and just four games remaining, Yao's fourth season in the NBA appears to be over.

"Maybe it's the best thing for me, and when I come back I'll be stronger," Yao said while wearing a protective boot in the locker room after the game.

Yao planned to have the broken bone in his foot examined Tuesday in Houston, and will find out whether he'll need surgery. The Chinese star said he thought he hurt it when Utah's Mehmet Okur kicked him in the side of the foot.

Yao limped through a few more minutes, but had enough shortly after Utah's Andrei Kirilenko appeared to step on Yao's injured foot while the two were going for position under the basket.

Yao beat Kirilenko for the offensive rebound and made the layup, then bent over and rubbed his left foot before going to the line and converting the three-point play with 4:35 left in the first quarter.

Yao limped off the court 44 seconds later, leaving the Rockets without their top two scorers. McGrady has been out since early March with a bad back.

"I hope I'm the last one," Yao said of the injuries to the Rockets.

Yao was having his best season since coming over from China in 2002. He averaged nearly 23 points and 10 rebounds and was second only to McGrady in scoring for the Rockets. Yao missed 21 games earlier in the season after having surgery to clean out an infection on his left big toe.

Yao said the contact with Okur was accidental.

"It was a fight for position," Yao said. "It happens on the court."

Yao had five points, two rebounds and a block in 8:31 before leaving the game and the rest of the Rockets to wrap up a grueling, six-game road trip. And even without Yao, Houston rallied from an 11-point deficit and had several chances in the final minutes to win it.

Utah's Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer both went 1-for-2 on free throws in the final 1:11, leaving the Rockets within range until the final play. Juwan Howard made a shot at the buzzer, but it was too late to count.

After reviewing the play, referee Joe Crawford ended the game by shouting "No good!" toward Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy and the Rockets.

"Whoever's in or whoever's out, we just keep plugging away," Houston's David Wesley said.

The Jazz won their third straight and improved to 38-39, getting within 2 1/2 games of the Lakers and Kings, who are tied for the last two playoff spots. It may be too much ground to make up for Utah, which would lose a tiebreaker to Sacramento.

Utah coach Jerry Sloan said if Howard had gotten the shot off a few tenths of a second sooner and not stepped inside the 3-point line, Houston would have gone home with a victory.

"I didn't know who was still trying to make the playoffs," Sloan said. "They looked like the team that wants to be in the playoffs and we looked like we don't want to be there."

Howard finished with 25 points and Rafer Alston scored 20 for the Rockets. They were the only Houston players to score in double figures, although the short-handed Rockets came close to all but knocking Utah out of the playoff race.

Boozer went 1-for-2 from the free-throw line with 4.3 seconds left and Houston's Chuck Hayes, who had just missed two free throws at the other end, pulled down the rebound on the second shot and Houston called timeout.

Alston dribbled at the top of the key and got a late pass off to Howard in the corner in front of the Jazz bench. By the time Howard caught the ball and took a step toward the basket, the buzzer had sounded and Howard didn't get the ball off in time.

"Unfortunately, at times things don't work out your way and tonight we came out with a lot of fight, start to finish, unfortunately we just couldn't pull out the victory," Howard said.
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Cougar
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Ouch. Doesn't matter though, Rockets are already out of it.
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