Houston Chronicle Thursday highly praised Chinese basketball player Yao Ming, saying that Yao's big night led the Houston Rockets to fourth straight victory.

 

There were poster-quality dunks, jump hooks, rebounds and putbacks and there were swarms of defenders rushing to guard him and failing on Wednesday when the Rockets pulled away for a 101-92 win over the New York Knicks on the road, according to the newspaper.

 

"With the Madison Square Garden crowd cheering him nearly as vehemently as they booed New York coach Isiah Thomas, Yao Ming was at his most dominant Wednesday," said the report, "When the Knicks twisted their defensive knots around Yao, every Rockets player on the floor also scored."

 

"We wanted to go to him whenever we had the opportunity," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said after Yao scored a season-high 36 points and added 11 rebounds. "We didn't think they had anybody who could guard him."

 

"I don't think there are too many people on this planet that can guard Yao Ming," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "When he is single-teamed, we tell him to shoot the ball every time because it's the best shot we can get. If we can get consistency in that other scoring option, we'll be a tougher team to beat."

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2008)