Yao Breaks Foot, Out For Season: Now What?

Well, it was fun while it lasted. The Rockets, riding high on a 12 game winning streak going into tonight's game against the Wizards, will be without star Yao Ming for the rest of the season after Yao was diagnosed today with a stress fracture in his left foot. The team's medical staf will speak to the press later today, but the word from the nearly-infallible Chris Berman at Fox26 is that Yao will have surgery on the foot and won't play again this year.

Where does that leave the rest of the team? Obviously, without the big guy in the middle, the other big men (Carl Landry, Luis Scola, and Dikembe Mutumbo) will have to step up. Landry and Scola are solid scorer/rebounder types, and Mutumbo is still (even though he's 900 years old) a dominant defensive center. So the three of them combined produce about what Yao gave the team, statistically. It's in the intangibles, like drawing double teams and opening up the perimeter offense, that they'll have their biggest burden.

Without a true center, the Rockets' run for the 8th seed in the Western Conference playoffs is suddenly in question. If the team can band together and make the playoffs, it will certainly bring to mind the gutsy Clutch City teams of the past. We're just a little less than optimistic since Rafer Alston isn't exactly Sam Cassel, and T-Mac sure as hell isn't Clyde the Glide. Regardless, we wish Yao a speedy recovery from the surgery, and the best to the rest of the team.

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photo: flickr user jeffbalke