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As the Rockets prepare for Thursday’s Game 3 at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Alston thinks there’s a good chance he’ll finally be on the court passing the ball rather than on the bench passing time.

"I’m pushing hard," Alston said of his rehab work. "I’m closer than I was two days ago. I’m doing things that I would have to do — slash, cut, being able to slide. Right now I’m pushing for Game 3."

The reasons for the Rockets’ first two losses are many, but the biggest is that the team has been shorthanded, forced to play without starters Alston and Yao Ming

Yao Ming off Crutches

Yao returned to Houston and was cleared to stop using crutches in his recovery from surgery to repair the stress fracture in his left foot.

"I just got agreement with Dr. (Tom) Clanton," Yao said before Thursday’s Yao Ming Roast and Toast to benefit the Leader’s Academy, a HISD charter school. "He said I could get rid of the crutches, which is very good news for me. I still need to wear the walking boot for a couple weeks, but at least I can walk by myself. My hands are not busy anymore."

If that is not quite the accomplishment he had hoped for this spring in the NBA or this summer in China, it is typical of how his life has changed.

In the TORONTO STAR, Garth Woolsey writes, "Yao Ming is enormous both of stature and newsworthiness, especially so upon his home continent, Asia, and in his homeland, China. Throw him up against another Chinese giant, Milwaukee rookie forward Yi Jianlian, and the entertainment value rockets incrementally. Friday's first NBA regular season meeting of Yao and Yi, in Houston, drew the sort of diplomatic delegations and foreign media coverage usually afforded visiting heads of state. If that were to have been the case, though, the television viewership back home would hardly have matched this one for numbers or hoop-la."

The Associated Press reports on last night’s battle of China between Yi Jianlian’s Milwaukee Bucks and Yao Ming’s Houston Rockets:

Yao Ming thinks Yi Jianlian will be a better player than him some day.For now, Yao still is the king of basketball in China.Yao and Yi each had their share of highlights in the much-anticipated first matchup of the country’s greatest player and its top rising star, and Yao’s Houston Rockets beat Yi’s Milwaukee Bucks 104-88 on Friday night.Yao, the five-time All-Star, had 28 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Yi, the 20-year-old rookie, had 19 points and nine rebounds.

My Quick Take: Forget the final score. And disregard the boxsheet, too. The NBA was the unanimous winner in last night’s Bucks-Rockets game by continuing to capture the hearts, minds, and purse strings of the lucrative Asian market.

After all, 19 television stations covered the Yao-Yi duel, beaming this master-student standoff to 200 million Chinese basketball fans. The ratings were huge, especially for the regular season.

Now consider the future. Yao Ming is the NBA’s best center. Last year, the skilled post was having a stellar campaign before sustaining a mid-season injury. This year, his game has taken another step and the re-tooled Rockets are legitimate contenders.

In Milwaukee, Yi has exceeded expectations. The rookie shook off this summer’s controversies and beat established pro Charlie Villanueva for the Bucks’ starting small-forward position. His skill and height reminds fans of another international star, the great Tony Kukic.

Yao and Yi’s on-court future is bright, while their off-court future is bright green for the NBA.

Commissioner Stern gets it. 200 million Chinese citizens watched their favorite stars in a mean-nothing regular season contest. How many would watch Yao and Yi in the playoffs or NBA Finals? And how many would support a Chinese NBDL team or an NBA sponsored league?

Last night’s final score and boxsheet really are irrelevant, when stepping back and considering the possibilities in China. More and more, it appears the future of the NBA is overseas.

Should the NBA expand to China? Get at us in the comment box below with your thoughts.

Yao Ming scored a game-high 28 points and added 10 rebounds to lead the Houston Rockets to a 104-88 home victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in his first meeting of the season with Chinese compatriot Yi Jianlian.
Yi, the Bucks' seven-foot rookie, scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

"I know all the people watching in China have a lot to be proud of with the way Yi and Yao played," Bucks coach Larry Krystowiak said after the game, which was televised live in China to an estimated audience of 100 million people.

Michael Redd led the Bucks with 26 points.

Tracy McGrady backed up Yao with 21 points, seven rebounds and eight assists for the Rockets. Bonzi Wells had 18 points and Shane Battier 15.

Poor shooting hurt the Bucks, who led 25-24 after the first quarter but scored only 16 points in the second to fall behind 50-41 at the half.

They shot less than 40 percent from the floor for the game with Redd only 8 of 22 and center Andrew Bogut making just three of 11 shots.

Yi did his best to keep the Bucks in touch, connecting on a three-pointer midway the fourth quarter to pull Milwaukee within two at 84-82.

But Houston quickly pulled away, scoring 14 consecutive points with Yao finishing the run with three free throws.

Yao was 7 of 16 from the floor and made all 14 free throws. He pulled down six offensive rebounds and four on the defensive end and had three blocked shots.

"When he is establishing that post presence like that, it's tough to beat us," McGrady said.

"We got shooters out there on the perimeter. We got a guy like Bonzi coming off the bench, giving us a spark, grabbing us rebounds. And that 7-6 guy from Shanghai - that's a luxury to have."

Yi finished the game 7 of 12 from the floor and maded three of four free-throw attempts. He had seven defensive rebounds and blocked one shot.

The Boston Celtics won their fourth game in a row, crushing the Atlanta Hawks 106-83 behind Kevin Garnett's 27 points and 19 rebounds. Paul Pierce added 23 for Boston.

Dwight Howard scored 22 points and had 20 rebounds to power the Orlando Magic to a fourth consecutive road win, a 112-102 victory over the New York Knicks.

Chris Bosh scored 24 points, making 16 of 18 free throws, and the Toronto Raptors ended a three-game losing streak with a 105-103 road victory over the Philadephia 76ers. Andre Iguodala led Philadelphia with 26 points.

Steve Nash had 30 points as the Phoenix Suns scored 106-101 road victory over Miami. Shaquille O'Neal played his best game of the season for the Heat (0-5), scoring 25 points and pulling in 10 rebounds.

Carmelo Anthony scored 32 points and the Denver Nuggets ended a three-game skid with a 118-92 road victory over the winless Washington Wizards, who lost their fifth in a row.

The Detroit Pistons handed the Los Angeles Clippers their first loss of the season, a 103-79 defeat in Detroit. Chauncey Billups had 23 points for the Pistons.
Reuters

BEIJING, Nov. 10 (AP) -- The Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets game had a distinctly local flavor for NBA fans in China.

Among the estimated 100 to 200 million TV viewers in China were more than 400 who packed a Beijing bar at breakfast time Saturday to watch a live televised broadcast of Rockets star Yao Ming against Bucks' rookie Yi Jianlian in the Chinese players' first NBA matchup.

"We're here for those two Chinese,'' said Wu Disong, a 27-year-old designer watching the game on a large TV at the Goose and Duck pub. He and other fans ate an American-style breakfast while cheering on Yao and Yi at the NBA-sponsored event.

Millions of others watched at home. National broadcaster China Central Television carried it on its sports channel as did 13 other TV stations and three Web sites, according to the NBA's China subsidiary, NBA China.

"This is the biggest Chinese player rivalry in NBA history,'' sports writer Zhang Qiang wrote in a column on the Web site Sina.com. "This is a good thing for Chinese basketball as well as for the NBA.''

The NBA declined to estimate the audience size, though Chinese sports commentators predicted it would be 100 million to 200 million.

Last season's Super Bowl between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears had about 93 million viewers in the United States.

Friday's night matchup and the attention it drew further cemented the NBA's popularity among the Chinese and enhanced the league's drive for a share of China's growing sports market. Heidi Ueberroth, the NBA's president for international business, this past week called the potential audience size "just extraordinary.''

While the NBA has been popular in China for more than a decade, first Yao and now Yi's presence have boosted the sport.

At the Goose and Duck, Shen Xiaolei said he started watching the NBA in 2002 when Yao left the Shanghai Sharks for the Rockets. Now the 24-year-old telephone company worker said he can identify more than 250 NBA players and hosts a blog that features predictions of NBA games.

"I'm excited every time my prediction is close to the actual result,'' Shen said. He expected Yi to give a good performance but that the Rockets would win. In the end, the Rockets won 104-88. Yi had 19 points and nine rebounds, while Yao had 28 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

Though Yi drew plenty of cheers, the Rockets were clearly the favorite, with the crowd at the Goose and Duck whooping and applauding every time they scored.

"After all, we've watched Rockets games for longer time so we have deeper affection for the Rockets,'' college student Cathy Cheng said.

Beyond the fun and market potential, the emergence of two Chinese stars in a sport is seen as another sign of China's growing influence worldwide.

"First the economy, now sports,'' said Li Weizhan, a 66-year-old retiree who used to work at a sporting goods retailer.

Liu Jing brought her 4-year-old son, hoping that the Yao-Yi matchup would inspire a love of basketball in him.

"Chinese power is emerging in the NBA,'' wrote Zhang, the sports columnist. "There's no loser in this match. It's glory for Yao and Yi and for Chinese basketball.''

HOUSTON -- Patriots vs. Colts? That's nothing.

In China, Friday night's game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets is expected to draw TV ratings that would put even a Super Bowl to shame.

It's Yao Ming vs. Yi Jianlian, the nation's greatest player facing his highly touted rookie countryman for the first time.

"It's the two best basketball players in the country coming to play in the best basketball league in the world," said Wang Meng, a sports writer who covers the Rockets for Titan Sports, a Beijing-based newspaper. "It doesn't matter who wins. It's the best thing that can happen in China, because people will be excited either way."

The game, starting early Saturday morning in China, will air on 19 television stations, including CCTV-5, the country's government-run network. It also will be available on two Webcasts and on video-enabled, wireless phones.

The NBA also is throwing a viewing party for fans in Beijing.

Wang said the game is expected to draw more than 200 million viewers in China. By comparison, last week's New England-Indianapolis game in the NFL drew an average audience of about 34 million. Last year's Super Bowl drew an average of 93 million.

"The numbers are just extraordinary," said Heidi Ueberroth, the NBA's president of global marketing partnerships and international business operations. "It's very significant. It's showing how much the globalization of the league is on the rise."

Seems the only people not overly psyched about the game are the players themselves.

"You really have to ask fans," Yao said. "I'm playing on the court. I'm not really going to feel how they feel. I know they're excited, very excited."

The two may not even guard each other much, if at all -- the 7-foot-6 Yao matches up with Bucks center Andrew Bogut and the 6-11 Yi will likely draw one of the Rockets' forwards, either Chuck Hayes or Shane Battier.

"Just another game for me," Yi said.

Not for China.

The Rockets drafted Yao with the top overall pick in 2002. His first matchup with Shaquille O'Neal drew over 200 million viewers back home.

He's since developed into one of the game's top centers, a five-time All-Star who's increased his scoring average every season. He had 28 points and 13 rebounds against Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night.

And now comes Yi, the No. 6 pick in the draft. The two played together in Athens and Yao sensed immediately that 6-11 Yi would be a star.

"The first time I saw him, in 2004, for Olympic training camp, I know one day he would play here," Yao said. "He has huge talent. Already, he's shown some part of it, in his first four games."

The two haven't kept in touch much since Yi arrived in Milwaukee. When they did speak, Yao didn't give him much advice on life in the NBA.

"Just try to work hard," Yi said Yao told him. "First season is going to be not easy."

Yao said Yi is going to have to learn on his own, like he did.

"He's going through it in a different place," Yao said. "I don't know much about Milwaukee, I can't tell him too much. I don't want to give him too many pressures, or the wrong messages. Different people get different experiences."

Yi was reportedly disappointed that he wasn't picked by a team in a city with a larger Asian population. He seems to be adjusting just fine, scoring 16 points and grabbing eight rebounds in the Bucks' 78-72 win over Chicago last weekend.

They'll meet in Milwaukee on Feb. 2 and will team up in the Olympics in Beijing. Neither is thinking that far ahead.

"It's the NBA season," Yi said.

But they can't wait in China, where Wang thinks Friday's game will be long remembered as historic.

"When people talk about this, they will think about the game they watched where two Chinese players started in an NBA game," Wang said. "This will help Chinese basketball a lot, just like Luis Scola and Manu Ginobili watched Michael Jordan win the championship back in Argentina.

"Every kid who loves basketball has a basketball dream. For them right now, maybe some of them want to be like Kobe. Maybe some of them want to try to be LeBron James. Now, why not think about being like Yi? This will open their eyes. This is such a great thing."

In the HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Jonathan Feigen writes “this is what NBA Commissioner David Stern had in mind that night of the 2002 NBA draft when, with visions of a vast global market waiting to be conquered, he called out the name Yao Ming. This will be a night that seemed impossible a few years ago when a November game between the Rockets and the Milwaukee Bucks represented anything but what tonight's game will be, a must-have ticket and an international sporting event.”

HOUSTON -- Before departing on a recent road trip, Rockets star center Yao Ming swung by the team's video room with a special request.

He wanted a DVD featuring every highlight from Yi Jianlian's brief NBA career.

"He looks nice," Yao said after watching the disc.

On Friday night, Yao will finally get a closer look at China's next big thing in the NBA.

Before what is expected to be one of the largest television audiences in the history of the league, Yao will play against Yi for the first time in the NBA when the Milwaukee Bucks visit Toyota Center.

The two stars will be the first Chinese players to match up against each other since Dallas' Wang Zhizhi played against Denver's Mengke Bateer in 2002. But obviously, Yao vs. Yi has a bit more intrigue.

During a national telecast on China's CCTV on Saturday morning, nearly 150 million fans are expected tune into the game between the country's two biggest stars. The NBA is even throwing a huge viewing party -- complete with an American-style breakfast -- in downtown Beijing.

"After being in China for a couple of years, I finally appreciate how big Yao is," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "It's going to be really cool to play knowing that so many eye balls are on this game. It really is a landmark occasion. But 20 years from now, it's going to be a common occurrence for Chinese players to be lining up against each other."

Yao is more than familiar with Yi's game.

Since training camp for the 2004 Olympic Games, Yao and Yi have formed the Chinese national team's formidable front line. Yi, a 7-footer, showed up to camp as a forward with good shooting range and athleticism.

The Rockets center said he knew in their first meeting that Yi would eventually be joining him in the NBA.

"I knew one day he would end up playing here," Yao said. "He has huge talent and he already showed part of it in his first four games."

Yi (pronounced Ee) has certainly shown why the Bucks made him the sixth overall pick in the NBA Draft.

The Chinese star has already emerged as a starter in the Bucks lineup, fitting into a starting five that features Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut. During his third NBA game, he showcased his potential by scoring 16 points and collecting eight rebounds to help the Bucks beat the Chicago Bulls.

But even with that progress, Yi has a long road to NBA stardom. He had a two-point performance against Charlotte in which he played only 15 minutes. The Bucks rookie also needs to add more bulk to his 239-pound frame and develop his low-post game.

Yao can relate to Yi's start. During his rookie season, Yao averaged 2.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in his first four games. He even joked Thursday that he was just hoping "the Rockets wouldn't send" him back to China.

Given that, Yao did offer Yi some advice upon his arrival to the United States.

"We talked to each other like twice when I got to the U.S.," Yi said. "(Yao said) just try to work hard (because the) first season is going to be not easy."

Despite Yi needing more time to develop his game and adjust to life in the NBA, the matchup against Yao has generated enormous fan interest in China. The Rockets have given media credentials to 14 Chinese reporters, which is double the amount that regularly covers the team. The game is expected to air on 19 different stations throughout the country.

Meng Wang, a sports reporter for Titan Sports who covers the Rockets and Yao, said Chinese fans have been clamoring about the potential matchup between Yao and Yi since the Bucks rookie was selected in the NBA Draft.

"It's such a big event," Meng said. "I think this a landmark (game). Two Chinese players start for two NBA teams. That means a lot. Because of this, more and more Chinese fans will watch the NBA and basketball will get bigger in China. This will encourage more kids to play basketball and, one day, there will be more Chinese players to come to the NBA."

Yao would certainly welcome the increased attention.

Despite all the hoopla and talk about how many viewers will be following Friday night's action, the Rockets center was actually a little disappointed to hear there wouldn't be more viewers in China.

He hopes more Chinese fans will be as anxious to see Yi as he was earlier this week.

"I heard it's going to be close to 200 million people watching," Yao said. "Hey, our country has 1.6 billion people. That's still a small part of it."

In the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, Don Walker writes “when Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian, two of China's best-known basketball stars, face each other Friday night in Houston, you can bet that millions of fans in their homeland will be watching. In all, the NBA has deals with 51 TV stations in the country, including CCTV, a government network. In addition, the NBA has marketing deals with 20 different companies. Millions watch NBA games, and 30% of the traffic to NBA.com, comes from China.”

In the ORLANDO SENTINEL, Tim Povtak writes “it sure seemed excessive, all the hype last month before the Orlando Magic played the Cleveland Cavaliers in an exhibition game in China. Yet the hoopla didn't compare to what is coming from China this week. Friday's regular-season game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Houston Rockets is being treated like a playoff series, creating considerable anticipation among the burgeoning basketball fan base in China. Game 1 of Yao vs. Yi will be huge.”