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Don't look Yao: forget the gigantic Chinese import. This year, with a new coach, the Rockets are more than just an NBA sideshow.

Article Excerpt
REMEMBER YAO MING? Well, with LeBron James taking over as the NBA's alpha male of endorsements, magazine covers, and SportsCenter, Yao is just a potentially great center on a potentially good team. And this year, that would seem to suit the Houston Rockets fine. Last season, even with the eventual NBA champions down Interstate 10 in San Antonio and the league's best offense up 1-45 in Dallas, the Rockets were incredibly high profile for a team that missed the playoffs by a single game--all because of one 22-year-old, ninety-inch-tall rookie out of the Shanghai Physical and Sport Technic Education Institute. When Yao and the Rockets took on the Lakers and Shaquille O'Neal last January, it was one of ESPN's most-watched games of the season. [paragraph] Now hoops-watchers can care about the Rockets for a different reason: Led by the league's most inadvertently colorful coach, JeffVan Gundy, and two of its least glamorous scorers, Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley, the Rockets, 43-39 a year ago, began the current campaign 8-3, putting them atop of their division--ahead of the Mavericks and the Spurs--for the first time since 1997-1998. Despite injuries (Adrian Griffin, Eric Piatkowski), a six-game suspension for Maurice Taylor, and a felony assault charge against forward Eddie Griffin (who's suspended indefinitely), the Rockets haven't wavered, allowing the fewest points per game (82.7) in the entire NBA by playing "JVG basketball," as rejuvenated center-forward Kelvin Cato calls his new coach's brand of...

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