On December 10, 2004, the Houston Rockets hosted the San Antonio Spurs, and the 16,170 fans at home were fortunate enough to see a moment in NBA history, when Maddie scored 13 points in the final 35 seconds of the game and led the team to an incredible comeback victory. After the game, Yao Ming described Maddie's performance in this game-

"For the rest of the league, it's going to take 200 years for them to play this game, but Maddie? He only needs 50 years! "About the process of the game, I believe every Rockets fan is like a treasure, I will not repeat it here, this game has become the best portrayal of Maddy's performance this season, Maddy averaged 25.7 points per game in the regular season, 6.2 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.7 steals, and is still the data of the league's top players, and Yao Ming took a step further on the basis of last year, averaging 18.5 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, with a shooting rate of 55.2%, Maddy and Yao Ming have a lot of offensive skills on the offensive end, and they are invincible. Maddie's ecstasy and ghostly breakthrough made the defenders helpless, Yao Ming's back-to-back singles, stable mid-distance, and delicate hook left and right bows The defenders didn't know him, and for a while, the "MM" combination was in the limelight and became the strongest duo in the league! The Yao Mai combination gives all Rockets fans the capital to dream of the championship, one of the league's best centers, plus one of the league's top two forwards, coupled with a group of good role players, theoretically the championship is just around the corner, this is not YY, but there is a lesson from the past, to paraphrase a more fashionable phrase, that is-

"Shaq did it back then!"

The Rockets are strengthening around the Maddie Yao Ming duo, first using three edge guards who were traded from the Bulls to the 38-year-old African Mountain, Kendibe Mutombo, and then non-stop from the Hornets to the veteran, nicknamed "Mickey Mouse" David Wesley, from the Hawks to trade old point guard Bob Sula, from the Bucks to trade for Mike James, plus the original Tyronn Lue, Juwan Howard, Morris Taylor and other assistance, the Rockets are refueled in the air!

This season, Eddie Griffin, the former hopeful star of the Rockets, was eliminated from the team because of many unexcused absences from practice and alcoholism, and after leaving the Rockets, Griffin went to the Nets, the Timberwolves, in March, Greenfin was abandoned by the Timberwolves again because of a car accident caused by drunk driving, and in July, Greenffin drove his large SUV, which was also drunk driving, ignoring the railroad warning signs, and forcibly crossing the line caused him to collide with a speeding train, which was loaded with plastic pellets, The fire that ignited after the collision burned Griffin's body beyond recognition, and the autopsy had to confirm Griffin's identity through tooth comparison.

SUVs really can't hit trains.

This season, the Rockets are fifth in the West with 51 wins, and the first place in the playoffs is against the Dallas Mavericks.

In the first game of the playoffs, the Rockets won the game bloodlessly, 98:86, at the end of the first half, the Rockets had already taken a 12-point lead, Maddie scored 34 points in the game, and in the game he rode the "big bamboo pole" Bradley left a classic picture, Mike James on the bench played well, scoring 16 points in the game, Yao Ming played a little restrained under the defense of Eric Dampier, the "second center in the West", 11 points and 8 rebounds, and left the court with six fouls in embarrassment.

In the second game, Yao Ming ushered in a big explosion, he made 14 shots in the game, hit 13 balls, and scored 33 points and 8 rebounds, beating Dampier to tears, but the biggest contributor to the team's victory was not Yao Ming, but Maddie, who scored 28 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists.

Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 26 points in the final minute of the game, hit Maddy with his back from the free throw line, and hit a jumper that allowed the Mavericks to tie the score at 111. There are 10.4 seconds left in the time, the Rockets have no timeout, the Mavericks are pressing all over the court, Yao Ming is constantly blocking and dismantling for Maddie in the backcourt, and finally Maddie is difficult to receive the boundary serve, and the Mavericks begin to retreat with all their staff, Maddie dribbles the ball, strolling around, without the slightest sense of urgency of preparing to shoot a life-and-death ball, Maddie originally went to the left side, a crotch in the middle line went down to the right, dribbled to the top of the Mavericks' three-point arc, Yao Ming lifted the block, Maddy stepped on the three-point line with the help of the block, and threw the ball out to meet Nowitzki's defense who pounced, hit, 113: 111, Rocket Lore Win! Maddie's killer shot is chic and elegant! Again, to paraphrase a phrase I often say on the court, that is-

"This ball is quite the style of my brother back then!"

In the third game, the Mavericks began to exert their strength, Nowitzki scored 28 points on 9-of-16 shooting, Michael Finley scored 20 points, and Jerry Starhouse scored 18 points off the bench to become a wonder soldier, and it was Starkerhouse's two steady free throws in the final quarter that made the Rockets completely lose hope of winning, and finally the Mavericks took away the victory 106:102, Maddie contributed 28 points again, and Yao Ming scored 15 points and 10 rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting.

The fourth game between the two sides can be described as thrilling, in the last two minutes of the game, Finley hit two consecutive shots in 30 seconds to expand the score to 91:88, and then Maddy missed the shot, Yao Ming grabbed the rebound in the front court, and the shot caused Daniel's foul, and the score was rewritten to 91:90 after hitting both free throws. 94:93, with only 12.5 seconds left before the end of the game, the Rockets could only foul, Jerry, Stackhouse made two free throws to give the Rockets a chance, but unfortunately this precious opportunity ended in Maddy's mistake, with Nowitzki's two free throws, the game lost suspense. In this game, Maddy scored 36 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, but at the same time he also had 5 turnovers, Yao Ming shot 6 of 7 for 20 points and 5 rebounds, and other players did not score double-doubles, on the other hand, Mavericks, Terry scored 32 points on 6 of 8 three-point shots, and his three-point shot was like a sharp knife, straight into the heart of the Rockets! Let all the Rocket fans hate it to the root of their teeth! At that time, I am afraid that no one could have imagined that Terry would become a warrior in the city in the future!

The fifth battle of Tianwang Mountain is very crucial, and historical probability proves that as long as the team wins the fifth game, more than 70% of them can win. In this game, Yao Ming once again played an extremely efficient game, scoring 30 points and 8 rebounds on 10-of-13 shooting, Maddy had 25 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, and Mike James came off the bench to score 16 points and 5 assists.

At the end of the game with forty seconds left, the Rockets fell behind 94:99, Maddy missed the shot, Yao Ming grabbed the rebound in the front court and made a dunk, but Nowitzki hit another 2-point shot, 96:101, the difference of four points does not seem to be much, but it is like a trench, the Mavericks used the tactic of foul delay, Alan Henderson fouled Yao Ming, Yao Ming made two free throws and two free throws with only 17.7 seconds left, Rockets player Scott Padgett had to foul Finley, Finley made one of two free throws to give the Rockets hope of a comeback, and in the last 7.4 seconds of the game, Maddie hit a two-pointer to rewrite the score to 100:102, and then the Rockets fouled Terry, and Terry made one of two free throws again. 100:103 There were only 3.4 seconds left when Maddy of the Stark House team fouled, maybe God didn't help the Rockets, Maddie missed two free throws at the critical moment, "Duang......" "Duang......" Hundreds of millions of Rockets fans watched the victory being taken away by the Mavericks. The Mavericks won the game with six players scoring in double figures.

The sixth game was completely turned into an exhibition game for Maddy alone, he scored 37 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds alone, and led the team to a 101-83 victory with only 8 points and 5 rebounds in the whole game when Yao Ming was plagued by fouls, and Mike James on the bench broke out again and scored 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while the Mavericks only scored double-doubles on the whole team, and it was naturally extremely difficult to win.

Finally came to the tie-breaker, this time God chose to be with the Mavericks, four quarters of the game, the Rockets did not score more than the Mavericks in one quarter, 76:116 defeated forty points, Yao Maihe cut 60 points, 17 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 blocks, but the other players added up to only 16 points, the Mavericks' Terry once again played a performance that made the Houstonians hate to grit their teeth, and scored 31 points on 8-of-14 shooting!

The game lost suspense early in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter, Maddie sat on the court for the entire quarter, with a towel on his head, looking lonely, but at the post-game press conference, Maddie had tears in his eyes and promised the media and Rockets fans around the world.

"Icanback, wearewillbeback, ibilive! ）”

The Rockets were reversed by the Mavericks in a good situation of leading two games, and the team exposed many problems, such as relying only on Yao Ming and Maddy on the offensive end, and the scoring ability of others is really limited, and the only stable offensive point on the bench, Mike James, is too sticky to the ball, which makes the Rockets' star Maddy very dissatisfied, and the Rockets can only trade this point guard with good offensive ability in order to take care of Maddy's emotions, October 5, 2005, The Rockets' Mike James and the Raptors point guard street ball king Ralph Alston swapped owners, Alston was once a legend on the New York court, nicknamed "Jumping Soul" His prestige is a household name, and his dribbling ability is naturally the top level in the league, and the passing inside is more stable, but the ability to break through the ball is more average, and the three-point shot is not stable enough.

In the 2005 NBA Draft, the Rockets selected Luthor Hyde with the No. 24 pick in the first round, the small scoring guard had a very good performance on the Rockets' bench, and the Rockets also claimed the veteran Derrick Anderson, who was pardoned by the Trail Blazers who wanted to develop young players with the "Houston Clause", and signed a free agent with the largest contract of 5 years and $30 million this summer. In the middle of the season, he was traded from the Bobcats to defend Keith Bogans.

The Rockets recruited in the configuration of role players, and the strength went further, but when the Rockets were about to regain their glory, Maddie was injured, and Maddie missed a full 34 games because of a sudden back injury throughout the season, and since then, Maddie's back injury has been haunted by Maddie until the end of his career, about Maddie's back injury, few people can say how it hurt, it may be the sequelae of unscientific training when he was young, and it is more likely that in a game as early as 2002, Maddie and known as the "tractor" The so-called Robert Traylor mid-air collision left behind the injury, the reason for which is not to be detailed.

The Rocket's nightmare is not only that, Maddie is not well, Yao Ming is injured again, on December 19, 2005, Yao Ming's right big toe is inflamed, the Rocket team doctor performed surgery for this, but his big toe recurred three days later, Yao Ming had to undergo surgery again, for a whole season, Yao Ming's foot injury was good and bad, and finally, Yao Ming also rested 21 games in this season, in the days of Yao Ming's absence, the Rockets were in a hurry, and the shortcomings of no qualified substitutes were revealed, So the Rockets offered a $230,000 base salary contract to a young man who was doing well on his team, and that young man's name was Chuck Hayes.

Chuck Hayes is also a wonder in the league, only 198 cm tall on the court but a big forward OR center, as early as the beginning of the season, the Rockets have targeted this young man with a good resume in the NCAA, he participated in the NBA draft after graduation, but because of the height disadvantage, no team pronounced his name, the Rockets invited Hayes to play in the summer league for him, and he performed well, but was cut on the eve of the start of the new season, in the middle of the season, Yao Ming was injured, and the Rockets immediately thought of Hayes, And offered him a ten-day short contract, as a result, in Hayes's second game for the Rockets, he scored a double-double, 12 points and 13 rebounds, and the Rockets immediately signed a contract for the rest of the season, Hayes was able to gain a foothold in the league, and no one at that time could have imagined that the short center, who was less than two meters tall, would become the team's starting center in the post-Yao Ming era, and also the shortest starting center in NBA history!

In the 2005-2006 season, the Rockets suffered a massive injury spree and only 34 wins throughout the season and missed the playoffs.

In 2006, aside from all the roster changes, the Rockets' management team made an important decision to appoint a fat man named Fat Man, who had never appeared in the professional arena, as the team's assistant general manager, and a year later successfully took over the position of general manager Carl Dawson and became the real helm of the Rockets, and that person was Daryl Morey.