HOUSTON--When All-Star center Yao Ming went down for the season with a stress fracture in his foot, many thought his team would go down with him. Instead, the Rockets have responded by winning three straight games, and they’re not done yet. Following their victory Sunday over the Denver Nuggets, Rockets players vowed to stay competitive in Yao’s absence “for around a month or so.”

“Watch out for us for the next month or so,” said Tracy McGrady. “We’re not going to lay down and die just because Yao is hurt. In fact, just hearing that shit makes us more motivated. That’s why we’re gonna come together as a team and prove all the doubters wrong – for a little while. And then we’ll start to fizzle out and then the playoffs will start and we’ll get eliminated in the first round. But those doubters will be eating crow for a short time, which is nice.”

McGrady believes that Yao’s injury may be a blessing in disguise, as it will give other players a chance to step up and show what they can do in his absence.

“There’s a lot of guys on this team that can play,” said McGrady. “Just look at Dikembe Motumbo. He’s been around forever, and he has to sit here and listen to people say this team is hopeless without Yao. Hello? We’ve got one of the best shot blockers in history on our team. That guy can bring it, night in and night out for like two weeks before his age starts to catch up to him. That's a lot. I haven’t played two straight weeks since I was a rookie.”

Rick Adelman, in his first year as head coach of the Rockets, has guided his team to a 39-20 record this season, but knows the real challenge lies in the weeks ahead. Though he is distraught over Yao’s injury, he believes this Rockets team knows how to win games.

“It’s going to be tough to sustain this kind of momentum without our starting center in the lineup,” Adelman said. “But I think this team, more than any team I’ve ever coached, knows how to win games. Can we win them all? No, but we can make the playoffs, and then anything can happen, like Yao Ming returning to action. That would be a real Willis Reed moment, wouldn’t it? Except Yao is Chinese and there’s no way in hell he’s coming back.”

Adelman admits that his team is running on raw emotion. The true test, he says, will be when that emotion wanes.

“A lot of this momentum we have right now is based on raw, unadulterated emotion,” he said. “And that’s great. That’s part of the game. But the true test of any team’s mettle is when the emotion is replaced by fatigue and you have to go out there and grind out a victory simply by being better than the other guys. Remember: championships are won in the postseason. They’re lost there, too. Take it from someone who knows.”

Copyright 2007, The Brushback - Do not reprint without permission. This article is satire and is not intended as actual news.