Unlike most centers throughout Shaquille O'Neal's career, Yao Ming has looked forward to a game against O'Neal as soon as his previous game ended. O'Neal understood. Frustrated by defenses twisted to stop him and defenders throwing themselves to the floor to draw fouls against him, Yao said he would trade the challenge of defending O'Neal for a chance to play him "straight up."
"Yeah, straight up," he said. "Not fall down." O'Neal could relate.
Calling Yao Ming "probably the best center in the game right now," O'Neal said he and Yao have to play with different rules than the rest of the NBA because of their size.
"It was put to me by a top NBA guy that they won't take care of two people and have 268 complain, because obviously if there's 268 people complaining about two 7-foot, 300-pound guys they're going to give them a little extra," O'Neal said. "Flopping has become a big concern, but I just take it as a sign of ultimate respect. 'I can't guard you. I'm just going to fall down and cry to the refs.' Most of the time, the ref believes it."
Yao, naturally, felt the same way.
"Honestly, I agree," he said.
"The player who is above 300 pounds should handle any hammer, any pressure, any foul, any anything," Yao said of the assumptions he said are made about him and O'Neal. "I know for the rest of the players and the rest of the referees they don't face us every night. We face those rules every night. That makes us feel different."
ROCKETS 116, SUNS 112: The battle of the giants came with a twist. While Yao Ming and Shaquille O'Neal went at one another and basically played to a draw, their teams went at them, too, sending their point guards flying around center screens and at the opposing giant. Steve Nash scored 32 points, hitting 13 of 17 second-half shots. Aaron Brooks scored 30, making seven of his 11 shots in the second half. But when Brooks finally made the shot Nash could not answer, the Rockets took their 11th-consecutive home win. Brooks drove around a Yao screen, past O'Neal and Nash to a lay-up with 7.3 seconds left to give the Rockets a two-point lead. Nash went around an O'Neal screen and took a three-pointer for the win, missing with 1.9 seconds remaining.
