--The Rockets won't have many games against struggling and short-handed opponents like the Clippers. Of the eight games they have left, six are against teams fighting for playoff spots or positioning.
"That will be a very good test for us," Yao Ming said. "How tough can we be in the playoffs? Obviously, a playoff team is much tougher than (the Clippers) tonight." --After struggling with his shot through much of the season, Rockets forward Shane Battier hit all four of his shots Saturday and is 16-for-22 in his past five games.
"It's part of the season," Battier said. "You have ups and downs. You just keep shooting. You have nights like this. They sort of offset the nights you go 1-for-10. You keep shooting it and eventually it turns around.
"It doesn't matter now by the numbers. It will be my worst shooting year of my career. I'm beyond that. I take the ego out of it. Shots are free now. I'm not worried about keeping my career averages up."
Battier has made 40.4 percent of his shots this season, 36.3 from beyond the 3-point arc, to average 6.8 points. He has averaged 10 points per game in his eight-season career, making 44.7 percent of his shots, 38.6 of his 3-pointers.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We knew it was going to be a tricky game. If we come out focused, we were probably going to open a window really early on the scoreboard and it is going to be really easy. On the other hand, if we let them come and control the game for the first minutes, it is going to be a tough game. We took care of business." -- Luis Scola, on the win over the Clippers.
