--F Ron Artest underwent an MRI on his sore right ankle that uncovered two slight tears in ligaments, conditions that seem to have been with him long before he sprained his ankle Nov. 16 in Oklahoma City. That injury, however, caused swelling to aggravate the injury and cause him soreness and swelling ever since.
"I have to take the doctor's advice," Artest said. "He said, 'If you feel good, it is something you can play on. If it doesn't feel good, you don't have to play.' Sometime I'll take a little more rest. I want to see what the doctor said, what was his advice. It'll be sore. Hopefully, when Mac (Tracy McGrady) gets back I can take more time and get better." Artest sat out Monday's game, the first game of a back-to-back. The Rockets have another back-to-back this week and three more after that later in the month.
"I'm going to try," Artest said of playing Friday and Saturday. "I'm going to do what I can do. I'm definitely not going to overdo it. I'm going to just be smart about it. I definitely don't want to sit out multiple games."
--Center Yao Ming did not have long to live with the nagging thoughts of his four-rebound game in Memphis on Monday. The one day was enough.
"I saved (the rebounds) for today," Yao said. "Against Indiana I had one rebound. Last night I had four. As a 7-6 center, that really bothers you."
Sufficiently aggravated by his lack of production on the boards on Monday, he got a season-high 19 rebounds on Tuesday. He grabbed as many on the offensive glass as he did overall the night before, and the four were in the first six minutes of the game.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We feel bad about those losses. We cannot forgive ourselves to play a game like last night. It's really tough. You want somebody to pay for it, your next opponent." -- Yao Ming
