Yao, Mutombo banged up but say they'll play

By JONATHAN FEIGEN (Houston Chronicle)
Updated: 2007-03-09 16:55

Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo left Boston bruised, but both players said Thursday they were not hurt and will play tonight against the New Jersey Nets.


Yao dislocated the middle finger of his right hand in the Boston game but said he had only minor swelling and will play with the middle two fingers taped together.

Mutombo had an MRI exam on his bruised his right knee, but no other damage was found, and he had only slight swelling.


Wells update
Guard Bonzi Wells, who has missed the past four games with a sore right foot, has begun running and could test his rehabilitation today or Saturday.

"He'll practice with us whenever we practice," Rockets trainer Keith Jones said. "He ran with no pain, but he just did straight ahead running, not cutting. We'll see how he reacts. The next time we practice, maybe shootaround, we'll do more basketball things."


Seeking home remedy
The Rockets bring a three-game home losing streak to tonight's game against against the Nets at Toyota Center.

"We shouldn't have this problem, especially at this point in the season," guard Tracy McGrady said. "We should be a team that's locked in, knows what we want to do, takes care of home court and just go out and compete and execute our game plan without any letdowns.

"Granted, if we go out there and we play hard and do the things we should do in our game plan and lose the ballgame, we can live with that because we went out and played hard. But if we go out there and don't give that effort and play Rockets basketball, that's really a disappointment to ourselves. Then, we're letting ourselves down. Hopefully, we can get back on track, get this game (today) and just build on this. We got to keep building."



Top Sports News  
Today's Top News  
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours