* Yao Ming wasn’t happy with the win against Milwaukee, perhaps that’s why he was one of the first players at the arena tonight. Generally established players come on the second bus while the first bus is filled with rookies and role players. Not Yao, as he had already worked out by the time the Rockets locker room opened at 5:30 pm.

* Former Toronto Raptors guard Shawn Respert spent a lot of time before the game getting reacquainted with former friends from Toronto. Respert briefly spent some time as Director of Basketball Operations for the NBA Development League and from everyone I talked with he’s been a huge hit with the players and coaching staff in Houston this season.

* Houston started a 5,800-mile, five-game, nine-day road trip earlier this week with a close win against Milwaukee. Beyond the normal stress of this type of road trip, the team is also being slowed by injuries as Tracy McGrady was a game time decision tonight while Shane Battier is schedule to miss the entire road trip. The Rockets have decided McGrady won’t play in both games in back-to-backs this season so that he’ll be healthy for the playoffs. With a game against Atlanta tomorrow night, the team decided to play McGrady and see if he could go tonight and then again tomorrow night in Atlanta. This is a game McGrady might as well have sat out for since he went 2-fo-9 from the field and only scored four points.

* The Rockets’ came out with a small backcourt against Milwaukee with Rafer Alston and Aaron Brooks and the duo combined to hit four-for-20 from the field and 1-for-10 from beyond the arc. After that didn’t pan out Rockets head ocach Rick Adelman switched Luther Head into the starting five tonight and the move didn’t work much better as the Rockets backcourt went 3-for-13 from the field. Head had a rough night as he went 0-for-6 from the field and failed to score a point. Not what Adelman had from his “shooting” guard.

* Andrea Bargnani had Yao on him for most of the night but he didn’t take many shots from the perimeter early in the game. This was an ideal matchup for Toronto because Bargnani could have lurked on the perimeter launching shots which have drawn Yao out of his comfort zone and would have then opened up space in the paint for Chris Bosh to work his magic. Instead, Bargnani stuck to his mid-range game and this resulted in Yao staying at the foul line and not chasing Bargnani near the three-point arc. This finally changed at the 1:37 mark of the second quarter when Bargnani nailed a three-pointer.

* Early in the third quarter Bargnani attempted a three-pointer that clanged off the rim. Bad shot, right? Wrong. Within Toronto’s next few possessions he got the ball behind the three-point line, pump-faked and then drove by Yao for an easy lay in. Yet another reason why it was important for Bargnani to attempt some three-point shots early and often in this game.

* Bargnani had one of his best offensive outing of the season as he started the game 7-10 from the field for 17 points. Due to some foul trouble he slowed down a bit in the second half, but he still managed to finish the game with a team high 19 points while shooting a sizzling 8-for-12 from the field.

* Jay Triano raved about the play of Bargnani and told the media: “It’s funny, we weren’t really thinking about Andrea (Bargnani) being a big scorer tonight. He had a tough task guarding Yao Ming, but I thought he played him physical early. Our goal was to wear him down as the game went on. We knew if they put him on Andrea that we were going to keep him as far away from the basket as we could and we were able to do that.  I think that is what got him a couple open looks, Yao doesn’t want to leave the paint too often.”

* Toronto held Houston to 38.9% from the field in the first quarter and 0-for-6 from beyond the arc. Things didn’t get much better for Houston as they went into the half shooting 15-38 from the field while only scoring 38 points. Things continued to progressively worsen for Houston as Toronto held them to 11 points in the third quarter which is the lowest for a Raptors opponent all season (the previous low was 12 points by Charlotte on November 9th). Toronto topped things off by holding Houston to a season low in points (73) and field goal percentage (.348).

* Triano was grinning when asked about the effort on the defensive end and told the media, “I was pleased with the way we played defense. We held a team that has 21 wins to 34 per cent shooting. Off night for them maybe, but we were gritty tonight. I think every possession there was a real focus. We had a good practice defensively yesterday and I think that translated on the floor tonight.”

* Will Solomon continues to provide the Raptors with a nice scoring spark off the bench. In their last game he scored 11 points and in the first half he went 3-for-3 from the field for six points. These aren’t eye-popping numbers by any means, but having Solomon play at shooting guard might be the scoring spark this teams needs off the bench. An added bonus was the game high seven dimes he dished out.

*  Tonight that spark was really needed as Jose Calderon left the game at the 8:07 mark of the second quarter with a right hamstring strain. After the game the media probed to see what his status for Sunday would be and all Calderon would say is that he would meet with the training staff tomorrow.

* Solomon nearly picked up his fourth personal foul at the 5:17 mark of the third quarter. Luckily for Raptors fans, Ron Artest was called for a travel instead.

* Jamario Moon had a thunderous dunk at the 1:17 mark of the third quarter that you need to make sure you check YouTube for. The dunk stretched Toronto’s lead to 18 points and had the Air Canada Centre crowd yelling their approval.

* Speaking of Moon and thunderous dunks, after the game I asked him about the dunk contest and if he was invited to participate this year. He looked at me, grinned and said, “We’re 13-21, man. That’s the last thing I’m thinking about.”

* The Dream Shake wants to see more Von Wafer and they told me before the game: “We are hurt.  It’s a war of attrition at this point.  Battier, T-Mac, Artest, Barry, Alston and Yao are all suffering from various injuries.  The only truly healthy players are Brooks, Scola and Landry.  The mix-and-match rotations are making it difficult to be a cohesive offensive unit - which is why the Rockets have been struggling to put up 2nd half points.  The old guys get tired and there’s no movement.  More reasons why Von Wafer should play, but Rick Adelman won’t listen to me.” Tonight they got their wish as Wafer got 12 minutes of burn in the fourth quarter on his way to a team high 18 points while going 7-for-9 from the field. He had a silky smooth crossover which let him shake loose for a jumper early in the fourth quarter that hit nothing but net. I was also impressed at his ability to drive the lane, draw contact and earn a trip to the charity stripe.

* Chris Bosh was asked if this was a big win and instead of tossing out the typical cliche answer the Raptors star forward easily admitted this win was big for the team. Without taking a pause after being asked the question, Bosh jumped in by answering, “We needed that. Everybody was thinking about the whole New Year thing and starting off fresh. I think this was a good win for us, we were overdue for it. I’m really proud of the way we continue to play the same way throughout the whole game.”

* Jason Kapono’s been mired in a nasty shooting slump over the past few weeks and the crowd went nuts when he hit a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter.

* Jamario Moon took some friendly ribbing from Will Solomon after the game about Alabama being down 21-10 to Utah at the half.

* Jake Vosjuhl did a great job of battling Yao when he was on the floor. However, the problem is he picked up his third foul after just five minutes of playing time.

* I was able to chat with Hassan Adams for a couple of minutes after the game tonight and I’ll post my One-On-One with him tomorrow afternoon.

* Toronto’s biggest weakness this season has been grabbing rebounds and they looked like they would be in trouble tonight against a Houston squad that ranked sixth in the NBA in rebounds per game (43.0). Toronto met the challenge as Houston only has six more rebounds.

* With the lost Houston is now 5-8 against Toronto in games played here in Toronto.

* Toronto’s 21 point margin of victory is Toronto’s second largest of the season.

* A huge thank you goes out to Bend It Like Bennett for pointing out Raptors Fan Bingo. Genius!

Photo Credit: Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos