You should real the entire article before saying this. At the end of his article, "this Yang" quotes Yao Ming saying "Am I crazy (to worry about this and that)? I already played like this and what should I fear?"
I think Yao is not sure if he can average 19 pts/game. If he can do that in the first month, it will increase his confidence level tremendously.
Actually the article is like this: After the Nuggets game, Camby waited outside Rockets locker room and talked to Yao with a smile: "You played really well. But it's only preseason.See you in regular season." Yao became worried and kind of lost sleep. Yao pretty much played all out, but he wasn't quite sure if Camby showed everything. Because it's preseason and the level of competition is only about 60 to 70% of regular season. So Yao was eager to play against Spurs. Because he figured Duncan is MVP and he will play his best when he is on court. In that game, Duncan only got 2 points when Yao was defending him. And Yao got his only block against Duncan. Now Yao siad he felt a lot stronger than last season. Nobody could bang with Yao except Duncan. And when they collide, Yao regained his balance before Duncan did. His last sentance is something like: "Why should I worry when I play like this?" It sounds reasonable to me.
I think this is just a translation issue. It is not really the point. the point is they did speak to each other after the game. Personally I believe what Yang said. and from his old articles, he is indeed very close to Yao.
"sleepless" in this highly fictional article means nothing. it's the stupid style commonly used by chinese sports columnists. all the article wants to say is that Yao Ming is taking it seriously and will show the other team that he's gonna play as well as or even better than his preseason. there's nothing about "mentally strong" ****.
Here is a better translation of the original article http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66988