I think it was more his hip then his back. It happened when Quentin Ross came flying into him. Ross looked like he hit a brick wall and ended up out the rest of the game with back spasms. Yao seemed to stretch the hip and reach at it some but played the rest of the game and did okay. I doubt it will be an issue, especially with a couple days off.
If you are 7'6" you run back and forth for 40 minutes, would'nt you get tired and feel pain in your back. I did by just biking around the block. Old Fart!!!
from OGkashMoney, who was at the game. The post is elsewhere on the board: "1. In the fourth, Yao seemed to have hurt his back after a turn-around over Kaman. It was noticable as soon as he tried to hurry back on defense. He still managed to play through it, but as he was leaving off the court after the game, I reached out my hand to him, but he headed to the lockerroom holding his back and looked in pain. Don't know the seriousness of the injury, but when he was walking off, it didn't look too good..." my guess is that he got a hard push or a knee, maybe from Kaman in the 4th as our 1st person account describes. That would explain the **** talking by yao that we've all watched on youtube at least 150 times...Could have also been just the wear and tear of an emotional back to back (including an OT game where yao saw a career high in minutes) and then another game 1 day where yao faced a lot of hard contact from kwame, bynum, kaman, foyle, and one flying quentin ross (wouldnt be suprised if that play hurt yao a little) or some permutation of all these factors. It's hard to say for sure what happened, but if the rockets haven't annonced anything about it it's nothing serious (unless they're sandbagging the info to mess with portland's game-planning, which I sincerely doubt). Anyone who plays ball at any level knows that they'll get banged and bruised over the course of a few games, and parts of their body will be sore, but they get better. after sunday's afternoon game, yao will have two full travel-free days to recover before portland on wednesday. I know backs are a sore spot with houston fans...and players...but we honestly shouldn't worry.
