Yao's warm up routine and his performance in the 4th

At the beginning of the season, I read that the team had changed Yao's practice and before-game practice routine. Yao used to practice more than 1 hour before each game to get himself into game shape, but the coaching/medical staff asked him to reduce that to reduce the stress on his lower body parts. I think that contributed to his relative ineffectiveness at the beginning of the season.
Recently, Yao has been extremely effective in the 4th quarter. I am wondering if the change of before-game routine is paying dividend? I mean, the first half or even the first 3 quarters kind of serves Yao as his warm up, so he is his best in the 4th? Insiders please update. Like Bill said, in the 4th it looks that Yao has worn his defenders out.
Yao is Yao, he will still be slow, get dunked on..., but if he has mastered the skill of stepping up his game in clutch time, it is priceless!

By the way, Brooks shows consistently that he can step up to face challenges , which is what defines a superstar in my dictionary. The rockets GM did a fantastic job not giving up him in the Artest trade.

What a convincing win, I am a happy man.