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After taking a stunning 2-0 lead in the first round of the NBA playoffs, the Houston Rockets dropped the next two games in Salt Lake City, and the series is tied two apiece.

The Rockets are losing momentum, as shown by center Yao Ming's decreasing number of points in the last four games (28, 27, 26, 20), and Houston's energy seems to have transferred to Utah Jazz's favor.

Yao Ming #11 of the Houston Rockets sits on the bench against the Utah Jazz during Game Four of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2007 NBA Playoffs at Energy Solutions Arena on April 28, 2007 in Salt Lake City. [AP]

Yao is aware the winning pendulum is swinging away from them. "It looks like they have a chance to beat us at our house, but we don't have a chance to beat them in their house," said Yao after the Game 4 loss.

But he has yet to find out if they have bottomed out and will bounce back, or the last two games are an indicator the Rocket's ride to the championships will soon end. We'll have to see how today's game will turn out.

"It takes five"

Yao's teammate Tracy McGrady may say "it's on me", but really, "it takes five".

McGrady was brave enough to take the responsibility prior to Game 4. But during the game, his determination was sporadic on the court, and the Rockets were out-played, out-coached, and out-worked by the Jazz.

Maybe it was the impenetrable Utah defense, but the fact that he failed to "walk the talk" has led to tremendous disappointment and criticism from Rockets fans.

Before the series started, former Rockets star Charles Barkley offered his empathy to T-Mac. "If he [McGrady] could not pass the first round in the playoffs, he will not have a gorilla on his back, he will have a zoo."

T-Mac laughed it off by reminding the media about Barkley's donkey ass-kissing incident, but he did take on the challenge, well, at least verbally. Perhaps it was the excitement and pressure that caused is palms to sweat before Game 1 as he never had done before a basketball game.

Yao, the non-decider?

Yao has always been an important factor in any basketball game. Nobody can neglect a 7'6" center that has an incredible touch on the court. However, it seems he has never been the one to single-handedly change the course of a game, or a series.

One would think a guy of his height would have agility limitations, endurance problems, difficulties to dribble, and high turnovers. According to American standards, he's not that hardcore. He does not possess the aggressiveness some think needed for a champion.

But he's the most hardworking player in the NBA, and will give everything he has to win. He is really "all-out," as T-Mac claimed he himself would be.

Yao is too nice. He is not scrappy. But if he could win a champion in his career, he would either have to learn how to be an American-style champion, or show America and the whole world another type of champion.

We'll have to wait and see. A best-of-three series just began.