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 Yao is out for the season with a stress fracture in his left foot. The Rockets didn't seem to miss their All-Star center, jumping to a 7-0 lead and never trailing as they coasted to their 17th win in the last 18 games. The streak is their longest since their championship season of 1993-94, and the longest active streak in the NBA.
Houston started 41-year-old Dikembe Mutombo in place of Yao, but also used the 6-foot-9 Carl Landry in the spot. Yao was averaging 22 points and 10.8 rebounds this season. Landry finished with 12 points.
The Wizards were doomed by a first half in which they managed a franchise-low 23 points and couldn't dig themselves out of a 28-point halftime deficit. Their 69 points were a season-low and they made just 26 of 83 shots.
Coach Rick Adelman had replaced all his starters by about the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
Tracy McGrady was ineffective for the first three quarters, going 2-of-11 with six points. He helped the Rockets stretch their lead when he had two slam dunks early in the fourth quarter to make 73-51 and finished with 11 points.
With one star out and another struggling, the Rockets got double-digit contributions from several others, including Luis Scola, who was 7-of-7 for 14 points. Rafer Alston finished with 13 points.
The Wizards snapped out of their shooting slump for a while in the third quarter and had doubled their first-half points total of 23 with a hook shot by Brendan Haywood with about 3 1/2 minutes left in the quarter. Antawn Jamison had 12 points in the quarter and Oleksiy Pecherov added a pair of 3-pointers.
Washington trailed 68-49 at the end of the third quarter.
Jamison led the Wizards with 18 points and Nick Young had 16.
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Houston was ahead by 19 in the second quarter before scoring 12 straight points to push its lead to 49-18 about one minute before halftime. The Rockets led 51-23 at halftime, a Houston record for fewest points allowed in a half. The Wizards' 21.3 percent shooting in the first half was a season low for a Houston opponent this season.
Washington's previous franchise low in a half was 25 points, reached three times, the last in 1985 against the Knicks.
The Wizards were often harassed into taking bad shots as the shot clock ran down. Washington also missed several would-be dunks and layups in the first half.
Houston scored the first seven points of the game and had built a 24-12 lead by the end of the first quarter thanks to 10 points by Scola on 5-of-5 shooting. The Wizards were 5-of-27 in the period.
Notes: Mutombo, who had two blocks in the quarter, got a technical when he did his signature finger waves for a bit too long after one of the blocks. He finished with four points, six rebounds and four blocks. ... Washington F Caron Butler missed his 10th game in a row with a strained left hip flexor and didn't make the trip. ... Gerald Green played for Houston for the first time since being traded from New Orleans on Thursday. He was 3-for-3 for six points in four minutes.
[Associated Press; By KRISTIE RIEKEN]
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