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Tuesday November 20, 2007 10:31 AM


McGrady expected to return against Mavericks


Dallas at Houston, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.


Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer

HOUSTON -- Before reaching Toyota Center for Saturday night's game against the Phoenix Suns, Tracy McGrady was convinced that he would be able to play after missing a game with a sprained right elbow.

He instead watched the action unfold from the Rockets' bench.

"I wanted to play, but the doctors kept me out to get three days of rest," McGrady said. "It was very frustrating to be sitting."

He won't be forced to watch the next game.

Nearly a week after suffering his injury in an odd collision with Lakers forward Luke Walton, McGrady is expected to return to the starting lineup Wednesday night when the Rockets host the Dallas Mavericks.

Wearing a black sleeve over his shooting arm, McGrady practiced Monday without incident. He practiced with the team for about 20 minutes before running through a series of individual drills. He said his elbow was still a little tender and that he'll likely wear a sleeve with padding in Wednesday's game.

McGrady also revealed that there was a slight tear in his elbow.

"It was one of the weirdest injuries I've ever had," McGrady said. "I could have played if it wasn't my shooting arm. It was just a minor setback."

McGrady's return certainly comes at a good time for the Rockets.

Since rolling to their best start in 11 years with a 6-1 record, the Rockets have dropped four straight games -- the final two coming without McGrady. The losing skid is Houston's longest since dropping four in a row in April 2006.

What's gone wrong? The Rockets (6-5) have struggled to knock down shots in a new high-motion offense and haven't come up with timely defensive stops over that stretch. During Saturday's seback to Phoenix, the Suns shot a staggering 62.3 percent from the field.

Rockets coach Rick Adelman said McGrady's return alone isn't going to fix Houston's recent problems.

"We need to break (the losing streak) and get a win against somebody," Adelman said. "We have to play much better offensively. We're looking too much to the first option of every play and then we're not making shots because of that. But even though we've been struggling, we haven't had many games where we've had a letdown defensively. I don't know if that happened against Phoenix or if they were just that good. But we can't break down at that end. We have to stay within striking distance."

Yao Ming has struggled to find his own game in McGrady's absense.

During the two-game without his All-Star partner, Yao averaged 13 points on 33.3 percent shooting. He picked up two early fouls in the first quarter of both losses that prevented him from getting into an early rhythm.

On top of that, the Spurs had success fronting him, while the Suns gave Yao problems with their speed.

"I didn't play my game," Yao said. "I didn't get the ball (against San Antonio) because of the front defense and against Phoenix because of their speed. My foul troubles have taken me out of a lot of games. It's almost like I never went to the game. I just need to play my game."

McGrady's return should help with that since defenses won't be able to focus solely on Yao.

Before injuring his elbow, McGrady was off to one of the best starts of his career. He was second in the NBA in scoring and had already surprassed the 30-point mark in four of Houston's games.

He was just disappointed that he had to take a break from that start.

"I set a goal for myself to play 82 games," McGrady said. "But I guess I'll have to settle for 80."