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Tuesday December 18, 2007 4:45 PM


Yao, Howard take center stage in marquee matchup


Orlando at Houston, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.


Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer

HOUSTON -- The NBA has had its share of great individual matchups in the paint.

Chamberlain vs. Russell. Kareem vs. Moses. And, of course, The Dream vs. The Admiral.

Could Yao vs. Howard be next?

The league's leading big men -- Houston's Yao Ming and Orlando's Dwight Howard -- will take center stage Wednesday night when the Rockets host the Orlando Magic at Toyota Center.

Despite having squared off on five previous occasions, the latest matchup between the two centers is the most intriguing in the four-year history between the two pivots.

Yao and Howard are both reaching the prime of their careers and each have made a case over the past 12 months to be considered the league's best big man.

With Miami's Shaquille O'Neal inching towards the end of his career and the lack of marquee centers around the league, Yao and Howard could very well be the game's best big men over the next decade.

"There's not many big men like us in this league," Yao said. "Dwight Howard. Me. Shaquille O'Neal. (Zydrunas) Ilgauskas. Chris Kaman has played very well this year. I feel like we're a dinosaur -- almost done."

Yao and Howard, though, are still far from the end of their careers.

The Rockets center was the first to emerge, putting together his coming out party during the 2006-07 season. Despite being limited to 48 games because of a small fracture on the anterior medial tibilal plateau of his right knee, the five-time All-Star led all centers by averaging a career-best 25.0 points per game. He also averaged 9.4 rebounds on his way to his first All-NBA second team nod.

Still, Howard has always been impressed with Yao's game. The Orlando center said he was in awe of Yao's frame when he saw the 7-foot-6, 310-pound big man for the first time as a rookie in 2004.

"I just remember seeing how big he was," Howard said of Yao. "He's just amazing. I was thinking, 'Why are his legs so big?' Then I went to and I thought, 'He must have rode bikes all day.' I always wonder what if I was 7-foot-5 and I was still the same way I am now? It's like a cheat code to get somebody 7-foot-5 in a video game."

Howard, meanwhile, has made his ascent this season. So far, he's racked up a league-high 22 double-doubles and, as of Dec. 15, he had thrown down more dunks (108) than 23 of the 29 teams in the NBA. The center leads all big men in scoring and rebounding with 23.7 points and 15.4 rebounds.

Howard has done it with an absurd blend of power and athleticism that has intimidated his opponents.

"Dwight has elevators in his shoes," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "The league has never seen anyone who combines his size and strength with his athletic ability. Never. You could say Wilt Chamberlain. I never saw Wilt Chamberlain play in person, but Dwight Howard is doing it against Yao Ming and doing it against Shaq. Dwight Howard is a physical specimen."

The two big men certainly have differing styles.

Howard, who just turned 22 this month, is a bully in the middle. He batters other big men with his strength and pogo-like jumping ability, often finishing with an emphatic dunk.

Yao, in the meantime, uses more of a blend. He's as likely to knock down an 18-footer over an opposing big man as attacking the rim.

"We're still different," Yao said. "We play different. I play like Ilgauskas. Maybe a little younger and stronger. But Dwight Howard plays more like a Shaq -- very dominating in the paint and tries to finish with a dunk every time."

That's not to say the two big men don't have things in common.

Both are workaholics. Yao usually arrives to the arena well before practice to get in some extra work and has been known to lift weights after a game. He has also been developing his game from the minute he came into the league.

Howard is the same. Following Orlando's practice at Toyota Center on Tuesday, the Magic center headed straight for the weight room. He didn't emerge until almost an hour after he went in. Besides that, Howard has become more than just a dunker by developing his offensive game to include more hook shots.

"They're both hard workers," said Battier, who played with Howard as a member on the U.S. national team.

The work ethic and raw talent of the two big men have made others take notice.

Since O'Neal's numbers have slowly started to drop, Yao and Howard are beginning to be regarded as the game's best all-around centers. There doesn't appear to be many challengers since they are so few traditional, low-post centers left in the game. Most teams -- embracing the game's trend towards small ball -- have turned to versatile players who can run the floor and handle the ball, like Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire and Memphis' Pau Gasol. Other teams have big men who are defensive stoppers like Chicago's Ben Wallace, New Orleans' Tyson Chandler and Denver's Marcus Camby.

Few teams, however, have centers like Howard and Yao.

"There's only a handful of big men in the league and there's only two or three that are dominant," Rockets star Tracy McGrady said. "The rest are just big bodies."

Yao vs. Howard could become the league's marquee matchup between big men because of that.

The two centers are hitting the prime of their careers at the same time and have the talent to be regarded as the game's next great pivots.

Yao and Howard are already relishing their matchups.

"Playing against someone like Shaq and Yao, it's a great experience for me," Howard said. "It's going to be fun to play against (Yao)."