The Houston Rockets were defeated at home Saturday night, but they lost more than just a game in a mental collapse where the team's fragile chemistry seems to be totally absent. However, the scheduled return of their leading scorer Yao Ming on Monday may glue the team together again, and set off a final kick to the playoffs.

Injured Houston Rockets center Yao Ming watches practice from the sideline during the 2007 NBA All-Star practice held in Las Vegas [Reuters]

In less than six minutes into the game, the San Antonio Spurs took a commanding lead, but the Rockets helped solidify their opponents' season-high eight-game winning streak by fighting within themselves on the bench.

Rafer Alston first shouted at Juwan Howard after a turnover that sent him to the bench, and then everybody began to lose composure and expressed their dissatisfaction in a discouraging verbal manner. Even veteran Dikembe Mutombo, who just set a new record of rebounds grabbed the previous game among players above 40 in NBA, bickered with Tracy McGrady.

"I heard guys yelling at each other, I was just trying to calm guys down. Dikembe was trying to stop me from calming everything down. I don't know what happened. But it was a bad time to go at each other's throats," said Tracy.

The squabble did not help stir the morale, but cost their shooting range, only 38.5%, and led to nine turnovers in the first quarter when they bickered at each other, and 18 in the whole game.

The hard-earned chemistry the Rockets had after they first lost their leading scorer Yao Ming seems to be fading away. In the last eight games, the Rockets lost five. However, the good news is that Yao Ming waiting to be cleared to come back to the court.

"There's going to be a period of time he's going to take to play effectively," said coach Jeff Van Gundy, "he's going to work through that. That could hurt us in the short term, but obviously will be beneficial."

"He may not play well right away. He voiced his concerns about he doesn't want to come back and hurt us. I don't think he should worry. He is a good guy, obviously, worrying about breaking up a chemistry. But we could use him."

Yes, they definitely can use the good guy, especially at a time their chemistry seems to be losing.