Rockets center Yao Ming traveled with the team to Memphis with signs increasingly pointing toward his returning to the court tonight against the Grizzlies.

The Rockets are still targeting Wednesday for Yao to come back, but did not rule out his playing.

Yao was so confident he will not be risking damage to his toe by coming back early, he pointed to the red plastic shield on his new basketball shoes protecting his sore left big toe and offered a challenge.

"You want to try it?" he said. "Step on it. It's pretty hard. Go ahead. I won't feel it."

Finding no takers, he put his right foot on the front of his left and mashed on it. Clearly, if his return was to be determined by protecting his toe, he would have been back Sunday.

"The doctors say probably Wednesday," Yao said. "I still need a couple days with the shoe and to get my conditioning."

Asked about playing today, Yao said: "I don't know. Maybe."

The Houston Rockets have signed forward Chuck Hayes for the rest of this season, extending a 10-day contract that expired on Saturday. The 6-foot-6 Hayes has averaged eight points and eight rebounds in six games since rejoining the team on Jan. 18. Hayes first signed with Houston as a rookie free agent on Oct. 3 but was waived before the regular season.

The former Kentucky standout was then selected sixth overall in the 2005 NBA Developmental League Draft by the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. In 14 games with Albuquerque, Hayes averaged 11.6 points and a league-leading 12.2 rebounds per game.

Also Saturday, the Rockets allowed the second 10-day contract of guard John Lucas III to expire. Lucas, a Houston native and the son of former Rocket John Lucas Jr., averaged 2.3 points and 0.9 assists in 13 games.

Houston forward Ryan Bowen left the Rockets' game against Detroit on Sunday after complaining of an irregular heartbeat.

Bowen played 1 minute early in the second quarter before going to the dressing room. No other information was given on his condition.

The six-year veteran is averaging 1.8 points in 13.7 minutes per game.

Even though the Houston Rockets planned to limit Tracy McGrady's minutes when he returned to the lineup, he wouldn't hear of it.

He's already seen how inept his team is when he isn't on the floor.

McGrady returned from a five-game absence and played 40 minutes Friday night, scoring 35 points as the Rockets snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 109-108 double-overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls.

"I would have griped about (being taken out) because we were playing so well," McGrady said. "We wanted to win this game. I was really going to talk (coach Jeff Van Gundy) into leaving me out there, even though they wanted to keep my minutes down."

The Houston Rockets signed guard John Lucas III to a second 10-day contract on Wednesday.

Lucas averaged 1.9 points and 1.1 assists in seven games with the Rockets after signing a 10-day contract on January 8.

The Rockets also signed forward Chuck Hayes to a 10-day contract on Wednesday.

Dallas Mavericks forward Keith Van Horn has a sprained left ankle and was listed as doubtful for Wednesday's game at Houston. Van Horn came down awkwardly while making a driving finger-roll shot in the first quarter of Monday night's 114-95 win over Milwaukee.

He finished with nine points but played less than six minutes because of the injury.

Tracy McGrady said he felt fine after Friday's workout, but left the final decision on when he'll come back to Coach Jeff Van Gundy.

The Rockets play New Orleans on Saturday, and Van Gundy is still mulling whether McGrady will go.

"If he says he feels good enough, then I'll decide if I feel good enough about the way he feels," Van Gundy said.

McGrady has missed nine games because of his recurring back problems, the most critical of the long list of injuries that have plagued the Rockets all season.

Houston Rockets star Tracy McGrady will miss the next two games and be re-evaluated Friday after a recurrence of the back spasms that have bothered him this season.

McGrady grabbed his back and crumpled to the floor Sunday night as the first half ended in the Rockets' 92-90 loss to Denver. He scored 11 points in the first half.

McGrady, who topped 30 points in Houston's previous five games, was lifted onto a stretcher and taken to Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center. An MRI early Monday revealed no structural damage, the Rockets said.

The Rockets play at Charlotte on Tuesday and return home to face Sacramento on Wednesday.

McGrady missed eight games earlier in the season because of back spasms and the Rockets lost them all.

The Rockets are already missing their other star, Yao Ming, who had surgery last month to remove an infection from his left big toe. Yao is expected to be out at least 3-4 more weeks.

The Houston Rockets signed rookie guard John Lucas III to a 10-day contract on Sunday, four days after waiving him.

The 5-foot-11 Lucas, son of former Rocket John Lucas Jr., originally signed with Houston on Dec. 29. He played a total of 15 minutes in two games and was waived on Jan. 4, along with Josh Davis.

The 23-year-old Lucas was playing for Tulsa of the NBA's developmental league when the Rockets first contacted him.

Houston star Tracy McGrady left Sunday night's game against Denver with a recurrence of severe back spasms.

The 6-foot-9 McGrady, who missed eight games earlier in the season because of back spasms, missed a deep jumper near the top of the key in the final seconds of the first half. He started backpedalling, stopped abruptly, bent over and crumpled to the floor, screaming in pain as the buzzer sounded.

McGrady was lifted onto a stretcher and rolled off the floor, surrounded by several team officials and owner Les Alexander. An ambulance took McGrady to the hospital.