Yao’s injury ends the Rockets’ launch party

Winners of 21 of their last 24 games, the NBA’s hottest team, the Houston Rockets, were just officially notified by Fate that it’s still fickle.

The Rockets announced Tuesday that center and centerpiece Yao Ming, averaging 22 points and 10.8 rebounds, will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his left foot.

Owner Les Alexander told a Houston TV station it was “the most heartbreaking . . . the worst I’ve felt.”

Unfortunately for the Rockets, this particular heartbreak is all too familiar.

The tandem of Yao and Tracy McGrady has fabulous potential but an awful medical history.

McGrady has recurring back trouble, not to mention recurring moods. Yao’s feet have to carry his 310 pounds through a full NBA schedule plus a full Chinese international schedule.

Between them, they’ve already missed 121 games in the last two-plus seasons, 61 for McGrady, 60 for Yao.

Houston must now inevitably fall by the wayside unless the Rockets can find another highly skilled 7-foot-6 center.

Oh yeah, there’s only one on the planet.

This is heartbreak on a global scale with the Houston-based media contingent from China that follows Yao’s every move looking at months of medical updates.

Now to get to the concerns of local fans who want to know one thing after taking a moment or two, tops, to sympathize with the forlorn Rockets and the gallant Yao:

What does this mean for the Lakers?

Essentially, nothing.

Even with the West in a state of flux, the Lakers were looking at six West teams capable of becoming good enough to beat them, which included Houston.

Now it’s down to five. The Lakers must be feeling sooo relieved, or not.

At this point, I’d have the Spurs as the Lakers’ lone peer. The new Shaquille O’Neal Suns and Jason Kidd Mavericks are wild cards with the Utah Jazz a dark horse and the New Orleans Hornets longshots getting longer by the day.

Losing to anyone below them would be a major upset. Even with No. 8 Golden State and No. 9 Denver close to a 50-win pace, both are falling by the wayside.

The Nuggets are so anxious, they pursued Sacramento’s Ron Artest, which would have added yet another outlaw icon to Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith and the rest of their Hole in the Wall Gang.

Golden State is still a matchup nightmare, but Coach Don Nelson is so desperate, he’s starting Chris Webber, showing there’s such a thing as too much imagination.

Now after learning that at 34, Webber is -- gasp! -- even slower than before he sat out half a season, Nelson may do something even wilder (for him), playing rookie Brandan Wright.

The key phrase is at this point since much of what we see will have changed by season’s end, or at least the Suns, to name one team, hope it does.

Here’s how the new West lines up:

Lakers -- Youth, talent, size, depth and Kobe Bryant. Looks like years of bad news for the rest of the West.

If the Lakers are even better with Andrew Bynum, they may not have a peer. However, they have yet to get him back and we won’t know who they really are until they do.

San Antonio -- Still looks like San Antonio, even if it’s another year older and running out of tomorrows.

If Tony Parker, back after resting his sore heel, goes back to being Tony Parker, this is the team that won three of the last five titles with at least one run left in it.

Dallas -- The Mavericks are 3-1 with Kidd but have played only one winning team, New Orleans, which drilled them.

They’re here Sunday to play the Lakers but one way or the other, you won’t know what the Mavericks have until the playoffs.

Phoenix -- In contrast, the Suns have been tested and failed, losing two of their first three with O’Neal to the Lakers and Pistons on their own floor, plus a win over the Celtics.

Happily for the Suns, they have until the playoffs to make it work, assuming they win a game here and there and make the playoffs.

Utah -- Big, young and great at home (24-3) but with the worst road record (12-17) of the West’s playoff teams, the Jazz has yet to reach the next level.

Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams look like You Know Who and You Know Who Else. However, even while winning 18 of 21, the Jazz was capable of giving up 114 points in last week’s loss at Staples Center to the Clippers.

New Orleans -- In a storybook season, the Hornets led the West at the All-Star break but, Chris Paul or no Chris Paul, have lost three in a row, suggesting that if the clock hasn’t struck 12, it’s getting late at the ball.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com