NBA Scores Western Conference Semifinals: Houston Rockets Shock Los Angeles Lakers in Opener

Yao Ming scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Ron Artest added 21 points and 7 assists and Aaron Brooks finished with 19 points as the Houston Rockets went on the road and knocked off the Los Angeles Lakers 100-92 Monday night to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals series.

Houston came out in the first quarter and showed no signs of being intimidated as they traded buckets with the heavily favored Lakers and then used a 13-6 spurt to move in front 21-14 before settling for a 21-18 advantage at the end of the frame. LA managed to grab a one-point lead early in the second but the Rockets responded with an 11-2 run that put them in front 34-26 midway through the frame. The Lakers chipped away at the lead and pulled to within four but a pair of free-throws from Shane Battier and a dunk from Yao pushed the lead back to eight with 2:55 left in the half. The Rockets were up by five in the final seconds of the half but the Lakers looked to carry some momentum into the locker room after Kobe Bryant hit a jumper to trim the Lakers deficit to 43-40.

The Rockets quickly inflated their lead to nine in the opening minutes of the third as Luis Scola hit a pair of buckets and Yao tossed in a hook but the Lakers put together an 8-0 run to climb back to within one. Houston never appeared rattled by the LA runs though as they responded each time, never allowing the Lakers to take control of the game and when Ron Artest buried a triple with 5:54 left in the quarter the Rockets were back in front by nine. Over the final 5:35 of the quarter Kobe scored 11 of his 13 points in the frame and LA was once again back within three heading into the fourth.

In the final frame the Rockets opened slow and when Shannon Brown sank a pair from the free-throw line the Lakers had a 77-76 lead. Rather than let the game get away the Rockets put together a 9-0 run to move back in front 85-77 with 5:18 left in the game. With 3:38 on the clock Lamar Odom had pulled the Lakers to within 85-81 but the Rockets put the game away with an 8-2 spurt over the next two minutes and then hit their free-throws in the final minute of the game.

While Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 32 points he had to put up 31 shots to get those points and was just 1-7 from beyond the three-point line. As a team the Lakers hit 2-18 from long-range and a poor 12-19 from the free-throw line.

Click here for more Sports News

About YourFINDit

YourFindit Community is a business, music and social networking community. YourFINDit provides members with a wealth of applications that enable them to create an in depth profile within YourFindit. Profiles include an About Me, Background and Lifestyle, Videos, Photo sharing, News, Music, Blogs, unique URL and networking with other members inside the YourFINDit community. YourFindit provides ADit to each member providing them the opportunity to have an exclusive profile (no outside advertising) displaying only banner ads they upload to their pages. Members can run their own ads or give or sell their ad space to advertisers at prices the member sets.

To create your profile sign up and within minutes you too can have your People profile running your ads and building your network with new members daily.

YourFindit is owned and operated by TransWorldNews, Inc. a news and press release distribution service.