PORTLAND, Ore. - Aaron Brooks was the only Rockets player not to get booed loudly during pre-game introductions, instead getting a nice round of applause upon his return to his native northwest.
Brooks, who played at the University of Oregon, would spend the rest of the game keeping the Rose Garden crowd in awe, scoring a career playoff-high and game-high 27 points in the Rockets' 108-81 blowout of the Portland Trail Blazers. "I hope I didn't lose any friends out there," Brooks said. "I love the city of Portland, but my home's in Houston now."
Not too shabby for a player whose playoff experience consisted of six games in which he scored a total of 25 points and who was making his first career playoff start in Saturday's Game 1.
Brooks was playing in front of his mother, dad, brother, sister and several other friends and relatives.
"It felt good, to be honest," he said. "The two shots I made at the beginning of the game were contested, and I still hit them and got off to a good rhythm. I hit some shots, and I hit some more."
Hot against Blazers
Brooks, whose regular-season high was 30 points on March 6, made 10 of 17 field goals and had seven assists and four rebounds in 36 dazzling minutes.
"I looked at films of our games against them, and I thought Aaron and Kyle (Lowry), we have to give them room to operate and attack the basket against them," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "Aaron's had success against this team, but more importantly we needed to spread the court.
"We tend get to stagnant sometimes offensively. The more we can flatten the defense out, and the more we can get those guys with the ball in their hands, the better off we are. If Aaron shoots like he did, they're in trouble."
Giving Yao a hand
Brooks helped the Rockets take control of the game from the opening tip, repeatedly feeding Yao in the post for numerous easy buckets. He scored six points in the first quarter, but had four assists.
With Lowry getting the bulk of the court time, Brooks played only four minutes in the second quarter. He led the Rockets on a 9-3 run to close the quarter, capping it with a layup high off the glass at the buzzer to give the Rockets a 62-44 lead at halftime.
Brooks ended the third quarter with a 3-pointer to give the Rockets an 85-58 lead, and he opened the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer - his first of three fourth-quarter 3-pointers - to give the Rockets a shocking 30-point lead.
"The most important thing we did coming into third quarter was we did a pretty good of making sure they didn't go on a run," Brooks said.
brian.mctaggart@chron.com
