The difference, however, was Aaron Brooks and Luis Scola, who dominated their matchups. This was not by accident.

Rockets coach Rick Adelman tweaked the offense and particularly its screen-and-rolls for Brooks, providing better spacing and often allowing Brooks to use his quickness on big men who switched out to him.

He made 10 of 17 shots and scored 27 points, while Portland point guard Steve Blake had five.

Scola helped control Aldridge, Portland's leading scorer against the Rockets this season. But when the Blazers moved to control Yao, Scola took over. The Rockets posted up Scola on the other side or drove the lane to set up Scola for baseline jumpers.

Scola hit 7 of 9 shots, scoring 19 points, including 15 in the second half when Yao was scoreless.

"We needed to spread the court," Adelman said. "We get stagnant sometimes offensively. The more we can flatten the defense out, the more we can get those guys the ball in their hands, the better off we are. When Aaron shoots it like he did, they are in trouble. They will make adjustments, but we want to continue to keep attacking."

ROCKETS 108, TRAIL BLAZERS 81: The Rockets emphasized many things, but none as much as the desire to start fast and the need to not let up. If only it were always that easy. The Rockets bolted from the tip, with Yao Ming winning the jump and scoring the game's first seven points. And they never slowed down, taking the lead to as much as 31 to crush the Trail Blazers in Game 1 of their Western Conference series. The Rockets made 58.5 percent of their shots, holding Portland to 41.7 percent shooting. They outrebounded the league's top rebounding team, 44-30. They blew the game open even with Yao sitting the last 18 minutes, having already made all nine of his shots, letting Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola and Ron Artest take it from there.