The Rockets, however, know what awaits them in the next week. After their loss in Portland to open the season, and a date with the high-scoring Warriors in the second half of a back-to-back in the Warriors opener, the Rockets have the Blazers again, a trip to Utah and the Lakers ahead of them.

The longer it took to get that first win, the more it would have become difficult, if not impossible, to wonder about the chance of making their radical re-tooling work. The difficulty of the schedule would have been a distant consideration as long as the Rockets searched for their first win.

With the win against the Warriors, the Rockets not only no longer have to worry about getting the season's first win, they can go to that tough stretch of games with reason to believe in what they are doing.

"It's just a great win for this team," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "It was big for us. We're not the same team. We're trying to find out who we are. We're trying to find out how we're going to win. To come back, especially the way we played the end of the second quarter, and come back in the third quarter and have a great quarter, hopefully our team learned a lot."

The next win will be tougher than the first. But as difficult as the games to come will be, because of the changes and uncertainties with the Rockets, they would have been much tougher with a zero under the win column.

ROCKETS 108, WARRIORS 107: The Rockets were playing well enough to lead through much of the first-half, and still led two minutes before halftime. Then they went through a dreadful two minutes to end the quarter, going into the locker room down 10. It was to be the key stretch for one team or the other. The Rockets used it to turn things around, correcting the mistakes that were condensed into that rapid Golden State run. They began the second half making 11 consecutive shots, scored 35 third quarter points and replaced the Warriors' 10-point lead to one of their own. That cushion was just enough to withstand another late Golden State run to get the Rockets first win of the season.