POR 81

GAME 2

POR 107

HOU 103

GAME 3

HOU 86

POR 83

GAME 4

HOU 89

POR 88

GAME 5

POR 88

HOU 77

GAME 6

HOU 92

POR 76

Houston wins series 4-2

TODAY'S GAMES

Game 6

Hawks at Heat 7 p.m., ESPN Atlanta leads 3-2

THURSDAY'S SCORES

Bulls 128, Celtics 127, 3OT Series tied 3-3

Magic 115, 76ers 89 Orlando wins 4-2

INSIDE

JEROME SOLOMON says Yao Ming's determination ensured the center would come up big.

PAGE C7

TICKETS

Tickets for Games 3 and 4 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Lakers go on sale at noon today.

CONFERENCE SEMIFINAL GAME 1

Monday

At Los Angeles, 9:30 p.m.

TV/radio: TNT; 610 AM, 850 AM (Spanish)

The Rockets had waited as long as they could stand.

After 12 long, sometimes torturous years, through several eras of Rockets Basketball and the whole of Yao Ming's career, the Rockets had to end the torment of their first-round misery.

With the second round tauntingly in their sights again on Thursday night, they would leave no doubt, waste no time and savor every moment of the success that had eluded them for so long.

Unwilling to delay even another quarter, the Rockets pounced on the Portland Trail Blazers to begin the second quarter and were never challenged again, rolling to a 92-76 win to advance to the NBA playoffs' second round for the first time since 1997 and set up a matchup with the Lakers beginning Monday night in Los Angeles.

"It tasted great when that clock was running down," Yao said. "I still did not believe it was coming true."

With Ron Artest producing by far his best offensive game of the series, Yao anchoring the Rockets on both ends and the Rockets mastering the areas that had given them their greatest difficulties in the two losses, they snapped their postseason losing streak at seven series.

"I've been here three years and I can appreciate the frustrations of the city," said Shane Battier, whose nine rebounds matched his playoff high. "When you go out, you just felt they want a winner so bad here. You feel the frustrations of the last 12 years.

"Even though they didn't really blame us, the guys on the team right now, it will feel good to hang out in the summer and say, ?Hey, this is the start of something really big.'?"

Artest strikes quickly

That likely started months ago when the Rockets turned around their season, but it began to become clear where this season would take them when Artest surged through the first quarter and seemed ready to give the Rockets a jolt whenever needed.

Artest scored 27 points, twice his average in the series' first five games. He set a tone early, hitting Portland with a 12-point first quarter, and late, saving a loose ball with 1:30 remaining and letting his momentum take him into the crowd that jubilantly engulfed and embraced him, inspired Artest to joke about it not being his first trip into the stands.

"I was trying to get aggressive," Artest said. "The first couple games, they had a good scheme. They were packing it in, and I didn't want to force it. I was just trying to pass. My teammates stepped up. Now they know what to do and I was able to attack this game."

After a strong start and spectacular second quarter, the Rockets took a 15-point lead into the second half and pushed the lead to as much as 20 late in the third quarter. By the time the Rockets were one quarter away from the second round, they were hitting 48.3 percent of their shots, controlling the boards and taking care of the ball.

They had done so much, but it still wasn't quite enough.

The Rockets needed 4? minutes to score in the fourth quarter, missing their first six shots of the quarter, three from beyond the 3-point arc. The Blazers pulled to within 13. But Von Wafer, who had been ruled out of the game with back spasms Thursday morning, stopped the run. He nailed his jumper from 18 feet. The Rockets, who never seemed threatened, never looked back.

"It just had a different feel," Battier said. "Even when they made their run, we felt if we get that one bucket to go in, it was going to be our game. When Von got that pullup, I think the crowd exhaled. We exhaled. We knew we were in control."

After two LaMarcus Aldridge free throws reduced the lead to 13 again, Yao followed an Artest miss, Aaron Brooks stole a Steve Blake pass and Brooks nailed a 3-pointer to push the lead back to 18 with 6:20 left, inspiring the first on-court celebration of the night.

Bring on the Lakers

When Brooks swooped in for a layup with 2:46 left, the lead was back at 20, Yao was beaming, and a standing ovation turned into a loud chorus of "beat L.A."

"Through the course of the game, I was thinking to myself, ?We're better. We deserve to win,'?" forward Luis Scola said. "But they are not going to just give it to us. We knew we were going to have to go get it and we did."

The Rockets and their predecessors had chased it for so long, they could not, would not let another series slip away. Instead, Yao said he tossed and turned and when he slept, he thought of "game plans and technical problems."

With the win, and the end of the first-round misery, he could finally sleep soundly.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com