Luis Scola made a spin move to his right that completely fooled Lamar Odom in the first quarter Thursday night.
Scola was just warming up. By the time the first quarter ended, Scola had nearly outscored the Los Angeles Lakers by himself.
"He was in attack mode," Rockets guard Aaron Brooks said. "He set the tone."
Scola gave the Rockets an early jump-start and finished with a playoff career-high 24 points and 12 rebounds as the Rockets beat the Lakers 95-80 in Game 6 at Toyota Center.
"Yao (Ming) is out and there are a lot of shots to go around for everyone else," said Scola, who was 10-of-17 from the floor.
"Someone will have to shoot them. Sometimes it's me. Sometimes it's Shane (Battier). Sometimes it's Aaron. Sometimes it's somebody else. Today, it happened to be me."
Getting low
Scola hit 6-of-9 shots for 14 points in the first quarter as the Rockets raced to a 27-15 lead.
"Luis Scola was incredible," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "He just got us going."
Brooks said Scola provided a low-post presence that was missing in Game 5, a 118-78 thrashing that put the Rockets on the verge of elimination.
"We established him at the beginning of the game," Brooks said. "He did a great job. That's when it all started by establishing him and getting some easy buckets in the paint."
Dizzying effect
In the previous five games against the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals, Scola's previous high was 12 points. He reached that total midway through the first quarter, spinning and shaking his way underneath the basket.
Scola scored the Rockets' first six points, including a turnaround hook-shot that banked off the glass.
Later in the quarter Scola made another spin move, this time faking out Odom, and on the next trip down the floor completely tricked Pau Gasol, making a quick right fake before turning to his left for a layup that put the Rockets ahead 17-1.
Scola wasn't finished.
He finished the first quarter with another right-to-left move to fool a Lakers defender and an 18-foot jumper from the top of the key.
When the Lakers started to double team Scola after the first quarter, that opened up more shots for the guards, Brooks said.
joseph.duarte@chron.com
