Houston Rockets get levelled

The Houston Rockets shrugged off the loss of Yao Ming to stun the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers 99-87 on Sunday and level their Western Conference semifinal series at 2-2. The Eastern Conference semifinal series between Boston and Orlando is also tied at 2-2 after the Celtics’ Glen Davis hit a jump shot at the buzzer for a 95-94 victory over the Magic.

Houston guard Aaron Brooks scored a career-high 34 points in the shock home-court win over the Lakers as the Rockets coped admirably without Yao, who broke his left foot in Friday’s loss. “We will never count ourselves out,” Brooks told reporters. “If anybody is ready for this it would be us. We’ve been through a lot this year. Mac being out, Deke being out, Shane being out at the beginning of the year. Now we have Yao out. It seems like we keep going. We’re used to it.”

Houston scored the game’s first nine points and built a 29-point lead by the end of the third quarter. “Playing the way we did the first three quarters was just incredible,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said.