Ron Artest scored a game-high 27 points as the Houston Rockets crushed the Portland Trail Blazers 92-76 on Thursday to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade.
Chinese All-Star center Yao Ming chipped in with 17 points and 10 rebounds to help Houston wrap up their best-of-seven series 4-2. The Rockets face the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.
“This is a big step for me,” Yao told reporters. “It felt great when the clock was running down, I still can’t believe it. We know we have to keep moving forward.”
PHOTO: AFP
LaMarcus Aldridge scored 26 points and Brandon Roy had 22 for Portland.
Artest said just advancing wasn’t enough.
GOAL
“The fans were just so happy to get out of the first round and I’m like ‘I’m just not happy to just be out of the first round,’” he said. “That’s just not our goal here. That’s not LA’s goal, that’s not Boston’s goal, that is not Cleveland’s goal. That is not our goal.”
In the Eastern Conference, the Orlando Magic overcame the absence of suspended center Dwight Howard and injured guard Courtney Lee to close out their first-round series against Philadelphia 4-2 with a 114-89 victory.
Top-scorer Rashard Lewis scored 29 points among seven Orlando players to reach double figures, including Rafer Alston with 21.
Andre Miller scored a team-high 24 points and Andre Iguodala shot 20 for the 76ers, who trailed by 11 points after the first quarter and never mounted a charge.
SURGERY
Lee had surgery on his broken sinus on Thursday and could miss the rest of the playoffs.
He was hurt when he took an accidental elbow to the head from teammate Dwight Howard in game five on Tuesday.
The recovery time is at least a week depending on the outcome of the operation.
Orlando await the winner of the first-round series between Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, the latter forcing a deciding seventh game after prevailing in a triple overtime thriller in game six on Thursday.
A steal, a slam-dunk and a free throw by Bulls’ center Joakim Noah with 35 seconds left sealed a 128-127 victory over Boston to keep the series alive.
“We just didn’t want to lose. We’ll go back to Boston and see what happens,” Bulls Rookie-of-the-Year Derrick Rose told reporters after finishing with 28 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and a final-second block in the third overtime.
Chicago had blown a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter and needed two clutch goals from Brad Miller to pull level with 30 seconds left in regulation.
John Salmons top scored for the Bulls with 35 points.
Boston guard Ray Allen’s made a playoff career-high 51 points, including a 25-foot three-pointer to level the score with seven seconds left in the second overtime.
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