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 semi-final series at 2-2.
The Eastern Conference semi-final 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.
PHOTO: AFP
“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 [Tracy McGrady] being out, Deke [Dikembe Mutombo] being out, Shane [Battier] being out at the beginning of the year. Now we have Yao out. It seems like we keep going. We’re used to it,” he said.
Houston scored the game’s first nine points and built a 29-point lead by the end of the third quarter.
Battier added 23 points, including five three-pointers, and Luis Scola had 14 rebounds and 11 points.
Los Angeles scored 33 points in the fourth quarter but could not overhaul the Rockets.
Pau Gasol scored 30 points for the Lakers, who host Game Five today, while Bryant had only 15, making just seven of 17 shots.
In Orlando, Paul Pierce had 27 points with Davis and Rajon Rondo scoring 21 each as the defending NBA champions squeezed out the win.
The Magic wiped out an eight-point Celtics’ lead to go ahead twice — first on two free throws by Dwight Howard with 49.6 seconds to play and again on a pair by Rashard Lewis with 11.3 seconds remaining.
Davis then beat the buzzer for the win.
“Ever since I’ve been with the Celtics, I’ve just been trying to find my niche in our system,” the second-year forward said.
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