Player Pts. Year

Kevin Johnson, Suns

46 1995

George Gervin, Spurs

44 1980

Kevin Johnson, Suns

43 1995

Brandon Roy, Trail Blazers

42 2009

Alex English, Nuggets

42 1986

Carlos Boozer, Jazz

41 2007

...

TUESDAY'S SCORES

Game 2

Cavaliers 94, Pistons 82 Cleveland leads 2-0

Lakers 119, Jazz 109 Los Angeles leads 2-0

TODAY'S GAMES

Game 2

76ers at Magic 6 p.m., NBA TV Philadelphia leads 1-0

Heat at Hawks 7 p.m., TNT Atlanta leads 1-0

Hornets at Nuggets 9:30 p.m., TNT Denver leads 1-0

...

GAME 1

HOU 108

POR 81

GAME 2

POR 107

HOU 103

Series tied 1-1

GAME 3

Friday

at Toyota Center

8:30 p.m.

TV/radio: KTXH, ESPN; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)

GAME 4

Sunday

at Toyota Center

8 p.m.

TV/radio: KTXH, TNT; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)

GAME 5

Tuesday

at Portland

TBD

TV/radio: KTXH, TBD; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)

GAME 6 *

April 30

at Toyota Center

TBD

TV/radio: KTXH, TBD; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)

GAME 7 *

May 2

at Portland

TBD

TV/radio: TNT, KTXH; 610 AM, 850 AM (Span.)

* - if necessary

PORTLAND, Ore. - No matter what had gone wrong all night, the Rockets had stayed in the game. Yao Ming was taken from the offense. Free throws were clanked. Portland's Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge had turned back into stars.

The Rockets, however, were in the position they wanted, with a close game ready to be pilfered in the end for command of the series.

The problem with staying close to win late is that it requires a team to be at its best in the final minutes. With the game on the line Tuesday night, the Rockets' offense finally collapsed, and the Trail Blazers pulled away for a 107-103 victory to tie the first-round series at 1-1 heading into Friday's Game 3 at Toyota Center.

"You're always pleased when you're in a possession game under six minutes (left) on the road," Rockets forward Shane Battier said. "It comes down to execution. Our execution was not the best. They made some plays. But we were right there. You can spin it any way you want to; we had our chances."

They just did not do much with those chances in the final four minutes.

With Portland up by one point with 3? minutes left, the Rockets came up empty on five consecutive possessions. They misfired on three 3-pointers, and Aaron Brooks, who led the Rockets with 23 points, twice turned the ball over, the second sending Travis Outlaw to a slam and a 98-90 lead in a 7-0 run with the game on the line.

Yao scored inside with 56.4 seconds left, but Roy, who poured in 42 points, and the Blazers made just enough shots from the line in the last minute that a Brooks barrage of 3-pointers was too late.

"We're impatient," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "We don't have the patience to see what's going on out there. As a result, we put ourselves in a bad position. We have to get into our offense quicker, and then we have to have patience. We didn't have patience all night long. It's disappointing. ...

"I didn't think we played very well. We were right in the game. We had a chance. That's what you want, to give yourself a chance in the fourth quarter, on the road especially."

The Rockets were climbing uphill all night. They lost Dikembe Mutombo late in the first quarter when he went down with an injury, called a left knee strain, so severe he was taken from the court on a stretcher.

While Mutombo was unavailable, Yao spent the night handcuffed by the Portland defense and by foul trouble that limited him to 31 minutes.

Six shots for Yao

After scoring 24 points on 9-for-9 shooting in Game 1, Yao took just six shots, making three for 11 points.

"It's a combination," Adelman said of the problems getting Yao shots. "He has to find a way to get position better. He has to find a way to hold their people off. And we have to have patience to look for him. We ran some stuff, and he came in the middle with a guy on his back and we chucked it up there."

The Rockets, however, had found enough offense - with Von Wafer scoring 21 off the bench - around him to give themselves a late chance.

After a Roy free throw to begin the second half, the Rockets scored the next eight points, going from a three-point deficit to a five-point lead. After a Roy drive, Scola put in consecutive jumpers to give the Rockets their largest lead of the night, 63-56.

Yao, however, picked up his fourth foul five minutes into the second half.

Yao headed to the bench, and though Yao had not been scoring, the Rockets' offense went with him.

Without the option of finding shooters left open by the defensive attention paid to Yao, the Rockets could not find good shots. They missed their next five shots, all forced, tough jumpers, usually tossed up just to beat the shot clock.

Before Yao went out, the Rockets had begun the half making six of nine. With Yao on the bench, they made one of their next eight, a Brooks runner in the lane, and the Blazers had gone from down seven to a seven-point lead.

But in the last 77 seconds of the quarter, Brooks put in a drive and nailed a 3-pointer. And when Roy missed a 3, Aldridge smacked it to the backcourt where Ron Artest chased it down for a breakaway dunk that sent the game to the fourth quarter tied, 72-72.

Back-and-forth game

The Rockets stayed in the game and often led. There were 28 ties or lead changes. But with the game there to be won, the Blazers took it and the Rockets crumbled.

"I liked where we were, but I believe when you play the way you have to play for 42 minutes, then it's about what is going to happen the last six minutes," Rockets forward Luis Scola said. "We didn't play good the whole game, even though we were in the game, we weren't playing the way we wanted to. They were secure in what they wanted to do. That's why they secured the game down."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com