Houston defeats Portland

The Houston Rockets took care of business on their home floor defeating the Portland Trailblazers 92-76. Ron Artest was the offense as opposed to just the defense for the Rockets, posting 27 points. Yao Ming finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. LaMarcus Aldrige led the Blazers with 26 points. Brandon Roy scored 22 in another tough effort with physical defense form Artest and Battier. The Rockects will now meet the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round on Monday night.

In a post game interview, directly after the game, Artest praised the Blazers and Roy for their effort. Saying Roy was the toughest player he had to guard. Artest claimed no had had ever had 40 on him, referring back to game of the series where Roy had 42 points. When TNT sportscaster Craig Sager asked about Kobe Bryant being a tougher player to guard Artest quickly returned to his original comment of Roy. I don't know if Kobe Bryant watches TNT but I wouldn't be surprised to see Kobe take the challenge of making Artest think twice about the number of people to "give him 40".