It wasn’t looking good for the Houston Rockets.

Up eight points on the Lakers in Los Angeles with just five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, injury-prone Yao Ming had just collapsed to the floor after he and Kobe Bryant collided knees.

The 7-6 center laid on the floor as Pau Gasol picked up the loose ball and dunked it, bringing the Lakers to within six, 85-79 with 4:54 left on the clock.

Not only was Houston looking at the prospect of playing out the game, and possibly the series, without their franchise center, but the Rockets have already lost all four of their regular season games vs. the Lakers, mostly because they were  outscored in the fourth quarter of those matches, 127-80.

Yao grimaced in pain, holding his right knee as he was being helped off the floor.  Trying to put pressure on his injured right knee after a couple minutes laying on the floor was too much too soon as his right leg gave out a couple times as he stood to walk.

Yao was eventually helped into the tunnel by Houston’s athletic trainer Keith Jones, but he wouldn’t go any further.

Yao Ming refused to go back into the training room to get his knee checked out despite Jones pleading him to let him take a look at it.  Yao refused not because of the pain, but because he was determined to get back into the game.  His Houston Rockets were in the second round of the NBA Playoffs (discuss) for the first time since 1997.

Not to mention that when a Phil Jackson-coached team wins the first game of a series, his teams have never lost a series at 42-0.  But when they lose game one, they are just 6-8.  You can see why Yao Ming was so hellbent on getting back into the game.

So instead he stretched his knee out in the tunnel by squatting and pushing himself against the tunnel’s wall to stretch out his knee some more.

After a minute or so of stretching in the tunnel, Yao Ming turned around and was walking back to the Houston bench.

“It was like Rocky coming back out there.” coach Rick Adelman said. We really needed him on the court.”

Yao would enter the game and immediately hit a twenty-foot jumpshot.  He would add six free-throws in the final 3 1/2 minutes to lead the Rockets to victory, 100-92 over the top team in the Western conference.

Yao ended the game with a double-double; 28 points and 10 rebounds, hitting 9 of 17 shots and all ten of his free throws.  He also added two blocked shots.

After the game, as expected, Yao downplayed the injury and his dramatic comeback.

“Nothing to worry about.” Yao would say, almost embarrassed to talk about it.

But the center from China was all his teammates could talk about.

“(Yao) didn’t even make it to the training room,” said Ron Artest, whom added 21 points. “Time was of essence. Every second, it was killing him not to be on the bench or on the floor. He came right out. I was so proud of him. He showed so much courage and knew that we needed him.”

It was a tough battle, and the Rockets were happy to pull it out, but they realize that they have a long series ahead of them. “Honestly, the first thing we said when we came into the locker room was OK, good job guys,’” said Rockets’ forward Shane Battier. “’Now, let’s get a good Game 2, too.”

Game two of the Lakers-Rockets second round series will be played Wednesday May 6th, 2009 at 10:30 Eastern.

Links and Resources: Rockets’ fourth-quarter domination of Lakers five games in the making (CNNSI), NBA Playoffs basketball forum (Interbasket)