"From the start, it appeared the Rockets found some other 7-6 center from Shanghai to replace the one who had struggled through the week's first two preseason games. This Yao Ming could not have been that Yao Ming, but then that was what made his play Saturday against the Indiana Pacers so impressive. If he could improve this much since the first two games of his comeback, the hopes soared for what could come. There was a lot of that going around. Luis Scola had by far his best outing of the week. So did Aaron Brooks and Chase Budinger. The offense as a whole was dramatically better than in either of the previous games, and by the second half the defense had its best stretch of the week, as the Rockets rolled past the Pacers 126-92 on Saturday night at Toyota Center. The Rockets made 56.8 percent of their shots, had 29 assists with just eight turnovers and outscored the Pacers 69-38 in the second half. "We know what we got and we're confident in what we got," Rockets guard Kevin Martin said. "It's nice to see that we showed a little bit of that tonight." Scola, who had made four of 15 shots in the first two preseason games, led the Rockets with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Brooks was 6-of-9 from the field for 17 points along with seven assists. When the first team was through, the second unit went into a dunk contest. "A lot of highlights, a lot of highlights," Brooks said. "They are a little more athletic than the first team, so they really got up and down." Chuck Hayes, assigned to Pacers All-Star Danny Granger in the second half, stripped the ball from Granger, passed ahead to Martin, then took a return pass from Martin for a one-handed, alley-oop layup. " Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/7239980.html
