Rockets Beat Nets 91-81
BEIJING (AP) — Yao Ming played only 19 minutes while easing back from foot surgery, scoring nine points and delighting his home fans while helping the Houston Rockets beat the New Jersey Nets 91-81 in a preseason game Wednesday.
EXTRAS: Boxscore
Yao was naturally the center of attention for the noisy, sellout crowd of 17,000 at Wukesong Arena — the Beijing Olympics basketball venue — even though he played sparingly and finished with only four rebounds.
After sitting out last season following surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot, Yao frequently jogged back down the court while his teammates raced ahead.
The game was originally slated to showcase a matchup between the two Chinese players in the NBA — Yao and Yi Jianlian — but the Nets traded their forward to the Washington Wizards in June.
Kevin Martin scored 18 points and Aaron Brooks added 17 to lead Houston in the opener of the fifth set of NBA preseason games in China. The Rockets and Nets will play again Saturday, when they mark the debut of the Guangzhou International Sports Arena.
Brook Lopez led New Jersey with 22 points, while Terrence Williams came off the bench to add 20 points and Devin Harris had 19.
Houston led 53-42 at the half.
The NBA has been aggressive in expanding to China, beginning in 2004, when it became the first American professional sports league to play games there. The Rockets and Sacramento Kings played a pair of games in Shanghai and Beijing that season.
