(My Sportsbook) - The Portland Trail Blazers hope to stave off elimination for a second straight game when they arrive in south Texas for Game 6 of their Western Conference quarterfinals series with the Houston Rockets.

The Blazers kept their season alive on Tuesday in Portland when Brandon Roy scored eight of his 25 points during a big fourth-quarter run as the Blazers took Game 5, 88-77.

LaMarcus Aldridge also scored 25 points, while Steve Blake added 15 and Travis Outlaw scored 10 for Portland, which still trails the best-of-seven series 3-2.

"Tonight our guys came out and played their hearts out," said Blazers coach Nate McMillan after the game. "I've never questioned this team's heart, but being in a situation like this, with your back against the wall, facing a very good team in Houston, they played well. These guys wanted to go back (to Houston). They didn't want the season to end."

Luis Scola tallied 21 points for Houston, which remains one victory away from winning its first playoff series since 1997, a span of six straight first- round exits.

Yao Ming ended with 15 points and 12 rebounds in defeat.

"Offensively we've got to have more patience," said Rockets coach Rick Adelman. "We just can't come down and play at a frenzied pace. We turned it over, we only had five assists in the second half. We just didn't play the way we needed to in order to win."

The Rockets are leading in the series despite the absence backup center Dikembe Mutombo. Mutombo suffered a career-ending injury when he ruptured a quadriceps tendon in his left knee after getting tangled with Greg Oden in Game 2 of the series.

The veteran, who won the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for outstanding service and dedication to the community last Thursday, was a defensive force off the bench in Game 1, tallying nine rebounds and blocking two shots.

Although Houston hasn't had much success in the postseason recently, the franchise has never lost to Portland in the playoffs, winning a pair of five- game series by 3-1 margins in both 1987 and 1994.

The Blazers last playoff experience was a tough seven-game series loss to the Dallas Mavericks in 2003. Portland hasn't won a postseason set since besting Utah in the Western Conference semifinals in 2000.

The Rockets won both meetings between the two clubs in Houston earlier in the series and also took both contests during the regular season in south Texas, including Portland's only loss in its last 11 games before the playoffs. In fact, Houston has been a house of horrors for the Blazers. Portland has dropped 12 of its last 13 trips to Space City.

Game 7, if necessary, is scheduled for Saturday in Portland.