(My Sportsbook) - After laying an egg in the series opener the Los Angeles Lakers hope to get back on track tonight when they resume their Western Conference semifinals set against a confident Houston Rockets team.

The Rockets stunned the Lakers in Game 1 on Monday when Yao Ming overcame a scary knee-to-knee collision with Kobe Bryant in the fourth quarter en route to scoring 28 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, as Houston topped LA, 100-92, at Staples Center.

Ron Artest contributed 21 points and seven assists for the Rockets, who scored nine straight points in the fourth quarter to go ahead for good.

It was a much different story than the regular season when the Lakers swept Houston in all four meetings.

Aaron Brooks ended with 19 points, while Luis Scola netted 10 points and eight boards for the Rockets, who made it out of the opening round for the first time since 1997, ending a string of six straight first-round exits with a series triumph over Portland.

Bryant had 32 points but needed 31 shots to get there for the top-seeded Lakers, who had won 16 of their previous 17 home games, going back to the regular season.

Bryant, who missed practice Sunday due to a sore throat, was tortured by defensive stalwart Shane Battier and finished 14-of-31 from the field, including a miserable 1-of-7 from three-point range.

Battier also got into a minor shoving match with Bryant while chasing a loose ball and later took an inadvertent elbow from Sasha Vujacic that opened up a nasty cut on the left side of his face.

The Lakers, coming off a first-round series win over Utah, also received 14 points and 13 rebounds from Pau Gasol.

"This wasn't the way we wanted to start the series," said Gasol. "We didn't communicate on defense and our shooting was pretty poor. We can play a lot better. They were smarter than us. They were better than us."

Andrew Bynum returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench in the last two games against Utah but picked up two quick fouls against Yao, and finished with just 10 points and three rebounds in 15 minutes of playing time.

LA went just 2-of-18 from three-point range and missed seven of its 19 foul shots in the game.

Game 3 of the best-of-seven set is Friday in Houston.

The Lakers and Rockets have quite the playoff history, meeting seven times since 1981. LA has won four of the seven series, including the last two but Houston won the only time the teams matched up in the Western Conference finals, a 4-1 triumph in 1986.