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Houston Rockets will wrap up a four-game road trip Saturday night, when they pay a visit to the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden.
The Rockets have won the first three tests of the swing and pushed their road mark to 7-4 with a 111-109 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday from ORACLE Arena. Aaron Brooks recorded a game-best 25 points and sank a pair of game-winning foul shots in the final seconds for Houston, which got 22 points and nine rebounds from Carl Landry off the bench.
Trevor Ariza ended with 18 points and five boards, while Luis Scola chipped in 12 points and 13 rebounds in a winning effort.
"The intensity of the game definitely brought on what we did. They played hard and we played harder. We got stops when we needed them," said Ariza.
Portland will close out a quick two-game homestand Saturday and has lost three in a row since a three-game winning streak. In Tuesday's 107-100 setback versus the Miami Heat in the opener of the residency, Brandon Roy led the way with 25 points and Greg Oden posted a career-high 20 rebounds to go along with 13 points for the Blazers, who are 7-4 as the host.
Andre Miller added 18 points in the losing effort.
"I'm doing whatever I can to help the team," said Oden, who is probable for Saturday because of a sprained ankle. "It doesn't matter (that I had a good rebounding game) because we lost. Losing three in a row is definitely something we never want to do. We're going to go to work tomorrow and try to figure it out."
In other injury news for the Blazers, forward LaMarcus Aldridge is questionable against Houston due to a bruised knee while head coach Nate McMillan is scheduled to undergo surgery to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon on Monday, Dec. 7.
McMillan sustained the injury during Fridays practice and will miss Portland's upcoming four-game road trip to New York, Indiana, Cleveland and Milwaukee and lead assistant Dean Demopoulos will serve as the team's head coach in McMillan's absence. He will coach tonight's game, however.
The Rockets and Trail Blazers have split a pair of meetings already this season, while Houston has won eight of the last 10 meetings.
Houston has lost two straight after winning its last three at the Rose Garden.