PORTLAND - The losses were shocking when the road trip began, stunning as it reached Los Angeles. But with another game decided in the final seconds, could-have-been had been reduced to simply another loss filled with what was not.

Portland Trail Blazers' Brandon Roy goes up for a shot in the fourth quarter against Houston Rockets' Yao Ming of China during their NBA game in Portland, Ore. [AP]

For the third time in the first four games of the Rockets' longest road trip of the season, the Rockets pushed the game to its final seconds, and for the third time, they came up short, losing 89-87 to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday.

The Rockets overcame a terrible first half and a 14-point third quarter deficit, with Yao Ming getting 34 points and nine rebounds and Luther Head and Rafer Alston combining for 37.

But they could not finish their fourth-quarter run when Brandon Roy, the player the Rockets so desperately wanted in the draft, took off to his left to put in a tough left-handed drive over Shane Battier, giving the Blazers an 86-82 lead with 19.9 seconds left.

Spending so much of the night seemingly waiting for Yao to dominate did not look like a good idea - until he did.

Yao made seven consecutive shots and seven free throws, keeping the Rockets in the game. When finally sat with 6:15 left, having already played 36 minutes, the Rockets were within eight. Bonzi Wells hit a post-up jumper and Luther Head sank a 3 to cut a Portland lead that had reached 14 in the third quarter to three. When Yao returned with 3:34 left, the Rockets were within 80-75.

Portland took its lead to 84-77, but Head sank a 3-pointer and after Portland rookie Brandon Roy lost the ball in the lane, Juwan Howard was fouled, making both free throws to cut the Blazers' lead to 84-82 with 1:17 left.

The Rockets even had a shot to tie the game, with Head popping free at 13 feet with the Portland defense rolling with Yao. But Head missed with 41.9 seconds left.

The Blazers had gotten last-second shots from Zach Randolph in two games in their four-game winning streak, but unable to get him the ball and with the shot clock running down to its final seconds, before Roy scored.

Alston scored quickly to cut the lead to two. But when Jarrett Jack sank both free throws with 10.1 seconds left, it didn't matter that Alston hit a last-seconds 3.

Within one, the Rockets fouled Randolph with eight-tenths of a second remaining and he made one free throw, with time running out after he missed his second.

The Rockets had mounted a comeback late in the third quarter, trimming a lead that had reached 14 in half with Yao scoring seven points in a 9-2 Rockets run. But having survived a slow-footed first half and a third quarter breakdown, the Rockets had spent their margin for error.

They also were pushed to the point there could be no rest for Yao.

With Yao on the bench, the Rockets switched into a zone, which worked well enough. But Jack flung a two-handed chest shot to beat the shot clock with a 3-pointer that regained the 10-point lead.

That ended Yao's time at the bench at 70 seconds. It seemed enough when he hit a jumper and then caught and slammed a Wells miss in one emphatic motion, giving him at least 30 points for the fifth time in six games. But Travis Outlaw scored on the Blazers' last possessions, sending Portland to the fourth quarter with a 70-60 lead.

That lead, sizable as it was, would have been significant it were a point. The Blazers had not lost a fame when leading after three quarters this season; the Rockets had not won one when trailing heading into the fourth quarter.

The Rockets, however, had doomed themselves to playing from behind long before then.

The Rockets spent most of the first half as if waiting for Yao to carry them as he has since Tracy McGrady went out. He didn't and they trailed by as much as 13, and by 44-34 at halftime in their worst offensive half of the season.

Caught in double- and triple-teams, facing a strong defensive center in Przybilla and missing some of the shots he normally makes, Yao could score, but hardly dominate.

Yao made 5 of his 13 shots in the first half, missing his first three and his last three of the half. He had 13 points and three blocked shots. But even with the Blazers leaving Rockets open to rush help inside against Yao, the rest of the Rockets did little to help.

The problem was not just that the rest of the Rockets went a combined 6 of 24 in the first half, that the bench scored just four points or that Wells made just 1 of 6 shots with three fouls in his 11 minutes. It was that when Yao missed those shots late in the half, everything crumbled around him.

Yao had hit a baseline fadeaway jumper with 6:48 left in the second quarter, bringing the Rockets to within 34-31. Portland forward Travis Outlaw then smacked away Yao drive and Przybilla blocked a Head drive, kick-starting a 10-0 Portland run.

The Rockets went nearly six minutes without a point, missing eight shots, four that the Blazers blocked.

Head ended the scoreless stretch with a 3-pointer with 57.8 seconds left, setting a Rockets franchise record by hitting a 3-pointer for the 24th consecutive game. That drew the Rockets to within 10. But after so much time in which the Rockets were slow defensively, slower to loose and terrible offense, it fell far short of undoing the damage from a lifeless half.