Chinese center Yao Ming set a Houston record by sinking 12 of 12 shots from the field, notching 26 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the Rockets' 93-86 victory over the Miami Heat.
Yao's perfect shooting night eclipsed Joe Meriweather's 10-for-10 game against Atlanta in 1976. Yao's only miss came at the free-throw line, where he was 2-for-3.
"I was able to get the ball in the post and I had energy," said Yao, who went 10-for-11 from the field in a game against Miami last season.
"I was close to the basket. This doesn't happen every night, but that's the way I played."
Rafer Alston added a season-high 22 points to help the Rockets improve to 2-1 since Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest were shelved to recover from injuries.
Dwyane Wade shook off a bad first half to score 29 points for Miami.
With Yao resting for the start of the fourth quarter, Brent Barry sank a 3-pointer from the corner and Carl Landry hit a jumper to put Houston up 82-70 with just under 7 minutes left.
The Heat missed six of their first eight shots in the final quarter and shot 36-of-90 (40 percent) for the game.
Yao returned with 5:09 remaining, but Landry was the one who kept the Heat at bay with two unlikely shots. He caught Von Wafer's airball and dunked just before the shot clock expired, then swished 20-footer from the wing.
Wafer added 17 points for Houston, continuing to pick up the slack left by the absence of McGrady, the Rockets' third-leading scorer.
(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2009)
