The Houston Rockets' Luis Scola (right) moves around the San Antonio Spurs' Matt Bonner during the second quarter Sunday in San Antonio. With the win, the Rockets moved ahead of the Spurs and lead the Southwest Division.
SAN ANTONIO – The Houston Rockets have lost Tracy McGrady, traded away their starting point guard and changed their starting lineup 17 times this season.
And with 10 games left, they’re the new No. 2 in the Western Conference.
Knocking the Spurs from first place in the Southwest Division for the first time since January, Houston capped a furious fourth-quarter rally when Yao Ming fired a perfect pass to Luis Scola underneath with 11.9 seconds left to stun San Antonio 87-85 on Sunday.
Ron Artest scored 24 as Houston won its fourth straight and headed to Utah with a half-game division lead over the Spurs. Not since Christmas have the Rockets enjoyed at least a share of first place.
“I would say it’s been a surprising climb to first,” Rockets guard Shane Battier said. “We’ve had so much . . . just melees this year with all the injuries we’ve had and lineup shuffles and trades. I don’t know that too many people thought we would be here today.”
Tim Duncan scored 23 points and Tony Parker had 22 and 12 assists for the Spurs, who had appeared to start pulling away midway through the fourth before the Rockets embarked on a 10-2 run.
Parker tried to put the Spurs back ahead but misfired on a tough 7-footer with 2.9 seconds left. Matt Bonner clanked a 3-pointer off an in-bounds pass with 0.3 seconds on the clock that wouldn’t have counted anyway.
Houston executed much better. The jewel came on Scola’s game-winner, when Yao stood at the top of the key, raised the ball over his head as though he was going to shoot, then whipped the ball to Scola cutting toward the basket.
Yao said he thought he was going to shoot before seeing Scola at the last second.
“It was my fault,” Duncan said. “He popped to the top. I didn’t see anybody rotate to him, and I just kind of half rotated to him. Thought he was shooting the ball and turned to block out and it went right by my head. It was just another mental mistake on my part.”
Yao finished with 13 points and eight assists. Scola had 19 points and 17 rebounds, scoring five in the final 30 seconds.
“You got to give Luis credit for being open and cutting to the open area,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said.
Cavaliers 96, Nets 88: At East Rutherford, N.J., LeBron James had 30 points and 11 rebounds, and Cleveland won its ninth straight game to tie a franchise record with its 57th victory.
Heat 101, Pistons 96: At Auburn Hills, Mich., Dwyane Wade scored 39 points for Miami and Udonis Haslem hit the go-ahead jumper with 6.3 seconds left.
Raptors 100, Clippers 76: At Toronto, Chris Bosh had 16 points and 13 rebounds and Shawn Marion added 14 points and 13 boards for Toronto.
Thunder 97, Timberwolves 90: At Minneapolis, Kevin Durant scored 30 points and Jeff Green added 17 to lead Oklahoma City to the victory.
Hornets 99, Warriors 89: At New Orleans, Chris Paul scored 27 points and David West added 23 points for New Orleans third win in a row.
76ers 112, Kings 100: At Sacramento, Calif., ex-Arizona Wildcat Andre Iguodala made his first 10 shots and scored 27 points, and the 76ers never trailed.