TV/radio: FSH; 610 AM, 850 AM (Spanish).

Records: Rockets 38-22, Raptors 23-38.

Key matchup: Yao Ming vs. Andrea Bargnani. Bargnani took Yao outside in Toronto, scoring 19 points.

Rockets update: The Rockets return to Houston with a nine-game home winning streak. They have won seven of eight to move to fourth in the Western Conference.

Raptors update: With the trade of Jermaine O'Neal to Miami, the Raptors have gone with a small, perimeter-oriented frontcourt of Andrea Bargnani, Chris Bosh and Shawn Marion.

On the Yao front

The Rockets made progress on at least half of their plan to defeat the sort of fronting defenses on Yao Ming that have slowed them throughout the season.

They want to be able to move the ball and Yao enough to still get him the ball when opposing teams front or to burn them with other scorers enough to get teams out of the fronting defenses. They did not get Yao many shots in Minnesota (seven) but moved the ball so well that until the final minutes, they were making nearly 60 percent of their shots, taking their lead to as much as 20.

"We were trying to keep them understanding what they have to do to attack it," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "If they are going to front him, we should have an advantage somewhere else. It is something we have to continue to work on.

"We really made some poor decisions (in Chicago on Saturday) on what we wanted to do. We didn't move the ball anywhere. We ended up forcing shots and turning it over."

Facing the demon

As tempted as they might have been to put their collapse in Chicago out of their minds, the Rockets instead faced their demons.

"We talked about that (Sunday) morning," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "Whenever we had games like that - not to that extent, but we had a game against Indiana, two or three, where we let things slip away - we always responded.

"That's all we talked about. We've done it before. You have to respond and be resilient and turn it back around."