HOUSTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Steve Francis scored a career-high 44 points Friday night, stealing the spotlight away from Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming and lifting the Houston Rockets to a 108-104 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
The first meeting between O'Neal, the 7-2, 350-pound superstar center of the Lakers, and Yao, the 7-5, 300-pound rookie center of the Rockets, began with a bang and had its moments.
But the game's biggest star was Francis, who made 12-of-21 shots, 6-of-8 three-pointers, 14-of-17 free throws, handed out 11 assists, and made a three-pointer to force overtime. He then made six foul shots in the extra session before finding Yao for a crucial dunk without 10.2 seconds remaining.
"It's certainly one of my top performances," Francis said. "With Yao and Shaquille, I didn't want to overshadow that. My points came within the flow of the game. I got into a groove and hit a shot."
O'Neal collected 31 points and 13 rebounds. After a slow start, he was simply overpowering at times and showed Yao that he still has a long way to go.
"As everyone saw, he's very strong," Yao said through an interpreter. "I've never faced a player like him before."
Playing in front of his parents, Yao was no slouch, collecting 10 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks. Until his late dunk, he had done most of his damage in the first five minutes.
The matchup was a spirited one and featured none of the ill will that may have existed between the big men beforehand. Prior to the game, the Organization of Chinese Americans held a news conference outside the Compaq Center and derided O'Neal for racially insensitive comments he made about Yao last June.
"I already apologized," O'Neal said. "Yao Ming is my brother. Asian people are my brothers. I grew up in the army with people of all colors. I was just joking. I made a bad joke, and it's unfortunate one idiot writer tried to start a racial war on that. Don't make a racial war out of this."
"He did a great job," said Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich. "No one can stop Shaq, but I thought he (Yao) played very well on him. He had a very good beginning and then he got tentative. It was a great learning experience."
"At the beginning of the game, I think I was trying too hard," O'Neal said. "He is 7-5, so he is supposed to block shots. Everybody gets their shot blocked. This is not the first time I had my shot blocked."
Cuttino Mobley scored 29 points for the Rockets, who have won four straight games.
Kobe Bryant had 22 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists for the Lakers, who had a five-game winning streak snapped and fell to 5-15 on the road.
The contest attracted a sellout crowd of 16,285, including former Rockets greats Hakeem Olajuwon and Moses Malone.
