HOUSTON (NBA.com exclusive) --  The Houston Rockets had already met the Portland Trail Blazers once this season, and played the game their way. Suffice it to say that the results were less than desirable.

On Saturday night, the Rockets decided to turn the tables.

Portland, which employs one of the longest lineups in the league, was cut down to size by the Rockets, who got a career-high effort from Trevor Ariza and ran off with a 111-107 victory in their home opener at Toyota Center.

And "ran" is the operative word, with the Rockets ambushing the Blazers by pushing the ball at every opportunity.

"It was a great win for us," said Rockets coach Rick Adelman. "That was a very good team we played. Our guys really responded after that first time we played them. We did a much better job tonight offensively and held on for the win.

"I was happy with the way we competed."

Indeed, the result was quite a turnaround from their season-opening matchup last Tuesday, when the Blazers pounded the small-ball Rockets, both on the scoreboard and the backboards en route to a relatively comfortable win.

With that memory still fresh, the Rockets, very much a work in progress as they adjust to playing without Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, got to work Saturday night. The Rockets decided that this time they were going to be the ones dictating the tempo of the game, and they did that by frantically crashing the boards and kicking the ball out for transition opportunities.

Forced to keep pace, the Blazers went small, but couldn't quite keep up with the Rockets. Ariza, saluting Halloween by doing his best McGrady imitation, lit up the Blazers for a career-best 33 points, and Aaron Brooks hit them with 28.

"We want to push the ball and get it over halfcourt in less than three or four seconds," Shane Battier said. "We want to be able to attack with 18 or 19 [seconds] on the shot clock versus 16. With that mind set, it puts you in a more aggressive mind frame. That's what we have to do."

The Blazers appeared to be caught off guard by that level of aggressiveness.

With mismatches across the front line, like 7-0 Greg Oden vs. 6-6 Chuck Hayes at center, the Blazers had to be confident that they would once again be able to impose their will on the undersized Rockets and grind them in a halfcourt game.

It didn't quite work out that way for the Blazers.

Even though they got brilliant efforts from Brandon Roy (42 points) and LaMarcus Aldridge (27 on 13-of-16 shooting), the Blazers never were able to overtake the fast breaking -- and fast starting -- Rockets, much to the chagrin of coach Nate McMillan.

"Right from the start we were in trouble, giving up 33 points in the first quarter," he said. "We never controlled the ball. We have to play with more of a sense of urgency. As a unit we have to take more pride in our defense and make stops."

The Blazers made precious few stops against the Rockets, who were able to attack the Blazers inside (finishing with a 42-38 scoring advantage in the paint) and from the perimeter, where they made half of their 24 3-point attempts.

And the Rockets played much of the game with one of their biggest guns, 6-9 Luis Scola, limited to just 19 minutes because of foul trouble. But Carl Landry came in and picked up the slack with 16 points, using a mixture of feathery jumpers and power moves around the hoop.

"Our defense was not very good," Roy said. "Right now we're not giving much effort on the defensive end of the floor, and that's where it all starts. It doesn't seem like our effort is there. I see a team that's stinking too much right now."

Roy's level of frustration is understandable given that they were playing a Rockets team that was without its two biggest stars -- both literally in 7-6 Yao, and figuratively in McGrady, both sitting out with injuries.

"We don't have that go-to big guy in the post," Brooks said. "We can't rely on getting him the ball and moving out of the way. We have to manufacture runs, in a way, like in baseball. By manufacture runs, basically I mean that we have to get in the middle, pass the ball out, move the ball and get easy looks."

And they have to pay attention to every little detail -- boxing out on the boards, defensive rotations, diving for loose balls and making that extra pass.

"For us to win, that's how we have to play," said Ariza, whose previous scoring high was 26 points. "No matter how tired we are, no matter what the situation is or what the odds are, if we want to win we have to play that way every night."