win over the Lakers. But since I just mentioned them in the same sentence, let's be clear: Yao pushing past the training staff and returning to the court did provide the impetus the Rockets needed to knock off a team that Houston guard Brent Barry compared to Mount Everest last week. "It was like Rocky coming back out there,'' Coach Rick Adelman said of Yao's return. Indeed it was. And after he scored 12 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter ? eight after the injury ? it sent a message to ...