He likely will not try something so crazy anytime soon.

With his Warriors going against Yao Ming and with the memory of Yao's dominant 33-point, 14-rebound, five-assist performance the last time the teams met still fresh in his mind, Nelson went with the odd -- for him -- combination of a center, a power forward and a small forward in the frontcourt.

It was just the third time he started Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf together. It did not work.

Both had four fouls by halftime and Biedrins picked up his fifth on the Rockets' first second-half possession. Biedrins made 4 of 5 shots, offering the Warriors some interior scoring. But his foul trouble limited him to just 23 minutes.

Yao made 9 of 14 shots for his 25 points, and with the Warriors' big men in foul trouble, the Rockets' guards, especially Aaron Brooks, routinely drive through the Golden State defense and to the rim. The Rockets outscored the Warriors 48-22 in the paint, numbers that might not be too surprising, except that they came on a rare night that the Warriors went with a big lineup.

"I don't see any 7-6 players in this league that are as skilled as he is," Turiaf said. "We tried to be physical and make it difficult on him inside."

Yao often changes opposing defenses. The Warriors radically changed their rotation.

Having gotten little from his full-size lineup, Nelson might go back to his customary small ball.

Then again, with Tim Duncan due in town on Monday and Shaquille O'Neal up next after that, Nelson might just give the conventional lineup another shot -- something that would be a truly stunning Nelson maneuver.

ROCKETS 110, WARRIORS 93: The Warriors were right where they wanted to be, roughly where they were the night before in New Orleans. With four minutes left in the third quarter, they were down one.

They had survived their severe frontcourt foul trouble. They were hitting enough shots to expect it to continue the rest of the way. Then they got nothing inside, relied entirely on jump shooting ... and the shots that carried them to the win in New Orleans on Friday betrayed them in Houston.

The Warriors made just 7 of 25 shots in the last 16 minutes. They missed all five launched from beyond the arc. They cut the lead to fewer than 10 points only briefly in the final seven minutes as they never could shoot well enough or slow down the Rockets long enough to mount much of a challenge.