Record: 49-28.

Tuesday: Orlando at Toyota Center, 7:30 p.m.

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

Rick Adelman wanted the Rockets to feel pressure. He wanted the game to feel like the playoff matchup it could be. He wanted the Rockets to recapture the sense of urgency they had before they clinched their playoff spot one week and two losses earlier.

Then the Portland Trail Blazers wrapped their defense around Yao Ming and dared the Rockets to execute as they had not on the road trip and knew they would have to in the postseason.

It took much of the night, but down the stretch, with memories of past late-game fades vivid, the Rockets took over the game, rolling Sunday to a 102-88 win over the Blazers that improved their feeling about their postseason chances as much as it helped their playoff positioning.

The Rockets moved past Portland to the fourth seed in the Western Conference and clinched the tiebreaker with the Blazers. They also moved to within a half-game of San Antonio for the Southwest Division lead. Most of all, they believed they made progress.

"Coming off that two-game losing streak on the road, we had to get this one," forward Chuck Hayes said. "We had to get off the losing streak, to get in better position for home-court advantage and also to give us some good momentum going into this last stretch of the regular season. It was crucial."

It was vital that the Rockets execute their offense down the stretch as they had not in the previous games against top Western Conference teams. The Blazers made that tougher. Seeming uninterested in keeping secrets for a potential first-round matchup, Portland coach Nate McMillan showed his hand with his defense of Yao. He had his big men fronting Yao, with help coming from behind.

The Rockets initially burned that defense with better ball movement, but soon bogged down again.

Yao paces offense

Yao led the Rockets with 21 points and 12 rebounds, making nine of 11 free throws, but he took just 10 shots, testing the Rockets' ability to execute well enough to burn a defense wrapped around Yao.

"If you ask me about our execution when they were fronting him, it was awful," Adelman said. "It's really hard to understand. We talk about it time after time after time, and we continue to be in the wrong spots. If we don't get to the right spots initially, the clock's running down and now you're in trouble.

"I just told the team, we play as hard as any team in the league. We, for the most part, defend. But it is our concentration during parts of the game that lacks and you can't afford to do that."

But down the stretch, the Rockets got it right.

The Rockets' lead, once as large as 14, was down to four with Brandon Roy checking back into the part of the game he often dominates when the Rockets took advantage of the defense devoting its big men to stopping Yao.

Ron Artest and Von Wafer drove to midrange jumpers with Portland center Greg Oden unwilling to step away from Yao to help. Then Wafer got a step on Rudy Fernandez, Yao screened Oden from cutting off Wafer, and Wafer threw down a reverse slam past LaMarcus Aldridge for a 10-point Rockets lead.

The Blazers were never closer than eight points the rest of the way.

"It's definitely satisfying," guard Kyle Lowry said of the improved execution. "We just have to keep working on it."

After the Blazers reduced the lead to four, the Rockets made 12 of 15 shots the rest of the way, with one turnover.

Big fourth quarter

The Rockets' 30 points in the fourth quarter were their most in a fourth period since March 6, a span of 14 games in which they outscored their opponent in the fourth quarter just four times, and only once by more than two points.

"First of all, we executed better," said Yao, who had criticized the Rockets' execution in Los Angeles. "The key is we limited our turnovers (to eight). That's because we executed well.

"We need to play those games to build our confidence and also learn something ... to prepare for the playoffs. This is like a preseason for the playoffs."

That was what the Rockets needed and Adelman wanted when he began trying to replicate playoff pressure. Mostly, they needed to respond to it.

jonathan.feigen@chron.com