(Sports Network) - A playoff rematch is on tap Tuesday as a pair of Western Conference contenders kick off their seasons when the Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Yao Ming-less Houston Rockets at The Rose Garden.

The Blazers finally lived up to the hype last season with the first playoff appearance since the 2002-03 campaign and are expecting a lot more this time around.

Portland was in hibernation from the postseason until a 54-win campaign in 2008-09 set up a first-round playoff matchup with the Rockets. The Blazers lost in six games, but left a bad taste in the players' mouths, resulting in a more-determined outlook on the new campaign.

There is more than enough talent on this roster to make a deep run into the playoffs, and it starts with All-Star guard Brandon Roy. Roy led the young Blazers in scoring for a second straight year with 22.6 points per game, while averaging 5.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds a contest.

The former NBA Rookie of the Year, who recorded 26.7 ppg in the playoffs, is entering his fourth season in the league and has already established himself as one of the best shooting guards in the game. Roy buried a career-best 48.0 percent from the floor last year for head coach Nate McMillan, who only has so many chances to get this team to where it's supposed to be.

McMillan's contract was extended through the 2010-11 season in July, and is deep at every position on the floor. He hopes young center Greg Oden will finally develop into one of the NBA's best big men. If Oden's knees are back to their Ohio State form, there will be trouble for the rest of the inhabitants in the talent-laden Northwest Division. Only time will tell if this is year Oden finally lives up to the hype.

After losing out on free agent studs Hedo Turkoglu and Paul Millsap, Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard signed veteran point guard Andre Miller to a three-year deal in the offseason to bolster the team's chances to go deeper in the playoffs. Miller is a West Coast guy and is coming off three successful years in Philadelphia. The durable Miller figured to be exactly what this young Blazers team needed with up-and-coming stars in LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Fernandez but has had trouble fitting in the preseason and the lightly- regarded Steve Blake may get significant minutes at the point for now.

Houston, meanwhile, remains a very talented team that can't seem to escape the injury bug.

After watching the postseason play out last year, Rockets boy wonder general manager Daryl Morey boldly "tweeted" that his club was the second-best team in the NBA after a very exciting postseason run that doubled as Aaron Brooks' coming out party.

The Rockets excelled and really gave the Lakers their toughest test despite losing Yao in the series with LA and being without Tracy McGrady and Dikembe Mutombo coming in.

Now, it looks as if Houston might have trouble making it back to the postseason this year. The aging Mutumbo finally called it quits. Meanwhile, defensive stalwart Ron Artest fled for Hollywood in free agency and most importantly, a grim report surfaced saying Yao may never play again due to a fractured navicular bone in his left foot.

The hairline fracture was originally discovered following the Rockets' May 8 loss to the Lakers in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals. A conservative treatment plan called for Yao to cease all physical training and to use a walking boot in order to immobilize the foot and promote healing. Few gave the injury much thought since the prognosis had the foot healing over the summer. Instead, the fracture failed to respond, putting the playing career of the Rockets' cornerstone in jeopardy.

For now, the Rockets are expecting Yao to miss only this season but at 7- foot-6 and 310 pounds, Yao's prodigious size make leg injuries a sensitive subject. Other talented big men like Sam Bowie and another former Rocket, Ralph Sampson, had careers cut short by a seemingly never ending series of leg injuries.

Yao, a seven-year NBA veteran, has now had three different fractures of the left foot and a hairline crack of the right leg. Already, the All-Star's tenuous future has knocked over a series of dominos in south Texas. It was likely the tipping point in Artest's decision to flee Houston and had Morey looking for band-aids in the pivot.

Meanwhile, McGrady is still around but expected to miss at least the first half of the season.

"The people we're missing are huge pieces," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "It's one thing when you have Yao on the floor and Tracy, and you have a role that you do. We're going to see who's going to step up and we need that. It's going to be interesting to watch the team progress."

Houston signed Trevor Ariza away from the Lakers to help replace Artest and will be counting on a pair of foreign bigs in Luis Scola and rookie David Andersen to replace Yao's All-Star level production.

Scola averaged 12.7 points and 8.8 boards last season for Houston while the 7-0 Andersen was signed in August after playing on three different Euroleague championship teams.

The Rockets have taken six of their past seven regular-season meetings with Portland, although the Blazers won the only game between the two clubs at The Rose Garden last season, a 101-99 overtime thriller.



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