Houston, TX (My Sportsbook) - The Portland Trail Blazers try to improve a sagging road record when they travel to Houston to take on the Rockets at Compaq Center.

Portland has dropped two of the first three games of its current four-game jaunt. The Trail Blazers are just 1-4 as the visitor this season and have a 3-5 mark against teams from the Western Conference, after an 82-73 setback at Dallas on Monday night.

Rasheed Wallace paced the Blazers with 14 points on just 5-of-21 shooting from the field. Arvydas Sabonis had 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Damon Stoudamire added 13 points.

"That's a team on a roll," Portland coach Maurice Cheeks said of the unbeaten Mavs. "They were down early, but you knew they were going to come back."

Dallas contained Wallace and the rest of the Blazers with a creative zone defense.

"We need to prepare more against the zone," Sabonis said. "Other teams will study this game and we'll see a lot more zones until we show we can beat it."

The Blazers were forced to play without Bonzi Wells, who was suspended without pay for one game for spitting on San Antonio forward Danny Ferry on Saturday.

"We could have used Bonzi because he's one of our best offensive players," Cheeks said. "It's an unfortunate situation. It set us back."

Houston has won three of its last four games and has a 2-1 mark in its own building this young season. The Rockets are coming off a 111-104 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. Steve Francis scored 23 of his 31 points in the second half to overwhelm the young Warriors. Houston honored Hakeem Olajuwon during a halftime ceremony, so emotions were running high in the building.

"It was a very emotional night. It almost looked unbelievable to see him standing there," Francis continued. "I am happy I was able to be a part of it. It is something that I will always remember."

Portland has won three straight against the Rockets and five of its last six games at Houston. The Blazers have also won 14 of the last 21 meetings overall, but trail the all-time series 71-64.