HOUSTON — The winding story of the Houston Rockets’ season has rarely made room for logic, linear thinking or any standard notions of cause and effect. Star players disappear, expectations sink and the Rockets surge.

So when Yao Ming traded his red jersey for a dark suit Sunday, the Rockets simply followed their own well-worn script, defying the odds and stunning the Los Angeles Lakers with a 99-87 victory.

Yao was declared out for the rest of the playoffs on Saturday evening, after doctors discovered a hairline fracture in his left foot. The Rockets’ championship dreams figured to go with him. But they have tied this Western Conference semifinal series at 2-2 and have already won a game at Staples Center, the site of Game 5 on Tuesday.

“We don’t ever count ourselves out,” said the speedy guard Aaron Brooks, who led the Rockets with a career playoff-high 34 points. “We’ve been through a lot this year.”

Before they lost Yao, their franchise center, the Rockets lost Tracy McGrady, their All-Star guard, to season-ending knee surgery in February. They lost Yao’s backup, Dikembe Mutombo, to a leg injury in the first round of the playoffs.

“It’s the same thing,” Brooks said, making the adjustments sound routine. “We’ve been playing like that and we’re used to it.”

The game was not nearly as close as the final score indicated. The Rockets, who also got a career playoff-high 23 points from Shane Battier, led by double digits for the final 43 minutes, the margin getting as large as 29 points.

The Lakers made the score look respectable only in the final quarter, with a late scoring burst by Pau Gasol (30 points).

“Was I angry at the team? Of course, you’re angry with the team,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “They weren’t ready right off the bat, they didn’t anticipate the energy that they were going to come with.”

Kobe Bryant scored just 15 points, going 7 for 17 from the field. The Lakers’ lineup was generally listless until Gasol’s late outburst. Derek Fisher, who returned from a one-game suspension for his flagrant foul on Luis Scola in Game 2, never got going.

The Lakers also finished the afternoon with a hole in the lineup. Lamar Odom crashed hard to the floor on a third-quarter layup attempt and left the game because of back spasms. His status for Game 5 is unclear.

Brooks, who has been the starting point guard only since late February, was the best player on the court. He went 12 for 20 from the field, including four 3-pointers, and had 17 points in the third quarter, when the Rockets slammed the door shut.

A rising star, Brooks reported to the postgame news conference wearing a bright red sport coat and a matching bowtie on a white shirt. He looked like a lost member of a local barber-shop quartet.

“I got kind of tricked a little bit,” Brooks said. “We all got these red jackets and they told us that it was mandatory to wear them. So I figure if I had to wear a jacket like this, then I was going to go all out and look real ridiculous.

“I don’t normally dress like this, but after a game like that I just might.”

The extent of Yao’s injury was not known until Saturday evening, and it left the Rockets floored. They had figured to lose him for perhaps one game, because of an ankle sprain.

“You can’t underestimate, when everybody heard the news about Yao, that’s a pretty big blow to a team,” Coach Rick Adelman said. “I think these guys responded in the right way.”

Turnovers sank the Rockets in Game 3. This time, the Lakers gave the ball away nine times in the first half, leading to 17 points for the Rockets, which accounted for most of the 54-36 advantage at halftime. Battier paced Houston early, making his first four shots.

“They shot the ball extremely well,” Bryant said. “We couldn’t recover from it.”

Bryant dismissed suggestions that the Lakers had underestimated the Rockets but conceded that the Lakers, who had a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead, had missed a great opportunity.

“I’ve been on teams that made this dumb mistake before,” Bryant said. “I’ve been on teams that won championships that blew 2-0 leads, blew 3-1 leads and had to go to seven games and stuff like that. It’s just a part of the game. You’re not going to learn until you actually go through it.”

HOUSTON — The winding story of the Houston Rockets’ season has rarely made room for logic, linear thinking or any standard notions of cause and effect. Star players disappear, expectations sink and the Rockets surge.

So when Yao Ming traded his red jersey for a dark suit Sunday, the Rockets simply followed their own well-worn script, defying the odds and stunning the Los Angeles Lakers with a 99-87 victory.

Yao was declared out for the rest of the playoffs on Saturday evening, after doctors discovered a hairline fracture in his left foot. The Rockets’ championship dreams figured to go with him. But they have tied this Western Conference semifinal series at 2-2 and have already won a game at Staples Center, the site of Game 5 on Tuesday.

“We don’t ever count ourselves out,” said the speedy guard Aaron Brooks, who led the Rockets with a career playoff-high 34 points. “We’ve been through a lot this year.”

Before they lost Yao, their franchise center, the Rockets lost Tracy McGrady, their All-Star guard, to season-ending knee surgery in February. They lost Yao’s backup, Dikembe Mutombo, to a leg injury in the first round of the playoffs.

“It’s the same thing,” Brooks said, making the adjustments sound routine. “We’ve been playing like that and we’re used to it.”

The game was not nearly as close as the final score indicated. The Rockets, who also got a career playoff-high 23 points from Shane Battier, led by double digits for the final 43 minutes, the margin getting as large as 29 points.

The Lakers made the score look respectable only in the final quarter, with a late scoring burst by Pau Gasol (30 points).

“Was I angry at the team? Of course, you’re angry with the team,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “They weren’t ready right off the bat, they didn’t anticipate the energy that they were going to come with.”

Kobe Bryant scored just 15 points, going 7 for 17 from the field. The Lakers’ lineup was generally listless until Gasol’s late outburst. Derek Fisher, who returned from a one-game suspension for his flagrant foul on Luis Scola in Game 2, never got going.

The Lakers also finished the afternoon with a hole in the lineup. Lamar Odom crashed hard to the floor on a third-quarter layup attempt and left the game because of back spasms. His status for Game 5 is unclear.

Brooks, who has been the starting point guard only since late February, was the best player on the court. He went 12 for 20 from the field, including four 3-pointers, and had 17 points in the third quarter, when the Rockets slammed the door shut.

A rising star, Brooks reported to the postgame news conference wearing a bright red sport coat and a matching bowtie on a white shirt. He looked like a lost member of a local barber-shop quartet.

“I got kind of tricked a little bit,” Brooks said. “We all got these red jackets and they told us that it was mandatory to wear them. So I figure if I had to wear a jacket like this, then I was going to go all out and look real ridiculous.

“I don’t normally dress like this, but after a game like that I just might.”

The extent of Yao’s injury was not known until Saturday evening, and it left the Rockets floored. They had figured to lose him for perhaps one game, because of an ankle sprain.

“You can’t underestimate, when everybody heard the news about Yao, that’s a pretty big blow to a team,” Coach Rick Adelman said. “I think these guys responded in the right way.”

Turnovers sank the Rockets in Game 3. This time, the Lakers gave the ball away nine times in the first half, leading to 17 points for the Rockets, which accounted for most of the 54-36 advantage at halftime. Battier paced Houston early, making his first four shots.

“They shot the ball extremely well,” Bryant said. “We couldn’t recover from it.”

Bryant dismissed suggestions that the Lakers had underestimated the Rockets but conceded that the Lakers, who had a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead, had missed a great opportunity.

“I’ve been on teams that made this dumb mistake before,” Bryant said. “I’ve been on teams that won championships that blew 2-0 leads, blew 3-1 leads and had to go to seven games and stuff like that. It’s just a part of the game. You’re not going to learn until you actually go through it.”