PORTLAND: Greg Oden followed his orders, putting defense and rebounding first.

Oden scored just two points, a tip with 58 seconds left, but had 12 rebounds and five blocked shots for the Portland Trail Blazers in a 96-87 season-opening victory over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night.

"You definitely want a lot more points," Oden said. "But I think I did a lot of good things that don't show up on the scoreboard or in the stats."