"Yao Ming held the microphone and the attention of 18,161 on Saturday at Toyota Center to share a few words on the occasion of the Rockets' home opener.

"It's great," he said, "to be back."

When he was last on that floor for a game that mattered, he left it limping, heading to surgery that would cost him all of last season and leave him and the Rockets pining for the day he would be back. But three games into the season, two with Yao playing, bringing him back has proved more complicated and challenging than they might have imagined all those months waiting for his return.

Yao has progressed steadily, averaging 11.5 points in 23 minutes per game, making 46.5 percent of his shots. But the Rockets often seem caught between their split personalities, between the up-tempo, open-court team they had to be without Yao and the halfcourt, low-post team they can be with him.

"We're just not really close to being there in how to play with him," coach Rick Adelman said. "We're almost to the point where you have to have certain people on the court with him to take advantage of him. We're a work in progress right now."

Adelman has insisted he wants the Rockets to attack quickly, as they did when at their best last season, even with Yao on the floor. That also could help Yao by forcing defenses to take on the initial thrust, rather than load up to battle Yao.

But the Rockets have seemed to abandon him as an option for extended stretches, including his 3:40 fourth-quarter stint Saturday when he took just one shot.

"We have to do a better job of getting him the ball and playing off him when he is in the game," Aaron Brooks said. "He's one of our first priorities in the half-court offense. He's moving a lot better. ... We have to do a good job of finding him, and he'll find us."

In the first two games with Yao, it has not worked that way often. Brooks said the issue has not been the result of having to change styles while rotating different centers. If anything, he said the Rockets have come to view change as the only constant."