The book on the Rockets is well-known. They just seemed again not to have read it.
The Bulls, as with so many teams, switched to a fronting defense Saturday, stationing Brad Miller in front of Yao Ming. "We swung the ball and we were going to attack the other side, and we didn't do it," Houston coach Rick Adelman said. "We got very, very non-aggressive."
The Rockets became, as they have so often against those defenses before, stagnant. In this case, they settled for jumpers, with Ron Artest missing seven of eight in the final five minutes. The Rockets' only other shot in the final five minutes was a baseline jumper by Luis Scola.
"I take the blame for the loss," Artest said. "There were things I could have done to help us sustain the lead we had. I definitely take the blame. We made a lot of progress, we just had a bad fourth quarter.
"It (the problem with fronting defenses) is something that can be fixed. Teams will do that. We have to make sure we have something to counter it to make them come out of it."
The Rockets also believe they can still involve Yao when he is fronted. Either way, they believe they should be able to get better shots when teams have one player surrounded, rather than the sort they misfired against the Bulls.
"You have to take their pressure and use it against them," Shane Battier said. "They were overly aggressive. We did not react well to their pressure. We have to do a better job of swinging the basketball. Yao has to do a good job of sealing. And we need to deliver the ball to him. There were times Yao got position we did not hit Yao and we didn't score. It's not all on Yao. It's on perimeter guys to get him the ball."
BULLS 105, ROCKETS 102: The Rockets had a few bumpy moments along the way, but with less than six minutes left, they led by 17. In every game in franchise history, that had been more than enough. They did, however, have to do something to finish off the Bulls. They did next to nothing.
The Rockets never stopped the Bulls again, and Houston scored just once more.
The Bulls swept through a 23-3 finish to take the win in the greatest fourth-quarter collapse in Rockets franchise history.
Ron Artest had a season-high 32 points and made a career-high six 3-pointers. He scored the Rockets' last nine points, but he missed seven of eight shots in the final five minutes as the Bulls took the win.
