The Rockets had made progress for weeks. Their offense had been turning around. They were winning. Short-handed as they were with Tracy McGrady and Brent Barry out, they had found a rotation, stuck with it and were playing consistently well, for the most part.
Then another key piece went out and the Rockets fell apart again. This is how it has been this season, with the Rockets making changes forced by injuries, then adjustments and then progress, only to start over with the next key injury.
This time, they lost Ron Artest and hope it will be for only a game. He said he would be back quickly but has struggled with his sprained right ankle since Nov. 16 and said that even if he took the week off, he would not be right.
Before he went out and the Rockets were blown out by the Grizzlies, the Rockets had been coming around.
In the first 10 games of the season, the Rockets averaged 91.5 points per game, reaching 100 just once. In the 10 games since, they have averaged 101.7 and have scored 100 seven times.
The difference had been ball movement, with Artest in particular streamlining his game to find a balance between feeding Yao Ming inside and getting his offense off the threat of Yao inside.
With Artest out, however, the Rockets all rushed to make up for the latest absence. The ball movement ceased. Yao was caught in fronting defenses. And the Rockets offense, while much better than in those early season games, fell into horrible lapses that led to a 22-point deficit in the first half and a 15-point hole in the second half.
The Rockets might not have to make adjustments again. Artest plans to be back quickly. But he and Shane Battier are far from full strength, and McGrady and Barry are not close to returning. There are nights when the injuries seem to catch up to the Rockets, and a blowout loss to the Memphis Grizzlies would seem a fine example.
GRIZZLIES 109, ROCKETS 97: The Rockets found a way to remove all but the last two points of a lead that had swelled to as much as 22. But there was a reason the Grizzlies led 10-0 in the opening minutes and built so large a lead in the first half. Actually, there were many reasons. So after the Rockets rallied back, Memphis hit them again, scoring easily while the Rockets offense bogged down, as it had so often. The Grizzlies blew open another commanding lead, this time by 15 in the fourth quarter, to coast to the surprisingly easy win. With Ron Artest out, joining Tracy McGrady and Brent Barry, Von Wafer got the start and gave the Rockets a lift, scoring 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting. But the Rockets defense was atrocious inside and out as the Grizzlies made 39 of 76 shots and scored on their first seven trips down the floor in the fourth quarter to take over the game.
