The Rockets were on a good roll through much of December. They blew out the Nets on the road, their most lopsided win of the season, to move to 19-9. The offense was clicking. They had not lost consecutive games since the fourth and fifth games of the season, and even then, it took Portland Trail Blazer Brandon Roy's last-second, 31-footer to do it.
They have lost six of eight games, with a season-high three-game losing streak and season-high five-game road losing streak. If they are unsure why things changed, there can be no doubt about how.
The defense has fallen apart, with teams making 49.5 percent of their shots in those eight games.
"Our defense is really... attrition has set in," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "I don't know if it's because we haven't practiced. We have to start really looking at things and finding out why. We're giving up way too high a percentage to every team we play, especially on the road.
"You can't win on the road unless you defend."
The offense has cracked often, too, but that is to be expected with the ever-changing lineups and the injuries that have hampered key players Tracy McGrady, Ron Artest and Shane Battier. The defense, however, had been the Rockets' sure thing.
"For whatever reason, we've taken steps back on the defensive end," McGrady said. "In the past (defense) has been our makeup, a great defensive team. No matter how bad we were struggling on the offensive end, we always seemed to play defense. The last week or two, it got away from us."
76ERS 104, ROCKETS 96: The Rockets started fast, making eight of their first nine shots. They finished with a rush, cutting a 15-point lead down to as little as two. But from start to finish, they could not slow the 76ers, so it almost didn't matter what they did -- because of what they did not -- as the Sixers scored easily to send the Rockets to their sixth loss in eight games. The Sixers made 56.2 percent of their shots, second only to the Hawks' shooting on Saturday for the best against the Rockets this season. They scored 52 points in the paint and season-high 29 on the break. The only thing that kept the game close, other than those few bursts of Rockets offense was the 16 free throws the Sixers missed, but that hardly qualified as a Rockets' defensive stand in a game that defense was sorely lacking.
