Chicago Meltdown

The Rockets suffered their worst 4th quarter collapse in history last night against the mediocre Chicago Bulls. It was painful to watch the first time, but even moreso to watch the fourth quarter again in an attempt to make sense of it all. Without question it was a team failure, but a couple of players stood out.

Aaron Brooks was taken advantage of defensively by Ben Gordon and Derrick Rose. Brooks also did not run the Rockets offense well in crunch time. Yao Ming was being fronted. Brooks could have lobbed the ball over the head of the defender (a dangerous ploy admittedly) or he could have swung the ball to the weakside while Yao crossed the lane to get into better position. He did neither and chose to drive the lane at inopportune times.

That brings me to the second offender, Ron Artest. In fairness, his first three quarters offensively were a big reason the Rockets were that far ahead in the first place, but in the fourth, he was like a black hole on offense. Passes went it, but never came out. The few times Brooks tried to pass the ball to the weak side, Artest took it over in mid-swing and tried to do it all himself. He made one three-pointer, but missed several others and prevented the team from getting any easy baskets. With only ten seconds left in the game and down by 3, he took the inbound pass and proceeded to dribble into a double team from the backcourt rather than find the open man and ended up getting a desperate, clumsy three-pointer blocked at the buzzer.

Give credit to the Bulls for their part in the collapse. They hit several unlikely baskets, defended well and showed tremendous energy at home. Thank goodness the Rockets have to play again tonight. Maybe a win over the Timberwolves will take the taste of this stinker out of their mouths.