Rockets offense dominant in win over Bulls.
The points were coming fast and easily. The ball was moving. Three-pointers were falling. The Rockets' bench was prolific.
Then Yao Ming left the floor in obvious pain and it seemed even a losing-streak-busting rout would have a Yao-sized downside.
It did not. So thorough was the Rockets' 116-98 run through the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night that even Yao's injury — a sprained right thumb — was only a temporary distraction in the Rockets' most prolific offensive night of the season, surpassing the 111 points they needed two overtimes to put up two nights earlier.
"You're going to shoot it better when you get opportunities," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "That's what we weren't doing. Everything was like pulling teeth.
"We've been playing better on the offensive end the last two games, even though we lost (Thursday). Now it carried it over to a win. This was really nice to see our guys enjoy this."
But in a game the Rockets got Tracy McGrady back from a sore left knee, a cloud fell over the Rockets when Yao went out in the third quarter. He returned to the floor with the thumb wrapped and with a report that the X-ray was negative, showing no further damage.
"In the first quarter, I jammed my little finger, then the third quarter, the thumb," Yao said. "I think it was not my lucky day (Saturday). It feels sore, but the good news it's not hurt. The bad news is it's my shooting hand.
"But we had two tough losses the last couple days. We had two games, one (Saturday) and one (today in Detroit) going into Christmas. We wanted to have a good day off."
They certainly enjoyed Saturday night in Chicago. When Yao had left the floor, the rout had begun. He returned when it was full flight and called it a night when the strangest development of all was obvious — the Rockets did not need him.
Reserves answer the call
They had gotten scoring throughout the rotation, with the Rockets' reserves outscoring the Bulls 44-8 when the benches were cleared with five minutes remaining and the Rockets leading 109-85 .
After consecutive 17-point games, Bonzi Wells had 20 to match McGrady for team-high honors, but got plenty of help, with Luis Scola getting 14 points and 11 rebounds and the latest backup backcourt — Luther Head (13 points) and Aaron Brooks (six assists) — clicking.
"When you're hitting your shots, it makes it easier, so I guess we can point at our shooting," Wells said after the Rockets shot 48.4 percent overall, 45.5 percent from beyond the arc. "But you know, we were very unselfish. Guys moved the ball. Yao did an excellent job passing out of double teams. Guys also did an excellent job driving and kicking to other shooters.
"When you come off the bench, you know it's your job to be aggressive. You're backing up guys like T-Mac and Yao, who score a lot of points, you have to try to play at the level of those guys to at least soften the blow when they go to the bench."
Yao began the second quarter with a jam and a jumper, but then Head scored eight consecutive points to open a 10-point Rockets lead.
Battier uses his head
In the second half, after Yao went out and Ben Gordon cut the Bulls' deficit to seven points, the Rockets' offense blew the game open. The Rockets took off on a 10-3 run. Battier — who had 14 points, three blocked shots, six rebounds and six more stitches — hit a pair of 3s, to push the lead to 14.
"If we get a win and I get four 3s after this (his latest head gash opened during a game this season), I might have to do it more often," Battier said. "We have an offensive mentality. We're trying to push the ball after makes. We're trying to call less set plays and more guys were in the floor. We scored 116 points, but it was an easy 116. That's the way this team can play."
The Rockets scored so easily that they needed only a few minutes to open a 23-point lead. With the Bulls within 12, Wells hit a jumper before Battier, Head and Wells drilled consecutive 3s for an 11-0 run in the span of 1:14.
With that, the only question was whether the Rockets could do such things regularly, as they have begun to suspect.
"Guys are not standing around watching," McGrady said. "We did a great job moving on the offensive end. That was an easy 116 for us. If we can play that way, having that ball pop from one side to the other, go to different options, have guys come off the bench doing the same thing, we'll see how good we are."