On December 21, Beijing time, the Rockets lost to the Bulls 118:133 on the road, and won a record of 2 wins and 3 losses in the last 5 games, and the ranking once again fell to 14th in the West, which was equal to the Pelicans, who had the worst record in the West.
This game is another recent big rout for the Rockets, in the Rockets' loss to the Cavaliers, the point difference is up to 40 points behind, in this game, the Rockets are mostly behind by a large margin, up to 25 points behind, in the case of the team's absolute strength is crushed, the Rockets finally lost this game.
In this game, Brooks returned from injury and returned to the starting lineup, and Silas once again returned to Brooks, Matthews, Gordon, Tate and Wood.
This set of starts, Wood and Gordon on the offensive end did a very sharp job, whether it is with the ball to break through, or to pass the ball, the Rockets are very smooth on the offensive end, coupled with Matthews and Brooks can hit three points, the Rockets basically met expectations on the offensive end.
However, the Rockets' problem is first and foremost on the defensive end, before this game, Silas had his own thinking about the alignment, using Gordon to Vucevic, Tate to DeRozan, Wood to the ball brother, Matthews to Caruso, Brooks to Green.
Such a primitive alignment is mainly to hide the weakness of Wood's poor confrontation ability, and Gordon's next set is extremely stable, coupled with excellent strength confrontation, such a bold move of using a point guard against the opposing center is very good from the concept, but the effect is not satisfactory in practice.
The Bulls took the lead in playing with Vucevic, Vucevic frequently played Gordon with a low position, using the height difference to sanction Gordon's lack of height, defending for two rounds, Gordon's defensive effect was not good, the Rockets when Vucevic took the ball and immediately packed, the Rockets' defense would vacate the Bulls' other players, especially outside the three-point line to become a vacuum in the Rockets' defense, in this case, the Bulls' passes inside and outside, McKinney, Kobe White hit consecutive three-point shots, the point difference quickly opened, quickly sanctioned the Rockets, prompting the Rockets to stop.
In Vucevic was completely activated, the Bulls immediately adopted the strategy of attacking the west, no longer let Vucevic take on the heavy responsibility of the main attack, the Bulls saw the good and closed, at this time DeRozan and the ball brother have stood up successively, DeRozan's indiscriminate mid-range shooting single, the rocket can not be defended at all, the rocket once used Tate, Nuwaba against DeRozan, the effect is not good, in the second half the rocket once used the bag to clip DeRozan, but DeRozan has the ability to play the ball, the Bulls other players have a strong ability to respond to the empty space, the ball brother almost no bullet on the field, Throw rockets.
When the Bulls feel extremely good outside the three-point line, the Rockets' defensive strategy is still to shrink the inside line, focus on the frame, bet on the Bulls' three-point shooting rate, the Rockets become a target at the defensive end, Wood's defensive position and the distance given by the defense are always sanctioned by the Bulls, plus the Tate and Shen Jing in this game have encountered a serious foul crisis, if they do not shrink the inside line, the rebounding protection and the protective frame of the inner line will have problems, resulting in the Rockets doing something wrong on the defensive end.
On the inside, the Rockets can't defend against Vucevic's singles, as well as the Bulls' ball-holding breakthrough to change the defensive formation of the pass cut to the basket, the Rockets can't prevent the breakthrough of the ball brother DeRozan, in the defense of the mid-range shooting, the Rockets can't prevent DeRozan's indiscriminate singles mid-range shooting, on the outside the Rockets can't prevent the ball brother, Kobe White, McKinney's three points, the Rockets' defensive system is difficult to take into account, basically in a situation where they lose one or the other, the Bulls' ability to score and respond is too strong, the means of scoring are too many, and the scoring area is too wide. Leave the Rockets wondering what kind of defense is the best defense.
On the offensive end, Gordon's scoring has no continuity, when the team once again encounters a scoring drought, Wood continues to score by bits and pieces, Brooks and Matthews' three-pointers need tactical support to play a role, when the two are targeted on the defensive end, the role of the offensive end is greatly reduced.
In the bench transition, Shin Kyung once again performed badly, if Tate's difficulty in defending DeRozan led to too many fouls, which was excusable, then Shin Kyung's foul was not so smart and necessary, prompting the Rockets to score and continue in the bench transition section extremely bad, relying on christopher and Martin's athletic ability, as well as the achievements in chaotic battles and fast attacks.
The Rockets' scoring stability is significantly inferior to that of the Bulls, especially the Rockets' scoring methods and scoring methods on the offensive end, and the strength of the more important player team has a significant gap with the Bulls.
This is a game with obvious strength gaps, the Bulls' player characteristics and technical tactics are combined just right, so that the Rockets are at a loss on the defensive end, and the Bulls are very stable in scoring ability, scoring means and the configuration of the team, the Rockets should see the obvious gap, this is the game that young teams need to experience, learn each other's strengths, in order to make up for their shortcomings.