Painful Losses Mount For Houston Rockets

Hallelujah.

The All-Star break has arrived.

Even the Rockets could not have guessed they would need it this much.

Kyle Lowry sprained his left ankle and the team's offense cratered.

With a chance to head into a critical rest period with a road win, Houston tied the franchise low for points scored in game and left Miami in a worse rut than when it arrived.

Trevor Ariza injured his hip in Saturday's contest against Philadelphia, forcing rookies Chase Budinger and Jermaine Taylor to pick up the slack. D-Leaguers Garrett Temple and Joey Dorsey also needed to contribute.

They could not. The four youngsters combined to make 6-24 field goals in Tuesday's rout.

Aaron Brooks, the starting point guard who makes the offense go, finished 3-16 from the field.

The squad connected on 13 field goals in each half.

The sputtering Heat epitomize mediocrity. Miami had lost five straight and seven of eight, with several of those defeats coming by double digits.

Worse, if the playoffs started today, the Rockets would watch them on TV.

Houston sits three games back of Portland for the eighth seed. Oklahoma City appears ready to build on its impressive 30-21 record, and San Antonio will need to go on a winning spree to surge into the top half of the standings.

Maybe the Rockets needed to lose by 33 points to a one-man team to see how far they have fallen and what they must do to exit this slump. Miami does employ capable players alongside Dwyane Wade, but Michael Beasely, Udonis Haslem, Rafer Alston, and the others are far from championship material.

In the last month and a half, Houston has collected two laudable road victories against Southwest Division foes. San Antonio and Memphis, however, might be in worse shape.

The Rockets have made too many average squads look like world beaters. The defense has slipped badly. So much so that Brad Miller looked like Arvydas Sabonis and David Robinson rolled into one Hall of Famer. Quentin Richardson played with the confidence of an All-Star in the Heat's earlier win in Houston.

They allowed Minnesota and Milwaukee, two teams void of playoff experience, to take them to overtime.

It seems not long ago, Houston was 20-13. I wondered then if the team could challenge for a top-four seed in the Western Conference.

The recent struggles have put that idea to rest.

To escape the doldrums, the Rockets will need as intact a roster as possible. Ariza could return soon after the All-Star break and Lowry soon after.

It sounds silly to say the team misses a 38 percent shooter as off the mark as a fan in one of those timeout contests. Ariza, however, boasts championship experience.

He can help the Rockets far more than Temple and Will Conroy. Ariza also uses his length on the defensive end and can make the occasional play.

Tuesday's nightmare made several things crystal clear. With fewer double teams than ever attacking Carl Landry, Brooks, and Luis Scola, Shane Battier has to be more than a spot-up shooter with a minimal post game.

Battier, 31, has lost a step and now functions better as a help defender. With an undersized frontline, he cannot be expected to lock anyone down, much less Wade.

Often, elite perimeter stoppers require substantive help from bigs. Yao Ming will not block any shots in a sport coat.

The Rockets trailed 24-16 after the first quarter in Miami. They needed a creative scorer to fuel a rally. Brooks could not find the touch, and no one else could find the net.

Defenses have adjusted to Landry, and he has not been able to respond.

The Rockets know now if they did not already that superstars drive consistent success.

No one on the roster qualifies for that label.

A 33-point defeat at the hands of a meretricious team in the midst of its own funk will increase trade speculation. For the next week, the rumor mill will operate at ludicrous speed.

Andre Igoudala, then, cannot arrive soon enough.