chron: Rockets let down their guard

Third-quarter lapse helps Bulls win on Fizer's buzzer beater
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

CHICAGO -- The Rockets stood shocked, paralyzed by the stunning turn of events. The lone exception was Kelvin Cato, who angrily fired the ball into the basket standard -- an exclamation point to the latest breakdown in the Rockets' season-long four-game losing steak.

The only real surprise for the Rockets was that they didn't see their latest setback coming as Marcus Fizer picked up a loose ball, muscled his way to the basket and scored with four-tenths of a second left to give the Chicago Bulls a 100-98 victory at the United Center on Sunday.

But long before Fizer found the game in his hands, the Rockets spent the day giving it away. Fizer only made the outcome official.

"If they played like this at home tomorrow, we'd beat them by 30," Rockets guard Steve Francis said. "Today was a bad day for us. No disrespect to them, but we beat ourselves."

The Bulls, now 17-27, hardly covered themselves in glory most of the game, particularly in the last minute when they twice sent the Rockets to the free-throw line to help them climb back into a tie.

The Rockets, however, had failings of their own. The greatest might have been the way they started the second half in a trance of overconfidence and mistimed satisfaction.

With Francis dropping in nine quick points, the Rockets went on a 13-0 run late in the second quarter to take the lead. Even after Bulls guard Rick Brunson interrupted the scoring blitz with a 3-pointer, Cuttino Mobley countered by taking the inbounds pass and nailing a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from 48 feet to give the Rockets a 57-49 halftime edge.

But after Francis began the second half with a missed layup and a turnover, the Rockets misfired on their next five shots and two free throws as the Bulls scored the first 14 points of the third quarter.

"We came out and had a miscue on the first play and missed a couple easy shots," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "We were really pumped up at halftime. We made some great steals, played some aggressive defense and got it going. (But) we can't have success be a detriment. We did get those steals, but I thought we needed to pick up our intensity. We needed to get the ball inside to get us back down to earth. But we went out in a daze."

That was just the start of the Rockets' problems. Although they eventually snapped out of their funk, they never did solve their rebounding troubles. They came into the game ranked second in the NBA in defensive rebounding, but the Bulls dominated the boards in the second half and finished with a 48-39 edge.

The Bulls grabbed more offensive rebounds (eight) in the third quarter than the Rockets had rebounds (six), scoring 13 second-chance points and building a lead as large as 75-65.

"We didn't come out as intense as we were to close the first half," Francis said. "Normally, you come out playing that much harder. I don't think it was anything they did.

"For us, we beat our heads up against the wall, coming out in the third quarter lackadaisical. I would think the way we've been playing lately, we would want to come out and play harder."

The Rockets, especially Francis, had little trouble getting the ball to the basket. But once there, Francis, who led the Rockets with 26 points and eight rebounds, often could not get his shots to fall.

And when the Rockets were fouled, they missed far too many of their free-throw opportunities.

"We shot 38 free throws," Tomjanovich said. "But we shot 68 percent. That killed us. We got sort of a positive offensive possession by getting fouled. But if you're not going to get points in a close game like this, that's big."

Still, the Rockets were able to get back into the game. Yao Ming came alive to score six quick points on his way to 14, his most since Jan. 8, and then Mobley, who finished with 19, hit a 3-pointer with 12.6 seconds remaining to pull the Rockets into a 98-98 tie.

The Bulls quickly got the ball into the hands of Jalen Rose, who led all scorers with 29 points, but as Rose made his move to the basket, Francis came over to help defensively and knocked the ball loose. It bounced through a maze of hands and arms to Fizer, who overcame another defensive challenge from Francis and swished a 10-footer over Cato.

"All I was thinking was that if I got my hands on it, I'd put a shot up," Fizer said. "I never really saw the rim at all. I prayed I had time to get the ball up. It was basically instinct. My main focus was getting the shot."

With only enough time for a tip toward the basket, the Rockets set up a last play for Cato, who broke cleanly toward the rim. But Rose went up to knock Francis' pass away before it got to Cato.

"We did a good job getting hands in there smacking the ball," Francis said of the decisive basket. "The guy was able to pick the ball up and put it in the bucket.

"I thought I had the ball. It goes to show you if you don't play the right way for 48 minutes, fluke stuff like that can happen. We stripped the ball from their best player. We didn't get it.

"That's what happens. Last year, when we lost 15 games in a row, we lost a lot of games at the end. This year, when we were winning, when we were playing good, I saw the ball bounce our way. This year, since we're not playing as well, the ball isn't bouncing our way."