One is ninth in the east and eighth in the west, and it is indeed difficult to solve.
The Bulls hosted the Rockets, and the rhythm of the first half was basically the same. The Rockets hit a wave of offense, and the Bulls lost power; Then the Bulls warmed up, the Rockets lost power, and that was the pattern in the first half.
But overall, the Rockets are the underdogs, their offensive momentum is nowhere near as good as the Bulls, and the defense is far behind.
On the Bulls' side, Koby White scored 11 points in the second quarter. On the Rockets' side, Green actually didn't play badly, scoring 11 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal on 5-of-10 shooting in the half. And Shen Jing's half-time performance was indescribable, with 0 of 5 shots, 0 of 2 free throws and no scores, only 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals, with a plus/minus of -15, second only to VanVleet's -16. When two people are not in good shape on the field, there is really no one else in their eyes. The plus/minus of the two in the third quarter was even worse, one at -20 and one at -21. On the other hand, the Bulls started with a plus/minus of +20 for the three. The Rockets in the third quarter really wanted nothing, the offensive and defensive ends were quite bad, and the Bulls went 10-1 to directly expand the difference to 13 points.
And this game is the familiar direction of the substitute to wipe the butt of the starter. After three quarters, only Smith Jr. had a plus/minus of 0, and everyone else was negative. The bench four came on, and all three had positive plus/minus, with only Whitmore at -11, but most of the time he played with the starters. Whitmore played really well today. When the Rockets trailed and needed to chase points, Whitmore's three-pointers and dunks ignited the passion. His enthusiasm also made Udoka choose to keep him on the court at a crucial moment in the final quarter. Whitmore came off the bench for 32 minutes and finished with 16 points, five rebounds, one assist and two steals on 6-of-12 shooting.
In the last quarter, Shen Jing finally recovered, leading the team to play a wave of 19-9 in 4 minutes, and then limited the Bulls to more than 3 minutes without scoring a point, and forced the suspense back. During this time, Shen Jing continued to play strong and went to beat Vucevic, and at the critical moment, he scored a tie goal and scored 14 points in a single quarter! This goal helped the Rockets drag the game into overtime. In fact, the Rockets have a chance to kill at the end, but there is too little time left, 1In 6 seconds, Smith Jr. received the ball and turned over and failed to hit a three-point shot. As soon as the overtime came up, it was still Shin Jing who played, and the inside pass gave Whitmore a dunk.
But LaVine suddenly broke out, a 2+1, and a three-pointer directly overtook the score. At this time, it can be clearly seen that the young people of the Rockets are a little panicked, and they have missed layups and point guard shooting opportunities in a row. Green missed a layup, and Whitmore's open three-point and secondary offense missed. Then the Bulls' Coby White began to close the game, hitting a solid three-pointer from a 45-degree angle, and the balance of victory began to tilt. From the first quarter to overtime, Koby White has been teaching the Rockets, scoring a game-high 30 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists and 1 block in 43 minutes, shooting 9-of-17 from the field and 6-of-11 from three-point range.
And so far this season, the Rockets have lost all three overtime games, losing three in a row. How to harvest the game at critical moments, the Bulls taught the Rockets a lesson today. In the end, the Rockets lost to the Bulls 119-124, and lost the second game of a six-game losing streak. On this road trip, the Rockets will definitely have to pay a lot of tuition. After this game, the Rockets' record came to 18-18, and the Western Conference ranking fell two places in a row to tenth, while the Suns and Lakers, who did not play today, rose to eighth and ninth in the West respectively. If Team Rocket wants to really take off, it will take a while of growth and precipitation!