"If nothing else, the Rockets did successfully get out of the way.

If anyone had gotten too close to some of the shots the Rockets misfired, the Bulls might have had to built an extension on the visitor's training room.

It did not come to that, but with the Rockets losing healthy players nearly as rapidly as they collected airballs and rim-clanging jumpers, they fell apart through one of the worst halves of the season, before the Bulls held on for a 98-88 win Monday at United Center.

"We weren't moving the ball the way we have to in the offense," Luis Scola, who led the Rockets with 22 points and 10 rebounds, said. "It was pretty much one-on-one the whole time, which is not the way we want to play or the way is better for us. Hopefully it is a one-quarter mistake, a lapse. But if we play that way, we're going to lose against everybody. Even if we play like this for one quarter, probably we're going to lose against anybody."

The damage, however, will likely not be left to falling another half game off the playoff pack, with the Rockets now five games behind eighth-place Portland.

A day after Shane Battier sprained his left knee, forcing him to miss at least 10 days, center David Andersen was unable to play because of a sore lower back, forward Jared Jeffries went out because of a strained left Achilles and Jordan Hill left the game with a sprained left ankle. None are expected to be able to play Wednesday in Oklahoma City.

By the time the Rockets had more players in the training room than on the bench, they had already fallen apart in other ways."