The Rockets’ high-powered attack, which had won their last two games by 37 points combined, struggled against the Grizzles at Toyota Center in a 109-107 loss in two overtimes.

Both Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady made 4-of-11 shots to score 10 points each in 29 and 26 minutes, respectively. Shane Battier, who scored 19 points on Saturday night, only scored two points on 1-of-8 shooting.

The culprits were 26 turnovers and giving up 24 fast break points.

After the Seattle game on Saturday, maybe I spoke too soon when I wrote the Rockets’ commitment to defense seemed to be intact from the Jeff Van Gundy era despite having an offense that would give them a false sense of security they could just outscore people.

The Rockets had six-point leads multiple times at the end of the game and both OTs, but they still let Memphis back into the game.

Mike James led all Rocket scorers with 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting, including 3-of-4 three pointers. Luther Head scored 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting and dished 7 assists. And Carl Landry surprisingly scored 12 points and grabbed 7 boards. Not to be outshined by his rookie protégé, Chuck Hayes made 3-of-4 shots for 6 points, grabbed 10 boards, and had 4 steals.

On the other end, Rudy Gay, who the Rockets traded to Memphis on Draft Day last season for Shane Battier, showed Houston what they are now missing. Gay scored 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, grabbed 5 boards, and had 4 steals.

Second-year Memphis guard Kyle Lowry out-did everyone with a triple-double, scoring 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting, grabbing 11 boards, and dishing 12 assists. That shouldn’t happen against a veteran team like Houston, preseason game or not.

At least the Rockets have a chance to get serious right away when they play in Memphis tonight in a rare preseason back-to-back. At first when I saw it on the schedule, I thought it was stupid. Back-to-back in the preseason? But now I guess it can serve a purpose by letting the Rockets show immediately that last night’s performance was just a one-game lapse. Look for a ‘statement game’ tonight in Memphis.

Click here for photos from the game.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 7:51 am and is filed under NBA preseason. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.