The Houston Rockets built a big lead on the Chicago Bulls late in the third quarter Thursday night, then started feeling a terrifying case of deja vu. At about the same point in their last game, the Rockets led San Antonio by 19, then collapsed and lost by eight.

The Bulls rallied, too, but this time the Rockets survived ?a barely.

Tracy McGrady had 21 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists and Yao Ming had 20 points and 12 rebounds to lift the Rockets, who nearly blew a 21-point lead but hung on to beat hot-shooting Ben Gordon and the Bulls 101-100.

Houston also nearly wasted large second-half leads in narrow wins over Memphis, Milwaukee and New York.

"I don't know what it is," McGrady said. "We want to be great. It's got to change. We can't throw away games like this."

Rafer Alston scored 19 and reserve Scott Padgett scored 11 to spark a first-half run as the Rockets beat the Bulls for the seventh time in eight meetings.

Gordon almost single-handedly carried Chicago to a dramatic comeback win, scoring 30 of his 37 points in the second half.

He sank 11 of 22 shots and went 14-of-16 from the free-throw line, breaking out of an early season slump. He came in shooting only 37.8 percent from the field.

"I was just trying to be a little aggressive," Gordon said. "I've been struggling with my shot lately, so I wanted to get to the free-throw line. That's what kind of got me going."

Gordon scored nine in the final minute and his driving bank shot with 27 seconds left cut Houston's lead to 95-92. After Shane Battier sank two free throws, Gordon swished a 3-pointer with 15.2 seconds left to pull the Bulls to within 97-95.

Alston hit two foul shots with 14.4 seconds left and Gordon missed a 3-pointer from the wing. Luther Head sank two free throws with 4.7 seconds remaining.

The Rockets' locker room was somber afterward as they struggled to explain their pattern of late-game dysfunction.

"We've just got to find a way to lock in, the same way we lock in through the first three quarters," said Alston. "It's mind-boggling now 'back-to-back' to have such a lead and then let it evaporate like that."

McGrady admitted he was having flashbacks to the Spurs' loss and missed four of five shots in the final quarter.

"I'm not happy at all," McGrady said. "You've got to be happy about the win, but the overall picture is not good. We know some of those games can slip away."

The Rockets missed 12 of their first 19 shots before Padgett's 3-pointer late in the first quarter triggered a 20-6 burst.
Padgett scored all of his points and grabbed five rebounds during the spurt and Kirk Snyder finished it with a three-point play that gave the Rockets a 37-30 lead.

After hitting six of their first eight shots, the Bulls missed 17 of their next 23.

Yao had nine rebounds in the opening half and banked in a turnaround just before the halftime buzzer to put the Rockets up 50-39.

Houston started the second half with a 12-2 run, capped by McGrady's banked-in 3-pointer. McGrady shrugged his shoulders and high-fived team owner Les Alexander as he trotted down the court.

But the lead wasn't secure.

On Tuesday, Houston missed 25 of its last 27 shots to fuel San Antonio's rally. And about the same time the Rockets had collapsed against the Spurs, it started happening again.

Gordon's pull-up jumper with 3:50 left in the third quarter cut Houston's lead to 74-55 ?a the exact score when San Antonio started its comeback two nights ago.

Houston missed its last five shots of the quarter and Gordon scored 10 points in three minutes to help Chicago trim the deficit to 78-69 heading to the fourth.

The Bulls got within seven before Head swished a 3-pointer with 8:04 left for an 84-74 lead.

The Rockets led 90-79 when Gordon hit a jumper from just inside the 3-point line to start the Bulls' last-ditch rally with 3:29 to go.

"We just were a little bit too late," Gordon said. "I just wish we'd done that at the beginning of the game."

(AP November 17, 2006)