"A lot of teams find different ways to kind of separate," Joe Smith said. "But we realize that right now, since it's early, it's about us and what we do out there on the floor. We can't keep looking elsewhere for support and help. We've got to find a way to do it together out there on the floor."

Defense, a relative strength earlier in the season, had become a real problem recently. After allowing 93.5 points through six games, the Thunder was torched for 108.4 points in the last five.

Not coincidentally, the Thunder is limping along with an eight-game losing streak going into its home game Wednesday against another struggling team, the Los Angeles Clippers. The Thunder (1-10) is the only team in the NBA with double-figure losses.

"It's going to take some time, but we're going to pull it together," Jeff Green said. "We're just going through some pain right now, but I feel like it's going to turn around soon and we're going to start getting on this win streak soon. We just got to continue to stay focused and stay positive and continue to play as a team."

ROCKETS 100, THUNDER 89: Houston pulled away even though it was without Tracy McGrady for much of the second half, and the Thunder put up little resistance in falling at home and losing its eighth straight game.

McGrady left in the opening minute of the third quarter after aggravating his left knee, but the Rockets still went on a 14-3 run behind Luis Scola and Yao Ming to push their lead to 19. The Thunder managed to get within 82-74 early in the fourth before running out of steam.

Kevin Durant scored 29 points to pace the Thunder. Jeff Green added 16 and Russell Westbrook had 14. This is the 10th time in franchise history that the Thunder (formally the Sonics) has lost at least eight in a row.