On Monday in Milwaukee, the Houston Rockets coughed up a 13-point first-quarter lead and rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit, but they stumbled in a 101-100 loss to the Bucks that broke their five-game winning streak.

It was the sixth game in nine days for Houston, which hosts the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday to open its third three-game homestand this month.

The loss had all the hallmarks of the inconsistency that plagued the Rockets last month, a problem Houston seemed to resolve over the previous five games. The Rockets made up for their poor shooting — Houston shot 40 percent and missed 23 of 32 3-pointers — by converting 16 offensive rebounds into a +17 margin in shot attempts. But they suffered defensive miscues in the first half, allowing Brook Lopez and Gary Trent Jr. to shoot a combined 8 of 10 from behind the arc.

But when a rally was needed, the Rockets delivered, behind 12 straight points from Fred VanVleet in the third quarter and a 10-point fourth from Jalen Green. Houston led by seven points in the final period and held a 100-94 advantage with just under two minutes to play, only to cool down and allow Damian Lillard to lead the Bucks to victory.

The schedule has been unforgiving as of late, but the Rockets’ reliance on defense, second-chance opportunities and transition points can only be as effective if the half-court offense continues to be at par. trolling. It took a lot of energy to erase that 14-point deficit, but the Rockets had enough in reserve to finish the job. They just didn’t do it.

When the Rockets struggled to start the season, coach Ime Udoka would note how they failed, often explicitly. He did it again on Monday.

“I think we had a lot of fresh bodies,” Udoka said. “The guys that came back weren’t in the game at the time. Tari (Eason) wasn’t there, Aaron (Holiday) wasn’t there and those guys really brought us back. We had a lot of timeouts to use and we had some wide-open looks so I don’t think it was fatigue. Both teams played a lot of minutes and we had some wide-open looks that didn’t fall. .

“You’ve got to make shots fall at the end of the day and they’re as wide open as possible.”

The Pacers’ struggles to rebound continued unabated in their 130-119 road loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday. Indiana finished minus-14 and entered Tuesday tied for 26th in the NBA with a rebounding rate of 47.7 percent, ahead of only the Wizards, 76ers and Thunder.

Rebounding is not a new problem for the Pacers. Last season, Indiana posted a 49.2 percent rebounding rate, ranking tied for 23rd, and the inability to compete on the glass is proving detrimental.

Indiana also allowed 18 points off 11 turnovers against the Raptors, as the Pacers suffered their fourth loss in six games.

“Turnovers and rebounds are possession of the ball,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “These are areas where we need to continue to talk about it and try to make improvements.”