You realize Kafusi was out for Houston and I believe some others hobbled or out...that to me seemed the first game of being some what exposed. Giving up 10 & 7 in your first two games doesn't seem exposed. Interestingly enough that first game against UConn still was missing key starters on D because of suspensions.
We started having injuries to some key guys very early - maybe earlier than some realized because we still managed to win even if seemingly exposed so it didn't become "the reason" for the poor play until the losses started to mount and you could go back and see how many were out during those games....
Would a great and deep team have that happen - to some degree but probably not to the degree we did...