Rockets v Spurs 700pm NBATV
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:50 pm
Big game tonight. Folks are down on the Rockets from the Motie news and a poor showing in San Antonio, but this team is still good and needs to show something tonight.
The San Antonio Spurs' victory to open a home-and-home series with Houston pulled them within a half-game of the Rockets in the Southwest Division. Winning the back end will push them past Houston and into second place.
The Spurs are looking for their 10th straight win and third in a row in the season series, though fatigue could be a factor with San Antonio playing its third game in four days Friday night at Toyota Center.
San Antonio's surge has it on the verge of jumping from sixth in the Western Conference to third, and Southwest leader Memphis is a half-game up on the Spurs (53-26) for second. The club has held every opponent during the winning streak to fewer than 100 points, and 11 of its past 12 foes have failed to hit the mark.
The Spurs are allowing 88.8 points in the nine-game run after giving up 97.9 prior to the streak.
Tony Parker scored 13 of his 27 points in the opening quarter and Kawhi Leonard added 20 to lift San Antonio to a 110-98 victory over the Rockets on Wednesday. The Spurs have averaged 113.3 points in the last four games.
Parker had totaled 21 points in his previous four contests, including two in a 113-88 win at Oklahoma City on Tuesday. He had been listed as questionable for Wednesday after playing 16 minutes the day before due to tightness in his right Achilles tendon.
"I was mad from yesterday," said Parker, who did all his damage in under 26 minutes. "I didn't play a lot (Tuesday), so I felt I had a lot of juice. For a back to back, I felt I had to be aggressive, tried to carry the team."
Though the Spurs have won three in a row on the road, they've dropped four straight and seven of eight at Houston, falling 98-81 in the only meeting there this season Nov. 6.
The Rockets (53-25) also have a game in hand on San Antonio as they try to stop the Spurs' surge toward a fifth straight division title.
"We've just got to play our basketball," Houston guard James Harden said. "Not worry about what's going on in the standings and things like that; just focus on ourselves and we'll be all right."
Harden shot 6 for 15 and scored 22 points Tuesday -- nearly six below his season average. He was coming off a 41-point game in a 115-112 road victory over the Thunder on Sunday and also has a 51-point effort among his last four contests.
The Rockets had won three straight and 10 of 12, but the Spurs led by as many as 22 after a slow start.
"We gave up on stuff," coach Kevin McHale said. "We had back cuts against us. We did not go out and execute our game plan very well. We had guys with `my bads,' on the wrong side of picks and just a lot of mistakes. You can get away with mistakes against some teams, but against (the Spurs), they will make you pay."
The Spurs will be trying to secure the head-to-head tiebreaker, as they lead the season series 2-1.
"It's a big one in Houston, obviously it's going to be a great test for us because (the Rockets are) going to be a little bit mad and they're going to play with a lot of energy and we're gonna have to match that, and it's going to be, like I said, a great test before the playoffs," Parker said.
