The San Antonio Spurs’ tour into Houston was a failure because they got satisfied with their work late and lost interest in guarding the 3-point line. It was their second matchup of the season with the Rockets, and now they are even with two outings to go.
The first quarter ended with a 39-28 lead, as their hot 3-point shooting carried them and made up for struggles in the lane, while the Rockets were getting nearly everything at close range. Victor Wembanyama subsequently heated up after jamming over Clint Capela, and the team drained three more trifectas, but their open-court offense failed to pick up easy points.
They still went to halftime ahead by 10, more than doubling Houston’s 3-point makes, and keeping them at bay on the glass. The long-range shooting slowed down in the third quarter, but it took a while, and at one point, coach Ime Udoka looked numb on the bench when the cameras caught him following the Spurs’ 14th trey.
The Rockets then started playing with more urgency, quickly erasing all of San Antonio’s cushioning early in the fourth quarter as the latter started settling for outside shots. The Spurs even suffered a six-minute drought extending from the end of the third quarter, but they still couldn’t get it together after that amid Houston’s Tsunami.