San Antonio closes it out
Aldridge, Spurs trounce Rockets
HOUSTON — The San Antonio Spurs eliminated the Houston Rockets with a 114-75 victory in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals Thursday night, and they didn’t even need Kawhi Leonard to do it.
LaMarcus Aldridge had a season-high 34 points and added 12 rebounds in his second big game of the series to pick up the scoring slack with Leonard out after rolling his ankle in San Antonio’s overtime win in Game 5 on Tuesday night.
The Spurs were up 19 at halftime in a game that was over quickly and didn’t let up to reach the Western Conference finals for the first time since winning the title in 2014. The 4-2 series win sends them to conference finals against the Golden State Warriors.
Trevor Ariza led Houston with 20 points on a night when MVP hopeful James Harden capped his stellar season by tying a season low with 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting before fouling out with 3 minutes, 15 seconds left.
Jonathon Simmons filled in nicely for Leonard, scoring 18 points.
San Antonio was up by 23 after the third quarter and scored the first seven points of the fourth to make it, 94-64, and send many of the home fans streaming to the exits.
Already without veteran Tony Parker, who suffered a season-ending quadriceps injury in Game 2, the Spurs looked to be the underdog entering this one without Leonard’s scoring and defense.
Instead, things went wrong early for the Rockets with Aldridge scoring 10 points in the first quarter as San Antonio dashed out to a 31-24 lead. Houston was already down, 5029, when Harden took his first shot midway through the second quarter. He made that threepointer, but it didn’t get the Rockets going.
The Spurs opened the third quarter with an 8-1 run, with six points from Aldridge, to extend their lead to 69-43 with 91⁄2minutes left.