Second-half surge ends slide
SAN ANTONIO — The Rockets had the longsought win in their sights from the opening minutes. Really, they probably began their weekend showdown series with the Spurs looking to end the losing streak before they pounced from the start and felt as if this could be the one.
The Spurs had ended their losing streak at 16 games this week.
The Rockets decided it was time to snap theirs at 11.
They left little doubt, surging in the second half to take a 17-point lead midway through the fourth quarter and finishing off the Spurs, 122-110, in the first game of the back-toback between the teams.
With everything that had dropped the longtime rivals to the bottom of the Western Conference, and the Rockets to the league’s worst record, that was the only goal.
“We’re not going to be practicing anything,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said before the game. “We’re going out there to win and get off this streak and find some happiness in our locker room. So, yeah, we’re going to have our schemes and the things that we want to do well, I want my team to play hard and play together and do what it takes.”
Every Rockets starter was in double figures, with center Alperen Sengun getting 16 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. But the Rockets also got a huge lift off the bench, with Tari Eason scoring 20 points to match his career high, Josh Christopher adding 14 and Usman Garuba making all three of his shots to score 11 in nine minutes.
Devonte’ Graham led the Spurs with 28 points but had just eight in the second half.
The teams will meet again on Sunday in Toyota Center with the Spurs’ top two scorers, Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell expected to play after sitting out on Saturday. But the Rockets will bring something else they wanted home with them, a onegame winning streak.
Hot shots. No, really
The Rockets made 8 of their first 10 shots and looked as if they could get good looks all night against the only team with a defensive rating worse than theirs. It also appeared that they would have to.
The Rockets had been outshot in each of their previous seven games. They need to shoot well because they so regularly lose the 3-point battle. They had made a better percentage of their shots in nine of 11 games before the seven-game shooting slump, but that is not often enough to overcome the math problem with opponents making so many 3s.
That was how much of Saturday’s game went. Through three quarters, the Rockets were outshooting the Spurs, 55.9 percent to 48.4 percent. But the Spurs had 14 3pointers, the Rockets six.
Fast and curious
The Rockets look like they should be able to run. They talk about how they can run. Other teams talk about how they run. But generally, they don’t run. They did on Saturday. Averaging 11.8 fast break points per game, ranking 25th in the NBA, they scored 30 on the break with five minutes left when they began working the clock. Their previous high this season was just 23.
Much of that came the way teams have routinely run on the Rockets, by forcing turnovers and taking off. But even when they were not getting the running start off steals, they looked to push the pace. And with every KJ Martin or Eason dunk, they seemed to grow hungrier for more.
Tari, Tari, Tari
The Rockets seemed to be fading after their fast start. They had gone from an early eight-point lead to a six-point deficit. The Spurs were routinely getting open looks. The Rockets’ turnovers and Spurs’ layups and free throws were piling up.
The Rockets turned things around in the most unexpected of ways, with defense.
Where they found the defense, however, was no surprise at all.
Eason blocked a pair of shots, triggering fast breaks the other way. Those plays sandwiched a Martin steal, leading to another break. But it also set the tone for an outstanding half for Martin.
The defense did not last. The Spurs scored 36 second-quarter points. But Eason continued to make plays on both ends, adding a steal to the blocked shots, getting deflections, and running the floor. He scored 12 of his 14 first-half points in a nine-minute stretch of the second quarter, finally taking a seat late in the half having emptied his tank.
That energy gave the Rockets a needed jolt and offered a familiar bright spot in a dreary season.
Five for five
If nothing else, the Rockets are impressive walking through the hotel lobby.
No team collects centers quite like the Rockets, with five who almost never moonlight at any other position on the roster.
That includes Willie Cauley-Stein, who is on a 10-day contract to give the Rockets the NBA-required 14 players and has not played. But they already had Sengun, Garuba, Frank Kaminsky and Boban Marjanovic.
That made it somewhat surprising that Marjanovic had his longest shift of the season against his first NBA team, playing seven minutes to end the first quarter and start the second, one shy of his most minutes in any game this season.
The Rockets had called on him to play the zone they use with their 7-4 veteran in a matchup with the Spurs’ second-year center Charles Bassey. Those minutes went well enough, with the Rockets outscoring the Rockets by four, that Marjanovic stayed in the game after a Spurs timeout, even though Garuba had been waiting for several minutes to check in.
Marjanovic played for only a few more possessions, and Garuba provided a lift, knocking down two 3-pointers and a pair of free throws. Marjanovic did not score quite as he typically does to finish games, making 1 of 2 shots. But between them, Rockets centers had 18 first-half points. And the Rockets looked consistently tall.