Road toughness remains elusive
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Spurs arrived at the Toyota Center in Houston on Tuesday with their heads held high and riding their first two-game winning streak of the season, claimed against teams with winning records.
One caveat: Those victories over Oklahoma City and Indiana were played at the Frost Bank Center.
It turns out even moving three hours east down Interstate-10 was enough to change the Spurs’ fortunes.
“A young group needs to understand the road is a lot different than at home,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after a 114-101 loss to the Rockets. “It requires a little bit more mental toughness.”
The Spurs can only hope that mental toughness made its way to their carry-on luggage as they continue a three-game trip Thursday at Sacramento and Saturday against Golden State.
In Houston, the Spurs’ inexperience resurfaced in the form of turnovers. They committed 19 of them, good for 28 points for the Rockets.
Fifteen of those turnovers came off Houston steals, a prescription for a tough night on the road.
“They were physical from the get-go until the end of the game,” Popovich said. “They put us in mud, and we didn’t respond to it very well.” The Spurs are 6-28 on the road this season, which is not too far removed from a 7-21 mark in San Antonio.
The Spurs’ most recent road win came Feb. 12 at Toronto, the lone triumph on a 1-8 rodeo trek. Before that, one must scroll back to Jan. 20 at Washington to find the Spurs’ second-most recent victory away from the Frost Bank Center.
The difference between home and road is like night and day, guard Devin Vassell said.
“The energy in there (at home) was just different,” Vassell said, reflecting on the Spurs’ latest pair of victories. “You are feeding off that. Every time we scored, the place was going crazy. Every time we got a stop, the place was going crazy. That’s how it kind of was here (for the Rockets).”
The Spurs, at least, have some recent experience with playing inside Sacramento’s Golden1 Center.
They opened the second leg of their rodeo swing against the Kings on Feb. 22 and held a five-point lead in the waning minutes before falling 127-122.
It was a similar script the Spurs followed in a 129-120 home loss against Sacramento in November.
“We always play them tough,” Vassell said. “It will be a good test for us.”
Sochan shrugs off his latest on-court scuffle
Jeremy Sochan had another Jeremy Sochan moment Tuesday, when he got into a fracas with Houston rookie Amen Thompson.
With 5:24 left in the third quarter, Sochan went down hard while grappling with Thompson for a rebound. Thompson tripped over — or was tripped by — a prone Sochan on his way up the floor, leading to the exchange of words and shoves.
Both players received technical fouls for the dust-up. Sochan was hit with a flagrant-1 foul when officials ruled his trip of Thompson was intentional.
“I don’t think I tripped him,” Sochan said. “But there should have been a loose-ball foul (against Houston) at first, so nothing would have happened.”
Sochan left Houston with no ill will toward Thompson.
“He is a good guy,” Sochan said. “It was just a competitive thing we do as humans. That is really it.”
Over the past season-plus, other Spurs have become used to these occasional displays of pugnaciousness from their hardnosed power forward.
“Jeremy’s been like that since he got there, and we have always needed that and wanted that,” Vassell said. “We don’t expect him to change.”
Branham continues productive stretch
With Julian Champagnie back in the starting lineup after taking a night off with an ankle injury, Malaki Branham was back with the Spurs’ bench rotation Tuesday.
He picked up where he left off from his one-game return to the starting lineup.
The second-year guard tallied a season-best 20 points against the Rockets, going 8-of-14 from the floor and 4-of-7 from behind the 3-point line.
It came a game after Branham’s 17 points as a starter were instrumental in the Spurs’ victory over Indiana.
All in all, Branham has shown a professional response since Popovich removed him from the rotation for a chunk of January.
“It was a wake-up call sitting down,” Branham said. “So when I got this chance, I took advantage of it, being aggressive on both sides of the ball.”