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Rockets suffer third straight setback against Spurs
San Antonio 90, Houston 84
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Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO -- Before leaving the visiting locker room on Friday night, Shane Battier popped a couple of Advil into his mouth and took a long sip of water.
The Rockets forward's head had been throbbing since the first quarter after he landed face first on the hardwood of the AT&T Center.
"I was a little surprised that I didn't chip a tooth," Battier said. "My head was hurting the whole game."
He didn't feel any better about his team's final result.
Behind a fast start from Tim Duncan and San Antonio's usual execution down the stretch, the Spurs pulled away from the Rockets for a thrilling 90-84 victory Friday night at the AT&T Center.
The Rockets (6-4) suffered their third straight setback and dropped their first game without leading scorer Tracy McGrady. McGrady, who has a sprained right elbow, remains listed as day-to-day.
Despite playing without McGrady, the Rockets got enough offensive production from their role players to hang with the NBA's defending champions. But like they've done so many times over the past decade, the Spurs hit every crucial shot and made every key defensive stop needed down the stretch to stave off the Rockets.
San Antonio made five of their final seven shots to close with a game-deciding 10-4 run.
"That's why they have rings," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "They ran four different plays for four different people down the stretch. They're smart. When something isn't there, they make the next pass. That's what makes them so special. They know if you take something away, someone else is going to benefit from it."
With the Rockets rallying from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 80-80, the Spurs certainly didn't panic.
The Spurs instead put the game in Manu Ginobili's hands and let him go to work. On three straight possessions, Ginobili drove down the lane and kicked the ball out to the perimeter to get an open shot for his teammates, giving the Spurs an 86-84 lead.
After Luther
Head missed an open three-pointer, Ginobili then pushed the game just out of Houston's reach. He scored on a driving layup with 57.4 second left that proved to be too much for Houston to overcome.
The Rockets missed their last five shots. Duncan, who scored 20 of this 25 points in the first half, stuffed Yao Ming on a putback attempt with 9 seconds left that ended Houston's chances.
"Tim's block was fantastic," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "It really finished the game off, so-to-speak. (Michael Finley) knocked down a shot and Manu took it to the hole. We executed real well offensively down the stretch and that's good on top of playing pretty aggressively. It was good to see us execute."
The Rockets didn't excute poorly without McGrady, but couldn't get Yao involved.
With the Spurs fronting him and sending double teams as soon as he caught the ball, Yao made 7 of 16 shots to finish with 14 points. He shockingly didn't shoot a single free throw in 39 minutes of action.
"Did they front me? I call that hold me," Yao said. "I don't remember the last time that I didn't have any free throws in a game. Probably back to my rookie year."
Despite the Spurs making an effort to take away Yao, the Rockets made 50.7 percent of their shots and ran Adelman's high-motion offense about as well as they have all season.
Luis Scola, who had been struggling to find his game through the first three weeks of the season, was particularly sharp. The forward canned 10 of 11 shots, finishing with a career-high 20 points to lead Houston.
Not only was Scola playing against the team that traded him to Houston this summer, he was facing hit two teammates from the Argentina national team -- Fabricio Oberto and Ginobili.
"I just wanted to play well because I haven't been," Scola said. "Finally, I made my shots. I think everyone wants to beat the Spurs because they have championships so we just tried to play hard."
The Rockets, of course, won't have much time to ponder where they came up short down the stretch. On Saturday, they'll get Phoenix.
"We've just got to forget about this game and move on," Yao said.
