The Rockets and the Spurs were in a bind. Houston hadn’t lost three in a row all season, and San Antonio hadn’t lost two in a row before. Either Houston was going to win and ruin things for the Spurs, or San Antonio would give the Rockets their longest losing streak yet. Given that James Harden sat out the game with a bruised thumb, and given how poorly the Rockets lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, things looked bleak for Houston. Something remarkable would have to happen for Houston to pull this off. And then that something happened: the Rockets played defense.
This was something the Rockets had been leading up to the entire season, and their recent struggles with defensive-minded teams were a dead giveaway that they were about to lay out this development. And then, when they announced that James Harden was out to go along with Ömer Aşık, Greg Smith, Francisco Garcia and Ronnie Brewer, the pieces were all in place. The time to put all their eggs in the defensive basket had come. It turns out that those eggs hatched, or sold, or whatever it is you hope the eggs do in that idiom. Houston won again, and this time they won because they played some D.
James Harden sitting isn’t really a coincidence. He’s a flamethrower on offense but takes a more relaxed approach on the other end. Yes, his poor defense was part of the equation, but missing his offense made the team need to play the other end of the floor even more. It’s also no coincidence that a Spurs team missing Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter, Danny Green and Manu Ginobili for half the game would do poorly on offense. Comparing injury reports is a fool’s errand with these two teams, however, so it’s best just to take a solid win for what it was.
The Rockets were willing to switch on some pick and rolls and not on others, and it was good to see them rotate with more confidence. Shooters still got open and mismatches were still found, but Houston was largely able to avoid punishment on those fronts. Tony Parker got a mismatch with Dwight Howard seemingly forty times during the game, but was unable to capitalize. The Rockets closed out on shooters most of the night, and they were rewarded with a win even though began to cough up the ball with reckless abandon.
Winning with defense is a step in the right direction, as is Terrence Jones metamorphosing into a quality starting player. He scored 21 points on 9-12 shooting, grabbed 9 rebounds and had only 1 turnover. He also played solid defense and is able to dribble the ball like a guard at times. He also had a team low +/- of -3. The team high +12 goes to Donatas Motiejunas, somehow. D-Mo may have been the worst Rocket to take the floor, and he still went 2-3 on field goals and grabbed 6 boards.
Dwight Howard was the most notable player, as he began the night being utterly dominated by Tim Duncan on the block and ended up as a force of nature. His 5-15 shooting looks poor, but included a 0-9 start and a 5-6 finish. His 23 point finish included 25 free throws, of which he hit 13. He’s staying about 50% on free throws, which is sort of vaguely good enough in smite-a-Dwight situations, and that came up yet again. The originator of hack-a-Shaq tried his hand at the common strategy but found little purchase to climb out of the hole the Spurs were in.
Nothing went right for the Rockets in the first quarter, but they stayed with it and were eventually able to find what worked. What worked, in the end, was putting their energies into trying to deny the Spurs their preferred shot, working the ball inside and passing around to the open man. They finally faced a team that doesn’t openly pummel other teams inside and finally played the way they’ve talked about playing. Even without James Harden, even against a team like the Spurs, it was enough. Sometimes, you win with defense.
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