This was essentially a blowout – but it was not that terrible a blowout.
This loss was not a case of low energy or bad effort. The San Antonio Spurs are just a more talented team than the Houston Rockets. And when you look at the talent difference showcased tonight, the question does not become why this season’s team is doing so badly. It is how last year’s team did so well.
This team depends on Harden to do everything, and the rest of the players stand around on offense as Richard Li just pointed out. On the defensive end, this team was outbigged for most of the game. Combine with some questionable refereeing, and I guess you could be actually be glad that this team fought at the end and gave the Spurs a bit of a scare.
But the Spurs realistically won the game after 20 minutes, and reached the 50-game mark for the 17th straight year. They have consistency, talent, size, and shooting, and just about everything you want in a sports franchise.
The Houston Rockets don’t.
The interesting thing about the “shooting” part is that I am not really talking about three-pointers (though San Antonio did shoot 10% better from long range than the Rockets). The Spurs tonight showed that the mid-range game is not dead, especially when it comes from big men like Tim Duncan, David West, and LaMarcus Aldridge.
All of San Antonio’s big men can get out there and drill that 17-foot jumper. Houston’s big men as a whole cannot. So from the very beginning, the Spurs used the pick-and-pop, got their big men open, and then passed the ball on the closeout.
A simple play like that should not give Houston’s defense that much trouble. But that touches on another problematic aspect about this team, and Dwight Howard in particular. Prime Dwight Howard was a defensive monstrosity because he was so athletic that he could switch on a guard, harass them, and then still get back on defense to get to the big man. It was similar to how Kevin Garnett and Hakeem worked in their primes, combining horizontal and vertical defense to make a defensive monstrosity..
But today’s, 30-year old Howard can’t do that anymore. He is a lumbering giant, who can still block shots and intimidate people. But he cannot chase Tony Parker or Kawhi Leonard, and looks uncomfortable when he is out at the three-point line guarding them on the switch. And on the pick and pop, he cannot guard both the driving guard and the lurking big man ready to shoot.
But that is not the only frustrating thing about San Antonio’s big-man advantage. Even we approach Game 60, I still don’t know what the big-man rotation looks like. It is probable that the Motiejunas trade was partially made in order to clear up the logjam between Howard, Smith, Jones, Motiejunas, Capela, and Harrell. But with that trade rescinded, Bickerstaff still cannot figure out who to play and who to bench.
Tonight, he threw Smith out there for 29 minutes, the most minutes he has played all season. Smith did shoot poorly, but he had one of those games where he shot badly but still did well everywhere else. But after that, you had Motiejunas, Jones and Harrell, who each played less than 10 minutes and accomplished little out there ( Motiejunas did have some nice passes though)
On a side note: Motiejunas came onto the court for the first time in weeks, and the stadium erupted into the loudest applause I have seen in some time. It was a very nice moment, but I do worry that Rockets fans are making Motiejunas out into some savior when he just is not at that level and likely will never be.
But with Smith unable to shoot and Houston’s big men ineffective, it means that once again, this entire offense has devolved into “Harden, do something.” And in addition to his usual offensive duties, Bickerstaff had Harden guard Kawhi Leonard, presumably so that Harden would not have to chase Danny Green around a bunch of screens.
It did not work. Harden is just too small to handle Leonard. Leonard just backed down Harden in the post or shot over him. He also had a really nice play in the second quarter where Motiejunas came over to help, and Leonard just pump-faked, split the double team, and got the easy basket.
But the Spurs play good enough defense that they were able to harass Harden, make him work on the defensive end, and get very physical with him throughout the entire game. And the referees refused to call anything against Harden, and had some other pretty bad calls as well.
So, the Houston Rockets had inferior big men, depend too much on Harden to do everything, and just do not have the defensive presence they had last season. The result was a game where San Antonio surged to an early lead, and never looked back as it swelled to as much as 30. Yes, the Rockets would make a run of things later thanks to a solid performance from Brewer and Terry. But it was far too little and too late.
Just another dropped game in a dropped season.
