Spurs’ awful start dooms them against vastly superior Rockets

Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The Spurs found themselves in a hole early and simply didn’t have the talent to mount a comeback.

The Spurs’ skid continued with a loss in Houston. After a disastrous start, San Antonio didn’t have the firepower or the defensive acumen to string together stops to get back into the game. The 118-106 score fails to accurately depict how lopsided the affair was, as the home team led from start to finish and by as many as 28 points in the second half.

After starting out well and collapsing on the back end in recent games, the Spurs decided to shake things up this time by putting together a terrible first few minutes. Sluggish rotations and faulty transition defense allowed a more talented and athletic Rockets squad to get some easy buckets inside. Meanwhile, everything was tough for San Antonio on the other end, as the ball handlers couldn’t manufacture good, open looks. Very quickly the home team carved out a double-digit lead and if it wasn’t for the work of a much more effective second unit, the Silver and Black could have been out of the game before the first 12 minutes. A small lineup with Jeremy Sochan at center switched a lot, negating the need for weakside help that wasn’t reliable and Houston couldn’t really capitalize on mismatches. After one, the Rockets led by 14.

With Sochan momentarily heading to the locker room and clearly trying to find a defensive spark, Mitch Johnson dusted off Blake Wesley from the deep bench in the second quarter. Unfortunately, there was nothing he or anyone else could do about Amen Thompson, who got close shot after close shot against a feeble defense. Fortunately, the Spurs did a great job of getting to the line, which allowed them to keep up. Keldon Johnson led the way with some fearless drives and the rest joined in, especially once Alperen Sengun got into foul trouble and Houston went small to match San Antonio’s center-less unit. It felt like the perfect opportunity to close the gap, but despite getting the deficit down to 12 at one point, the Silver and Black couldn’t access the extra gear needed to make a big run. At the break, the Rockets were ahead by 18.

After struggling early on, Devin Vassell came alive in the third and provided the scoring the starters needed. Unfortunately, the defense just wasn’t up to par on Wednesday and it doomed San Antonio’s chances. The Rockets made a couple of layups, then hit a few threes, and that was the game. There are two ways to see how the second half continued after that. The optimistic one is that San Antonio, after losing two big leads in the games prior, had faith in pulling off the upset. They couldn’t respond with a run but showed resilience. The pessimistic one is that it was performative hustle from a team that has lost its way and a deceptive performance from players who look good when there’s nothing on the line but can’t step up and make something happen when it’s truly needed.

The truth probably lies in the middle. The comeback attempt was as fake as they come, as the Rockets were completely in control from start to finish. At the same time, it’s admirable that a team missing its head coach and its superstar and which has been on the road for a month straight could muster the energy to at least show some fight, even if it was too late.

Game notes

The starting lineup was a disaster. The first few minutes of both halves showed just how big the talent gap between the two teams was. The Rockets were also bigger and more athletic. It was just a bad matchup and the score reflected it.
All eyes were on Stephon Castle after he only played eight minutes in the game prior. Mitch Johnson said he was going to let Castle play more freely after punishing him for making mistakes and the rookie stat line of 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists suggests he bounced back. In reality, he played a lot of garbage time, but he did play hard. Hopefully, this good performance, as meaningless as it was, will help Castle get out of his funk.
Keldon Johnson has been great recently, looking more like the guy who scored over 20 a game two seasons ago and energized the team with his physical play nightly. It’s hard to say if anything that happened after the announcement of Victor Wembanyama’s health issues means much, but it’s nice to see the longest-tenured Spur thriving.
Jeremy Sochan got hit in the head and missed the second half for precautionary reasons. He had a great stretch in the first half, so the team missed him. It’s unclear if he will be out for the next game.
Bismack Biyombo couldn’t continue his string of good performances. He wasn’t the problem and there’s not much that can be expected of someone who was out of the league a few weeks ago. Similarly, Sandro Mamukelashvili played hard but wasn’t great, which makes sense, since he’s a deep bench energy big. Charles Bassey is no savior, but the team misses him.