Spurs’ road woes return in sloppy loss to the Rockets

Sengun had a career night while Wemby had one of his worst.

Coming off their best two-game stretch of the season, with home wins against the Thunder and Pacers, the Spurs were right back out on the road to take on their IH-10 rivals, the Houston Rockets, hoping for their first three-game winning streak since December 2022. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen tonight, as Victor Wembanyama suffered through possibly the worst game of his career while Alperen Sengun had his best with 45 points, 16 rebounds and 5 steals to hand the Spurs a 101-114 loss.

Things started well enough, with Wemby hitting a Tim Duncan bank, blocking Sengun, and step back three as the Spurs got up 9-3 early, but beyond a a few runs, it would be mostly Rockets from then on. They responded with 20-6, and Sengun made sure to feast when Wemby was off the court with 7 points in the first quarter. The Rockets stretched the lead out to 23-15 as they continued to get the homecourt role while shots kept jiggling out for the Spurs, and overall Houston hit five threes to the Spurs’ two in the quarter, which ended with the good guys down 21-26.

The Spurs got themselves back together between quarters, opening the second on a 10-2 run, including threes from Keldon Johnson, who had 13 points in the half, and Wemby to briefly retake the lead, but the Rockets responded with a 7-0 run of their own. It remained a sloppy game for both teams with some wild passes, poor shooting and the lead going back in forth, but the Spurs went on a 9-0 run to close the half thanks to threes from Zach Collins and Devin Vassell to lead 53-47. Most notably, it came without Wemby, who headed to the locker room with five minutes left after he was already a late addition to the game due to a sore shoulder.

He returned to start the second half, but the turd quarter made a return for the Spurs. He didn’t look quite right and had to sit early with his fourth foul, and Sengun had his way with 18 points in the quarter while the Spurs struggled with turnovers. The closest thing they had to a response was 9 points from Vassell and five quick ones from Malaki Branham to help close the quarter on a 7-0 run to somewhat fortunately only be down only 77-80.

However, it was short lived as the Rockets picked the intensity right back up to start the fourth and quickly got the lead back out nine while continuing to ride Sengun. The Spurs briefly got back within four on a three from Johnson to fall and fast break from Vassell, but that would be their only glimmer of hope, as Houston always had a response and continuously held the lead around 10 points for the majority of the fourth quarter, handing the Spurs the 101-114 loss that honestly felt a lot worse than the final score, even though that was Houston’s largest lead of the night.

Game Notes

• Whether, he was gassed, hurting or fearing foul trouble, this is certainly a candidate for Wemby’s worst game yet (and hey, it happens). Beyond his strong start, he spent the entire game in foul trouble, plus there was his unexplained exit to the locker room in the second quarter (a staffer said after the game that he was not hurt), and he never looked right in the second half. He finished with just 10 points, all of which came in the first half, along with 11 rebounds, 3 assists, and 7 blocks. (Even in bad games when he got absolutely owned a lot of the night, he still gets his share of stuffs.)
• Jeremy Sochan and Amen Thompson got into a scuffle in third quarter when Thompson pushed Sochan on a rebound, Sochan tripped him as he lay on the court (although it didn’t look as intentional as it was made out to be considering he was looking at the refs and didn’t lift his leg much, if at all), and the two shoved each other before being seperated. After review, the refs called a flagrant 1 on Sochan for the trip and both got a technical for the scuffle, which fortunately allowed Sochan to stay in the game. Spurs-Rockets games are always chippy, and this one was no exception.
• This is the third road game in a row that the Spurs have suffered from being extremely sloppy with the ball, this time committing 18 turnovers after combining for just 25 in their two home wins. That led to 28 points off turnovers for the Rockets, and compared to just 9 for the Spurs, that surpasses the difference in the game. It’s probably a good thing the Spurs welcome the Rockets to San Antonio in just week; they’ll be looking for revenge and wanting to get the bad taste of this one out of their mouths regardless of how the two games in between go.
• One thing the Spurs did do well was own the bench minutes. They outscored the Rockets’ bench 50-23, getting 22 points from Branham, who continues his late season surge, and 18 from Johnson. Cam Whitmore had the majority of the Rockets bench points with 19 (how he fell all the way to them at 20th in the draft remains a mystery). Regardless, when you allow a player to go off like Sengun did while Fred VanVleet and Jalen Green also tipped in a combined 44 points, it doesn’t really matter what the bench does if the starters can’t keep up.

Play of the Game

We’re going back to the very beginning of the game with about the only time Wemby got the better of Sengun, blocking him on one end and hitting what is becoming a patented step-back three on the other.

Up next: Thursday at Sacramento Kings

The Spurs will have another chance to get their first victory against the Kings on Thursday. They just might stand a chance if they don’t commit 20+ turnovers this time. Tip-off will be at 9:00 PM CT on Bally Sports.