It was a Texas showdown as the San Antonio Spurs faced the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night. It was the Rockets who came away with the all-important victory on the Spurs’ home court wining 101-99.
The night belonged to James Harden who finished with his first triple-double of the season as his stat line read, 24 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds. He was everywhere in the game and the Spurs struggled to stop him. Having started the season with a superb away win over the Golden State Warriors the Spurs have now lost three straight home games.
For Houston Ryan Anderson was 4-for-6 on 3-pointers in scoring 20 points, and Houston snapped a four-game skid in San Antonio. Eric Gordon had 15 points and fellow reserve Sam Dekker added 12. Swiss forward Clint Capela whose parents hail from the African continent scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Kawhi Leonard was the central figure in San Antonio’s attack and he fell a point shy of tying his scoring career high. He finished the night with 34 points for the Spurs.
The game was on a knife-edge right till the buzzer as the lead constantly changed hands and both teams started to make mistakes, it was a situation in which the first team to blink would lose. This time it was the hosts as they had the ball in their hands with the opportunity to take the final shot of the game to win or tie. They did neither as they missed two glorious chances to draw level and force overtime. Leonard missed his final jump shot, which could have brought his team level, then LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 14 points, also missed a tip-in attempt at the buzzer.
Danny Green had his first outing of the season for San Antonio and he scored eight points.
It was a tough loss for Gregg Popovich’s team who haven’t found their rhythm has home. They played with the expected passion and determination but couldn’t score after getting stops. The Rockets rode their luck in the contest even though they had looked like they were in total control in the third quarter. The Spurs and Rockets now have identical 5-3 records after this entertaining game.
By Cyrus Rogers
