Rockets come even with Spurs 106-101 – Even up in uneven effort

Well, that was harder than necessary. The Rockets have yet to play three good quarters in a game, let alone four, this season.

This game, the Rockets started with a fury, winning a dominant first quarter 29-15. It felt like San Antonio was there for the taking, but the Spurs managed to rally late in the 2nd quarter after the Rockets had them down by 20 points. Despite improved play from the Spurs, the Rockets barely managed to win the quarter by 3 points, 33 to 30. Despite some ominous signs, the lead was 17 at the half.

The Spurs came out of the half focused and the Rockets had another of their usual spells of absolutely zero, frozen, attack when the opposition locks in on defense. Still, they managed to outplay teams during a Spurs run for most of the quarter. In the end, though, San Antonio’s shot-making, and the Rockets’ lack of any kind of easy offense to run under pressure, saw the Rockets begin a collapse as the third quarter ended.

The Spurs offense continued while the Rockets had another stretch where they couldn’t get out of their own way. Of course, the only Rocket who could score at all was Mr. Reliable, Jalen Green. Between the beginning of the 4th and 3:17 left in the game, the only Rockets to score were Sengun, with a split free throw, and Jalen Green, who scored six points.

The game was down to three points at 94-91 with 3:17 left. This was largely due to the best offensive game I’ve seen from Chris Paul in a while, literally a few years.

From that point on, however, the Rockets slowed down. Jabari Smith made an important three-pointer, Jalen and Jabari made their free throws. After a really, oh, remarkable call on the Spurs that led to a six-point game, Fred VanVleet hit a three on a nice pass off a Jalen Green drive to salt the game away. The contest would end 106-101 after Wembanyama made a late stat-filler.

As wins go, this one was both a relief and frustrating. Frustrating because the Rockets can’t hold a lead and can’t keep the scoreboard moving to do so, and the coaching staff doesn’t seem to have any answers in those situations.

It’s a relief not to lose two to the Spurs, despite the road back-to-back, and another road game in San Antionio.

Before I get to the Rockets doing good things, I want to say that the way Victor Wembanyama is being handled is, quite frankly, absurd. You also don’t need to give a player who is a walking cheat a “Win” button by calling almost all contacts in his favor. If a contact he doesn’t like, which is all he doesn’t initiate, is a mistake, well, I guess the NBA has a new superstar.

Watching him two games in a row made me wonder if he would be the kind of superstar that Anthony Davis is. That is, someone who gets a lot of attention, but no one actually likes that much, except the hometown team.

There was also an exchange where Chris Paul should have had a four point play on a made three pointer. But the referees who still call games as ²⁄₃ of last season (someone needs to send Monty McCutchen to a nice farm upstate to run and play) saw fit to make the play a flagrant 1 on Eason so it ended up being a six point game for the Spurs. Because of course it was.

As for the Rockets, we might be a breakout from Jalen Green. He plays with a level of competence and maturity that we have not seen before. Tonight he was the difference between a win and a loss. He went 11-22fg/7-133pt/7-7FT/1rb/2as for 36 points. It was his key pass late to a VanVleet make that sealed the game.

Is it finally happening? Follow along.

Jabari Smith also played well with 17/8.

Sengun had a tough match with doubles, Wemby and Spurs packing the court on him. It worked last time, but with Jalen shooting it better, that technique of doubling Alpie and packing the paint might not be long for the world. Still a “hard game” was still 12/12/5/1/1 for Sengun.

Dillon Brooks had the tough job of guarding Wemby and he did it well.

Tari Eason continues to make good things happen, while Amen Thompson is finding his way out of the dunker spot a bit.

Steven Adams offered very good minutes that statistically didn’t show up that much but helped win the game.

Fred VanVleet played 41 minutes, didn’t shoot it well except for what was the game winner. He also dished out 9 assists to 0 turnovers, and is simply a winning player all around.

That was it for now. The Rockets don’t play again until Thursday when, staying in Texas, they face the Mavericks in Dallas.