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 Behind a dominating performance from center Dwight Howard, the
Rockets jumped on the short-handed Spurs early and never relented,
rolling to a resounding 98-81 win on Thursday night at Toyota
Center.
Howard paired 32 points with 16 rebounds and ran roughshod over a
San Antonio frontcourt lacking center-forward Tim Duncan (rest) and
center Tiago Splitter (calf).
The big man combination of Aron Baynes and Jeff Ayres proved no
match for Howard, who set out to control the interior action
regardless of what personnel decisions the Spurs made.
"It really didn't matter who they had on the floor," said Howard,
who finished 12 of 18 from the field. "It was my job to go out and
set the tone on both ends of the floor, especially on the defensive
end.
"When you have five championships, you can sit a couple games. Until
we get there, we're going to come out every night and play as hard
as we can. Despite not having Tim and Manu (Ginobili), those guys
were going to come out and play hard. We didn't expect nothing but
some hard-working guys on the floor."
 Down five regulars, San Antonio (2-2) shot its way into an early
deficit by missing its first 11 from the field. By intermission, the
Spurs were 0 of 12 on 3-pointers and 11 of 44 overall, with backup
point guard Cory Joseph (5 of 6) accounting for nearly half of the
made field goals.
Joseph finished with a team-high 18 points. Baynes (12 points, 12
rebounds) and guard Danny Green (10 points) paced the San Antonio
starters. Collectively, the Spurs' starting lineup shot a woeful 14
of 46 from the field.
"I think you learn about players," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said
of relying on his bench to overcome the attrition. "You learn about
the other team and what they like to do and what we need to do to
play them.
"We are a sum-of-the-parts team. We have to have all of our parts to
be at our best. We can't rely on one player. We have to do it as a
group. If we have injuries, we need our full bench to continue to
play our best."
Despite the sluggish start, the Spurs trailed just 18-15 heading
into the second quarter. But then the Rockets (6-0) seized control
midway through the quarter, holding the Spurs scoreless for
five-plus minutes after rookie forward Kyle Anderson converted a
three-point play that pulled San Antonio to 32-24 with 7:37 left
before halftime.
Houston responded with a 13-5 run to close the half. Howard nailed
two free throws and slammed home two alley-oop dunks around a
driving layup from guard James Harden.
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That burst continued into the third quarter with Howard following
another alley-oop dunk with a three-point play before forward Trevor
Ariza and guard Isaiah Canaan added 3-pointers to extend the lead to
56-36 with 8:00 left in the quarter.
Harden totaled 20 points, six rebounds and six assists. He did
commit eight turnovers, but his defense -- he had three blocks --
sparked the Rockets, who scrambled all over the court to contest
perimeter jumpers.
"We've been doing that all preseason and all of the first five or
six games of the regular season thus far," Harden said. "That's our
mindset."
When Harden converted a driving layup with 1:58 remaining in the
third quarter, the Rockets held their largest lead of the night at
80-49.
"It was a bad night and I couldn't hit a shot," Spurs guard Tony
Parker said. "Defensively, we did OK, but we never going into an
offensive rhythm."
NOTES: Spurs coach Gregg Popovich sat F/C Tim Duncan and G Manu
Ginobili as healthy scratches. The Spurs also were without C Tiago
Splitter (right calf), G Marco Belinelli (right groin) and G Patty
Mills (right shoulder). ... Splitter is tentatively scheduled to see
a physician after reaggravating his calf while making his season
debut Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks. Belinelli will be
out 7-10 days. ... The Rockets were without G Patrick Beverley
(hamstring) and F Terrence Jones (leg contusion). Beverley started
and played 30 minutes Tuesday night in Miami after missing the
previous two games. ... Rockets rookie F Kostas Papanikolaou is a
candidate to play more minutes alongside Rockets C Dwight Howard
after posting a career-high five assists Tuesday night against the
Miami Heat, including four to Howard.
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reserved.]
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