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 Forward LaMarcus Aldridge poured in 25 points and pulled down 10
rebounds to lead five San Antonio players who scored in double
figures.
The Spurs showed no hangover from a 30-point road defeat at the
hands of Golden State on Monday and picked up where they left off in
the AT&T Center by swamping Houston from the opening tip.
Asked if his team responded well after the loss and an extensive
film session Wednesday morning to review what went wrong, San
Antonio coach Gregg Popovich had a typically succinct answer: "I
guess you have to say 'yes.' You saw it."
San Antonio cemented the outcome by outscoring the Rockets by 23
points in the middle two quarters, relegating the fourth quarter
mostly to a contest between the two teams' bench players.
The Spurs produced their season high for points. Forward Kawhi
Leonard and guard Danny Green scored 18 points apiece, guard Tony
Parker added 15 points and seven assists and reserve center Boban
Marjanovic added 13 points and 10 rebounds, all in the fourth
quarter.
San Antonio (39-7) improved to 25-0 at home this season, the best
start by a Western Conference team since the Portland Trail Blazers
won their initial 26 home games in 1977-78.
The victory also allowed the Spurs to extend their regular-season
home victory streak to 34 games, dating to an overtime loss to
Cleveland last March. They also tied the best start in franchise
history after 46 games.
"It was important for us to be ourselves again -- to play defense,
to be active and to stop the other team from getting easy shots,"
Aldridge said.
"I knew guys would come in tonight and be more locked in. Each
player took it upon himself to get back to where we need to be."
Houston (25-23), which had its three-game win streak snapped, was
led by guard James Harden's 20 points. Center Dwight Howard added 13
points and eight rebounds, reserve forwards Josh Smith and Terrence
Jones scored 11 points each and reserve guard Jason Terry had 10.
The Rockets shot 52 free throws (making 35) to the Spurs' 21 (with
18 makes).
The Spurs, using a smaller lineup with guard Kyle Anderson in the
starting lineup in place of injured forward Tim Duncan, blitzed the
Rockets early by hitting five of their first six shots from the
field and building a 16-8 lead three minutes into the game.
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"They beat us up, in every way, shape and form," Houston coach J.B.
Bickerstaff said. "It was time to teach somebody a lesson and they
taught us one tonight. We knew San Antonio was going to be ready to
go after the loss they had and we didn't draw a line in the sand.
This game was claimed early."
But the Rockets were hot as well, beginning 8 of 8 from the floor
and bouncing back to take a 21-20 lead with 6:01 left in the
quarter, setting the table for the shootout to come.
The pace slowed a bit through the rest of the quarter and San
Antonio led 35-29 after scoring its most points in the first quarter
this season.
Green hit 5 of 7 3-point attempts and had 15 points in the first
half as the Spurs pushed their lead to 69-49 at halftime while
scoring their most first-half points this season. By the midway
point in the game, four San Antonio players (Green, Aldridge, Parker
and Leonard) and two Houston players (Harden and Howard) already had
scored in double figures.
The Rockets needed a huge turnaround in the third quarter, but the
Spurs dominated those 12 minutes as well, boosting their lead to 30
points at 98-68 with2:17 left. Aldridge did the bulk of the damage
for the Spurs by scoring 11 points in the quarter, which ended with
San Antonio up 102-73.
"We have a lot of work to do and we have to go back to the drawing
boards," Harden said. "(San Antonio) plays well at home and they got
a lot of confidence early on by hitting some shots. We have to
figure out a way to be more aggressive; we just weren't physical
enough with them."
(Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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