San Antonio Spurs vs. Houston Rockets: Postgame Grades and Analysis
Tim Duncan had 29 points, 10 rebounds and blocked a James Harden layup attempt at the buzzer to help the San Antonio Spurs rally to defeat the Houston Rockets, 104-103, for their 10th straight win Friday night at the Toyota Center.
The Spurs are getting scarier and scarier, as Quixem Ramirez of the University Star points out:
The Spurs fell behind 11-0 in the first quarter and trailed by as much as 13 in the first period. Little by little, they climbed out of the hole and finally took their first lead late in the third frame on a Patty Mills three-pointer.
San Antonio went up by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets stormed back and had a chance to win the game with 6.1 seconds remaining.
Harden drove to his left and appeared to have a path to the basket, but he was met by Duncan, who swatted his shot to give the Spurs the victory.
Harden struggled mightily, scoring 16 points off 5-of-19 shooting.
Josh Smith led Houston with 20, but he went just 12-of-26 from the free-throw line. Some are questioning Kevin McHale's decision to leave Smith in the game for so long, but McHale says he was okay with Smith going to the line, per Adam Wexler of CSN Houston:
Smith felt good, but the shots just didn't go down, per Wexler:
As a team, the Rockets shot only 32-of-53 from the charity stripe. They also turned the ball over 20 times.
| Tim Duncan | A+ |
| Tony Parker | F |
| Manu Ginobili | C |
| Kawhi Leonard | B |
| Danny Green | B |
| Rest of Team | A- |
| James Harden | D+ |
| Dwight Howard | A- |
| Josh Smith | C |
| Trevor Ariza | A |
| Terrence Jones | B |
| Rest of Team | C- |
San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan: A+
Duncan put forth a vintage performance Friday night.
The timeless big man exhibited a dazzling display of post moves, using the glass as he so often does, as well as utilizing fakes and a smooth touch to go for 29 points off an incredible 12-of-15 clip.
Duncan also made several nice cuts to the basket for easy finishes.
Still, his most important play of the night had nothing to do with scoring, as he blocked a James Harden layup attempt at the buzzer to seal the victory for the Spurs.
He grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with his point total.
Tony Parker: F
If I told you that Tony Parker would only score two points against the Rockets, would you think the Spurs would have any chance of winning?
Well, that's exactly what happened at the Toyota Center.
Parker scored two points off 1-of-7 shooting and didn't even appear to look for his shot for most of this game. Perhaps he knew he just didn't have it.
The Frenchman also failed to get to the free-throw line.
Not one of his better nights.
Manu Ginobili: C
While Duncan was vintage Duncan, Manu Ginobili certainly was not vintage Manu Ginobili.
The sixth-man extraordinaire had six points off 3-of-7 shooting and turned the ball over four times in 21 minutes. He made some very sloppy passes and also demonstrated a shaky handle, including a late-game turnover that almost cost San Antonio the win.
Somehow, Ginobili was a plus-14, but don't be fooled: he wasn't himself in this ball game.
Kawhi Leonard: B
Kawhi Leonard got off to a rough start in this one, missing six of his first seven shots, including a few layups at point blank range.
He quickly righted the ship, stroking mid-range jumpers and being his usual disruptive self on the defensive end, using his long arms and huge hands to play the passing lanes and snare four steals.
Due to his shaky start, Leonard shot just 7-of-17, but he ended up with 18 points and nine boards.
Danny Green: B
Danny Green's outing Friday night is a perfect example of why you can't just look at the stat sheet to determine how well a player played.
Green did not score a single point in this contest. He shot 0-of-7 and missed five three-pointers, just about all of them being wide-open looks that he normally makes.
So, outside of spacing the floor, his offense was nowhere to be seen.
Defensively, however, he shined.
Green absolutely locked down MVP candidate James Harden, holding him to 5-of-19 shooting. He harassed him on the perimeter, suffocated him on drives and gave him limited space to operate. Most importantly, he did all of that without fouling.
For that effort, he gets a solid grade.
Rest of Team: A-
Patty Mills finally had a big game off the bench.
The explosive guard scored 14 points in 11 minutes, going 4-of-4 from the field and making all three of his three-point tries. He hit two huge triples near the end of the third quarter to give the Spurs a five-point lead.
Aron Baynes was terrific, too.
With Tiago Splitter (calf) still out, Baynes got the start, and he responded with 13 points, four boards and some physical defense on Dwight Howard. He went 5-of-6 from the floor and had a couple of and-1s.
Boris Diaw struggled, going just 4-of-13 from the floor and missing some runners.
Jeff Ayres and Cory Joseph gave the Spurs some good minutes early, playing some solid defense in the first half.
Houston Rockets
James Harden: D+
If Harden was looking to answer Stephen Curry's 45-point outburst from the other night, he failed miserably.
The superstar 2-guard missed 14 of his 19 shots and went just 0-of-8 in a crucial third quarter. He scored just five points in the second half and only took six free throws in total during this contest.
It's not that Harden was forcing the issue, either.
He took mostly good shots, but he missed a couple of layups and had Green's hand in his face for most of the evening.
Harden did somewhat make up for his abysmal shooting output with some nice playmaking, dishing out 10 assists. He did a nice job of sucking in the defense and finding open shooters on the perimeter.
Overall, though, this was hardly an MVP-caliber performance by Harden.
Dwight Howard: A-
Dwight Howard was very effective in 27 minutes of action.
He scored 12 points off 3-of-5 shooting, making a couple of nice power buckets in the paint. Not only that, he also went a solid 6-of-9 from the free-throw line.
Howard grabbed 14 rebounds, too, and served as a good rim-deterrent, blocking a couple of shots and altering a couple of others.
Josh Smith: C
What a crazy night it was for Josh Smith.
Thanks to some intentional fouling by the Spurs, Smith ended up taking 26 free throws. The bad news for Houston was that he only hit 12.
According to Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News, fouling Smith was a two-pronged attack:
Otherwise, Smith played fairly well.
He tallied 20 points, six rebounds and four assists, making some nice plays in transition.
Smith shot 4-of-9 from the floor.
Trevor Ariza: A
Trevor Ariza had one of the more efficient nights you will see.
He went 7-of-8 from the floor, going 4-of-5 from downtown. He buried triples from the corner all night, regardless of whether or not there was a hand in his grill.
Oddly enough, the Rockets hardly went to Ariza down the stretch. That definitely seems like a mistake, considering Ariza had by far the hottest hand on the team in the loss.
He finished with 19 points.
Terrence Jones: B
Terrence Jones was solid.
He scored 14 points off 5-of-9 shooting, making some difficult shots inside and utilizing his handles to get to the rack.
Jones also pulled down six boards in 30 minutes.
His biggest contribution came in the third period, where he scored the Rockets' first seven points.
Rest of Team: C-
Corey Brewer had a decent game, registering 11 points off a 3-of-6 clip. However, he did not make his typical impact. He did not score in bunches nor did he make any truly great plays in transition.
Other than Brewer, production from Houston's role players was scarce.
Jason Terry scored nine points off 3-of-8 shooting and missed some good looks.
Pablo Prigioni and Joey Dorsey were essentially non-factors in their limited minutes.
What's Next?
The Spurs will look to win their 11th straight game when they host the Phoenix Suns at 7 p.m. ET Sunday night.
Meanwhile, the Rockets will host the playoff-hopeful New Orleans Pelicans on the same day at the same time.
