Deep in the Heart of Texas: Spurs and Rockets Farther Apart Than You Think

Heart counts for a lot—and when you don’t play with any, you get what you deserve.

The Houston Rockets threw up a pedestrian performance against another lowly opponent and lost by a point at home to the Indiana Pacers. Eighth seed in the East, with a lot of luck, anyone?

The San Antonio Spurs won for the sixth time in seven games sans a Hall of Fame point guard, coming from behind to clobber the young Chicago Bulls in the fourth quarter. Both Southwest Division teams field championship expectations, and both should win out against these incomplete, mediocre Eastern Conference squads.

The Spurs took care of business, while the Rockets took most of the night off—and paid for it with an embarrassing loss that should have been by a lot more.

The standings do not yet reflect the seeming rift between these two Texas squads, and that gives the Rockets something for which to be thankful on a day when they played like turkeys instead of pro basketball players. Gobble, gobble, gobble...us up.

Forget bringing any eggs to your family celebration today. The Rockets laid plenty against a team that should not even sniff their league. For most of the night, the Rockets’ failed to get the Pacers noses out of their asses, and when it counted most in the final period of a clang fest, Jim O’ Brien’s bunch knew the smell of a much better team handing it a win.

Lethargy and overconfidence are the only chances teams like the Pacers have to win games against superior teams.

The Rockets led by 10 points with less than four minutes to go, and it seemed as though a few more baskets might sew up an ugly victory. Those baskets never came. Troy Murphy connected on back-to-back threes after Yao Ming forgot to step out to the perimeter and guard him. Murphy then shredded through Ron Artest and Carl Landry for a lay-up.

Give the Rockets this—they were in a giving mood the night before a day dedicated to being thankful for life’s blessings. The Rockets should feel thankful that such a cadre of talent allowed them to stay close in a game that wasn’t.

The Rockets stifled the Pacers in the third quarter, holding them to 17 points while pouring in 30 points. Then, with the game on the line, the Rockets fell apart.  With no on the court leader to rescue them, they tasted an early just dessert.

Tracy McGrady sat out with a sore knee that has yet to look right this season. Would his defenseless, talk-without-backing-it-up, occasionally-brilliant game have helped the Rockets on a night when all they had to do was care?

Danny Granger’s game-winning tip-in was a formality. The Rockets deserved to lose this game the minute they took their collective feet off the gas pedal with so much of the race left to finish.

Meanwhile, the Spurs overcame a poor third-quarter stretch to deliver the goods when it mattered. They defended earnestly, harassed the Bulls superior athletes into horrible shots, and on the offensive end, at least they had a clue.

Leaders help the winning cause: Who will lead the Rockets?

Flash back less than two weeks ago when these teams met, and one moment might encapsulate what separates these division foes. Matt Bonner hoisted up a contested jumper after a pinpoint pass from Tim Duncan, instead of passing it back to him on the low block. The mishap outraged Duncan, and he gave Bonner an earful.

When Bonner returned in the fourth quarter, he responded to Duncan’s tongue-lashing and sent him a bounce pass for an easy lay-up. He also nailed two three-pointers that keyed an 8-0 run after the Rockets had raced out to a 14-point advantage. Tim Duncan possesses championship-level leadership.

He acts respectfully, but also has the guts to snap at teammates who heave awful shots instead of passing it to him. You might add Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Jacque Vaughn to that list, too. If you’re counting, that’s four on-court leaders.

The Rockets boast three All-Star caliber talents, and not one of them has shown the capability to lead for any significant stretch of games. Ron Artest has spent most of his first month in a Rockets uniform camping behind the arc to chuck up threes at the end of the shot clock.

He has deferred to Tracy McGrady instead of unleashing his own mercurial game, and Wednesday night against the Pacers he missed four layups. He looks like a lost puppy at a slaughterhouse, and as much as the Rockets love his competitive spirit and defensive faculty, they need his offense, too. Did the ghost of Hurricane Ike send his offensive flow to bottom of the Buffalo Bayou?

McGrady’s story is too familiar to bear repeating. He loves to talk about winnin as Paul Pierce did in the NBA Finals, but rarely puts in the work. While nursing a bum knee, instead of getting off his keester to properly practice before games, he sits—and then wonders why it hurts after only 30 minutes of uninspired play.

Leaders fight through pain and play, or shut it down until they can contribute in a positive way. They also play defense, will victories, and take responsibility for their own shortcomings.

Few big men can stop Yao Ming when he gets the ball 10 feet or less from the basket. And reposting the 7'6" center also works wonders. The Rockets somehow forget about him in too many games.

Were Duncan getting only 11 shots a game, he would yap at his teammates—not as an antagonist, but to let them know that their shots will come from his post passes. Yao may never bite enough to command his teammates’ attention.

Some sass might have helped late in the fourth quarter, when the Rockets offensive game devolved into the one-man dribble-and-miss show of Ron Artest. Rick Adelman’s offense is predicated on ball- and man-movement, but when McGrady and Artest play with the starting unit, there seems to be a contest going as to who can wear out the hardwood first with his dribbling.

Yao also must make the close shots he gets—and in many junctures against the Pacers, he missed badly.

His defense and rebounding nose-dived just two games after he dominated Dwight Howard. Monday against Miami, his 13-point third quarter propelled the run that blew open the game.

The second unit moves the ball with greater urgency, and is generally much more enjoyable to watch. Sans Luis Scola, Artest’s defense, and sometimes Yao Ming, the starters make basketball look ugly and difficult.

The bench provides a nice spark, but all of those players are undersized and cannot be relied on consistently in close games to defend opposing scorers. Carl Landry’s hacking hands put him in a foul mood, and thus on the bench in some major stretches. His offensive board and reverse flush was the highlight of the dreary evening.

No question, Landry and speedster Aaron Brooks are joys to watch.

Luis Scola hustled for 18 boards and Landry nine, but neither could box out Granger and grab the rebound that would have sealed the win. Granger tapped the ball in and to complete the collapse fans knew was coming.

The Rockets are shooting 38 percent at Toyota Center and 46 percent on the road. Watch this team and you will notice an abundance of yapping and a dearth of leadership. Shane Battier’s return might help things, and also allow Adelman to use Artest as an explosive sixth man.

Maybe these Rockets need consistent kicks in the face. Talent is certainly not the problem. When a foot injury ended Yao Ming’s season in February, the Rockets knew they would face dogfights. They grew teeth and claws, mastered a suffocating defense, and moved the ball like a hot potato. It landed them 22 wins in a row.

The Rockets' lone spectacular outing at home this season came against the on-again, off-again New Orleans Hornets. Against the Washington Wizards last Friday, maybe the worst all-around effort of the season, they let a then 1-8 team knock them around before waking up to take back a game the knew they could not relinquish. All they had to do was care.

Spurs play better defense and offense, and Rockets will reel

Nothing in the box score of that dreadful effort against Indiana quite captures the essence of the Houston struggle like this—Indiana had 27 points in the fourth quarter, and Houston had 16.

Great teams rely on more than the playbook to score. The players on these squads know each other on a familial level, where each likes the ball, their strengths and weaknesses. It helps when even the youngsters understand the program.

Duncan abused the Bulls' porous interior defense for 18 first-half points. Rookie George Hill threw in 12 fourth-quarter points, most of them layups against much-hyped first selection Derrick Rose. Manu Ginobili also helped the comeback effort with another mini-run that prompted a quick timeout from Vinny Del Negro.

The Spurs may not boast the best scoring talent in the NBA, but the players know what to do at the end of games and who should shoot the ball. Of all the complaints levied by players in the locker room, the guy who took the final shot isn’t one of them.

If Bonner misses a wide open 20-footer that would have won the game, and he did against the Rockets last season in Houston, no one cries. It was a solid, high-percentage look. Likewise, if Duncan shoots a lefty hook to tie the game and misses, as he did in Milwaukee weeks ago, even if someone else might have drilled the two points, no one cries.

The Rockets should do plenty of crying after Wednesday’s loss. After Landry’s magnificent reverse putback dunk, the Rockets could not score. And more disconcerting, no one wanted the ball and no one wanted to pass it, either. That might explain the two turnovers in the final minutes, and the two bricks heaved with the shot clock approaching five seconds.

It seems simple enough—get the ball to Yao Ming, and if he fails to secure good post position, repost him. For these guys, it is Rocket science. Leaders provide the kind of clout that was lacking in the Rockets’ fourth-quarter offense. Until one shows up on a nightly basis, this team will get what it deserves.

Despite those 27 points allowed in the final period, the Pacers still managed to hit only 41 percent of their shots. Well-timed scoring runs usually cover up a B-, C+ defensive effort against a blasé team.

But their timing was terrible, and for most of the game, the Rockets seemed to wait for a superhero to come and save them from their pathetic effort. They needed two baskets and couldn’t get one.

You might look at the Spurs' 8-6 record, void of impressive victories against Western Conference playoff teams except against the Rockets, and yawn. You might also give the Rockets a pass for a dismal 10-6 mark that is worse than it looks. Sure, teams need time to incorporate major pieces, and injuries do take a toll.

But how long before this pattern of win a few, lose a stinker murders the team’s championship hopes? You cannot win a championship in November and December—but you can lose one.

Right now, the team with a far-worse injury bug is playing like it gives a damn. The Spurs look like themselves again, and with perhaps the deepest backcourt Popovich has ever coached, and Tony Parker close to a return, that appearance reflects well on a certain gold trophy.

The Rockets, too, may get a taste of what June success feels like—if Spurs management hires some of the players to clean the AT&T Center floor and polish the prize named after Larry O’ Brien.

No one questions that the talent-heavy Rockets can close the gap on their Western Conference rivals if they play like they want it, but now? It’s not even close.