Home » Archive » El Conclusión: San Antonio Spurs 104, Houston Rockets 103

El Conclusión: San Antonio Spurs 104, Houston Rockets 103

by Matthew Tynan

San Antonio Spurs

104

Final
Recap | Box Score

103

Houston Rockets

	Tim Duncan, PF 34 MIN \| 12-15 FG \| 5-8 FT \| 10 REB \| 2 AST \| 1 STL \| 3 BLK \| 3 TO \| 29 PTS \| -3 +/- Monster game from Duncan, and he was carrying the load while everybody else was struggling. And talk about a swing of emotion — missing a bunny that led to a Harden 3-pointer, before sealing the game with a block on the MVP hopeful’s attempt at the win. What a freaking game.
	Kawhi Leonard, SF 39 MIN \| 7-17 FG \| 4-4 FT \| 9 REB \| 2 AST \| 4 STL \| 0 BLK \| 1 TO \| 18 PTS \| -2 +/- Kawhi started off really slowly, 1-of-7 from the floor and stumbling and fumbling and bumbling his way around the court in super uncharacteristic fashion. Then he turned it on in the second half. He hit six of his final 10 shots, played great defense down the stretch, and helped out a ton on the boards when the Rockets were crashing the glass on almost all of their field-goal attempts.
	Aron Baynes, C 18 MIN \| 5-6 FG \| 3-4 FT \| 4 REB \| 1 AST \| 1 STL \| 0 BLK \| 1 TO \| 13 PTS \| -16 +/- Six fouls in 18 minutes is not good, but man, does this guy get in Dwight’s head. Oh, and Rockets fans booed the holy hell out of him. He was in everybody’s head tonight. He’s become super valuable for the Spurs, especially against teams like Houston. Gotta dock him a little for the fouls, though.
	Tony Parker, PG 28 MIN \| 1-7 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 2 REB \| 3 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 2 PTS \| -12 +/- Kevin McHale said before the game that his team had to make a concerted effort to keep Parker out of the paint. They succeeded in doing so. Funny thing is, I couldn’t believe he only had two points tonight when I saw the box score. I didn’t even notice. Crazy-ass night, but a bad game for Tony.
	Danny Green, SG 24 MIN \| 0-7 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 2 REB \| 4 AST \| 1 STL \| 0 BLK \| 2 TO \| 0 PTS \| -5 +/- This is a tough one. Danny couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean, but he did a hell of a job defending James Harden. The bearded one went 5-of-19 from the floor, including just 2-of-13 in the second half, and much of it was because Danny never let him get comfortable. That, and the whole ‘Bust-a-Smoove’ thing that happened. Hard to get in a rhythm offensively when you’re just living at the line. Really good defensive game, really bad offensive game. I always side with the defensive portion of things.
	Jeff Ayres, PF 8 MIN \| 2-3 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 3 REB \| 0 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 4 PTS \| +9 +/- Got some weird early playing time with Baynes in foul trouble and Duncan resting. He was very up and down — giving up easy bounce-passes from big men to backdoor-cutting wings, then finding a few nice buckets on the other end. Thing is, he contributed when others really weren’t in the first half, so that gives him a bump. It’s all relative, anyway, and the Spurs played really well while he was on the floor.
	Marco Belinelli, SF 14 MIN \| 2-4 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 1 REB \| 1 AST \| 2 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 5 PTS \| +1 +/- Pretty quiet. Didn’t seem to be moving all that well. I wonder if the groin is still troubling him. Still, hit a couple of shots and managed to snag a couple of steals.
	Matt Bonner, C 7 MIN \| 0-1 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 0 REB \| 0 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 0 PTS \| +1 +/- Matt is still a little funky in the tummy, I think. That gastroenteritis can linger.
	Boris Diaw, C 26 MIN \| 4-13 FG \| 2-2 FT \| 5 REB \| 4 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 10 PTS \| +5 +/- Solid game for Boris, but length of Houston’s interior was definitely bothering him. Still, you like to see the full box score.
	Patty Mills, PG 11 MIN \| 4-4 FG \| 3-4 FT \| 1 REB \| 2 AST \| 1 STL \| 0 BLK \| 3 TO \| 14 PTS \| +5 +/- PATTY!!!! Man, was it fun to see that Patty Mills again? He’s been mired in an awful slump all season, and you kind of forget how much he can flip the momentum of a game. Such a fun player when he gets going. I spoke with him after the game, and he still seems to be finding himself after a lot of bench time in recent weeks. Let’s see how things go from here.
	Cory Joseph, PG 9 MIN \| 1-1 FG \| 1-2 FT \| 1 REB \| 0 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 1 TO \| 3 PTS \| +8 +/- Really quiet game tonight, but mostly because Patty lit the spark. But when Cory did play tonight, the Spurs were really good, especially defensively. Seems to be the case with him on most nights.
	Manu Ginobili, SG 21 MIN \| 3-7 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 2 REB \| 4 AST \| 2 STL \| 0 BLK \| 4 TO \| 6 PTS \| +14 +/- Not a great Manu game overall… just too many of those ugly turnovers. The high plus/minus is certainly misleading at times. He had his nice moments, but the bad stuff always tends to stick in mind. (Update: NBA has ruled Manu was fouled on his final turnover.)
	Gregg Popovich Forced Josh Smith to take a career-high 26 free-throw attempts, and everyone HATED it. It was wildly entertaining. To me, at least… I might be the only one. Once again, he pulled the right strings all night.

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Ryan McShane

It was definitely a block. Duncan got ball first.
saspurzfan

great game-makes me wanna go practice my FT’s so i dont let my blacktop team down!
saspurzfan

watching pro basketball for so long-you know they wont call a foul in the last seconds. He got ball. Game over-now we just got to see who we want to play in the playoffs and strategize. I dont want to play Houston or Dallas.
hoopsaf

This was the worst Spurs have played in a while. TP played like the worst PG in the entire league, and made Jason Terry look like a youngster on defense. Danny couldn’t hit a single shot, even when left wide open. Kawhi couldn’t finish point blank layups.

All things considered, I guess it’s impressive that they still won.

Tony really hurt the team early on with his lackadaisical game. He’s like the worst PG in the entire league when he’s playing like he did tonight.
twinm85

those last two fouls on baynes were complete BS. howard was chicken winging and creating contact, and the refs were officiating with a complete duolbe standard of allowing howard to be handsy and physical, but not us. i say don’t dock baynes for the fouls, dock the refs.
TD BestEVER

Great game and great job from TD. But the Spurs offense looked horrible down the stretch. When the Spurs have to play slow to protect the lead we really get out of sorts. POP has to change that going into the playoffs. And more CJ/Patty when he is on please
GFoyle33

To me, I thought Pop’s fouling spree was his reaction to the ridiculous way the refs were calling the game. I think he figured, ‘If they’re going to keep putting guys on the line for stupid crap, I might as well control exactly which Rocket takes the free throws’ (and disrupt Houston’s offensive flow in the process). What a poorly called game.
Spurs Fan in Australia

I watched this game on ESPN in Australia and for some reason they went with the local Houston announcers calling the game and it was ridiculous. Every time a Rocket player fouled a Spurs player, the Spurs player was flopping and the NBA needs to get it out the game. Rockets player gets fouled and every single time it was a good call.

What made me swear at the TV was when Baynes got his 6th foul because two Rockets players bumped into him, the Rockets player put his hand up to accept the foul and the Ref called it against Baynes!! That was the worst call.

And after the Duncan Block at the end of the game, they were going on and on about how it was a foul and a ridiculous no call and that’s twice now this year Harden had been fouled on attempted game winners with no call. I had a good laugh at that.

What a game though. Good win by the Spurs, we deserved a close game win.
thedrwolff

TIM FU&%ING DUNCAN. What he did tonight we wont see from another NBA player in our lifetime. The Duncan/Kobe argument is officially laid to rest after this one. The difference between ALL TIME GREAT and players who are great thru their prime was on full display tonight. His team shooting weak in a MUST win game. I can’t express how inhuman that is at 39. 12-15 for 29/10 and 3blocks…he drains the clutch free throws, Had the bunny for game winner but 31 points pushing 39 yo would’ve melted too many brains, ) Then blocks the game winner on an arguable MVP. He wins it at both ends of the court. I can’t even come up with a parallel outside of Kareem. He IS the greatest player of his generation with a close second and the field is MILES behind and he WANTS the title. What moron is asking if this guy is retiring? From this team that is going to the WCF for the 4th year in a row and shows NO signs of dropping off next season? He appears to be completely healthy. He absolutely loves to play and he can STILL play at an all star level. Is it just that NORMALLY everyone is so used to 39 year old players being over the hill they can’t believe what he’s doing?
Psychologically we needed to win a close game and who else but the all time great stands up and carries us to the win. THAT was amazing. Every Spurs fan has got to be completely locked in after that one like we just beat the english on the open field and watched William Wallace throw his sword. What an example…. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! BRING ON THE FU%$%@%WARRIORS. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
thedrwolff

Thats the nature of fans. what can you do? The Harden flop on Duncans screen as well as the Harden shoulder block into the driving Ginobilli…both BS and they don’t say a word. Are you telling me Harden doesn’t get that call if Ginobilli bumps him to lose the ball? Riiiiight.

They had the Ball and the best closer in the game for the final shot down by 1. They take that 100 out of 100 times. He ate it. Clean block first then contact. Thats a block in the NBA. You see guys get murdered on follow through all the time. As long as you get ball first they NEVER call that…except in Utah.
http://inargenti.nl René Torenstra

Haha, great comment!
We’ve had all the discussions on how it was Timmy’s team, then Manu’s, then Tony’s and now Kawhi’s, but when it really counts, it’s Duncan’s team.
brunostrange

Well we’re likely playing one of them. Not to get overconfident but SA should be able to handle either in a seven game series.
fkj74

Note to Rockets..make your free throws. That game was intense. Good we finally won a close one. Go Spurs!
Sanchez

Grizzlies vs Clippers 10pm EST. Second night of a BtoB for Grizz. Someone has to lose that game. Pretty much locks the 3 seed for us if the clips lose…pretty much locks the 2 seed with a memphis loss since they play AT golden state on Monday. Whoever loses is looking at the 5 seed. Want to see WAR on a BBALL court. Buckle up for that one. Tonights the first time I’ve seen Kawhi finish at the rim like a true Spur. 18/9 and 4 steals is an OFF night. That’s how good he has become.
junierizzle

I’d be kinda nervous if they played the Mavs. They always play the Spurs tough, they haven’t really figured out Monta, and you’d have think the Mavs believe that they were one game away from going on a deep run last season.
junierizzle

I wouldn’t worry about it. Tonight was Duncan’s night.
junierizzle

Damn, it felt good to see Mills hit those threes. Not garbage threes but momentum swinging threes. I hope it’s the start of something.
birdie

Why +- is worthless: Tim Duncan, 29 points, -3. Smh.
Gomezd

Shouldnt it have been freethrows and possesion on the dwight foul on Duncan? Last 2 mins of the 4th an away from the ball foul is 2, pick shooter and possesion no? Or is it only if the foul is done in the backcourt???
wannabe_fake_tough_guy

“The high plus/minus is certainly misleading at times.”

Silly comment that comes from not watching the game, or trying to watch 2-3 other games, or playing on twitter, or combination of all 3. Manu’s “misleading high plus/minus” came when Manu & Boris and the bench dragged the Spurs back into the game in the 2nd quarter. IIRC, Manu had one terrible pass. And the last turnover, while it came at a very bad time, should have been a foul on Harden. And would have been a foul on most other players and/or if this was a home game.

The El Conclusion is becoming “Whose Line is it Anyway”…where the grades don’t matter. Love all of the 48MOH staff, but it seems that there’s been a weird inconsistency. Maybe it’s due to a level of boredom on that night/that writer; too many beers; or too much concentration on the next shiny twitter object.

Go Spurs Go!
Kenneth Tjeerdsma

Just a couple of thoughts 1) Kawhi was finally able to turn things around on an off night. It seems like in the past if he’s having an off night he doesn’t really do anything except defense. This time he shot his way out of the mini-slump. This is a sign of maturity. 2) Cleveland is now 2 losses behind the Spurs. This could be important in the future if the Spurs play them in the Finals because the Spurs will very likely have home court advantage over them now. Not something to spend too much time on, but the path is being paved.
Ed Yates

THE worst officiated game I’ve seen this season. The refs had no idea what they were doing. Completely embarrassing for the league.
Ed Yates

THE worst officiated game I’ve seen this season. The refs had no idea what they were doing. Completely embarrassing for the league.
Ed Yates

Gotta worry. The playoffs are around the corner and Tony is having WAY more nights like this than like the game before. Even Pop said they can’t win without Tony playing at a high level. Most nights he looks washed up lately, then he’ll have ONE game like the 1st Houston game. Can’t win a title like that.
TD BestEVER

Games and season like this are why I call TD the 3rd best all time behind Jordan and Kareem. I think with one more title he passes Kareem and one next year means he would be the ALL TIME GREATEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please say you’ll stay a few more TD!!!!
Caui sounds better than kawhi

Whenever a game gets the nba tv treatment they only show the home stream. I liked Drexler as a player, but he’s the worst analist ever. Both he and the play by play guy talked about flopping and the refs. That’s it. No basketball talk whatsoever. It was hilarious hearing them praising the refs for fouling out baynes and how they called the game whenever a call went in their favor, and then going crazy when they didn’t call the last foul on harden.
Sean Elliot may be the biggest homer, but he’s fair and talks about actual basketball plays.
Great game!
Go spurs!
hoopsaf

Despite what Pop said earlier in the season, I think Spurs don’t need old Tony to win the championship. Kawhi can take the scoring/play-making responsibility just fine.

What hurts them though is if the liability Tony is actually staying on the floor. When Tony can’t get by Jason Terry and he can’t defend anyone, just take him out and sub in Cojo. I didn’t understand why Cojo only saw 8 minutes last night.
DorieStreet

Kareem has six titles (’71 Bucks and ’80-’82-’85-’87-’88 Lakers) as does Jordan (’91-’92-’93-’96-’97-’98 Bulls).
DorieStreet

An ugly & wild win. Outstanding run since the end of the RRT. The 3rd seed is there for the taking.
James Andrews

My thought exactly, Pop’s reaction to ref’s treatment of D.Howard’s chicken wing-off arm antics.
DorieStreet

Look at the bright side——before this week’s games, the Spurs would have been playing the Rockets / whomever as a 6th seed.
joe

That Baynes call for his 6th foul may have been the worst call I have ever seen in my 25 years of watching the NBA.
junierizzle

Sure, that was the narrative two months ago when TP had no confidence for some reason. TP has been pretty consistent over the last month. Look at Kawhi, he had a terrible first half. He turned it around in the second half but they need him too. They need everyone and some nights Leonard will be hot. Some nights TP will be. Last night it was Duncan who was hot and I have no doubt Manu will have a night like that in the playoffs. That’s how the Spurs roll, right?
junierizzle

Lol. So true. Last week all I wanted was HCA in the first round. How soo we forget.
Lbj parked

Agreed. Its in Lakers v. Sacramento 2002 territory
Ryan McShane

The Mavs don’t have DeJuan Blair anymore. I think he was a huge key to their success in that series! Blair knows the Spurs inside and out. Monta Ellis was -52 over the course of seven games. DeJuan Blair was +20 (over six games). I just don’t think that series is close like it was last year without Blair.
Ryan McShane

I was thinking the same thing. I don’t think these refs were on top of their game. They didn’t call the foul TP had against Josh Smith and Harden scored. They tried to review an unreviewable call when they ruled that Harden’s 3 didn’t count after Spurs fouled Smith.
Matt Binger

I love the hack-a-whoever as well. I think you are right on point. If you dont like it as a player, practice shooting free throws more. I mean, millions of dollars isnt enough motivation by itself?
SpurredOn

Amazing to win on the road (had lost four consecutive in that arena) with TD missing that last bunny, Tony and Manu combining for 8 points, Kawhi not reaching 20, and Danny missing everything despite being usually wide open. Team win, led by Mr. Duncan.

Baynes deserves some breaks on the fouls. His sixth was phantom (he got fouled). A few others were 50/50 but he also drew a few 50/50 on Howard. His technical was a BS call, as he was trying to make sure that Howard didn’t get an and-1. Refs should be wiser than that.
SpurredOn

Do recall that last season, the Mavs entered the playoffs on a roll from just trying to make it in whereas the Spurs were playing out the string with everything clinched. It took a while to get dialed in but, once they did, good night to all. This season they’ll be the team on a roll entering the playoffs. Also funny to think, without the Vince Carter miracle, Spurs win that series 4-1 and no one really thinks back on it as being at all special. But without the competition, perhaps the Spurs would not have entered the Portland series so dialed in. Everything happens for a reason.
junierizzle

Really good point about that Carter three. (He traveled too but that’s besides the point)

	Tim Duncan, PF 34 MIN \| 12-15 FG \| 5-8 FT \| 10 REB \| 2 AST \| 1 STL \| 3 BLK \| 3 TO \| 29 PTS \| -3 +/- Monster game from Duncan, and he was carrying the load while everybody else was struggling. And talk about a swing of emotion — missing a bunny that led to a Harden 3-pointer, before sealing the game with a block on the MVP hopeful’s attempt at the win. What a freaking game.
	Kawhi Leonard, SF 39 MIN \| 7-17 FG \| 4-4 FT \| 9 REB \| 2 AST \| 4 STL \| 0 BLK \| 1 TO \| 18 PTS \| -2 +/- Kawhi started off really slowly, 1-of-7 from the floor and stumbling and fumbling and bumbling his way around the court in super uncharacteristic fashion. Then he turned it on in the second half. He hit six of his final 10 shots, played great defense down the stretch, and helped out a ton on the boards when the Rockets were crashing the glass on almost all of their field-goal attempts.
	Aron Baynes, C 18 MIN \| 5-6 FG \| 3-4 FT \| 4 REB \| 1 AST \| 1 STL \| 0 BLK \| 1 TO \| 13 PTS \| -16 +/- Six fouls in 18 minutes is not good, but man, does this guy get in Dwight’s head. Oh, and Rockets fans booed the holy hell out of him. He was in everybody’s head tonight. He’s become super valuable for the Spurs, especially against teams like Houston. Gotta dock him a little for the fouls, though.
	Tony Parker, PG 28 MIN \| 1-7 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 2 REB \| 3 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 2 PTS \| -12 +/- Kevin McHale said before the game that his team had to make a concerted effort to keep Parker out of the paint. They succeeded in doing so. Funny thing is, I couldn’t believe he only had two points tonight when I saw the box score. I didn’t even notice. Crazy-ass night, but a bad game for Tony.
	Danny Green, SG 24 MIN \| 0-7 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 2 REB \| 4 AST \| 1 STL \| 0 BLK \| 2 TO \| 0 PTS \| -5 +/- This is a tough one. Danny couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean, but he did a hell of a job defending James Harden. The bearded one went 5-of-19 from the floor, including just 2-of-13 in the second half, and much of it was because Danny never let him get comfortable. That, and the whole ‘Bust-a-Smoove’ thing that happened. Hard to get in a rhythm offensively when you’re just living at the line. Really good defensive game, really bad offensive game. I always side with the defensive portion of things.
	Jeff Ayres, PF 8 MIN \| 2-3 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 3 REB \| 0 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 4 PTS \| +9 +/- Got some weird early playing time with Baynes in foul trouble and Duncan resting. He was very up and down — giving up easy bounce-passes from big men to backdoor-cutting wings, then finding a few nice buckets on the other end. Thing is, he contributed when others really weren’t in the first half, so that gives him a bump. It’s all relative, anyway, and the Spurs played really well while he was on the floor.
	Marco Belinelli, SF 14 MIN \| 2-4 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 1 REB \| 1 AST \| 2 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 5 PTS \| +1 +/- Pretty quiet. Didn’t seem to be moving all that well. I wonder if the groin is still troubling him. Still, hit a couple of shots and managed to snag a couple of steals.
	Matt Bonner, C 7 MIN \| 0-1 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 0 REB \| 0 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 0 PTS \| +1 +/- Matt is still a little funky in the tummy, I think. That gastroenteritis can linger.
	Boris Diaw, C 26 MIN \| 4-13 FG \| 2-2 FT \| 5 REB \| 4 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 0 TO \| 10 PTS \| +5 +/- Solid game for Boris, but length of Houston’s interior was definitely bothering him. Still, you like to see the full box score.
	Patty Mills, PG 11 MIN \| 4-4 FG \| 3-4 FT \| 1 REB \| 2 AST \| 1 STL \| 0 BLK \| 3 TO \| 14 PTS \| +5 +/- PATTY!!!! Man, was it fun to see that Patty Mills again? He’s been mired in an awful slump all season, and you kind of forget how much he can flip the momentum of a game. Such a fun player when he gets going. I spoke with him after the game, and he still seems to be finding himself after a lot of bench time in recent weeks. Let’s see how things go from here.
	Cory Joseph, PG 9 MIN \| 1-1 FG \| 1-2 FT \| 1 REB \| 0 AST \| 0 STL \| 0 BLK \| 1 TO \| 3 PTS \| +8 +/- Really quiet game tonight, but mostly because Patty lit the spark. But when Cory did play tonight, the Spurs were really good, especially defensively. Seems to be the case with him on most nights.
	Manu Ginobili, SG 21 MIN \| 3-7 FG \| 0-0 FT \| 2 REB \| 4 AST \| 2 STL \| 0 BLK \| 4 TO \| 6 PTS \| +14 +/- Not a great Manu game overall… just too many of those ugly turnovers. The high plus/minus is certainly misleading at times. He had his nice moments, but the bad stuff always tends to stick in mind. (Update: NBA has ruled Manu was fouled on his final turnover.)
	Gregg Popovich Forced Josh Smith to take a career-high 26 free-throw attempts, and everyone HATED it. It was wildly entertaining. To me, at least… I might be the only one. Once again, he pulled the right strings all night.

El Conclusión: San Antonio Spurs 104, Houston Rockets 103

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