Recap: Houston Rockets 97 – San Antonio Spurs 90

Andrew Richardson-USA TODAY Sports

The Spurs have been held to under 100 points twice since Christmas day, want to take a guess which team is responsible for both occurrences? No you idiot, the answer was the Rockets. Gah, that was an easy one dude.

What a fun game. I was able to procure some tickets to it, and I’m glad I did. Last one I went to was the OKC Thunder meltdown where they were handing out complimentary nooses at the exits. The atmosphere was great and the fans were fired up.

One other thing to preface before jumping into the recap. So most Rockets fans understand that when we play the Mavericks or the Spurs the opposing teams fans are going to travel well. That’s just part of being in the Texas Triangle. Well in tonight’s wintery matchup against the San Antonio Spurs (more like Burrrrrs, amirite?), my particular section had an Overly Aggressive Fan of the Spurs that completely changed the game experience for everyone around him. I am going to tell his story along with the story of the game; it was something special.

Whoa what a weird coincidence! Overly Aggressive Fan of the Spurs can be turned into the acronym O.A.F.S., which is the plural of a word that is used to refer to “a stupid, uncultured, or clumsy person”.  What a weird twist. Well we shall refer to our man as Oaf then. It seems like the right thing to do.

TO THE RECAP!

The Skinny

All right so I missed the first couple minutes of disaster because I stubbornly chose to get a delicious brisket sandwich instead of the paltry chicken tenders that my buddy Danny got. We grabbed a couple craft beers from what I assume is a little local brewery called Anheuser Busch and headed for our seats. Here we discovered the Oaf. “WAY TO GO CHAMPS! WE ARE THE CHAMPS!” We look at the court and it’s a time out with Spurs up 6-0.  That’s kind of weird, nothing is really happening yet, why is he already at full tilt? We sit down and the other Rockets fans are already fully engaged in “Is this guy for real?” talk.

[Parker free throws] YEAH NUMBER 9! YOU’RE THE CHAMP! WE ARE THE CHAMPS! EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP A CHAMP IS AT THE LINE!” …Yeah this guy is for real, and there are 8 minutes left in the first quarter. [Takes big gulp of beer.]

The Rockets had made the decision that they would lean hard on Dwight Howard at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the game since Harden was out with a thumb injury.  Howard got six shots in the first quarter and hit none of them. For the most part they were just bad luck shots. Howards was out maneuvering Duncan and getting good looks at the basket but they REFUSED to go in. Overall, considering how overmatched Duncan was physically, he did a very nice job on defense as always.

Once the Howard Well came up dry, the Rockets pretty much panicked. Everyone took their turn ISO-ing and failing until Terrence “Basketball” Jones got his shot. Jones was the offense in the first quarter. Boris Diaw had the bulk to move TJ around but Jones had the quicks to make him pay for all those Big Macs Diaw put down over the years. Jones had 10 of the Rockets 20 points in the first and despite being down 21-6 at one point, Houston had come back to make it 28-20 going into the second.

The Rockets grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and attempted 16-second chance shots tonight, which was huge for them because everything was a struggle in the first half. We were ice cold from behind the arc the whole night shooting 5-18 and if it wasn’t for the active play of the Rocket big men, this could have turned into a rout.

Something that was remarkable to me was the Spurs transition defense. Danny and I pointed out over and over again that every time the Rockets looked poised for the break, the Spurs were already sitting in position on the opposite end using their extra time to discuss the merits or demerits of the State of the Union address.

The Rockets and Spurs struggled their way through the second quarter and going into the half the Rockets were down 46-39. And I think most of us were pretty happy with that considering. Although we might have been happy just because Oaf had taken off for the concession stand and was no longer yelling in our ear. You could start to hear his voice breaking little by little as vocal cords were being pushed to the human limit. Also by this time he had proclaimed he “IS THE LOUDEST PERSON IN TOYOTA CENTER!” and the natives were growing restless.

The dude bothered me but not to the point of anger. The human brain is designed for things like this. He was so repetitive that eventually it was pretty much like the sound of an air conditioner that my ears don’t really hear anymore. The unintended consequence of all this was that all the Rockets fans in our section had started to bond over this maniac and we were all storing up our ammo for the end of the game.

The third quarter was started off beautifully with a Patrick Beverley assist, steal and layup. And just like that the deficit was two. Then Manu Ginobili tried to get into the action. He forced his way to the rim repeatedly and drew two fouls back to back. In the third possession, he got some speed up and leaped with everything he had to throw down a massive gravity-defying slam on the Rockets defense. Cue the Oaf, “OH YEAH, 2-0 YOU ARE A CHAMP!” Does this guy not know their names?

BUT, Ginobili immediately grabs the back of his leg and I ask my friend Danny, “Do you think he pulled something?” To which he responds, “Hell yeah he did. He pulled himself out of 2006. Where did that dunk come from?” To which I gave him a fist bump cause that was damn good.

Manu leaves the game soon after and the Rockets start laying the wood on the Spurs. With the Rockets leading 60-56, Popovich went to the Hack-a-Howard with four minutes left. Howard and the Rockets responded by extending the lead to 72-64 by the end of the third quarter. Pop had been foiled again.

The fourth quarter featured the Houston Rockets versus the San Antonio Diaws. Boris Diaw has quite a bit of weight on Terrence Jones and the Spurs exploited that like the QVC channel does the elderly. Diaw took nine shots and against TJ most of them went in. With just under two minutes to go the lead was 90-88 Rockets, and Houston needed a big play.

Howard gets the ball down low but gets swatted by Timmy D. Aaron Brooks gathers the board and sends it flying from deep, but misses on a high bounce. Howard skys above what seemed like the entire Spurs team to get the board and SLAM it back down. The Toyota Center went nuts. Lin iced it on the next play with a clutch fade away bank shot. And as the final minutes drained from the clock, Rockets fans proceeded to unleash an onslaught of “LETS GO ROCKETS” on our now voiceless Mr. Oaf. It was beautiful.

Thoughts on the game

Free Throws

There was nothing free about them tonight. 26-47 for 55%. Just awful. My dad texted me during the game saying, “Wouldn’t a good YMCA team do better than 26-47 from the line? The payroll would certainly be less…” Now that statement doesn’t tell the whole story obviously but it still is very true. I have come to grips that DW will always be terrible at free throws but it should not be a “smart play” to foul TJ or Casspi in the act of shooting and right now it is.

The Good Wife

The Oaf was sitting with a woman who I assume was his wife. I wonder if this was just another day at the office for her? To have random people yelling in her general direction because of the ridiculous actions of her husband has maybe become the norm. I bet she actually likes it since he is voiceless by the fourth quarter and she doesn’t have to listen to his crap for a couple days. Bless her heart.

Check out the statistical nitty-gritty here.

The Rockets do it again on Wednesday against the Mavericks at 7:30 PM CST.