Houston Rockets: FOUR ways to beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4

The Houston Rockets look as worse as I’ve seen them as they took on the San Antonio Spurs in last night’s Game 3.

There was something missing, as if they didn’t have their killer instinct, the right stuff and certainly the will to win.

All of those attributes were embodied in the Spurs, a team is a well-oiled machine.

When one part goes bad, Gregg Popovich replaces it with another and things keep on moving.

There is absolutely no reason why these Houston Rockets should’ve lost this game last night other than the fact that they were the opposite of the Spurs.

I’ll be damned if I see this team roll over and allow for San Antonio to come in and take this over.

They’ve accomplished too much and have gone too far to let this happen.

Although the Houston Rockets hung in there for quite some time, the bottom fell out down the stretch and our team started to wave the surrender flag.

I know there were some terrible calls made by last night’s officiating crew but we can’t let that dictate or allow for the team to deviate for the task at hand — winning the basketball game.

What do the Rockets need to do to win Game 4?

Here are some things that need to be done:

1.) Play basketball of both ends of the floor. In my observations, too many instances I saw many Rockets players not have defensive prowess that I’d expect to see if they want to win a game. Yes, James Harden reverted to just standing around on defense, waiting for his teammates to get a

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rebound so that he could bring the ball up and do whatever. That has to change if they expect to win another game, let alone win this series. The Spurs are going to do what they have to and it’s certainly showing. They won’t ever be the defensive juggernauts of yester-year but they have to look like they give a damn.

2.) Attempt to make inroads at matching or winning the rebounding battle. For the 2nd straight game, the Rockets were out-hustled on the boards — they lost the war 47-32 in Game 2 and 49-39 in Game 3.

I have to continue to laud Clint Capela for doing what he can — he had 16 rebounds last night — but it needs to be a concert effort in order for this attribute to work. This causes greater chance that we don’t fall behind too quickly.

3.) Make Kawhi Leonard carry the offensive load on his own. Kawhi Leonard is one of the greatest basketball players in this era, no flash or pizazz but just gets the job done. He has been the X-Factor in all of the Spurs wins and it has been proven that we CAN’T stop him.

But restrict the other guys’ production — make LaMarcus Aldridge work harder for his shots — box out Pau Gasol from the paint, do whatever it takes to make sure their bigs are non-factor. We have the tools to make it happen but it’s matter of if this goal could be accomplished.

Leonard can’t win the game by himself so make it difficult for the Spurs to conjure up a offense and then destroy them from there.

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4.) Go for the mid-range jumper for a change. As you know, there is no in-between for the Rockets. Either we’re going to shoot the three or drive to the bucket for the layup. In fact, 43.5 percent of the Rockets offense comes from the three-point shot and the remaining 56.5 percent comes from in the paint.

We’ve got quality shooters who can do this and it’s time to fine-tune an efficient system. In fact, the Rockets were 1-for-9 from shots between the arc and the paint last night.

We don’t take many shots from that area because it’s not a part of the system but I’m all for tweaks so that we can start winning games.

So that’s it — if they check off these aforementioned tidbits to work on their list, there should be no reason why they shouldn’t win Game 4.

We’ll have to see and we’ll find out soon enough.

Go Rockets.

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