Rockets blast Spurs, 109-104, also Spurs vs. Suns preview

The Houston Rockets were essentially a 3 man team last night.  However, those 3 were good enough to beat the San Antonio Spurs 109-104 last night at Toyota Center.

Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks and Kevin Martin combined for 94 points.  George Hill had 26 for the Spurs as San Antonio was unable come all the way back from being down as much as 23 points.

There’s not much to say about last night’s game.  This report is about as late as their defense was for most of the night.  If it weren’t for the 2nd unit coming in with a lot of energy, the score would have been a lot worse.  I thought Malik Hairston was solid off the bench, as well as Richard Jefferson. The Rockets big three just couldn’t be stopped though. I’m sure there’s a joke about the Rockets staying on the accelerator like they’re driving one of their sponsor’s cars but I’m not going to say it.  Overall, I think you could say the Spurs performance was as ugly as a Chuck Hayes free throw.

With that in mind, I’m just going to skip handing out awards and move on to the next game. Tomorrow the Spurs play the Phoenix Suns at 1 Eastern/12 Central on ABC.

The Suns come in as winners of 11 of their last 13 and are playing really well. As usual they’re doing it with their offense. Robin Lopez is developing into a very solid player for them. He just scored 30 points in their last game against the Clippers and has scored in double figures in 16 of the last 21 games. At 7 feet tall his size may cause problems for an undersized Spurs front court.

If the Spurs want to win this game, they’ll have to limit the Suns 3 point shooters. In their last meeting, a 116-104 Suns win, Phoenix was 11-18 from behind the arc. Goran Dragic was 4-5 and Channing Frye had 3 makes to lead them.

Offensively, San Antonio should have many opportunities for easy baskets. The Suns like to play a fast paced game and because of their aggression on offense, they give up a lot of open shots on defense. It’s not a secret that Steve Nash is a defensive liability and some of their other guys don’t really concentrate on that end of the court.

Forecast: 40% chance of Ian Mahinmi

He got in the other night against Houston and most likely won’t play if it’s close. If the starters play as flat as they did against Houston though, then all bets are off.