Spurs will keep Ime Udoka's "real noise" goal for Rockets to a whisper

A preseason game scheduled in Cotai, Macau allows the Rockets to begin their training camp a week early, which means... Media Day. That's where Houston's head coach, Ime Udoka, told reporters, "We're not here to make the first round. We want to make some real noise." But the only way they can do that is by making it out of the West, and there's no way the Spurs will allow that.

Houston owned this matchup until Wembanyama grew up

I'm not going to pretend the Rockets haven't given the Silver and Black problems. In Wemby's rookie season, the Spurs went 1-3 against Houston. In year two, 1-3 again. That's 2-6 across two years, and some of those losses were pretty ugly: a 127-100 beatdown in November 2024, a 118-106 loss in H-Town that February. The Rockets were exactly the kind of big, physical team a young Spurs team struggled with.

Then last season happened.

San Antonio took the series 3-1, and the three wins weren't close: 121-110 in November, 111-99 in Houston in January, and a 145-120 dismantling in March. Houston's only win was 111-106 back in January. Five points during the Spurs' worst month of the campaign. That loss had little to do with the Rockets and more to do with midseason woes.

The Spurs finished 62-20, made it out of the West, and unfortunately lost to the Knicks in the Finals. But the Rockets finished 52-30 and went home in the first round... again.

Houston made changes but the Spurs will remain a problem

The games haven't started yet, so right now, it's okay to have pie-in-the-sky hopes. Some may even believe that Houston is the sleeper that ruins our encore, and the case always starts in the same place: they finally have a point guard again. Fred VanVleet is back after an early injury cost him the season. That matters some, but nowhere near enough.

Let's be honest about who Fred is. He's a solid starting point guard. Solid. That's not prime James Harden walking through that door. Nobody in the West is rewriting a game plan because VanVleet is back. He averaged 14 points and 6 assists on 38% FG and 35% 3PT the year before he got hurt.

That's not exactly striking fear into anyone's heart, and it's unlikely the 30-year-old guard will be 100% himself after missing a full season.

The offense still belongs to Kevin Durant, who turns 38 next week. They'll ask for more from Reed Sheppard, but he's still not going to guard anybody. Amen Thompson will be working on his jumper with new hire Chip Engelland, which is the smartest thing Houston did all summer, but a jump shot doesn't arrive on a schedule. Chip is the best in the business, but he's not a magician. It'll take time.

Don't even get me started on Alperen Sengun. He said he wants to be the best player in the league at his media session. That's cute and all. It's nice to have goals, but that's never going to happen.

The Spurs now have too many answers for Houston.

For what it's worth, Udoka didn't say anything wrong. You're supposed to set a high bar and believe your guys can clear it. No coach walks into media day and announces he's hoping for a competitive first-round loss. But now that the fantasizing portion of the calendar is over, here's the reality check: the Rockets won't beat OKC, and they're not good enough to knock off the Spurs.

Maybe they finally win a series for the first time since 2020. Fine. But there's no 2026 Spurs-style run to the Finals waiting for this roster. Their run gets short somewhere, and the last time Houston met a Spurs team built to compete for championships like this one in the postseason, San Antonio ended it in six and won the closeout game by 39.

That's the corner they're getting shoved back into. Spurs Nation has watched it happen before, and I speak for us all when I say we'd love to watch it happen again.

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