The Spurs had four quarters of problems to fix before Wembanyama’s last shot mattered

Victor Wembanyama should have dunked that ball. I know it, you know it, he knows it, and the Spurs' star center said as much after the game when local reporters asked what he would have done differently on the last play. "I would have dunked it," he replied.

Amen Thompson made a sensational play that almost nobody else in the league can make, but he made it. Give him and the Rockets credit for pulling out a 114-110 victory at the Moody Center in Austin. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about what else went wrong, because plenty did.

San Antonio's defense struggled to contain Houston

Alperen Sengun dropped 29 points. Kevin Durant and Amen Thompson chipped in 20 apiece. Fred VanVleet gave the Rockets 14, and Tari Eason contributed 12. H-Town scored at least 29 in every quarter except the third (24), and opened with 32 in Q1. There was no point in time when it felt like the Silver and Black really strung together stops and buckets to control the game.

The Rockets shot 40% from three compared to 32.4% for San Antonio, so they lost the perimeter shooting battle. Houston went 28-for-31 (90.3%) from the free-throw line. The Spurs missed seven freebies at the charity stripe, going 18-for-25 (72%)—a four-miss discrepancy in a four-point loss.

Devin Vassell racked up four fouls for the second straight game. SA had 26 of them total, which is how their East Texas rivals ran up their FT number to 31. Not every call was a good one, but that's the way it goes in the NBA.

The Spurs' rotation is taking the long route

It gets even better when you look closer. In the short sample of two games, Mitch Johnson's ball club has put up 107 points per game. That's 21st in the league. Their defensive rating lands them at 17th. That's not the team Spurs Nation got used to last season.

Coach warned everyone that smoothing out the new rotation would take time. Still, Spurs fans were ready for a party to start the season, and when someone takes you on a shortcut through a shady neighborhood to get to reach the festivities, it's difficult not to pine for the tried-and-true highway.

Wemby doesn't get to skate on this night entirely. He was 9-for-21 and went 1-for-4 in the fourth quarter, while Sengun put his team on his back, scoring 14 points in the period by himself. None of Houston's other players had more than 5.

San Antonio's Eiffel Tower has some soul-searching to do after these two performances to start the season. Game 2 was better than Game 1, but it wasn't "great" by the standards he holds himself to. The same goes for the rest of them.

One thing Mitch is right about: the Spurs had to open the season against two of the better teams in the league. That's rough when you're trying new things. A quick turnaround to face Dallas on Saturday night might be just what the doctor ordered because this team is still figuring this out, and if these new rotations are going to work, what they need most is to play... a lot.

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