Spurs at Rockets
The Houston Rockets had a rough weekend against the Memphis Grizzlies and things don’t get any easier when they host the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday. The Rockets are one of the highest scoring teams in the league but were held to an average of 84 points in back-to-back losses to the Grizzlies. The Spurs are battling through injuries and dropped to 1-1 on their three-game road trip with a loss at Miami on Sunday.
San Antonio is down three starters with Kawhi Leonard (hand), Tiago Splitter (shoulder) and Danny Green (hand) out but has enough depth to cover the gaps against weaker clubs. The Spurs have a tendency to get in trouble against teams with legitimate championship aspirations and have suffered their last three losses against Portland, Oklahoma City and Miami. The Rockets want to be one of those teams with championship aspirations but are still working on consistency. “It’s just so frustrating,” Chandler Parsons told reporters. “We can be so good one night and bad the next. That is something that we have to figure out collectively.”
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBATV, CSN Houston, FSN Southwest (San Antonio)
ABOUT THE SPURS (33-11): San Antonio blew out Atlanta 105-79 to start its road trip but could not muster the same effort on the defensive end in an NBA Finals rematch against the Heat on Sunday. “The first and third quarter were basically the same,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told reporters. “We didn’t do a very good job of starting out defensively. It’s a bad combination if we’re not disciplined enough defensively.” San Antonio had some of those same issues defensively against the Rockets on Dec. 25, when Houston stormed out with a 40-point first quarter and ended up with a 111-98 win. Tim Duncan blocked six shots in that game but San Antonio could not guard the perimeter.
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (29-17): Houston’s starters all scored at least 13 points in the Dec. 25 meeting and James Harden and Chandler Parsons combined to go 8-for-12 from 8-point range. Parsons set an NBA record with 10 3-pointers in a half on Friday against Memphis but the Rockets still suffered an 88-87 home loss, and things got even worse when he cooled off the next night and Houston fell 99-81 on the road. “It’s not going to get any easier, the schedule goes on,” Parsons said. “It’s a big point in the season for us where we have lost two games in a row. We can’t let them continue to beat us. We can’t let Memphis beat us in the San Antonio game.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Harden is 1-for-13 from 3-point range over the last three games.
2. Duncan pulled down three rebounds against the Heat, ending a string of three straight double-doubles and marking his lowest total of the season.
3. Houston has taken each of the first two meetings this season while scoring an average of 111.5 points.