Finally we play a real team.

**mrspurs** · 11-30-2008

By Jeff McDonald - Express-News

HOUSTON — The three-pronged tactic, as far as it applies to this Interstate 10 rivalry, had already been tried and found true once this season.

Spot the Houston Rockets a large, safe lead. Make them feel warm and cozy and confident. Then rip the proverbial rug out from under them.

The Spurs learned something Saturday about the strategy of playing with fire. It only works if you also play defense.

Luther Head, a replacement for injured star guard Tracy McGrady, scored a season-high 21 points to top a list of seven players in double figures for the Rockets, who routed the Spurs 103-84 at the Toyota Center.

For the first time in 29 meetings, the Spurs allowed the Rockets to pass the 100-point mark, ending a string of black-and-blue slugfests dating to March 17, 2001.

“Giving up 100 points to these guys isn't going to get it done,” Spurs forward Tim Duncan said. “We're used to playing in the 80s and low 90s and winning games like that.”

The blueprint for how the Spurs would like to play the Rockets came two weeks earlier in San Antonio. In that game, the Spurs closed with a 12-0 run, overcoming a 14-point deficit in the final 7:37, to win a 77-75 defensive battle.

This time, Houston was at 75 points before the end of the third quarter. The Spurs, meanwhile, were toast.

Matt Bonner had a season-high 17 points to lead the Spurs, who ended a four-game winning streak and missed out on a chance to move atop the Southwest Division for the first time this season. Duncan also had 17, but he needed 11 more shots than Bonner to get there, finishing 6 of 18 from the field.

The Spurs already had written the instruction manual on How To Cope With An All-Star (or two) out. The Rockets ripped a page right from it.

With McGrady sidelined for the second consecutive game, requiring another night off to nurse his sore left knee, Houston got scoring pick-me-ups from all over the roster, beginning with Head. And the Rockets defended, sinking their teeth into the Spurs from the opening tip and never really letting go.

The tone was set less than 10 seconds after the opening tap, when Houston's Ron Artest stepped in front of a Tony Parker pass and sashayed coast-to-coast for a dunk.

It continued throughout the game, as the Spurs (9-7) shot just 37.7 percent from the field. They also committed 14 turnovers, led by five from Manu Ginobili, leading to 24 points for Houston.

“Houston came out and was more aggressive than we were,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They played a fine game for 48 minutes, as far as their aggressiveness and overall energy.”

Fifteen minutes into Saturday's rematch, during which the Rockets (11-6) played about as well as they could play, the Spurs were down by 19 and in rally mode again.

As they had two weeks earlier, the Spurs answered. They held Houston without a field goal over the final 5:37 of the second quarter, crawling as close as five points with less than a minute remaining.

Five possessions into the third quarter, the Spurs were within two, the flashbacks coming fast and furious for the Rockets. But that was as close as this game's comeback would go.

“We knew they would make a run,” said Houston's Shane Battier, who supplied 15 points off the bench. “I'm proud of how we responded.”

Little by little, Houston began to reinforce its lead. When Yao Ming hit a basket with 2:10 left in the quarter, the Rockets had pulled ahead by double digits again, 77-66.

This time, they wouldn't relinquish that cushion.

This time, the Spurs couldn't make them.

“They punished every mistake we made,” Ginobili said.

“After making such a big effort to come back, you don't have to be perfect, but you have to be close. Tonight, we were not.”

**mrspurs** · 11-30-2008

Scolla outplayed 4 of our players. Fab,Kurt,Ime and AT. This is what our teams needs. We need to play the real teams. Had we played against these tougher teams earlier on, maybe the FO would rush it a little and find Timmy some help. We have some great smalls, but once you slow things down, like we like and like the Rockets love. Then you better control the paint. And Scolla only played 25 mins. Im beginning to think the only big worthy of playing time is Matt. At least he didnt get outplayed by Scolla. And it gaves us a chance to see how our SFs would do against a team loaded(thou minus tmac but with Shane back in). Houston showed us our areas of need. Areas that will really be exploited come PO time. Bruce and Ime having falling behind times. And we all know Timmy is still waiting. Here is another thing I dont do that alot of spurs fans do. And thats listen to whomever is calling the game. Or the halftime shows with all the old players talking and joking around. If you just watch and dont listen, you will see different teams out there. No room for being biased if all you can do is see the game. And not listen to guys give credit to players for things they did years ago on many teams ago. Thats why I wanted to see us play against a real team. We've been playing to many sorry teams and our record shows it. Id rather lose against a better team and improve then beat a sorry team and not improve. Losing makes you improve. Winning can keep ya blind.(like our sweep of the Cavs) Yes we won it all, but at the sametime didnt do anything to improve the following season. Not until the halfway mark. And then we didnt improve we brought in players that made us worse. And last nights game was living proof.