The San Antonio Spurs will look to get back on the winning track when they return home to square off with the surging Houston Rockets on Friday in an NBA Cup clash between the Lone Star State rivals.
It will be the first of four games for both teams in the league’s in-season tournament, with the rivals a part of West Group C that also includes Portland, Denver and Golden State.
The Spurs have dropped two straight, both on the road, after winning their first five games of the season for the first time in franchise history. San Antonio’s most recent outing was a 118-116 setback against the Lakers in Los Angeles on Wednesday that came down to the final shot. The Spurs led by nine points in the fourth quarter before Los Angeles rallied.
San Antonio’s Julian Champagnie had a chance to tie the game in the final second after being fouled but missed the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. The Spurs’ Keldon Johnson had a tip-in attempt off that miss, but it bounced away at the buzzer.
Victor Wembanyama led San Antonio with 19 points and eight rebounds before fouling out with 1:40 remaining. Stephon Castle produced 16 points and eight assists, while Jeremy Sochan, who was playing his first game of the year after missing the first six with an injury, also had 16 points.
Devin Vassell added 15 and Harrison Barnes scored 14 points. Three Spurs fouled out in a dustup that finished with 66 total fouls.
“It’s just trying to figure out what (works) best (for us),” Wembanyama said. “There’s obvious things we can correct right away, but there are things right now it feels like the game is going fast somehow. It feels like as we got better as a team and as we all got better as individuals the opponents have stepped up in some ways defensively. So, we’re going to catch up on it, of course.”
The Rockets have won five straight after starting the campaign with a pair of losses. Houston rolls into the Alamo City for the second of a three-game road trip after a 124-109 win in Memphis on Wednesday. Amen Thompson scored a season-high 28 points with 10 rebounds and Alperen Sengun added 20 points and 16 boards in the victory.
Houston also got double-figure scoring from Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason, who racked up 16 each, Josh Okogie (13 points), Reed Sheppard (12) and the cold-shooting Kevin Durant (11 points while making just 5 of 18 shots).
“At times (Durant) is going to be the decoy, and everybody else kind of feeds off him,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said. “And so you see Amen getting 28 and Alperen getting 20 and 16 due to the attention that they’re putting on Kevin and putting two or three bodies on him. It’s going to happen.”
The Rockets have defeated their past five opponents by an average of 19.2 points. Houston leads the NBA in scoring at 124.7 points per game, in rebounding at 50 per contest and 3-point shooting percentage (42.7%).
This is the first of four meetings between the teams this season.
