HOUSTON — The San Antonio Spurs headed to Houston for a pair of preseason tune-up games against the Rockets after opening action at home with a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
They fell in the first Rockets game 112-98, but there were some bright spots on both ends for San Antonio.
First Quarter
San Antonio opened the game with Lonnie Walker IV as the starting shooting guard. DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay, and LaMarcus Aldridge each slid up a spot, with Jakob Poeltl coming off the bench.
Walker seemed to like the starting role, opening the game with a three, and then another three, and then a third three. LaMarcus Aldridge hit a three as well, part of a noted strategy to shoot more from deep. DeMar DeRozan marked his second game in a row with a made triple.
Dejounte Murray looked smart and measured in his first stint, dishing 4 dimes with no turnovers. Rookie Devin Vassell got to the line and then nailed a three when he came off the bench. Patty Mills hit him in transition for a layup, and he held his own guarding James Harden.
San Antonio shot 48% from the floor and 46% from deep, and the defense held this dynamic Rockets team in check. The Spurs led 31-25 after the first quarter.
Second Quarter
Devin Vassell's impressive defense continued in the second quarter, but San Antonio's bigger lineup with Rudy Gay, Trey Lyles and LaMarcus Aldridge again struggled to defend the perimeter.
Lyles has struggled for the first six quarters of the preseason, missing his only two shots and turning it over twice.
Houston got to the rim and knocked down threes, taking a 45-42 lead midway through the period. San Antonio struggled to retain possession of the ball, coughing it up 9 times before the half.
San Antonio trailed 56-55 at the break. Aldridge led the team with 12 points, with Walker just behind him at 11. Rudy Gay, Dejounte Murray and DeMar DeRozan combined for 21 points, 9 assists, and 11 rebounds on efficient shooting.
Third Quarter
San Antonio started Devin Vassell over DeMar DeRozan in the second half, but it was Rudy Gay who opened play with two powerful dunks to start the period.
Harden and Wall got going to start the half, though Walker and Vassell performed admirably against difficult competition. San Antonio's young guys looked solid in transition, with Lonnie catching a lob and finishing another layup off a feed from Dejounte.
He took it to the rack again, and then checked out with a team-high 17.
After the game, Pop praised Walker's aggression. Walker said that he tries to be aggressive to force the issue and open things up for his teammates. He also said he loved playing with Vassell and Murray, locked in defenders.
Lyles' rough night continued, though Poeltl looked strong and aggressive on both ends. Murray turned the ball over a few times in the period, including a few where a close pass to Aldridge bounced off the big man's chest.
San Antonio trailed 77-72 after the third.
Fourth Quarter
Houston opened the period on a quick 4-0 run, prompting a timeout from Coach Popovich. That was not enough to stem the tide for San Antonio, who saw a 5-point deficit grow to 11 just two minutes into the quarter at the hands of lesser-known Rockets like Jae'Sean Tate, Ben McLemore and Chris Clemons.
Clemons hit a three, and unfortunately seemed to suffer a non-contact leg injury. He was brought off the court in a wheelchair.
Out of the injury timeout, Dejounte Murray attacked the rim and put his own miss back before Patty Mills grabbed a loose ball and drilled a triple on the other end off a pass from Tre Jones.
Jones got some burn in the fourth, and hit Murray with a pass for 3, but he missed the shot. Lyles pumped at the arc, dribbled in, and bricked the free-throw line jumper.
Devin Vassell checked in and immediately jammed a dunk off a pass from Jones, then snatched a steal on the other end. The transition turned into a chuck, which turned into a board and bucket for Lyles, his first make in seven tries. The deficit fell to 6 with
Jones is a hard-nosed defender, but he became a bloody-nosed defender after allegedly fouling an opposing ballhandler's off hand with his face.
Popovich challenged that call, and though the rookie was called for a foul on the floor, Jones was awarded a technical free throw, though he missed. Jones showed impressive switchability on defense at 6'3".
Vassell continued to attack the rim, and Lyles got to the basket for a layup as well. Drew Eubanks played a bit alongside Cam Reynolds, and Houston expanded the lead at the end behind strong outside shooting.
Lyles made his first three in six tries in garbage time.
Jones beat the meaningless buzzer with a nice little floater, and San Antonio fell 112-98 to the Rockets.
Notes
How many threes will LaMarcus Aldridge take and make?
This is an important question not just for this game, but for the whole season. Aldridge focused on shooting more from beyond the arc as a trailer and in pick and pop situations starting about a year ago in December. He missed the bubble and has spent the last year focusing on developing this part of his game.
The veteran big man shot 3-10 from deep in the preseason opener, sparking cries that he was shooting too much from those who just want to see the darn rebuild happen, already.
Aldridge didn't really force any of these shots, and he finished last season hitting 39% on about 3 attempts per game. From December through the end of his season, he shot 40% on nearly 4 attempts per game. That's good by any definition for a 6'11" player.
He hit just 1-4 against Houston, but a few off shooting games to open the preseason are far from a death knell.
He probably won't shoot 10 per game, but he'll almost certainly try more than four. His efficiency may dip as he shoots a higher volume but by how much? My guess is he wouldn't drop below 35% -- and could even stay closer to 40%.
If you do the math, you'll find that if he shot the same percentages, Aldridge could have added at least a point per game to his scoring average had he shot more threes than mid-range attempts.
At about 45% from mid-range, the math works out to .9 points per shot (2*0.45=0.9). At 39% from 3, it's 1.17 points per shot (3*0.39=1.17). Aldridge shot 352 mid-range attempts (almost 7 per game) and 156 from three, but those numbers may very well switch this year.
To put it another way, his off shooting night at 3-10 from three was exactly as efficient as the 45% he shot from mid-range last season, and he'd need to shoot 59% from mid-range to match his efficiency from deep at 39%.
Ugh, sorry, math, yuck, I don't like it either. The thing about math, boring as it may be, is that you can't really argue with it. That's just what the numbers say.
It will take time to get a large enough sample size to properly see how far Aldridge takes his role as a floor spacer, and how effective he can be. Until then, we can only watch and track the progress. It can't hurt for him to let them fly, especially in the preseason.
Will Pop stick with bigger, older lineups, or shift toward the youth movement?
After a month of everybody in the organization talking about building on the success of the bubble, the preseason began on a very un-bubble note. DeMar DeRozan played at the 4 surrounded by young guards in Orlando, but against OKC he started at the 2 with Rudy Gay and LaMarcus Aldridge in at the forward spots and Jakob Poeltl at center.
Poeltl said that this group was not one that played together much in practice, but he liked the rebounding. The unspoken flip-side of that is weaker, slower perimeter defense, and the Thunder torched the Spurs with 17-31 shooting from deep, almost 55% as a team.
The commitment to the pace and space style was there, but the players couldn't keep up as well with the faster, younger Thunder. It didn't work so great there, and it certainly won't work against a Houston team with almost only guards and wings.
We saw Jakob Poeltl slide to a bench role for the moment, with Aldridge playing his modern position as a stretch 5. If he's going to start Rudy Gay is better suited at the 4, especially against a team like the Rockets.
Pop said before the game against the Rockets that he probably wouldn't start out with a big lineup, and young players like Lonnie Walker IV and Devin Vassell may get some extended run. Pop said that they'd get an education from James Harden, who he described as one of the craftiest dudes in the league thanks to his skills and his knowledge of the rules.
Pop basically said that these first two games are about trying different things, and the last game in Houston will look a bit more like their starting unit for opening night. It is the preseason, after all.
James Harden back for new-look Rockets
James Harden is back in Houston, even though it's become increasingly apparent that he'd rather be elsewhere. After skipping training camp to party in various locations, Harden passed a number of coronavirus tests and will suit up for his first preseason action.
Gone are Russell Westbrook and Robert Covington, in are John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins. Wall looks fast and bouncy after almost two years on the mend from an Achilles tear, and Boogie has spaced the floor well. It will be interesting to see how those two play alongside Harden, particularly the off-ball statue in Wall.
Harden was reportedly "unmoved" by Houston trading Westbrook to bring Wall in. He has been described as "uninterested in pursuing a new partnership" with the Rockets, a somewhat comical framing considering he's under contract through at least 2022.
It was fun to watch Vassell, Dejounte Murray and Lonnie Walker try to guard Harden, limiting him to 12 points in 21 minutes on 3-10 shooting. It's not exactly shocking that Harden looked sluggish after his offseason, uh, training.
Popovich and Walker both spoke after the game about the challenge of guarding Wall after the game, saying he got by too many times. They'll get another crack at him on Thursday.