This is another classic case of “the game wasn’t actually that close”. Because it wasn’t. The Rockets dominated from the start. All-star big man Dwight Howard made the most out of every opportunity he had tonight.
The Spurs didn’t have 5 important players tonight due to either injury or ‘rest’. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili missed the game due to ‘rest’ and Marco Bellineli, Patty Mills and Tiago Splitter missed the game due to injury. Coach Gregg Popovich seems to just love doing whatever he wants with his lineups.
Dwight Howard dominated and scored 32 points, grabbed 16 rebounds as the Houston Rockets continued their hot start, beating the in-state rival San Antonio Spurs 98-81. Howard exploited a Spurs interior that was missing 2 key players in Duncan and Splitter. James Harden had 20 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists for the Rockets. Jason Terry came off the bench and dropped 16 points for the Rockets.
But this dunk stole the show.
Cory Joseph led the Spurs with 18 points off the bench and Aron Baynes had 12 points and 12 rebounds. Danny Green had 10 and everyone else for the most part struggled including Tony Parker only having 6 points. The Spurs were good from the start, missing their first 11 shots in a row.
Howard and Houston took advantage, leading the game wire-to-wire on the way to a league-best 6-0 record. With the loss, the Spurs drop to 2-2.