San Antonio Spurs pull away in the second half to beat Houston Rockets – NBA Recap
Playing against a resurgent San Antonio Spurs team, Houston Rockets coughed up an 18 point lead early in the third quarter to succumb to a 99-91 loss.
The Spurs, who have now won two games in a row, were led by their talismanic power forward Tim Duncan. The old warhorse scored a team-high 25 points on a brilliant 9-of-12 shooting from the field. He also grabbed 8 boards and was
ably assisted by Tony Parker, who dropped 24 for the Spurs.
With their shooting guard, Kevin Martin delivering on all cylinders, the Rockets looked unstoppable in the first half, which they ended at 52-39. Martin scored 21 points in the half. However, after the break, especially in the
fourth quarter, the Spurs hounded him big time. Martin was reduced to only 8 in the second half, including 1-for-6 in the last frame.
Kyle Lowry and Courtney Lee scored 15 apiece for the Rockets, who also had 10 from Patrick Patterson.
Houston started the third frame on a 6-1 run to make it 58-40, but were immediately dealt with a seven point unanswered run from the other end. The Spurs had started to tighten the noose by that point and they capped the quarter
with a 17-5 to make it 67-71.
Tiago Splitter then started the fourth frame with a running hook shots and all of a sudden the Spurs were trailing by only deuce. The Rockets held on to the lead though and were ahead by 79-76 with 7:48 left on the clock.
The Spurs bounced back though to carve out a 9-3 run and after a 7-2 Houston response, they pulled away for good with a 12-2 burst.
Gary Neal contributed 15 points to the Spurs cause while Matt Bonner produced a game-high 10 rebounds to go with 8 points. Both the team put nearly same numbers in shooting, rebounds and assists, but the Rockets committed 21 turnovers,
8 more than Spurs and that turned out to be the difference in the end.
With the win, the Spurs have now improved to 14-9 and are presently at number 6 in the Western Conference. The Rockets on the other hand are now on the 9th spot with a 12-10 record.
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