The San Antonio Spurs have the best defense in the NBA. The Houston Rockets have a high-flying offense, led by James Harden. So how would these two stack up?
You would think the Spurs would come out and hang, but it was the complete opposite tonight.
The Rockets led by as much as 39 points and handed the Spurs the worst loss in the franchise’s history. In the Gregg Popovich era, this was the worst ever.
It was basically only the Kawhi Leonard show because none of the supporting cast came to play. LaMarcus Aldridge only had 4 points, Danny Green had 8 points and the Spurs’ second leading scoere after Leonard’s 21 points and 11 rebounds was Tony Parker, who had 11 points on the night.
It’s safe to say Coach Pop was not pleased with his team’s performance.
Harden didn’t have a crazy game, but he did manage to score 20 points and dish out 14 assists. Clint Capela had a playoff career-high 20 points, while Trevor Ariza dropped 23 points for the Rockets. That’s not even mentioning the bench effort from Eric Gordon and Lou Williams, who had 11 points and 13 points respectively.
By the time Nene got into it with Dewayne Dedmon and got ejected, this game was officially a wrap. Kawhi tried to will his team back in the game, but he couldn’t do anything to help.
Game 2 will be played tomorrow at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.
FINAL: HOU 126 | SAS 99