How did the San Antonio Spurs turn it around and blowout the Rockets in Game 2?

The San Antonio Spurs lost Game 1 of their second-round series against the Houston Rockets by 27 points. They won Game 2 by 25 points. That’s a 52-point turnaround!

Here’s a rundown of everything that was different from Game 1 to Game 2 and how it contributed to the Spurs flipping the result in such dramatic fashion.

Kawhi Leonard dominated Trevor Ariza

Ariza had one of the best games of his life on Monday night in Game 1, pouring in 23 points while holding Leonard to 5-of-14 shooting on the other end. Kawhi looked like a guy that was constantly showing his work — harried dribbles, contested jumpers, forced action. Wednesday was not like that. Kawhi made everything look easy.

He wound up with 34 points on 13-of-16 shooting, including 3-of-4 from on 3-pointers and 5-of-5 from the line. Somehow, that shooting line does not adequately convey the ease with which he got his looks from wherever he wanted on the floor. He feasted on a steady diet of short pull-up jumpers, bullying his way into the lane and floating the ball up before anyone had a chance to put a hand up to contest. And if the Rockets sent help his way on the drive, he just made the right pass and, crucially…

Everybody else showed up

LaMarcus Aldridge, Tony Parker, Danny Green, Patty Mills, Manu Ginobili, David Lee, Pau Gasol, and Jonathon Simmons combined to shoot 19-of-53 (35.8 percent) for 59 points in Game 1. They were collectively 34-of-69 (49.3 percent) for 82 points in Game 2. Players No. 2-9 in the rotation producing a 23-point swing will go a long way toward flipping a result.

Aldridge and Green making shots early was huge because it loosened up the floor for Leonard and Parker to do their work on the drive. LaMarcus didn’t have the better second half, but he made three mid-rangers early in, including a couple on quick, decisive trigger-pulls before the help could makes its way over to his side of the floor. Green was aggressive attacking closeouts and actually made three shots off the dribble in the first quarter alone, which has to be a record for him.

Gasol started the game in place of Lee and though he didn’t shoot well, he did excellent work on the boards and protected the basket. His six offensive rebounds helped the Spurs create second-chance opportunities, and he blocked four shots at the other end of the floor.

Small-ball worked wonders

After showing the look for only two minutes in Game 1, the Spurs played small with only one true big man on the floor for 17 minutes during the competitive portion of Game 2. That total included the crucial first seven minutes of the fourth quarter when they blew the game open by outscoring the Rockets 23-5. Some of that quarter-opening run even featured the Spurs playing small without Kawhi — Simmons was the power forward alongside Parker, Mills, and Ginobili.

In all, the Spurs outscored the Rockets by 21 points during their 17 small-ball minutes. It’s going to be difficult to break those looks out again going forward if Parker’s injury is serious, and Pop generally doesn’t like going small if he doesn’t absolutely have to, but this is a configuration that deserves a hard look over the rest of the series.

Better ball movement

Game 1, which was played at a 105-possession pace, saw the Spurs throw 278 passes. Game 2 featured only 90 possessions, and yet, the Spurs still threw 277 passes. They went from an average of 2.65 per possession to an average of 3.08 per possession. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s equivalent to the difference between 11th in the league during the regular season and second-to-last. That better ball movement resulted in the Spurs taking 51 uncontested shots in Game 3, compared to 36 that were contested. That’s a much better ratio than the 44-40 split they had during the opening game of the series.

A new Harden strategy

Kawhi didn’t guard James Harden much in Game 1, but he started off with the assignment in Game 2. He didn’t spend the entire game smothering the Rockets’ point man, but he played huge role in Harden’s lackluster first half that saw him shooting just 1-of-9 from the field and total just three points.

That matchup switch coincided with Gregg Popovich putting Danny Green on Ryan Anderson, which actually hurt the Spurs early. Anderson went 6-of-6 from the field and scored 15 points in the first half, also grabbing three offensive rebounds.

The Spurs switched things up in the second half, letting Green, Mills, and Parker spend more time on Harden while Leonard went back to sticking on Anderson a bunch of the time. As a result, Anderson took only three shots and had just three points in the second half — all of them came on a transition three where the Spurs failed to match up.

Harden still finished the game with 10 assists, but he shot just 3-of-17 and failed to affect the game in the way he normally does. The Spurs actually went under the screen on a bunch of his pick-and-rolls, as many suggested they should, and it sort of worked! He shot 2-of-9 on 3-pointers, many of them of the pull-up variety. His struggles finishing on the interior (1-of-6 in the paint) were uncharacteristic, and possibly related to a rolled ankle early in the game.

Limit the three, don’t die by the three

The Rockets launched FIFTY (50!!!) 3-pointers during the first game of the series, knocking down 22. The percentage they made was probably unsustainable, but if the Spurs continued to let them fire away at will like that, they’d have paid for it. That did a much better job in Game 2.

Next: D'Antoni, Popovich and the ghosts of Spurs-Suns past

The big issue in the opener was that so many of the threes were easy looks — 38 of the 50 threes in Game 1 were characterized by NBA.com as open or wide-open, and 27 were of the catch-and-shoot variety. Houston attempted “only” 34 treys in Game 2, six fewer than their season average. Only 24 of those were categorized as open or wide-open by NBA.com. So not only did the Spurs successfully limit attempts in general, they did a better job contesting those they did yield.