Rockets smash Spurs to tie series: 3 takeaways from Game 4
The Rockets evened up their series with the Spurs 2-2 on Sunday night, winning 125-104.
A lot weighed on the Houston Rockets going into Game 4 — even more so than usual for a team down 2-1 against the mighty San Antonio Spurs. Patrick Beverley, the emotional leader of the Rockets and James Harden’s backcourt mate/diametric opposite, lost his grandfather earlier in the day.
Beverley gallantly played through the grieving and scored the first points of the game by draining a 3. He gestured towards the sky as he came back up the court, and strained his face to physically hold back tears. That play turned out to set the stage for the rest of the night.
The Rockets stormed out to an early lead behind red-hot shooting and picking off lazy San Antonio passes. It was a lead they’d never relinquish, as they stayed ahead of the Spurs from wire to wire.
Houston played with desperation, knowing going back to San Antonio down 3-1 would basically be a death sentence. The fiery home crowd cheered with the same vigor their team displayed.
Takeaways
The 3 is key. The Rockets averaged 15.8 3’s in their wins this season and only 11.6 in losses. They made 22 in Game 1, 11 in Game 2, 12 in Game 3, and 19 in Game 4. It’s easy to draw the correlation to winning and shooting well, but Houston’s 3-point prowess has an effect on the macro level.
This season, Houston attempted the most 3’s of any team in history. This is a squad rich in marksmen, tailor-made for the pace-and-space era. When things are humming, the ball skips around the perimeter after a drive sucks a defender off their assignment.
Games 2 and 3 saw the Spurs take the Rockets out of their element of launching open 3’s. San Antonio defenders stuck to their guys and sacrificed layups to forego any unhampered looks from deep. Houston forced their game plan in Game 4, sending defenders scrambling to recover and nailing 3’s after an extra pass.
The perimeter was paramount in Game 4. You don’t need to see the gray flecks in Pau Gasol’s beard stubble to realize he’s a callback to an earlier generation. The importance of perimeter play in the NBA has been emphasized more and more in recent years and the Rockets are one of the teams pushing that boundary. With Nenê pulling his groin and Clint Capela’s three first-half fouls, Houston was forced to go smaller than usual.
San Antonio deploys a traditional lineup and (especially with Tony Parker’s injury) doesn’t have the depth to match Houston on the outside. Couple that with LaMarcus Aldridge’s foul trouble and general ineffectiveness, and the Rockets pulled out a winning strategy.
Coaching will play a huge part in determining a winner. Everything’s bigger in Texas, but for these interstate rivals, there’s another layer to this matchup.
Mike D’Antoni’s signature mustache may be gone, but his storied past with Gregg Popovich remains. To topple his long-time foil for the first time in a playoff series, his team will have to beat the Spurs in what’s now a best-of-three affair, with at least one of those wins coming in San Antonio. It will be up to D’Antoni to devise a blueprint from everything he’s seen from these four games and all their clashes of yesteryear.
Popovich knew it wasn’t his team’s night. He removed Kawhi Leonard late in the third quarter amid a 14-point deficit, never to insert him back into the game. Then, once he stared at a 16-point hole, he emptied the end of his bench with eight minutes left in the fourth. Sometimes you just have to know when to fold ‘em – or you know saving minutes for your best players with a pivotal Game 5 looming is more important than trying to mount an unlikely comeback.
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D’Antoni and the Rockets won this battle, but we’ll see if they can buck history and win the war. To Tuesday in San Antonio we go.