# Game 70: Houston Rockets @ San Antonio Spurs



## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

* March 27th, 2005 - 12:00 PM (Central Time)*


*Houston Rockets (42-27) * @ *San Antonio Spurs (51-18) * 




Previous Meetings:

Rockets 81, Spurs 80 
Rockets 73, Spurs 67 
Spurs 99, Rockets 81 





*Projected Starting Lineups: *













































































*Reserves:*

































































Wow, 70th game. This season has gone by so fast. Anyway, I'm not sure about the status of T-Mac other than being day-to-day. I don't know to what extent the injury is, but if it's day-to-day I think he'll be abke to play. The last time we played Houston they had an absolutely horrendous guard rotation of Rod Strickland and Andre Barrett, but this time around Sura is healthy and they have Mike James, both who are pretty solid guards. Houston gets a lot of production from their bench, so Mohammed and especially Barry need to provide that punch for us. We've got to prevent easy baskets for Yao Ming. If he's going to hit fall-away jumpers on us, fine. Nothing you can do about that, but you can limit the easy buckets, to a certain extent. The tempo is going to be huge, and if he get sucked into a pure half-court game, we lose. Our offense has been way to inconsistent for me to think we could win in a half-court battle. Defensively, we just need to make them earn their buckets. No easy 3's for Barry, Wesley, Padgett, James, etc. Make them earn their baskets. Our interior defense must improve, and if not, Houston could likely pound us if T-Mac is healthy and ready to go. 



*Koko's Key's to Victory:*




- Play 4 quarters. Enough of the hot-start slow finish crap. Play the full damn game. If they do decide to only play 2 quarters or one quarter, make it the quarters that count late in the game. 

- Ball movement. Another missing thing since Duncan has been out. We now hold the ball and wait for someone to go one-on-one to score instead of moving the ball around and picking our spots. Good and effective ball movement is crucial against a team with such a good defense.


- The duo. Parker and Manu have to step-up big time. This team is on their backs, and whether they like it or not, these losses are being blamed on them more than any other individual player. Every game counts, and we can't afford to lose home games. 






I'll be up bright and early (Hey, on a day off from work and school 11AM is early for me) going to the game, and while it's not as exciting knowing T-Mac is questionable and Duncan is out, I'm still looking forward to it. I believe we can win, but the performance will have to be two notches above what it has been the last 4 games. 





Prediction: Houston 94, Spurs 87 (With T-Mac)

Without T-Mac: Spurs 91, Houston 86


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## XxMia_9xX (Oct 5, 2002)

hopefully the spurs wins... parker and manu definately have to step it up! 

spurs 93
rockets 89


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## LineOFire (Apr 20, 2004)

I won't be able to post or discuss during the game because I am heading over to my grandparent's for a family reunion of sorts. Luckily, even though they don't have cable, this game will be nationally televised on ABC.  I hope the ABC commentators from the Spurs-Heat earlier in the season are not calling the game. They were so boring and lifeless.

The Rockets have had our number all season starting with the McGrady Miracle. I think the Spurs need to keep the offense flowing instead of letting the Rockets lull them into the extremely slow basketball they tend to play against us (as demonstrated by the previous box scores). Nesterovic and Mohammed will need to keep their hands busy playing defense against Yao Ming and above all stop Mutombo from pounding the offensive glass. I have seen a couple of Rockets games where Deke gets going and it is not pretty for the other team. This is the first time the Spurs will get to see Mike James in action so that should be pretty interesting. The most important thing to control for this game, in my opinion, is those horrible scoring droughts. If we start going cold from the field against this sharp-shooting Rockets team then we will go down in flames.

The Spurs are looking to keep Dallas off of their tail, while the Rockets will spend the rest of their season trying to catch up to the Mavericks.

Logic wants me to say that we will end up losing but the homer in me still has faith. I think the Spurs can win regardless of whether McGrady plays or not. At least we have home court. :biggrin:

Prediction without McGrady:

Houston Rockets - 85
San Antonio Spurs - 89

Prediction with McGrady:

Houston Rockets - 91
San Antonio Spurs - 97


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## Camaro_870 (Mar 12, 2005)

the guys defintely need to play all 48 minutes


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

this will be very close. can you imagine if we had duncan, he would own weatherspoon lol 
spurs 85
rox 84

with out tmac
90spurs
80 rox

this is going aGAinst my better judge ment(US WINNING)
(this could b the uglyest gm we ever seen if tmac doesnt play...no offense)
but wich ever way we win i dont caRE


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## DaBobZ (Sep 22, 2003)

w/o Tmac Rockets 93 Spurs 95
w Tmac Rockets 98 Spurs 85


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

were doinh pretty good. up by ten stil early and first qt
2 min remainng great d


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

nazi is realy struggling


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

again they score at the end of the qt


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## chapi (Apr 4, 2003)

great move by gino spurs up 10


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

man manu can play.... weredoing pretty good work on our offense motion and add in duncan and i smell aring lol but for this gm we realy need to work on our motion offense, there has been a few times where it was just every man for him self iso 1on1 but im sure it would be diffrent if tim was playing.


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

rox stepin it up.. man lots of defelctions


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

man low scoring and our big lead was cut significantly but were up 
39
36
i still feel like we have decent to good chance to win this gm
props to manu


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Empty thread today...I guess TheRoc5 got lonely and left . I went to church so I missed the first quarter, but the spurs seem to be doing pretty well. 50-48 Spurs 2:20 left in the third.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Stopped watching the Spurs after they were down by five in the fourth, but when I came back they were up by 7, and now Bowen is shooting frees and made one.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Spurs up 64-81 with Bowen's three ball! 2 minutes left in the fourth :clap:


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Spurs outscored Houston 28-14 in the fourth and won the game 70-83. Spurs played very well tonight and really stepped it up on the defensive end. 2-0 with Horry as captain :clap: 

BRING ON SEATTLE!!! :biggrin:


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

ya no one was here so i just turnd my laptop off lol great win wow we blew them out in the mid 4th qt amazing... great d and medicore to bad offense. barry seems to becoming the guy we signed just in time and manu was just amazing. parker didnt shoot or make tomuch but we couldnt of one with out him... i realy like wilks. i cant wait till duncan comes back. any word on his progress? lets beat seatle now and start a little road trip


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

Wow, very good 4th quarter to finish things off. T-Mac controlled the game until that 4th, where Manu and Barry really stepped up and played big. I'm always quick to criticize, but I'll also be one of the first to give props when they play good. Great job Barry. Manu stepped up and was the leader at the end. He made big play after big play, so it was really good seeing him back to normal. I loved the way Rasho played. He did a great job on Yao Ming. You can look at 26 points for T-Mac and 18 for Yao and say "They dominated us", but in reality in took them 39 shots to get 44 points, which is good defensive efficiency. Bowen finished off strong as well. Horry was decent for a little bit, but he took 14 shots and only got 12 points. Decent performance, but we need better. Parker didn't have a great game, but I don't think it was bad either. 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and only 2 TO's is very welcoming. Very good win. The team went back to the basics in playing tough defense and we pulled out a win against a good team. These last two wins against Houston really boost my confidence that we can handle them in a 7-game series. 





San Antonio Leaders:


Points:


Manu Ginobili - 18
Brent Barry - 17
Robert Horry - 12


Rebounds:


Tony Parker - 8
Rasho Nesterovic - 7
Robert Horry - 5


Assists:


Tony Parker - 6
Manu Ginobili - 4
Bruce Bowen - 3


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

Just to add-on, one of "Koko's Key's to Victory" was ball movement, and with 20 assists and only 8 TO's, I'd say they accomplished that. 


13 offensive rebounds was very crucial as well. Hell, we even shot 18/22 from the line. Aside from the poor shooting from the field overall, it was a fantastic effort all-around.


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

KokoTheMonkey said:


> Just to add-on, one of "Koko's Key's to Victory" was ball movement, and with 20 assists and only 8 TO's, I'd say they accomplished that.
> 
> 
> 13 offensive rebounds was very crucial as well. Hell, we even shot 18/22 from the line. Aside from the poor shooting from the field overall, it was a fantastic effort all-around.


yes i also concure.... the motion offense wasnt perfect or close but it was good and it won us the game.


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## mr_french_basketball (Jul 3, 2003)

*my ratings*

I was very pleased with our defensive intensity in the end, so I thought the players deserved good ratings :

Ginobili : 9/10
Barry : 9/10
Clutch plays after clutch plays by both in the end :clap: 
Nesterovic : 9/10
Very good job on Yao!
Bowen : 8/10
Parker : 6/10
He could have shooted more, but could also have 10 or more assists if Horry and Marks had made their open jumpers...
Horry : 6/10
Mohammed : 5/10
Udrih : 4/10


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## LineOFire (Apr 20, 2004)

I was very pleased with the Spurs play until they had that scoring drought late 3rd going into the fourth quarter. Fortunately, they forced some turnovers on the defensive end and were able to keep the Rockets at bay with great shooting at the end when it counts.


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## LineOFire (Apr 20, 2004)

I took this idea from the Kings board but here are some game photos. :biggrin:


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## XxMia_9xX (Oct 5, 2002)

aww once again i didn't get to watch the game... i had church and easter stuff to do. i only got to see a little bit of it. i'm so glad the spurs won though... finally they're stepping up and winning games!


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## texan (Jul 10, 2003)

I was in SA, and I went to the game. We played a really good game, and had an amazing 4th quarter. I was really impressed with Barry and Rasho. Barry finally played the way that we thought he would when we signed him. I was suprised at how well we moved the ball, as Koko mentioned, and how well we shot free throws. Also, our defense was excellent. Holding them to 70 points was a big accomplishment without Duncan.


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## Guth (Feb 23, 2005)

I was home in the Promised Land for Spring Break, and I was starting to think that I shouldn't have come home for the Spurs sake. I am glad they got a W while I was home. It was good to see them get a win in a game that wasn't exactly pretty, but then again, what do you expect from a Spurs-Rockets game.

Quick Thought: Who do you think is breathing a bigger sigh of relief right now, Brent Barry or Pop and RC? But seriously, it was awesome to see Brent get it going in a couple games and hopefully now that the monkey is off his back, he can play the type of basketball that we paid him to play.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

RC. He was reassured that signing Brent was a good move, and he sees our chances of winning the championship come back alive. Atleast, I'm pretty sure he does.


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## texan (Jul 10, 2003)

It must be a huge load off Brents shoulders to have finally strung together a couple of good performances. He now should be brimming with confidence and it will show in his shot. From every indication, he is a good guy, and I bet he would feel really bad, like he let his teammates down, if he couldn't convert come playoff time, especially with the 3pter.


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## SpursFan16 (Mar 29, 2005)

A very good win indeed, i thought we were gonna get beaten in this match.

Good to see Gino and Barry performing was actually disapointed with Parkers performance.


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## SpursFan16 (Mar 29, 2005)

I am just wondering if i could few this game anywhere on the internet...cause I live in Australia and wasn't home for the match,

Thanks if anyone knows.


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