Season 49, Game 59
San Antonio 104, Houston 94
50-9, 2nd in the West
The San Antonio Spurs concluded the 2016 Rodeo Road Trip with a win against the Houston Rockets. Led by Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, who scored 27 and 26 points, respectively, the victory over their Southwest Division rivals gave San Antonio a 7-1 record on their annual road trip. The win also extended the Spurs’ record of consecutive 50-win seasons to 17.
If the team was feeling tired after eight straight games on the road, including two back-to-backs, the Spurs certainly didn’t show it in their return to the Lone Star State. They never trailed, and led by as many as 31 in the third quarter, as Houston put up a pitiful home effort against the league’s second-best team.
The game started out sloppy, and it took nearly three minutes before either team landed a shot, but as sloppy as the Spurs played in the first five minutes, Houston was even worse. The Rockets didn’t score on a field goal until there was 7:04 left in the fist quarter, and by then, it was already too late. San Antonio led by 15 after one period, holding the Rockets to just 11 points, and although Houston came to life a little bit in the second quarter, the Spurs took a 51-31 lead into halftime.
Photo credit: Kelley L Cox, USA Today Sports
Coming out of the break, the Spurs opened the second half with an 11-2 run and it was all cruise control from there. Houston, led by James Harden’s Kobe-esque 27 points on 10-25 shooting, spent a greater part of the final two quarters chipping away at an insurmountable lead.
Four Spurs finished in double digit points, and Aldridge racked up 16 rebounds – 4 offensive – to notch his 17th double-double this season in a game that never felt close. San Antonio’s defense was spectacular, holding the Houston starters to a dismal 21-49 shooting night, including a 4-11 outing for Dwight Howard and 1-8 from Josh Smith, and keeping Harden away from his best friend, the free throw line.
The final score didn’t indicate a blowout, but make no mistake, this game was as much a blowout as any game the Spurs have won by 20+ points this season.
- Tim Duncan recorded block number 3,000 in the first quarter, making him the fifth player in NBA history to reach that milestone.
- In a game in which the Spurs led by double-digits for so long, both Jonathan Simmons and Boban Marjanovich curiously got less than two minutes of playing time.
- Shooting guard Ray McCallum played what would be his last minute as a Spur this season, getting 1:27 in garbage time and hoisting up an off-target three point shot. After the game he was waived by San Antonio, who then signed veteran guard Andre Miller.
- Kyle Anderson had another efficient night off the bench, scoring 11 points on 4-8 shooting.
