Rockets hold off for Spurs for thrilling win

Houston 83, San Antonio 81

Damien Pierce
Rockets.com Staff Writer
HOUSTON -- Less than five minutes after reaching the locker room, Rockets coach Rick Adelman cracked a joke.

He applauded his players for missing four of five free throws down the stretch.

"That was a good idea," Adelman said. "We missed the free throws to show people we can make stops to finish a game."

Indeed, the Rockets finally did.

Before the largest home crowd of the season, the Rockets smothered the San Antonio Spurs in the waning moments to close out a thrilling 83-81 victory Saturday night at Toyota Center.

Houston (21-19) picked up its second win in three tries over the NBA's defending champs and snapped a two-game skid.

Spurs forward Matt Bonner clanked a potential game-tying jumper at the buzzer as San Antonio failed to connect on six of its final nine shots.

That ending couldn't have come at a better time for the Rockets. Before Saturday's win, Adelman's bunch had suffered back-to-back losses after coughing up fourth-quarter leads because of defensive breakdowns and turnovers.

"It was a good test," said Rockets center Yao Ming, who had 21 points and 14 rebounds. "We've had some games this season where we struggled in the fourth quarter. Today, we hung in there. Everyone was playing hard, especially on defense. We didn't want the game to get away after the last couple of games. We weren't thinking about the fourth quarter. We were thinking about the whole 48 minutes."

The Rockets needed every defensive stop they could get.

With the Rockets clinging to a 80-79 lead late in the fourth quarter, Yao snatched a missed layup by Luther Head and threw down an emphatic dunk over Tim Duncan and Fabricio Oberto. He drew a foul on the play, pumping his fist and bumping chests with Luis Scola after the whistle.

But even that wasn't enough to finish the Spurs. After Yao missed the ensuing free throw, Duncan beat the Rockets center for a layup that sliced Houston's lead to 82-81 with 1:33 left to play.

Moments later, the Spurs had a chance to take the lead. But thanks to Houston's swarming defense, San Antonio didn't get a good look. Duncan settled for a 19-footer as the shot clock was winding down, clanking the shot off the back of the iron.

Yao, an 86 percent free throw shooter, was then fouled on Houston's ensuing possession with 7.5 seconds remaining. Shockingly, the big man missed both shots. But Shane Battier tipped out the offensive rebound, giving Houston another chance to extend their lead. Rafer Alson was immediately fouled, but managed to make only one of two free throws.

Fortunately for the Rockets, the four missed throws didn't prove to be a problem as Bonner missed San Antonio's last-gasp attempt.

"It was crucial because we were missing shots," Rockets forward Luis Scola said. "We have to get stops when we miss shots. Everyone says you win games with defense. We ended up beating a great team like San Antonio with it."

The Rockets didn't hurt their cause by limiting their turnovers and crashing the offensive boards.

After blowing a lead in the fourth quarter to Philadelphia on Tuesday with nine turnovers in the final period, Houston had a grand total of seven miscues against the Spurs. The mark was the fifth lowest total in team history.

On top of that, Houston collected 16 offensive boards that led to 13 second-chance points. During the fourth quarter alone, Houston had eight offensive rebounds.

"We did a really good job of rebounding the ball," said Rockets rookie Carl Landry, who was one of five Houston players with three offensive rebounds. "We out-rebounded them by four. We were trying to stay aggressive on the offensive end and on the defensive end on the glass as well and that's what we did."

The Rockets got an additional boost by getting Tracy McGrady back in the lineup.

McGrady had nine points and four assits in 27 minutes of action after missing the past 11 games with a left knee injury. Since he is still working himself back into playing shape, McGrady came off the bench against the Spurs.

He was cleared to play after testing his knee in Houston's past two practices.

"It's a process of knowing my body and knowing that if I were to wait until I get to 100 percent, then I would probably be waiting until the end of the season," McGrady said. "That's an injury that I'm dealing with right now and, with that said, I made up my mind that I was going to come out and play. I went through two hard practices that went pretty good and I felt like I would give it a shot."

The Rockets were hoping that McGrady's return would help solve some of their recent problems in the fourth quarter.

But on Saturday night, they didn't need the seven-time All-Star to bail them out. The Rockets instead made the stops that they didn't make over the past two games.

Not even a few missed free throws could prevent them from hanging on.

"It's not usual," Yao said of missing his free throws. "(But) what I could see was effort and how much we wanted to win this game."