Bonzi Wells had 15 rebounds on Tuesday night to help the Houston Rockets over the San Antonio Spurs 89-81. Afterward, Wells reiterated that rebounding was his thing.Yao Ming added 13 rebounds. Tracy McGrady had nine rebounds. Houston controlled Tim Duncan and outrebounded the sluggish Spurs 55-28.
"It was a huge advantage that we gave up. It's pretty hard to win like that."
- Manu Ginobilion the Rockets 55-28 rebound advantage.
The Rockets had 25 offensive rebounds, part of the reason they outscored the Spurs 21-3 on second chances. The Rockets finished the first half with a 34-15 rebounding advantage.
"I think we all understand how good we can be," McGrady said. "If we can do this on a consistent basis, then we would be tough to beat."
San Antonio's Tim Duncancalled it a "very, very, very bad rebounding night" for his club — yes, he used three "verys" — and still probably understated the case.
"If they get 20-some-odd second shots," Duncan said, "it starts and ends right there."
"That was one of the keys tonight to win the game," Yao said. "If you look at field-goal percentage (40.7 percent), we were not shooting that well. But we had ... almost 20 (more) shots with offensive rebounds — Chuck (Hayes, who had four offensive rebounds), Bonzi (who had seven) and me (eight) — some on my shots that I missed and (were) put back in. That's about how hungry we were to win the game."
With the victory, the Rockets (4-1) ruined the Spurs' perfect start. The Spurs (3-1) are trying to rebound — in every sense of the word — tonight against the Miami Heat at the A####mp;T Center.
Manu Ginobili wasn't about to let the Orlando Magic put together another memorable victory against the Spurs. There would be no improbable plays by Dwight Howard on this Friday night. Ginobili made six 3-pointers and finished with 31 points to help San Antonio beat Orlando 98-74. Ginobili had 16 points and five 3s in the third quarter for the Spurs, who extended their season-high winning streak to seven. Tim Duncan added 19 points and 10 rebounds and Michael Finley scored 12 points. Hedo Turkoglu led the Magic with 22 points and Jameer Nelson had 18.
At their last meeting in February, the Spurs were stunned by Howard, who caught an inbounds alley-oop pass from Turkoglu and jammed it with less than a second to play to give the Magic a 106-104 victory. "We're happy to get a win against these guys, after a really tough loss a couple of weeks ago,'' Ginobili said. " (Coach Gregg Popovich) said we couldn't allow them to do it again. We remembered that in Orlando we were winning by 16 or 18, something like that, and they came back. Because they have talent.''
Ginobili matched one franchise record with five 3-pointers in the third quarter and another with six total in the second half. He missed only two of the 10 shots he took in the half and scored his 25 points in a span of just 10 minutes, 45 seconds. Ginobili's performance was nearly as thrilling as the 40-point effort he produced in Atlanta last week. "Manu obviously held a hell of a run," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
Ginobili said. "...we had to play tougher 'D' and everybody had to go to the boards and get loose balls. And then offensively, something was going to come up." That something was Ginobili. After missing 6 of 9 shots in the first half, he buried three 3-pointers in less than two minutes after the timeout.
Ginobili added another late in the quarter after Orlando again cut the Spurs' lead to six. When Darko Milicic made a pair of free throws to bring the Magic within 62-57, Ginobili pumped in one more 3-pointer at the buzzer after taking a dribble handoff above the key from Robert Horry.
"Those kind of shots are sometimes easier because you have no pressure," Ginobili said. "You know you have to shoot it and nobody's going to say anything. Nobody's going to get upset at you with one second to go."
Ginobili wasn't done. He drove for a layup and a foul early in the fourth quarter, made another 3-pointer then completed another three-point play after Duncan dove to the floor to force a steal. The flurry broke open the game.
"When you face a player like Ginobili you have to decide if you want him driving to the basket or pulling up and shooting behind screens," Magic coach Brian Hill said. "Tonight we wanted Ginobili shooting behind screens."
Unlike in Atlanta, where he often burned the Hawks with his penetration, Ginobili leaned more heavily on his 3-point shot. "I was feeling so comfortable with the shot and so confident," Ginobili said, "that probably I took a couple I shouldn't have."
No one was complaining.
Rockets
The Houston Rockets' super-sized bear mascot, as mascots typically do, trotted out to midcourt during Friday's fourth quarter, sounded his siren and prepared to start firing T-shirts into the Toyota Center crowd. Until, that is, he noticed the players running around him. With Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy staring blankly from the sideline and the Spurs' Gregg Popovich shaking his head in disbelief, the referees called a timeout and shooed off the embarrassed mascot. But give Clutch some credit: For the first time all evening, the Rockets had upstaged Tim Duncan.
Duncan made sure the Spurs had something to smile about after the teams' final regular-season meeting. He knew right away Saturday night was going to be a good night, alright for fightin' you might say. Duncan scored 26 points and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Houston Rockets 97-74 on Saturday night for their season-high eighth straight victory.
Duncan buried a 20-footer on the team's opening possession. He hit his first five shots and scored 15 points in the first quarter. Duncan had eight in a 12-0 run that opened an 18-5 lead with 6:18 to go in the first quarter. He showed off his repertoire: a 14-foot bank shot, a running hook, a driving layup and a turnaround jumper.
"It feels good to hit your first few shots,'' Duncan said. "It makes the rest of the game go easy. My shot felt good the entire night.'' Duncan hit at least four of his trademark bank shots, soft floaters that look off at first before they glance off the glass and fall in. "It's what's going in now,'' he said. "I hope it keeps going in for a while.''
So do the Spurs.
"When he starts like that, it gives him confidence and gives us confidence, too,'' guard Manu Ginobili said. "When he starts making those shots, it opens up the whole game for us. "We played great, especially defensively. It was a great overall game by everybody.''
With the 7-foot-6 Yao out, Duncan worked over the rest of Houston's big men. Dikembe Mutombo had to go to the bench with two quick fouls. Juwan Howard also picked up two in the first quarter, and backup forward Chuck Hayes was hit with three in his first 41/2 minutes on the floor.
"Again, it shows you the value of having a guy you can throw the ball inside to," Van Gundy said. "Collapses the defense, gets you to the free-throw line. He by himself had us in foul trouble in the first half."
"He's definitely been looking to take his shot," Gregg Popovich said. "If he's open, he's going ahead and shooting in rhythm."
The Spurs got 14 points from Michael Finley and 13 points and eight rebounds from Francisco Elson as they won in Houston for the fourth straight time. San Antonio played without All-Star guard Tony Parker, who sat with a strained left hip.
"But all this must be suffered by those who profess the stern order of chivalry" Most Interesting Blog, June 16, 2008 and six other occasions. Lisa awarded him Best "breaking news" blogger March 31, 2008. Blog of The Day, Christmas Day, 2007. edhardiman wrote, "Falco's tribute to Rocket Richard reminds us all the stars of today stand on the shoulders of giants..." October 23, 2007. Three Golden Swirrly p00p Awards (Hockey, NASCAR and Use of Graphics), FlyingPig, July 18, 2007. 2007 Memorial Day Weekend Trifecta sponsored by williamwilman . Featured on WFORacingFans April, 2007. "Stylin'" award, Dusty, February 07. "One of ten new bloggers to watch" Dudski, January 2007.
