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.
It's a ####' conspiracy. That's like scheduling my Falcons to play against the Saints in the refurbished Superdome in the first game in New Orleans since the Katrina tragedy. Oh ####! That happened too didn't it. Nevermind!
Celtics Snap 18-Game Losing Streak to Spurs
By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
Paul Pierce gave the Boston Celtics an unexpected victory in the most unlikely of places. The Celtics ended a 17-year drought in San Antonio - fittingly on St. Patrick's Day. Pierce led Boston with 30 points as the Celtics beat the Spurs 91-85 on Saturday night. The Celtics last beat the Spurs in San Antonio on Feb. 14, 1990. The Spurs had won 18 straight against the Celtics and 15 straight at home.
"It feels good,'' Pierce said. "Regardless of who was supposed to be the favorite coming in. Especially the way it went down - us having the big lead and them coming back and then us keeping our composure.'' "You go on the road to play San Antonio and you tell me it's a two-point game with two minutes left, I'll take that,'' Pierce said.
Delonte West had 23 points, Al Jefferson added 20 points and 12 rebounds and Rajon Rondo grabbed 14 rebounds. "It was a game of momentum. We had it going then all of a sudden in the fourth, we couldn't really do anything,'' Michael Olowokandi said. "Coach just told us to be solid on the defensive end. That's what we did and it worked out.''
"We had one quarter tonight where we really locked it down and did a good job defending,'' said Michael Olowokandi. "But other than that we gave up too many (shots) percentage-wise and too many points in the paint.''
"We had one quarter tonight where we really locked it down and did a good job defending,'' said Tim Duncan. "But other than that we gave up too many (shots) percentage-wise and too many points in the paint.''
Tony Parker led the Spurs with 30 points. Duncan added 20 points and 16 rebounds and Michael Finley had 10 points. They shot just 37 percent from the field. "We tried to make a comeback but it's tough to do that,'' Parker said.
"We played terrible for three quarters,'' said Manu Ginobili. "We made a great effort down the stretch to come back. We were even ahead but then they made a couple of great shots and we stopped. Down the stretch we couldn't get anything done so that means a lot in games like this.''
The Spurs were coming off a 101-90 loss in Milwaukee on Thursday that snapped their season-high 13-game winning streak. The Celtics, who have the league's second-worst record, lost Friday to the Dallas Mavericks 106-101.
Less than four minutes into Saturday's game against Boston, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had seen enough. Celtics guard Delonte West just beat the Spurs down the floor for a layup, so Popovich looked at his bench and told Manu Ginobili to go to the scorer's table. After Boston scored eight unanswered points, Popovich signaled for a timeout. Out went Brent Barry, in came Ginobili. Ginobili barely had time to take his seat for the second half when his coach called on him again.
Was Popovich's quick trigger a sign he's considering returning Ginobili to the starting lineup? Not necessarily. "Some nights, I might want to get Manu in a little earlier for whatever reason it might be," Popovich said after practice Tuesday, "so it's not really indicative of anything."
Ginobili has come off the bench for the past 21 games and is expected to do so again when the Spurs host Indiana tonight at the A####mp;T Center. Popovich can't say how long the lineup will remain the same, but he does like the flexibility Ginobili has afforded him. "I still think he'd rather start if he was pressed and asked," Popovich said, "but I think he's become comfortable in (a reserve) role, and our team has become a little more consistent in a rotation-sense. "It makes substitutions a whole lot easier that way. We have our top three players on the floor more often. I don't mean all at the same time, but at least one of them is on the floor, and that's important to us."
Ginobili typically replaces Barry with about six minutes left in the first quarter. With Tony Parker and Tim Duncan usually headed to the bench a couple of minutes later, Ginobili becomes the team's primary scorer on the floor. When he was starting, Ginobili said, "sometimes I went back to the bench with nothing done." "Probably it helps my confidence," Ginobili said, "but I think I can do it starting, too." At times, like Saturday's loss to Boston, it seems like Ginobili might as well be starting.
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.
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