NBA: Harden shoots the Spurs to 10th place

The San Antonio Spurs are getting cramped: In the Texas duel against the Houston Rockets they have no chance without LaMarcus Aldridge and fly out of the playoff ranks. On the other side James Harden returns again and again to the free-throw line.

Slowly the air gets thin at the San Antonio Spurs! Their eighth defeat in the last ten games has taken them out of the playoff ranks and left them in tenth place in the West. However, you can hardly blame them after the game against the rockets. In the Texas duel against Houston, LaMarcus Aldridge with knee problems was missing in addition to the long-time injured Kawhi Leonard, who is expected back on Thursday.

For example, a starting five consisting of Dejounte Murray, Patty Mills, Kyle Anderson, Rudy Gay and Pau Gasol didn’t have much to do with a team competing for titles. Also, the use of players such as Matt Costello (two-way player) and Derrick White (G-League commuters) showed that the spurs are currently walking on the gums.

So they didn’t really have a chance against the Top Seed from Houston. As soon as the opponent scored the defensive intensity for a few Possessions, San Antonio failed to reach a reasonable conclusion. That’s how things turned out: a modest advance of the rockets in the first half turned into a score with a suspected blowout in the third quarter.

The hosts were able to use the services of James Harden, who had been spared Mavericks the day before. In old freshness the beard conducted his offense as usual, while Chris Paul in most cases acted off the ball. In an inimitable manner, Harden Foul went for Foul (14/14 FT), so that despite problems from the three-line (2/11) he had 28 points in the end.

CP3 scored 18 points and 9 assists, but Eric Gordon (1 point, 0/7 FG) did not make it into the match. Top scorers of the Spurs were said White and Bryn Forbes with 14 points, Gay came in 13, Tony Parker from the bank on 12.