Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Rockets beat the Spurs in Pre-Season Opener

The wait is over, the Spurs finally played. But they dropped their pre-season opener 99-85 against the Rockets. It's important to note that the Spurs played without Duncan, Parker, Finley, McDyess and Ratliff. While the Rockets played with Scola, Landry, Brooks and Ariza.

Matt Bonner played pretty well pumping in 14 points and 3 rebounds; George Hill was solid with 15 points, 4 assist and 3 rebounds as he played the most minutes for the Spurs (30 mins 26 secs. to be exact) and DeJuan Blair was great scoring 16 points, grabbing 19 rebounds (8 offensive) and handed out 2 assist. If this is a sign of things to come, then the Spurs will be very tough to beat when the games begin to count. (Video highlights at the bottom of this post!)

Even if the Spurs lost, I'm not too worried. It's their first game and It's the pre-season. Of course winning the game would be nice but at least the Spurs saw their new additions play. Jefferson scored 6 points in 15 minutes of action and Haislip had 7 points.

Important things to note: Hill looked comfortable at the point. Blair is a rebounding machine and knows how to use his body, Bonner looked like a rotation player for the Spurs, and Hairston wants that 15th spot badly and he could really contribute.

On the other hand, it seems that some Spurs needs more time to blend in. Haislip needs to cut on his turnovers, Ian must get tougher and smarter (enough with those fouls already). Manu needs to get his rhythm back and Bogans should relax and let the game come to him, same goes to Mason.

To be fair, the Rockets played well and hard as always. Carl Landry led them with 19 points, rookie Chase Budinger played a good all-around game. And Luis Scola, Brooks and Ariza; all played fairly well. They deserve to win.



Overall, it looked like the Spurs will have a great season. Considering the fact that they played without most of their starters, they still managed to stay in the game for three quarters. It's interesting to see how will they develop their team chemistry as the season goes along.


Related posts:
  • Spurs Game day Recap preseason opener
  • PtR Preseason Quick Cap
  • Blair impresses in preseason loss
  • Confidence Shows in Bonner's shot
  • Mahinmi must show his worth to the Spurs

  • Links from SPURS.COM, Pounding the Rock and San Antonio Express.

    Game Video highlights:


    No comments: