Texas basketball's previous night wasn't very good.
The Rockets and Spurs both lost in games that were largely
blowouts last night, making it a bad night for basketball in the Lone Star
State. Every game played by the Texas NBA teams this NBA season will be
recapped on the last night of the Texas basketball blog. Luka is still doing
Luka Magic in Dallas, the Spurs have Wemby, and the Rockets are finally hopeful
after James Harden's departure. It's time for Texas to take back control of the
NBA.
The San Antonio
Spurs and Houston Rockets don't seem to have received the memo that Texas was
prepared to take over before the 2023–2024 season got underway.
On Sunday, the Los
Angeles Clippers crushed the Spurs, and the Golden State Warriors defeated the
Rockets. It was a bad night for Texas basketball last night.At the Toyota
Center, the Rockets opened their home season against the Warriors, a team they
were no strangers to. Two things stuck out to me through the first two
quarters: the Rockets were unable to shoot many long jump shots, and the
Warriors were making a few more threes. After just two quarters, the Rockets
appeared to be fully engaged in the game and even held the lead at times during
the third and fourth.
With 18
three-pointers, the Warriors made twice as many as the Rockets, and it was
disastrous for Houston. Other than Alperen Sengun, who continued to be
dependable with a 19/5/7 stat line, Jalen Green seemed to be the only somewhat
bright spot for the squad.This game would have ended very differently if the
Rockets had made just a few of their several open three-pointers. Although Ime
Udoka has the defense playing a bit better than the squad from the previous
season, it seems like they are still adjusting to all the new players. Recall
that it took Udoka's Boston squad until the start of the new year to properly
find their rhythm with the system, so the Houston Rockets still have hope.Once
more, it was Alperen Sengun who exemplified consistency. Over the course of the
following 79 games, I anticipate that he will receive this honor
frequently.Let's go to the San Antonio Spurs game, where they played the
full-strength Clippers squad. In addition to Paul George and Kawhi Leonard
playing yesterday night, they also had the best Russell Westbrook around. The
youthful Spurs team was defeated by forty (40) points in Los Angeles as a
result of that.
As a Spurs fan, I
found it difficult to watch this game. Despite playing 26 minutes, Victor
Wembanyama didn't even appear to be on the court. This is something I
anticipate happening frequently this season as he and the Spurs work to define
his role and find effective ways to deploy him against elite teams.Playing an
NBA game when the Spurs shoot 37.5% from the field is always a surefire way to
lose. They committed 25 turnovers as well, which is not good. About this game,
I don't have much more to say.Devin Vassell earns the top performer award once
again since he was the Spurs' top scorer last night with 14 points. It's
unbelievable that I'm going to pick a player who was a -30 +/-. Not very good!
Next time, we'll
speak. A recap of the Dallas Mavericks vs. Memphis Grizzlies game from last
night in Texas basketball will be posted tomorrow.It was a bad night for Texas
basketball last night.