The San Antonio Spurs are back in the loss column after falling to the Houston Rockets 114-101 on Tuesday night at Toyota Center.
In the loss, the Spurs committed 18 turnovers compared to the Rockets' five, which certainly made a difference throughout the game. It also forced the Spurs to play transition defense throughout the night, which was difficult to play against the fast Rockets.
"We weren't getting stops. We were trading buckets. If we missed a shot, getting back on transition defense was hard," Malaki Branham said postgame. "Turned over the ball a couple of times. That's kind of why the game slipped away from us. I feel like we had a couple of good shots too that just didn't go in but when that happens we have to get back and run in transition defense.
"Transition defense, that’s just the biggest thing trying to keep improving every game. Transition defense, stopping the ball so they don’t get easy buckets.”
The Spurs gave up 70 paint points compared to scoring just 44, and many of those buckets came off layups that the Rockets were easily able to get to with the poor transition defense from San Antonio.
While the Spurs were able to stay in the contest for most of the night thanks to strong shooting, the defense is what ultimately prevented them from achieving the win.
Now, the Spurs go back to the drawing board in hopes of improving when they face the Sacramento Kings tomorrow night. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. CT.
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