HOUSTON -- The 10-game winning streak is over, and for the Houston Rockets there was no crying in the locker room, slamming of fists or brushing off reporters. In reality, the Rockets lost a game they should have won, 102-100, to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night.
It was close game between evenly-matched teams, and give the Rockets credit for being competitive without starting center Clint Capela (fractured fibula) and shooting season lows from 3-point range (15.8 percent) and from the field (38 percent).
What the winning streak told us about these Rockets is they are an elite team in the West, and regardless of whether they play the Spurs or Golden State Warriors in the postseason, the games will be fun and competitive.
Can any team outside of the Rockets -- maybe Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers -- say they can realistically win a seven-game series against the elites of the West in Golden State and San Antonio?
"The confidence is still good and we're going to be just fine," Eric Gordon said after Tuesday's loss. "We're going to hit another winning streak here. We're a helluva team. A lot of people are being like, 'Oh yeah, they're a good team now.' No, we're a very good team, we're definitely as good as any of them. We're going to be right up there at the top."
The Rockets missed their first 14 3-pointers before Trevor Ariza nailed one with 4:04 to go in the first half. It was the latest point in any of the 29 games this season that the Rockets made their first 3. Ariza's 3 began a stretch of three consecutive buckets from long-range as the Rockets jumped back into the game.
Houston was able to forge past San Antonio thanks to its MVP candidate James Harden's layup with 2:51 left in the third. The Rockets held a seven-point edge going into the fourth and pushed it to 13 in the final 12 minutes.
But the Spurs being the Spurs rallied, and the Rockets faltered down the stretch.
"The biggest thing that happened is that we had about three or four wide-open shots we missed," coach Mike D'Antoni said. "They had three or four wide-open shots they hit and then we still had control."
A 21-4 run by the Spurs brought them back from a 13-point deficit, and they took a two-point lead when Patty Mills made a 3 with 12.9 seconds left.
Houston had its chances. Gordon missed a potential go-ahead 3 with 4.9 seconds left, and after Manu Ginobili missed two would-be clinching free throws, one more gasp remained. Harden had a step-back 3 from 27 feet miss at the buzzer. He fell down while covered by Jonathon Simmons.
No foul was called and now the Rockets head to Phoenix.
"Real tough, especially when we let two big leads slip away," Harden said. "One to start the fourth quarter and the other (eight) with 3:30 in the fourth. We've got to close the game out. Give them credit, they made shots, we turned the basketball over, I didn't close the right way. We didn't close the right way as a team."
Houston made a season-low six 3-pointers, which was stunning considering the Rockets made 80 in the previous four games, which included an NBA-record 24 3s against the Pelicans on Friday.
During its win streak, Houston defeated elite teams such as Golden State and San Antonio, middle-of-the-pack teams in Boston and Oklahoma City, and of course those in the bottom of their respective conferences in Brooklyn, the Lakers, Denver, Dallas, Sacramento and New Orleans.
"We were (6-of-38) from 3-point line and we still put ourselves in an opportunity to win the game," Harden said. "We're just not a 3-point shooting team, we're an extremely good team and that's one of the best teams in the league for many, many years. So we got to continue to work and continue to figure each other out and just grind for each other, that's it."
