SAN ANTONIO -- For all of James Harden's brilliance Monday night, mistakes, foul calls or lack thereof cost the Houston Rockets.
San Antonio won a hectic game 112-110, and it featured 14 lead changes and six ties.
"They're good, and they have the bar where is should be," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We have to get over the bar, and we've been close. We had them 13 points down with four minutes to go at home. I thought we had a good shot tonight. We'll look forward to it if we meet further down the road."
Before we move down Interstate 10 for a highly anticipated playoff series, should the stars align, the Rockets were shaking their heads at their failures.
Harden scored 39 points and had 12 assists, but he missed four of five shots in the fourth quarter, when he was mainly covered by Kawhi Leonard. Harden also missed a critical free throw with 59.7 seconds left that would have given the Rockets a two-point lead. Instead, the one-point lead wasn't enough to contain Leonard, who nailed a nasty 25-foot 3-pointer over the taller Nene for a 110-108 lead.
On the ensuing possession, Harden did what he does, and that's take people to the basket. He got to the rim and, despite the contact from David Lee, which drew no whistle from the officials, had his shot pinned on the glass by a trailing Leonard. Nene grabbed the offensive rebound, and there was contact as he tried for a putback.
"That was a good block, but initially, I got fouled," Harden said. "That's why the ball took so long to get up. It was a good block, and we just didn't win."
The little things cost the Rockets in a game in which every point was precious, such as Harden's missed foul shot and Eric Gordon's being called for a lane violation with 4:43 remaining. The violation occurred as Tony Parker missed his second free throw. Given another chance, Parker tied the game 98-98.
"I think it was a number of things that could have been different," Trevor Ariza said. "We couldn't make some plays, but late down the stretch, they made plays."
What might have also been a mistake, depending on your viewpoint, was the last sequence of the game. Down two, D'Antoni elected to put pressure in the backcourt to force an 8-second call. After the Spurs inbounded the ball, they were able to move the ball from the corner to the other side of the court to across half court in an estimated time of six seconds. D'Antoni wanted the Rockets to foul once the ball crossed half court, and it appeared that Patrick Beverley made contact with LaMarcus Aldridge with about 1.8 seconds remaining. The referees didn't call anything, and the buzzer sounded to end the evening.
D'Antoni was irritated with the officials for not blowing the whistle, and he let them know about it as they walked off.
"We were trying to come up with a steal, which is the biggest thing," D'Antoni said. "Close, but it didn't happen. We also wanted to foul when Aldridge got the ball. He passed, and he got fouled, but they didn't call it."
In the end, the game raised several questions:
Should the Rockets have tried to get an 8-second call, considering they're an average defensive team? Maybe they should have fouled immediately and put the Spurs on the foul line?
Did Leonard, who was sensational with 39 points, including 17 in the fourth, push himself past Russell Westbrook into the MVP conversation? Maybe Leonard moved past Harden?
San Antonio has beaten Houston three times this season. Is that a psychological advantage for the Spurs if they meet the Rockets in the postseason?
Maybe the Rockets will get a chance to answer the last question during a playoff matchup this spring.
"Every game with Houston's been like this," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Nobody's kicked anybody's butt. The wins we had in Houston, I think we're pretty similar. In fact, I think one game, they were up on us, and we came back like tonight. But both teams are hungry. Both teams are very competitive, very physical, so it was anybody's ball game. It's not like we kicked anybody's butt. The game could have gone either way, so both teams deserve a lot of credit for competing the way they did."
