Houston Rockets blast Patty Mills’ Spurs in NBA

The James Harden-led Houston demolished Patty Mills’ Spurs in game one of their NBA Western Conference semi-final series.

Houston Rockets guard James Harden drives between Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) and guard Manu Ginobili (20) in San Antonio yesterday

The James Harden-led Houston Rockets have demolished Patty Mills’ San Antonio Spurs in game one of their NBA Western Conference semi-final series.
The Spurs were never in the game, an unusual situation for the five-time NBA champions who were expected to dominate on their home court yesterday. The Rockets won 126-99.

Houston were up 34-21 at the end of the first quarter, extended it to 69-39 at halftime and by the end of the third quarter maintained a commanding 96-67 lead.

Disillusioned Spurs fans began emptying out of AT&T Centre early in the fourth quarter. At one point the Rockets held a 39-point lead.

“We need to get game two,” said Harden, who had 20 points, 14 assists and four steals.

“This was good for us, but we have to get greedy.” Game two is in San Antonio tomorrow.

The Spurs shot 37 per cent from the field to the Rockets’ 46 per cent, a situation that was perfect for Harden and his fast-breaking Rockets.

“We disobeyed a lot of basic basketball rules,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “If we are going to shoot quickly and poorly there’s going to be fast breaks all night long and they’re better at that than what we are.”

Canberra’s Mills hit three of seven field goals for seven points and the Spurs’ All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard sank just five of his 14 shots for 21 points. Popovich said there was little chance the Spurs would repeat such a poor effort in game two.

“There’s not much coaches don’t worry about, but that won’t be one of them in all honesty,” Popovich said.

The Cleveland Cavaliers showed little rust in their 116-105 throttling of the Toronto Raptors in the opener of their Eastern Conference semi-final series. The Cavaliers had not played since sweeping the Indiana Pacers on April 23 in their first-round series, while the Raptors were left battered and bruised after finally knocking the Milwaukee Bucks out in six games last week.

LeBron James had 35 points and Kyrie Irving added 24 for the Cavaliers. ‘‘That was the mystery coming into the game, how we would come out?” said James, asked about being concerned about being rusty.

‘‘Obviously you prepare, you want to come out and play well, but you never know after an eight-day lay-off.”

Kyle Lowry scored 20 and DeMar DeRozan 19 for the Raptors. Game two is tomorrow in Cleveland.

AAP