One of the best second round series going on right now, the Spurs and Rockets are back at it on friday night for game three in Houston. The two teams have traded wins and in both have looked fairly dominant. In game one, the Rockets caught fire from the three-point line and cruised to a win. In game two, Kawhi Leonard stepped up and the Spurs cruised to a win.
Matchup of the night
Every game is going to have this amazing matchup between Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. In game one, Harden played well and got his teammates involved. In game 2, however, Kawhi Leonard dominated the matchup.
On offense, Kawhi had 34 points on 13 of 16 shooting. Defensively, Kawhi held Harden to just 13 points on 3 of 17 shooting. This defensive display from Kawhi was dominant and set a tone for this series. The Spurs changed their Pick And Roll defense a bit and created more time for Kawhi to get through screens and recover onto Harden.
This matchup will be interesting because when Harden is tested, he always comes back strong. If he can pick up a foul or two onto Kawhi early in the game he can just pick the Spurs apart from there.
Battle of the bigs
The bigs in this series are really crucial to everything. Both of the best players on each team are wings, so the battle for rebounds and spacing from the bigs is a big key.
The Spurs with LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol really have to work in pick and roll scenarios and on the boards against Clint Capela. Capela has been looking really good in this matchup and thus far has been the better big.
The bigs in this game may have a larger role than they have previously in the series. If the wings are sucked up so much and space is clogged, we may see a lot more battles between LaMarcus Aldridge and Clint Capela.
So far Clint has guarded him really well but at any moment Aldridge can start hitting everything.
If you're a basketball fan you should root for this series to go to seven games. Two of some of the most talented wings are displaying dominant skills going head to head and it's only going to get better from here.
The only question mark for San Antonio in this series is how they respond without Tony Parker.
Parker was ruled done for the season due to a torn quadriceps, and now they'll have to fill that point guard role to Patty Mills. Mills is a good scoring guard off the bench but no-one brings that facilitating on the court like Parker does for the starters. This change in scenery will be interesting to see for San Antonio.
