San Antonio’s late surge downs Houston

The Spurs overcame a 19-point third quarter deficit for their fifth win in a row.

Manu Ginobli also scored 19 for San Antonio. The Spurs received major contributions off of their bench, with Francisco Elson scoring 12, Beno Udrih adding 11, and Robert Horry scoring 10 points. The Spurs have won seven of their last eight.

San Antonio’s bench outscored Houston’s reserves, 41-16.

"Our bench turned the game around for us and gave us an opportunity to come back and win the game," Duncan said. "We were not good defensively in the first half and then the effort in the second half was our best defense of the year."

Tracy McGrady paced the Rockets with 26 points and eight rebounds, but could only score five in the second half. Yao Ming scored 20 points, but only came down with six rebounds on the night. Rafer Alston added 12 points for the Rockets who had a four-game winning streak snapped.

"They clogged the paint," Yao said of San Antonio’s effort in the second half. "They tried to push us out of the pain so that we would shoot jump shots and they have a good rebounding team. So when we started missing shots, it’s hard to get second chances."

After McGrady hit a free throw put the Rockets up 75-58 with just under four minutes left in the third quarter, but the Spurs quickly turned the game around. San Antonio closed the third quarter on a 13-0 run, with Udrih scoring the last seven points of the quarter.

The Spurs stretched the run to 17-0 with a dunk by Horry at 10:46 of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 75-75.

The smothering San Antonio defense continued into the fourth, as Houston could only manage nine points in the final quarter. Including the end of the third, the Spurs closed the game on a 34-9 run.

It was all Houston early, as the Rockets opened the game on a 13-2 run. McGrady was red-hot in the first half, netting 21 points, including a three- pointer with 0.1 left in the second quarter to give the Rockets a 56-43 lead going into halftime.

Game Notes

The Spurs have won seven in a row over the Rockets...San Antonio is undefeated on the road this season, at 4-0...The Spurs outrebounded the Rockets 51-36.