Harrison Barnes scored 24 points and Victor Wembanyama and Julian Champagnie had 22 each as the host San Antonio Spurs defeated the Houston Rockets 121-110 on Friday in an NBA Cup clash between the Lone Star State rivals.
The win gave the Spurs a 1-0 record in the West Group C pod of the league’s postseason tournament while Houston dropped to 0-1. San Antonio and Houston are grouped with Portland, Denver and Golden State in the event.
San Antonio led by a point at halftime and by 11 midway through the third quarter before the Rockets closed to within four entering the fourth. The Spurs rebuilt the advantage to nine points on a Barnes 3-pointer with 6:37 to play but Houston responded with a 6-0 run that included a layup by Amen Thompson to cull its deficit to 103-100 with 4:48 left.
Champagnie’s 3-pointer, a Stephon Castle putback and Wembanyama’s baseline turnaround jumper with 2:17 remaining pushed the lead to eight points. Two free throws and steal and dunk by Barnes closed out the win for the Spurs, who ended a two-game losing streak.
Devin Vassell added 15 points and Castle amassed 14 points and distributed 13 assists for San Antonio.
Alperen Sengun led all scorers with 25 points while Kevin Durant added 24 for the Rockets, who had their five-game winning streak snapped. Reed Sheppard hit for 16 points, Thompson had 14, Josh Okogie tallied 12 and Tari Eason contributed 11 for Houston.
The Rockets led by six points after an Okogie 3-pointer four minutes into the game. San Antonio rallied with a 15-4 run that was culminated by Johnson’s putback layup at the 3:45 mark before Houston swung back, scoring nine of the final 11 points in the period, the final three on a long-distance bucket by Eason, and garnered a 25-23 edge after one period of play.
Houston turned a two-point lead into a 40-30 advantage with 7:04 to play in the second quarter with an 8-0 run that included back-to-back 3-pointers by Sheppard. The Rockets led by 11 points after a pair of free throws by Thompson with 2:24 left until halftime before San Antonio closed the half on a 12-0 run punctuated by Castle’s three-point play with a second left and carried a 51-50 advantage into the break.
Barnes paced the Spurs with 11 points at the half while Sheppard’s 10 points led Houston at halftime.
