The Houston Rockets secured a 111-106 home win over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday evening, in large part because of their superb job of slowing down Victor Wembanyama.
The Houston Rockets defense held Wembanyama to only 14 points on 5-for-21 shooting from the field. After conceding 70 points in the first half, Ime Udoka’s side gave up only 36 in the second half, including 14 in the final period.
“We started guarding,” Udoka of Wembanyama told the Houston Chronicle. “The focus on him was to show him bodies, get up under him, take away his air space, be physical, and I felt like we kept him out of a good rhythm tonight.”
“Houston did a heck of a job, the whole second half of guarding us,” San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said. “Ramped up their physicality, ramped up their level of aggression, and we had a rough whole half. We missed some open shots. We weren’t strong in creating reads, catches, passes, and mental stuff in terms of sharpness on play execution. It was a variety of things all across the board.”
Houston Rockets News: Kevin Durant exposes Victor Wembanyama’s weakness
Kevin Durant spent most of last night guarding Victor Wembanyama, and the Houston Rockets star did a phenomenal job against the Frenchman. During the postgame interview, the two-time NBA champion explained how they held Wembanyama to only two points in the entire second half.
“He’s still working on his jump shot. You can tell he’s trying to figure his jump shot out. We made him shoot tough fadeaways over us all night. He hit a couple early on, but for the most part, we made him shoot over us,” Durant detailed.
“He’s the most dangerous when he gets layups, dunks, or plays around the rim; that’s more of his game than floating around the perimeter shooting jump shots. When it goes in, it looks amazing. But when you get a hand up on him, we forced some bad misses, and we were able to get out and run,” he added.
