Inexperience hurts Rockets, split two-game set with Spurs

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It was another valiant effort for the short-handed Rockets on Saturday night, but this time, inexperience and fatigue ended up getting the better of them.

A tight game saw the San Antonio Spurs pull away late against the Houston Rockets on Saturday, winning by a score of 103-91 on Saturday.

Despite the loss, it was another encouraging effort from the Rockets, who were forced to field the minimum of eight players due to injury and trade hold-ups. Leading the way once again was Christian Wood, who filled up the stat sheet with 24 points and a career-high 18 rebounds.

Joining Wood in leading the Rockets, however, was undrafted rookie Mason Jones. Jones, filling in for John Wall and Sterling Brown, exploded in his first career start as a professional, going for 24 points on 8-12 shooting, including 6-8 from deep. Jones also added six rebounds and four assists in the contest.

With Ben McLemore (21p) also turning in a great performance, it was enough to keep the Rockets close throughout. Unfortunately, fatigue and inexperience caught up with the team in a bad way. P.J. Tucker went 1-9 from the floor, and 0-6 from deep. Rodions Kurucs, making his team debut, went 1-5. Players not named Mason Jones or Ben McLemore all shot less than 50% from the floor--even stranger was that the squad had a higher three-point percentage (37.5%) than all-around shooting percentage (36.9%).

Plenty more careless and fixable mistakes went into the Rockets' loss. The team as a whole committed 22 turnovers. They missed ten free throws. Poor footwork left the Rockets in position to be called for fouls, even if they themselves were the recipients of some poor no-calls.

Despite the loss, there's a lot to like moving forward, especially from the younger guys fighting for minutes in a suddenly widely-variant minutes influx with the loss of James Harden.

Houston, now 4-7, will look to rebound and get some much needed help in terms of play-making and veteran leadership, with the acquisition of Victor Oladipo and the (hopeful) returns of John Wall and Eric Gordon. They'll be taking on the Chicago Bulls in the United Center on Monday night at 7 PM CT.