Ben DuBose

A man was actually very good, probably Houston's best player.

And yet the Rockets were still nowhere close because the Spurs were

were just better across the board.

They shot 21 of 40 from three.

I guess the one silver lining is that if they don't shoot an insane percentage like that, maybe the Rockets lose by 10 or 15.

There was some shot luck involved.

But regardless, the Spurs were the better team.

They looked far more athletic.

And even though the Rockets had some answers to the Wemby-Amen conundrum,

At the same time, it was nowhere close to get a win.

And that's your biggest rival historically, or at least the Spurs are up there.

So it's a tough loss, especially going into the year.

We wanted to think that adding Kevin Durant to the two seed could perhaps push the Rockets into the title contention tier.

Now, I know it's not the same thing.

You don't have Fred Van Vliet.

You don't have Steven Adams.

Dorian Finney-Smith still looks like a shell of himself coming off ankle surgery.

So...

It's not the team you thought you had last July.

Nonetheless, it is sobering to see a result like that against the Spurs.