“They made a few adjustments,” Spurs guard Patty Mills said, “that we just couldn’t adjust with on the fly and it ended up leaving us play soft.” Around the NBA, there is no greater condemnation than “playing soft.” It’s the only sin that can’t be forgiven. Miss shots? Sure. Have trouble executing? It happens. But play soft? Nothing worse. Mills went on to say that the Rockets adjustments “exposed our individual D. They took chances and just drove us.”
The Rockets may have been inadvertently helped by their big man Nene leaving the game with a groin injury, forcing them to go with a 3-guard lineup — small ball, in NBA parlance. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said it’s nothing new — both teams have played small at times. But the difference this time according to Pop was that “they executed out of it very, very well and we guarded very poorly.” Mills described the Spurs problem pretty simply: “[Our] individual defense. Them just driving straight past us.”
