Preseason Game Thread/Preview #1: Houston Rockets @ San Antonio Spurs

Preseason is upon us. Tonight, we finally get our first look at the new and improved Spurs roster on the court. There wil also be a couple of guys fighting for a realistic shot at making the final roster, trying to show off their game. Here at PtR, we're also trying to raise our game in time for the new season. Find out more after the jump.

So, I gave myself a little assignment during the offseason... an assignment that I didn't bother to start until a couple days ago. What was it? Changing how our game previews look. The look from last year was pretty slick, so we're still using a lot of the elements from that version, but we've decided to move some things around in an attempt to organize it better. Now, this is a preseason version - there's going to be a bit more info included when we get to the regular season previews. These previews will also be separate from the game threads during the regular season, because of the way traffic to the site exploded over the summer.

Houston Rockets @ San Antonio Spurs (Preseason) Where: AT&T Center - San Antonio, TX When: October 6, 2009, 7:30 PM Spurs time Watch: It's probably on local TV in Texas, but the rest of us are out of luck. How They Stack Up
0-0 Home 0-0 0-0 Road 0-0 0.0 Offense 0.0 0.0 Defense 0.0 0 FG% 0 0 3-pt% 0 0 FT% 0 0 Rebounds 0 0 TOs 0 0-0 Last 10 0-0 N/A Streak N/A			PG SG SF PF C Bench Coach Intangibles Mojo Winner
Spurs (0-0)	Vs	Rockets (0-0)	Matchups
George Hill	PG	Aaron Brooks	Tony Parker says he's sitting out the first couple of preseason games after spending his summer qualifying France for the 2010 FIBA World Championships. I'm guessing Brooks doesn't command that kind of paranoia care from the Rockets. Lots of minutes for ooeypooey coming up.
Settle down, ladies...		What is this "defense"?
Manu Ginobili	SG	Jermaine Taylor	Everyone's favorite Spurs player from Argentina returns(because I haven't heard otherwise) - and Battier is out, so Jermaine Taylor probably gets a lot of minutes here for Houston, as do Roger Mason and Keith Bogans for us.
I said settle down, ladies...		Who?
Richard Jefferson	SF	Trevor Ariza	Ariza was a favorite target for the affections of many PtR regulars last year, myself included. However, one can't help but be happy about the SF that the Spurs ended up with. Get ready to see more of Chase Budinger than you ever wanted to. Mike Finley will probably get some run, but the big battle is happening further down the Spurs' bench(which we'll address in a minute)
Princess Peanut		Buhbye, Lakers
Tim Duncan	PF	Carl Landry	I honestly don't know if Timmy will play in this one, but the starters aren't going to get a lot of minutes anyway. Expect to see lots of DeJuan Blair vs. Pops Mensah-Bonsu(remember him?) at this position. Chuck Hayes and Marcus Haislip would also seems like locks for good minutes.
GoatPuff		Nice Grimace
Antonio McDyess	C	Luis Scola	If Luis and Antonio play, don't expect it to be for long - but expect Luis(remember him, too?) to win. Joey Dorsey and David Andersen can be expected to get most of the court time for Houston, with Theo Ratliff and Ian Mahinmi getting the bulk of minutes for the Spurs.
Brian McKnight		The Other Argentine
DeJuan Blair	Bench	Pops Mensah-Bonsu	This was alluded to above, but now we can see what kind of differences exist between two exceptional offensive rebounders. Also of note - will Ian be able to dominate players that are either smaller or slower than him? Since Tony's not playing, you can expect Curtis Jerrells to get some run as well. But the big battle is still going to be between Malik Hairston and Marcus Williams, who are both trying to get the Spurs' final roster spot.
Blairzilla		Bonsai?
Gregg Popovich	Coach	Rick Adelman	This one is a pretty easy call. Adelman is a pretty good coach, but he's not Pop. Not that it really matters in preseason...
Wino		Hates his job
	images via yahoo.com
Intangibles: The Rockets have some smart players, but the Spurs probably have the highest collective basketball IQ in the league. Advantage Spurs. Mojo: The Rockets are decimated by injuries to two of their 3 best players. I think all of us are familiar with that, so let's keep our fingers crossed. Advantage Spurs. Winner: It's preseason.. who cares? But the Spurs would win this in the regular season, so let's just go with that.

Some Other Reading

Rockets

The Dream Shake: The SBN Rockets blog. Good stuff abounds there, but it's not quite as active as PtR. Plus they constantly rub it in our face talk about how great Scola is.
Rockets Buzz: The Houston TrueHoop affiliate, which hasn't been updated in quite a while.

Spurs

48 Minutes of Hell: Tim and Graydon are awesome. If you don't already read 48MoH, you should... right after you come out from underneath that rock.
Project Spurs: This is a pretty slick fan blog, and they usually have good content about the Spurs.

Manu's twitter page:

Kyle Lowry: Luis scola wants to know If I have any argentinians following me?

Manu Ginobili: @Klow7 1 Argentino here, but with waaay less hair than the 1 playing w/u. btw, he keeps telling me that u don't pass him the ball enough…

Where to Tune In

TV

We're out of luck on this one. Preseason games are not even being aired locally, unless Spurs.com is wrong.

Online

Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in this thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe".

Spurs League Pass audio is still free, I believe.

Radio

If you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM).