Pre-game thoughts from Houston

HOUSTON — The Spurs have been lacking at times in the scoring department recently. The Rockets never really seem to have issues with that.

San Antonio has had some difficulty "playing in the mud" over the course of the last few weeks. Having Tony Parker back is certainly one thing that can help remove them from said mud, but given his physical status and lack of court time this month it's not like we can expect him to be all the way back, and it's not like we can expect his teammates to seamlessly incorporate him back into the offense.

But where Houston doesn't lack scoring punch, it often lacks the other part of playing basketball: defense. They'll run up and down on you, but they'll allow you to do the same if you can keep up. And the Spurs can. In fact, they can even dictate an up-tempo pace against the Rockets. But without offensive continuity in March, it will remain interesting to see if they'll be able to put up the numbers tonight.

It's important to play well tonight, though. If the Spurs don't warm up properly, the next week could be hell.

Pre-game notes:

— Manu elaborated on a reddit revelation before the game that he had no clue the draft was even going on the night he was selected by the Spurs. He said he was playing basketball in Brazil that night, in a place with no roads. It was only accessible by boat or plane. Not even Tiago Splitter knows of the place. Ginobili said none of the mock drafts had him going anywhere, so he just forgot about it all until someone woke him up the next morning with the news he had been drafted by the reigning NBA champs. It's weird where life can take you, isn't it?