Quick notes on Rockets-Spurs from Friday night, which I finally got to watch. I haven't caught either of their Saturday games (thought it would be better to watch before the B2B). Rockets won 114-110. -This game was awesome, clearly two great teams that will be battling in the playoffs and near the top of the West. Think they're among the top-four or five. -Houston's defense is where this starts and ends for me. I think OKC and Houston are probably the two most connected teams I've seen rotationally this year in terms of scrambles, communication, all of it. That's not to say best (Toronto has also been great due to their pure disruption) but Houston's timeliness in its scrambles was unbelievable in this game. Guys like Eason, Amen, Smith have been great as expected. But I'll also call out Kevin Durant here, too. KD has been AWESOME so far scrambling and rotating while using his length on defense. -Best player on the court tonight was Amen Thompson for me. Goes for 20/10/4, and was awesome on both ends. I love the way they're utilizing him in high-lows for Sengun on offense, and love the way they're using him as a screener and slipper to the rim in actions where Sengun is off of the court. Even when he's on the court, they've been sharp and creative. But more than the offense, the defense is just insane. The play that he made on Wemby at the end is one of the great late-game defensive stops of the last few years. Dude just elevated and swatted a guy that has a release point that is impossibly high on a fadeaway. Also had a killer Wemby stand on the block late in the third, and his block on Vassell to end the third was almost as ridiculous as the Wemby one. And that's without even digging into how great he is digging onto ballhandlers or flying around in help situations. -Think the VanVleet presence already can't be overstated enough. He's controlling the tempo perfectly for the offense and really helping them get the ball into the spots they want the ball early in the year. They just feel so much more organized. -Sengun was so great late in the game. The misses around the rim do drive me insane and he had a ton of them early, but his ability to just create a shot late in tough situations due to his strength, balance and skill is so helpful in big moments. Had 29/7/7 and just totally took over late, and I loved how Houston set him up for success. Started the late game situation running a ton of split actions with FVV and Amen, and San Antonio having to account for those led to him getting more one on one chances, where he buried Kornet, Castle and Wemby late. It doesn't always look pretty but it was remarkably effective. -For the Spurs, think where I'm at is that the Harper/Fox/Castle trio isn't working right now but they should keep working and persisting with it early to see if they can work out the kinks. The biggest impact to me isn't actually on any of those guys, it's on Wemby. It feels like because both the Thunder and Rockets played so aggressively off of Castle and Harper, it's making it harder for them to get Wemby the ball closer to the rim. That crowd in the paint is also, for me, why Wemby settled more in his first game and a half of the year. In the second half, I thought the Spurs did a great job making a better concerted effort to get him rolling to the rim and to get him chances to seal opposing players high with an empty baseline, allowing him to catch lobs and get easier buckets. But yeah, it's going to take some time, and I don't know that it's a certainty that the Fox/Harper/Castle trio is going to work. -Harper's takeover later in the game was really fun to watch. Seems like that dude wants the moment. On the other hand, I know Castle only had one TO in this game, which is great, but A. it came at the absolute worst time with like four minutes left where he tried to make an overaggressive pass, and I still think that some of his shot decision-making isn't great yet. I think he's probably going to have to be the one to take a step back of the trio, and to do that the shot is going to be critical. Love that he was willing to fire nine 3s in this game and made 3 of them. Obviously that's what the Rockets want, but it's incumbent upon him to hurt teams that guard him with bigs and leave him open. -In general, it just also feels like the ball is stickier with the Spurs this year. Need to make decisions quicker, and get the ball popping around the perimeter more. Again, not a surprise when you're trying to figure it out with three ballhandlers like this, but that is probably what I'll be tracking most throughout the year: how sticky does the ball seem with San Antonio when last year it seemed to flow so quickly.