The Spurs held the Rockets to their fewest points since 2016

The Rockets were shorthanded Chris Paul, but as the No. 1 team in the league, they were still expected to handle the Kawhi Leonard-less Spurs with relative ease. That couldn’t have been further from the case.

The Rockets played like a team that didn’t need to win, and in reality, they don’t. They could lose the rest of their games and still hold onto the West’s No. 1 seed. That’s why a hungry, desperate San Antonio team came out and punched Houston in the mouth on Sunday, running away with a 100-81 victory to snap the Rockets’ 11-game winning streak on Sunday.

The Spurs held the high-powered Rockets offense to its lowest-scoring game since Feb. 6, 2016 vs. Portland. It was also Houston’s second-worst loss of the season just behind their 18-points Dec. 29 loss to the Washington’s.

San Antonio held Houston to only 7-of-31 (22.6 percent) shooting from three and enjoyed impressive performances from both LaMarcus Aldridge (23 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks) and Rudy Gay (21 points, 9-of-13 shooting). Patty Mills also came up clutch, scoring eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.

James Harden gave the Rockets 25 points and eight assists, but the team was outscored by 19 points when he was on the floor. Houston just didn’t seem as hungry to win as San Antonio on Sunday. The looked like they missed Paul out there on the floor.

Even without Paul, this Rockets team is deeper and more talented than they were last season. For them to come out and put up a dud against the Spurs speaks volumes about San Antonio.

After all, the Spurs are fighting the good fight internally with Kawhi Leonard, who left the team for New York to see specialists about the quadriceps injury that’s kept him off the floor all but nine games this season. His future in San Antonio has never been more unclear. Somehow, the Spurs stayed on task.

The Western Conference playoffs are wild, and every win goes a long way. San Antonio’s victory over Houston creates a bit of breathing room between themselves at No. 4 and the New Orleans Pelicans at No. 8, who are only 1.5 games behind.

The Spurs, Pelicans, Timberwolves, Thunder and Jazz are all within that same 1.5 games, and the Clippers and Nuggets are just barely on the outside of the playoff picture, waiting for a team to falter before they pounce on an opportunity. With so few games left on the schedule, every win and loss is magnified.

The Spurs got a good one against the Rockets. If they can keep this energy, they’ll be the same team no one wants to see in the playoffs, Kawhi Leonard or not.