Fred VanVleet Pumps Brakes on Notion that Spurs have Surpassed the Rockets

The Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs recently squared off against one another in front of a primetime audience and the result was a resounding victory for the Spurs. Houston lost 145-120 and the game didn't feel that close.

Although San Antonio did run the score up a bit. The Spurs held a 110-94 lead entering the final period yet scored 35 points still in the fourth quarter.

The Spurs made eight triples in the fourth quarter, which inflated the score a bit. Although the onus is on the opposing defense to stop the offensive attack.

If you can't stop the bleeding, you deserve whatever happens. And the Spurs took 12 outside shots in the fourth, even while holding a near 20 point lead.

The Rockets have gone 1-3 against San Antonio in four games against the Spurs this season. The average margin of defeat in Houston's three losses was 16 points.

And the Spurs have won eight more games than the Rockets, although Houston is technically just 7.5 games back from San Antonio.

Yet and still, Rockets point guard Fred VanVleet wants people to pump the brakes on the praise for San Antonio. The Rockets' injured floor general and table-setting orchestrator took to Unguarded, his signature podcast, to explain.

"Have they won a playoff series? Everybody slow the f*ck down. It’s a marathon. Not a sprint…"

VanVleet continued, going into detail about San Antonio's roster construction.

"Yeah Wemby is a alien. Castle is a really good player, Harper looks like a good player. They’re have a good year but what’s the finish line though? It’s easy to say all this in the moment."

The NBA champion and All-Star point guard gave his assessment of the most recent matchup between the two teams.

"Being 100, they beat our ass. But anybody in the media taking victory laps when we was just beating they ass”

This isn't VanVleet's first time taking a shot at the Spurs. If we even want to call it that.

During the Toronto Raptors' championship parade in 2019, VanVleet took a shot at NBA legend and iconic Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, while also noting that "it wasn't like this in San Antonio" for Kawhi Leonard, who won a championship with both franchises.

Last season, the Rockets went 3-1 against the Spurs. The year before, Houston also went 3-1 against San Antonio.

Which is important to note, because VanVleet stated that he can only speak for the three years that he's played with the Rockets, as it pertains to the Spurs-Rockets interstate rivalry.