HOUSTON — Ross Hodge caught the latest installment of Jonathon Simmons’s improbable story on television Thursday night, watching as Simmons, a second-year swingman for the San Antonio Spurs, darted through the lane in the first quarter and dunked on the Houston Rockets. It was a sign of more destruction to come.

It almost looked as if Simmons had jumped off a trampoline. The sequence made Hodge nostalgic. He thought back to his two seasons coaching Simmons in junior college.

“He had a couple of those moments where you were like, ‘O.K., that’s different than a lot of guys,’” Hodge recalled in a telephone interview. “But it’s unbelievable, man. He’s making a lot of people proud, and he’s giving a lot of kids hope — a lot of kids who are in junior college, a lot of kids who are still trying to make it.”

Simmons, 27, had a starring role in one of the more inexplicable blowouts in recent N.B.A. playoff history: Spurs 114, Rockets 75. The Spurs were playing without two stars, Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker, who were injured. The Rockets were hoping to avoid elimination at home. Instead, the Spurs clinched their Western Conference semifinal series and now face the Golden State Warriors in the conference finals, which begin on Sunday.