December 19, 2025 • 34 mins
After a strong start to the 2025-26 season, Houston’s defensive rating is now in the bottom half of the NBA for December. Not coincidentally, the Rockets (16-8) currently have a losing record (3-4) for the month.
Hosted by Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty, our latest “ClutchFans Live” postgame show breaks down all the frustrations after the Rockets blew a 25-point lead in the second half versus the lowly Pelicans (6-22). Topics include the clear defensive regression; struggles to involve Kevin Durant in crunch-time possessions; and an odd downturn in the usage of Reed Sheppard.
Hosted by Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty, our latest “ClutchFans Live” postgame show breaks down all the frustrations after the Rockets blew a 25-point lead in the second half versus the lowly Pelicans (6-22). Topics include the clear defensive regression; struggles to involve Kevin Durant in crunch-time possessions; and an odd downturn in the usage of Reed Sheppard.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, welcome in everybody. I wish I could laugh about this.
I can't. It's serious. I'm not happy. Rockets fall in
overtime one thirty three to one twenty eight in New
Orleans against the Pelicans really a staggering I'm here with
the great Bendubos. You can follow them on Twitter at
Bendubos and you can read his writing at USA Today
(00:25):
and on Rockets Wire, on USA Today and on Clutch Fans.
As I mentioned, Rockets losing overtime one thirty three to
one to twenty eight in a game that they had
a twenty five point lead at least six times and
just dominated the first half where at the very beginning
of this game it looked like, oh, maybe the Pels
are going to make a game of it. Hit three
(00:46):
quick threes and then just the Rockets laid waste to
this team in the first half and they got a
combined I believe it was twenty two of twenty nine
or twenty three of twenty nine. I'm go go double
check my math shooting from Kevin Durant and Amn Thompson
and they lose on the road after two days of
(01:07):
rest to the New Orleans Pelicans, Ben, I'm just gonna
let you get a crack at this because I'm sure
you got a lot to say.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, that was incredibly disappointing to lose a twenty five
point lead in the second half to a five and
twenty two team, But really it fits with what we've
seen since the calendar turned to December, and I think
some of the talking points after the Denver loss the
other night have missed the mark.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Like I understand why we're talking.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
About the officiating that was really bad, and I understand
why it's frustrating to lose another close game, But all
this talk about, oh, can they close out games against
good teams, there're zero to five against top tier teams
in the West. Well, no, they actually offensively made some
really tough shots against the Nuggets and fought back. The
issues were defensively going into tonight. Their overall rating in
(01:59):
December was ten, which is well down from the season. Overall,
they were seventh on offense, a little bit down. They
were thirteenth on defense. That's where the slippage really was.
And tonight they let the Pelicans shoot about seventy five
percent for the second half. That's staggeringly bad. And now
We're seven games into December, they're three and four. So no,
it's not just tip your hat to Denver or blame
(02:20):
the officials, because that was really bad in fairness, but
that's just one game. Like, they have a losing record
this month. And this is a team that going into
December was on a sixty plus win pace, that had
the second best net rating I think, the fifth best
in NBA history entering this month, and they just have
not looked right the entire month. And we can sit
(02:41):
here and make excuses. The first two losses were Utah
and Dallas on night two of back to backs, and
I know they were short handed, Shingoon had an illness
in there as well, but even with those factors, they
shouldn't have been down fifteen to twenty points midway through
the third quarter to teams like Utah and Dallas. I mean,
worst case, those games should be close. You shouldn't be
getting blown out thirty minutes into the game. And then
(03:05):
even the games at home that they've won, the Kings
were up by seven midway through the third quarter. The
Kings are terrible. The Clippers took them down to the wire,
the closest thing to a complete game they had was
the win over the Suns, who were missing Devin Booker
and Jalen Green, and even that one, the Rockets were
down by nine early in the second quarter. The Rockets
(03:27):
this month, they just have not played a complete game.
And that's what to me tonight is just a perfect
microcosm off. Yeah, they looked really good the first twenty
four twenty seven minutes, but they just cannot put forty
eight minutes together. They do not have that consistent defensive
intensity that they did a season ago, and once you
let go of the rope, it's tough to get it back.
(03:47):
And so this loss is the worst of them all
because you had rass you had a twenty five point
lead on the road against a terrible New Orleans team. Yeah,
it's a really bad loss, but I think it's it's
more than just one out of eighty two. It's a
perfect microcosm of what they've been since the calendar turned
to December. It's frustrating, and you know there will be
a temptation to look at the final possessions and where
(04:10):
things went wrong. And I certainly think Kevin Durant should
get more shot attempts late in games than he did
in this one when you know, say what you will
about the Pelicans double teaming him. But when Katie in
the last minute of overtime decided, screw it, I'm going
to shoot no matter what, he got an easy dunk
and he got fouled on a three where even though
it was a tough shot, the Pelicans panicked because it's
(04:30):
Kevin Durant and he gets three free throws, and that's
what gave the Rockets a chance. To me, the bigger
story is this team. Defensively, it looked like going into
this month they had figured it out. At one point
they were ranked second in the league. But right now,
I don't know what you want to attribute it to.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Dave.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know, they don't have Dylan and Fred. I think
that intensity is missing. Maybe it's that, you know, they
lost Tari midway through November, and you could survive it
a week or two, but then you know, eventually some
of the guys get worn down. I don't know. I'm
open to explanations. I guess you can say they're trying
to scale up read Shepherd and you're too small point guard.
(05:06):
He's you know, limited on that side. But I mean
tonight read barely played downstretch of the game, and they
still got abused defensively.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So yeah, I don't know what it is, but it's
a problem.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, and it's it's definitely not a one guy thing.
I mean part obviously, I think they're still in the
way top five have to take a look top five defensively. Yeah,
I mean there's a huge gap between one and everyone else,
but still they're up there. So I don't want to
like say, it's been terrible all year, but like tonight,
it was absolutely terrible in the second half. You know,
(05:35):
Jabari was extremely active, but he was getting you know,
they were scoring on him certainly a lot. It wasn't
just Jabari. I'm not singling him out, I promise, but
you know, Jabari also did not have a good shooting
night by any stretch. I think he was five of
eighteen double checking here, but you know, a lot of it, frankly.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
To me is.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You know you're missing Dylan in the same that he
covered for a lot. I mean, you're seeing a huge
gap right now. Look, I know Shnggun fans are gonna
get upset when I say this, but you take a
look at Shangun's on off and it's a huge difference
defensively when he's in and when he's not. He's been
amazing this year. He's a clear All Star, so I
want to make sure that that's clear. But you know,
that's part of it. I think that can get rectified
(06:20):
over time because he's shown it last year that he
can be part of that system. And I'm not throwing
him under the bus for today at all. I thought
it was across the board, but it was definitely defensively
because they could not stop anybody in that third and
fourth quarter, and I think it was really frustrating to me,
was you know, they probably should have lost the game,
(06:40):
yet had two clear wide open looks from Reed Shepherd.
One was just staggeringly wide open the first one, and
he just missed it. And then Shangun got the board,
gave it back to him and set the screen to
clear him off the corner, and he missed that one too.
I was just like, Oh, he's got this, He's going
to tie the game. The way the Rockets played in
(07:03):
the second half, they deserve to lose. Maybe this wakes
them up. But to me, it was defense that was
the number one story, but the number two story is
closer and getting that ball to Katie. I'm even coming
into this game, I was staggered. I was just surprised
to see that in the clutch time moments this year,
(07:23):
Shangun has taken more than twice as many shots as
Kevin Durant. Now that's known shade on Shangun. Shangun does
a good job, and you want Shangun to have the
ball because he's probably your best playmaker passer, but to
not have Kevin Durant shooting the ball, and this is
on KD in a lot of ways, and I think that,
you know, he's got to step up. You noted it
(07:45):
Benon when we were talking live or you know during
the game in real time that like wow, suddenly when
they were down four, he just got real aggressive with
ball and they suddenly made some headway. He's got a
call for the ball. I don't know if this is
like like the mama bird feeding the baby birds, like hey,
I want to give Shangun his opportunities. I want to
give Jabari his opportunities. I want to give a men,
you know, a shot as well, because you do want
(08:08):
that long term down the line, that is, but you
know that's closing time. That's what Katie's getting paid the
big bucks for, and you want him taking those shots well.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And I also questioned the coaching a little bit because
I thought when this game got really tight, the Rockets
were leading by four to six points for most of
the fourth quarter, and then where New Orleans went from
you know, down by a couple of possessions to pretty
much a fifty to fifty game was that stretch when
Shangoon picked up his fifth foul and the Rockets played
three plus minutes without Shoon and without Reed. Shepherd and
(08:41):
KD hit a couple of mid range shots, and then
the Pelicans started trapping him earlier in the clock, and
those possessions were awful. Dave like A Men had the
one near the end of the game, but other than that,
A Men was not doing much late in the game
when he got those one on one situations, Shangoon wasn't
on the floor, Reid wasn't on the floor. And so
who's going to create your offense in those situations if
(09:04):
you don't have Shingoon? And I understand if you want
to say it's five fouls, we'll put Reid in there,
but you need someone and That's why I do give
Reid a little bit of a pass now. It is frustrating,
you know, I said on Blue Sky as soon as
the game ended, like you can't be more Houston sports
hashtag than getting your generational shooting prospect two wide open
looks at tying threes and then clanking them both. Well,
(09:26):
Reid hadn't played in like thirty real time minutes at
that point, so if he's a little rusty, like I
sort of understand it. Like it sort of felt like
the coaching staff was indecisive. Midway through the fourth quarter.
There was a stretch when Reid was at the scorer's
table and then he was pulled back, and it seemed
like e May couldn't decide if he wanted to roll
with the defensive lineups or if he wanted to go offense.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
We know they.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Closed with Reid, and that was sort of odd that
they didn't close with Reid tonight, because in Denver they
did and.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
It worked really well.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Like with Reid at the point, they got some really
good looks late in that game, and if not for
that bizarre foul call with the men and Tim Hardaway Junior,
the Rockets probably win that game, and so it was
really odd that they had read at the scorer's table.
It's like they saw in the need and then pulled back.
And so I sort of understand if he's a little
rusty for that final possession in overtime, But then yeah,
(10:16):
at the end of regulation, it's like, if the Pelicans
are gonna double KD and trap him that aggressively and
you don't have the personnel to attack and make them
pay on the back side, then what's gonna change? And
then like you adjust the personnel at least to an extent,
you bring back Shangoon, and yet KD is still deferential.
(10:39):
It just seemed very inconsistent. It seemed very random. It
felt like there was a point in overtime that Kade
finally said, ef it, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna
go shoot, and that's when the Rockets nearly came back
and won that game. But I don't know, the real
story is letting a game you led by twenty five
(11:00):
get close in the first place. The defense we've been
talking about, but the crunch time I thought it was
it was strange from KD. It was also strange from
the coaching staff. Quite Frankly, it just felt like, you know,
there was just a lot of indecision all the way around.
That's what you know, Craig Ackerman and Ryan Hollands said
on the broadcast. When you know there were a couple
of times and the drives inside that Shangoon and the men,
(11:20):
it felt like neither one of them knew when they
wanted to shoot, even when they were relatively open. It
just felt like all the way from KD Shangoon and men,
and all the way to emy Udoka and Dave, I've
got to get in one more rent before I hand
things back off to you. I hated seeing e May
get into it with Derreck Queen when the clock was
running out in overtime. Let Derreck Queen celebrate. That's a
(11:42):
hell of a win to come back from twenty five
down against a so called contender. I mean, we hope
they're a contender. They sure as hell don't look like
one now. But that's a really good win for the Pelicans.
And at some point, you know, turn the frustration to
your own locker room. The other night, I sort of understood,
you know, the press conference going after the and you
know me, I'd be the ultimate hypocrite if I said,
don't go after the officials. But you know that's a
(12:05):
one off tonight. I don't care what happened. You lost
to a five and twenty two team when you led
by twenty five. I don't want to see you chewing
out the other team, chew out your own team. There's
a million guys you could pick on for that game
going wrong, and you know that's just it's it's time
running out. I'm not trying to say it's representative of
em Udoka, because I'm sure he's going to light into
(12:26):
them postgame. I'm sure they'll have a practice tomorrow leading
into that rematch in Denver on Saturday. So it's not
to say that he doesn't have other opportunities to light
into his team, and I hope and trust that he will,
But right now it's for me. David's sort of like
the other night. I understand why the storyline was about
the officiating. It was really bad. It was on the
worst I've ever seen tonight. I don't want any talk
(12:46):
about you know, oh, were the Pelicans show voting too much? No,
the Rockets need to be absolutely furious with themselves. They
had no business losing that game.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, they can. They deserve to talk a little bit
of trash after the Rockets collapse like that, you know,
just to just to go over a couple of the
numbers of the game. I know, if there's a few
questions in the chat that I want to address. You know,
the Rockets dominated the glass seventy to forty eight. They
still got one hundred and seven shots up to their
ninety seven. There were two reasons, in my opinion, aside
(13:17):
from the defense, of course, because the Pelicans, that's the
primary reason. But as far as offense matching their offense,
the three point shooting, Rockets just ten of thirty two
thirty one percent, Repelicans shot forty almost forty one percent
from three And turnovers. I mean the Rockets had eighteen
turnovers in this game, six by Kadi for a piece
(13:37):
by Jabari and a men, two by Shanhun. You know,
that's really kind of minor. Really it was kd a
men and Jabari coughed it up. I mean, Jabari, look,
I'm I love Jabari. He had a bad game front,
you know, offense and defense. I thought he missed open shots,
took a lot of shots. They were of course they
were the ones given to him. I don't think he
(13:58):
forced very much. Did not like the game that he
played today. It was if somebody had asked in the chat,
can we talk about Shangoon and the three point shooting? Yeah,
Shangun's won four seventeen from three in his last seven
eight games or so. Hasn't been able to hit the three.
(14:18):
You know, since his five of eight performance in the
first game against OKAC, I believe he's back under thirty percent.
In other words, taking out that first game and the
rest of the season, he's under thirty percent now, you know.
I don't know if it's fatigue or what. As a
matter of fact, when it comes to Shangoon, Shangun has
been putting up huge numbers and deserves a lot of
(14:38):
accolades for that. But when it comes to Shangoon last
ten twelve games, I don't know what it is. I
don't have a theory. I don't know what to tell you.
But the plus minus is not moving the needle when
he's out there, and then not tonight, because it started
that way in the first half and in the second
half they started to slip when Shanghun was off. But
it's been that way. I think in the last ten
(15:00):
twelve games, overalls plus minus is negative. It's bizarre. It
wasn't that way last year at all. It wasn't that
way before this stretch. So I don't know if he's
got tired legs or what it could be. He's putting
up numbers, taking a lot of shot attempts, but the
team's not feeling the overall met impact when he's out there.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
And I also don't think for the month as a whole,
that Steven Adams has been the Steven Adams that were
used to and so I think it's a double whammy.
You know, the Rocket's trouperpower is their rebounding, it's their physicality,
and the two big men have just not been themselves
this month. You know, Steven was a little bit better tonight.
Although one more nitpick, I've got to get in on
the coaching, Dave. I thought it was very odd when
(15:38):
the Pelicans tied it on those two queen free throws
with nine seconds left. Rockets had a couple of timeouts,
didn't use one, and so they gave it to Shangoon,
and yet when Shingoon drove to the basket, Dave, I'm
sure you noticed it was Steven Adams defender that came
over and made it to where it was almost an
impossible shot for Shangoon and not saying Shininggoon wouldn't have
beten a second defender no matter what. But if you
(16:00):
have a spacer there and you also have Kevin Durant
on the court, then it's much easier for Shooon to
get a true one on one opportunity, the way he
did the other night in Denver when Reed Shepherd was
on the floor closing out the game instead of Steven Adams. Now, overall,
I think Stephen had ten boards tonight and he was
a little better. But the reason I bring up Stephen
in regards to your larger point that it's not about tonight.
(16:21):
So the three losses before this one that the Rockets
had in December, two of them Stephen didn't play the
two in Utah and Dallas on night two of back
to backs, which, no, you don't get to say it's
just because night two of back to back when you're
down twenty ish points midway through the third quarter to
bad teams.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
We can say it's not the end of the world,
but it's a bad performance nonetheless, and then the game
the other night in Denver, Stephen played sixteen minutes.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
He had zero rebounds. I'm sorry, that's not a good showing.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I know Jonas Valanunas played relatively well, and I'm sure
there's tactically some things Denver did, but I suspect Stephen
would be the first to tell you that he should
never play sixteen minutes zero rebounds.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I wonder if it ever has before in his career.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
And so the reason I bring that up is to say, yeah,
like Shinggoon's efficiency has has nose diets of late, and
he didn't deliver in the clutch tonight, but in these
losses in December, it's sort of been a double whammy,
and that it's not like Stephen. Well, two of the
losses he literally hasn't been available, and overall he just
hasn't been as impactful period. And so if you take
(17:25):
away that massive advantage in rebounding and physicality, you know,
the two star level impact big men that it looked
like they had to start this season, then that's when
you go from a really good team to just the
blaw version that we've seen since the calendar turned to December,
and so again, just to be clear, that's not blaming
(17:47):
Stephen for tonight. I thought he was a little bit
better in that final possession. That's not on him. If
he's on the court and the Rockets don't call time out,
then sure his man as especially if Stephen goes to
crash the offensive glass is going to help on Shangoon.
If Shinogoon drives in, it is what it is. That's
not his fault. But the month as a whole. Yeah,
you're right, Shoun has some grass, but quite frankly, so
has Steven and so what you get is a Rockets
(18:08):
teams that's still good, but.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
They don't have the superpower.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
To go back to what you said in the past day,
they don't have that superpower that they did the first
six weeks of the season.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, and their record right now sixteen and eight, I
believe matches where they were exactly last year, and they
have a tough stretch coming up as well. I will
say this if I'm looking for a silver lining, I
mean Reid in the second half had some bad moments.
The second half was bad for a lot of players.
I did think Reid played pretty well in the first half,
(18:38):
Like we were watching this going, wow, he's got He's
had some good point guard moments at least I thought.
Noticed that he did have seven assists tonight without a turnover,
eleven points, but just four of twelve, shooting three of
ten from three, none bigger than the two at the
very end that were wide open that could have died
the game. As far as free throws, that was huge
because he may met this in post game he said
(19:01):
they made their free throws. Referring to Derek Queen, I
believe he made four clutch free throws.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yep, we did not.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Adams missed one of two, I believe in the shock,
and then Shinhun with forty four seconds left with the
rockets up to missed both, which is frankly unlike him.
Just yeah, I don't know what to say about that.
Usually you can count on Shinun for at least one
or two, but yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
We've also got to talk about the Tory Easton situation. Like,
sorry to take this beyond just this game, but what
we learned pregame that it's not the oblique, but now
he's struggling with the shen again.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Dave I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That's a red flag, you know me, I said, as
soon as Torii suffered the oblique strain, the reactions, some
of them were over the top. There's no such thing
as injury prone people, but there are such a thing
as chronic injuries. And this is the third season in
a row going back to and I'm assuming it's you know,
I think they would have clarified if it wasn't the
(19:59):
same shin.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I'm pretty sure they would have clarified.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
And so for them, they didn't say left or right,
but I think it's pretty implicit that this is the
same issue that he's had the last couple of years.
When you know, two years ago he had the stress
fracture and then in March of twenty four he had surgery.
Tried to come back last year, missed an entire month
midway through the year, couldn't play back to backs. He
said he was feeling much stronger going into this season,
(20:24):
and I am inclined to believe that. You know, maybe
this is a situation where because of the oblique, he
wasn't really keeping up with his conditioning over the past month,
and so maybe the last week or so, as the
oblique has all the way healed, he hasn't gotten the
ramp up period that he did in training camp and
in the preseason. But the fact that it's an issue
at all, the fact that we're now in his third
(20:46):
season since that stress fracture, since that, I mean, it's
terrible for Tari. I'm certainly not blaming him, but I'm
just speaking to you know, the predictive. Yes, yeah, I
mean it's something that you know certainly that the contract
it probably played into those negotiations.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
It could again next summer.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
But just in the context of the season, if you
read what he may said pregame, he said they hope
to get him back within the next few games. Dave,
that's a pretty big quote. That's not that doesn't sound
like to me that they're expecting him to return two
days in Denver. They're not ruling it out, but saying
we hope that he's back within the next few games.
You know, that's very different than last Saturday when he
(21:25):
blew us away at practice and said that, yeah, they're anticipating,
you know, Tari playing Monday night in Denver. Well, now
it's almost a week later and they're hoping within the
next few games. So it's not Tari's fault. He's he's
working his butt off.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
It all traces back to just an unfortunate incident in
the twenty three preseason. But I mean, if it's the
third season in a row that this is apparently still
an issue, it's worrisome. I mean, I'm not going to
say that it's that it's going to be like crushing
for his season or career, but it's it's not nothing either.
It's not a random one off like the obliqueise. I
(21:59):
guess that's way out put it.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, you know, if I'm gonna trust Rafels don't for anything.
Obviously at this point, I trust him for a lot
as far as building this team. But I mean his
contract management has been unbelievable, and I think he's wise
to play a little bit of hardball here with whatever
figure they have because he hasn't been available. I mean,
I noticed that that comment that was just made about
(22:22):
Zion playing more games than Tari last three seasons. I
really don't know if that's true. I have to go
take a look at that. But you know, he hasn't
been available, and he's a he's a really good player.
You need Taris on this team. He's chaos. He creates
a lot of problems for the for the opposing team.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Uh, you know, Tay, he's and he's the hedge for
Jabari and a Men. Like that's not to let Jabari
and a Men off the hook. Now, A Men was
very good for the game overall, but he struggled down
the stretch. Jabari, as you mentioned a couple of times,
was underwhelming the whole way through. It felt like, but
if either of those two guys has a bad night,
Tari's the hedge. Well, now you don't have the hedge,
(23:01):
and so it just sort of compounds the issue where
if one of those guys has a bad night, then
then what else can the staff really do? And so
it's not just missing Tari. You know what, he provides
the twenty five minutes or so off the bench, But
you also don't have the insurance policy if one of
your big guns doesn't have it going on.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, I know absolutely, I'm with you one hundred percent.
I I mean, this is their ze and two now
on this six game road swing leading up to the
Christmas Day game against the Lakers. The funny part about
this is we had this chaotic game against the Nuggets
and who's on deck Denver At Denver again, they go
right back to the scene of the crime, and that's
(23:39):
where they're going to be playing on Saturday. I mean,
you can exercise these demons right away, get all this out.
But that's a really, really tough team, even with some
of their injuries. I don't know if Peyton Watson I
didn't follow up on his injury situation. I don't know
if he'll be available on Saturday. But you know, they've
got to get this taste out of their mouths because
this is just a terrible, terrible second half performance, and
(24:00):
I do think that there are some flaws here. I
will say the Pelicans, we talked about this on Monday
after the game, that this was a bit of a
trap game because they've been playing much better since Borego
took over as coach.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
There.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I think were second in the league in pace, and
at the very beginning of the game, I thought, man,
this could be a recipe for a problem for the Rockets.
You know, just with Herb excuse me, with Herb Jones
defending Kadi. We've talked about this in the past, like
really physical defenders can give KD issues. Yet he's seven
of seven shooting in the first half.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
But look, how I know you have to tip your
hat to herb a little bit for what he did
in the second half when he turned it around.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
But look what happened on his sixth foul.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
All KD has to do even if it's a contested shot,
he's Kevin Durant. He strikes so much fear into the
heart of these defenses that even if it's a bad luck,
there's a decent chance he's going to go to the
line for three fruit throws just because he is that
feared in the clutch, and so it's not as easy
as it sounds. I'm sure to your point earlier on
the Mama bird and analogy, I'm sure he would have
(24:59):
loved to see Shangoon or a man get that dagger
bucket to win a close game, which the Rockets haven't
done enough of this season. But some of it, I mean,
even if the looks aren't good, just try just put
it up. And I mean he's seven feet tall and
one of the best shooters in me A history. Maybe
he makes it anyway, or more likely, maybe he just
gets fouled because teams are that damn paranoid of him.
(25:21):
But I know what you're getting to like Herb Jones
is a great defender, and he did work in the
second half tonight. But I do think some of it.
Whether you blame the coaching staff, Kevin Durant or both,
just trust him. Just give the guy a chance, and
it would definitely be better than what they did alternatively tonight.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Let's put it that way.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
It's a good question. I don't have the answers to that.
I think their goal is is say, hey, get the
ball in the hands of the guy that can create
the best with fred out meaning okay as far as
are the best semblance of a point in meaning Shangun,
and so he can either try to score or create. Now,
Shangun has not been efficient in the clutch this year.
He's probably forty five to fifty percent true shooting in
(26:00):
the clutch, but he has created and made past so
I think that they're thinking, Okay, he can playoff Shangun
and get Katie the ball. They're certainly playing a lot
of defensive attention to Katie, but I think this is
going to become after this game. A heavy focus of
the coaching staff is get the ball to Kevin Durang.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
By the way, there's a comment in the chat that
I want to highlight that the sort of dovetails what
you and I were talking about during the game. Even then,
the Rockets were kind of lucky in the first half.
The Pelicans missed a ton of open shots that they
were making in the second half. You and I talked
about that. In the first half the Pelicans got a
lot of good looks and just clanked them, and then
the second half they went in And so big picture,
(26:38):
I'm not saying where they're yet, because even though this
month has been awful, look sixteen and eight, it's not
like the end of the world. It's not like they're
that far off the spreadsheet. But let's play this out like,
let's say that that they have some flaws that you know,
this team just isn't as close to the top tier
contention as we wanted to think going into the year.
I'm not personally saying I'm all the way there yet,
(27:00):
but you know, this is a bad loss. I get
why people are going to panic. This is not a
fun week to be a rocketsman. So let's play this
out in the worst case scenario, at a bare minimum,
I would feel better about it if they were developing
Reed Shepherd, like one of one of the real silver
linings for me out of that Denver game, as frustrating
as it was, like, Reid played really well down the
(27:21):
stretch of that game, including the two big threes in
the fourth quarter, one with a minute left.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, tonight.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I know he had the two looks at tying threes,
but I think you sort of have to put an
asterisk on that after sitting for at least thirty minutes
of real time. What's frustrating to me is that it
felt like, you know, eBay wanted to go back to
read then pulled back for the sake of having a
defensive lineup. Only the defense was terrible the whole time.
It was terrible, shredded in the second half with and
(27:48):
without Reed Shepherd. Quite frankly, it was shredded the first
half too. The Pelicans just missed the shots. So it's
sort of like, if they're not good enough anyway, then
at least try and develop Reed Shepherd, who we all know.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
At some point.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I'm not saying that you know that Kevin Durant's over
the hill, but at some point in the next you know,
the longest possible time frame, I'll say at least in
the next three or four years. At some point KD
is going to age out. It happens to everyone. Father
time does not stop. And so the reason we were
sort of bullish on not just this season but the whole,
you know, generation of the Rockets is that as KD
(28:24):
ages out, your young guys can progressively take on more
and more responsibility and step up and two bigger roles. Well,
the one guy as an offensive engine that showed perhaps
the most upside, not consistent upside, but upside, would be
Read Shepherd, and now he's sitting on the bench at
the end of this game, all while the Pelicans young
(28:45):
guys are going out there and making plays. And so
that's what makes it doubly frustrating for me, Dave. It's like,
I understand that Read year two is going to be
a defensive liability, but you're sitting him and then you're
getting shredded defensively anyway. And so it's sort of like
I could swallow the losses a lot more, even bad losses,
if at least Reach Shepherd's out there, and maybe it's like, Okay,
(29:06):
then even if it doesn't pan out, maybe this is
you know, I don't want to say next gen Steph
Curry because that's unfair to him, but like a potential,
you know, all star level player that you're developing. But
when you're going with defensive lineups that aren't performing defensively,
when the doubles and traps are so aggressive on KD
that he can't get off a shot, and then your
(29:28):
other guys are so limited offensively that you can't do
anything out of four on three scenarios, That's where it's
just really frustrating. It's like, what what do you do well?
What are you doing well both short term and long term?
What positives do you take out of this game? Like
I understand it's one game, eighty two game season, all
that stuff, but I guess to bring the pod full circle,
it's not one game. They're three and four in December.
(29:50):
They've lost to not just New Orleans but Utah and
Dallas as well. Like, this is not a one off.
These are real trends that have been happening for a while.
It's not the end of the season. It's not that
they can't turn them around, but it's it's not nothing either.
It's not one of eighty two. These are these are
real issues.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah. And and those you know, the Dallas and Utah
losses were second game of back to back. You're missing Adams.
I think Shangoon was out for one of those games.
I'm not going to make excuses. I just did, but
I'm not making excuses for the losses in those games.
But tonight is the worst loss of the season.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Barn manure.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
It might be there have been some clunkers. I remember
some road games, but you know, you're right with expectations
where they are.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
And twenty five in the second half on a five
and twenty two team, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, And I think it's just watching down the stretch.
It sometimes it just feels this way. It's not this way,
but it feels like, well, why did you get Kevin Durant?
You know, you're still rolling with a men, and well
Shangoon first and then the men. You know after that
in the clutch, you know, there's just some a little
bit of frustration with that. I think they'll get it
ironed out. But yeah, this is a tough loss. And
(30:56):
now you go right back to the fire pit basically,
and Denver, you're gonna face Jokis again. You're gonna face Murray.
That was a nasty game, tough game. Should have won
the game for obvious reasons. We've discussed all that, and
now they get another crack at anything. You expect differently
in this game. Maybe Tari's back for this one. Let's
hope knock on wood. That would make a difference for
the Rockets. Denver, of course, is missing several key defensive
(31:20):
guys as well, and I wouldn't just say just defensive guys,
but Braun Brown, excuse me, Gordon and possibly Watson.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
By the way, Dave to wrap up the pod, an
amazing social media post that mental reference earlier because I
changed out my Rockets hat for a Texans one right
before we post, right before we started recording. For this reason,
Jason Williams, longtime Clutch Fans user you know him as
an Astro Rocket, posted this to Blue Sky. I'm far
more confident watching the Texans right now than the Rockets.
(31:50):
This was unfathomable a month ago, Like it's just it's
crazy to think about, but it's true. Like we recorded,
I remember when the Texans or when the Rocket had
that throwing one in Milwaukee, on a Sunday afternoon in
mid November. I remember making the joke that the Texans
beat the Jags rallied behind Davis Mills just to save,
(32:12):
just to ruin their draft pick positioning, thinking that the
Texans were playing for draft positioning at the time. Now
they've won six in a row and they look like,
you know, a legit contender, and the Rockets, I'm not
going to say they've like fallen off the map. Sixteen
and eight is not the end of the world, but
it's a reminder of just how quickly things can change
for better or for worse.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
So at least all the Texans.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And if I could just wrap it up with a
bow and put a silver lining on it, I will
say We've seen this in the NBA a lot, where
teams will go through lolls and then they'll go hit
a stretch, even if it's a tough schedule, and just
wreck shot. And maybe they'll get this ironed out and
figured it out. I mean, look, I'm not all the
issues we just discussed, they're real. I'm not ignoring them.
I'm just saying that this was I don't know how
(32:51):
to explain some of the malais you know. I'll just
also I didn't mention this. Jabari had a lazy pass
in the late the third quarter. I believe it was
that I thought shifted some things to it, that the
whole game wasn't the reason for it, but tried to
throw it. I believe to Katie. They ran scored in transition.
He dunked over Jabbari, no taunting call, which was a
little a bit of a shock, and I think the
(33:13):
Rockets either turned it over or didn't score. And then
they scored again before the quarter. There was just some
plays that was just highlighting one of many that in
the second half, they just seemed disconnected. Like I said,
they're going to go right back into the fire against Denver.
So hopefully this is ironed out right quickly.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
By the way, once you get through the Denver game.
The schedule after that, now some of these are on
the road, but Kings, Clippers, Lakers, Calves, Pacers, Nets, Mavericks, Suns,
Trailblazers twice, Kings and Bulls. So on paper, as bad
as things look, now, you're about to enter stretch where
you're favored almost every game. That's the glass off full view,
(33:52):
the glass half empty view. They were favored by a
lot tonight and we saw the result.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Absolutely, Ben, appreciate you doing this. I know we went
a little long tonight. I appreciate everybody joining us on
a game which wasn't the most exciting to recap for sure,
But we'll be back Saturday night. Rockets will play the
Nuggets and let's hope they don't fall oh and three
to Denver this season. Thanks everybody, have a good one.
Well, welcome in everybody. I wish I could laugh about this.
I can't. It's serious. I'm not happy. Rockets fall in
overtime one thirty three to one twenty eight in New
Orleans against the Pelicans really a staggering I'm here with
the great Bendubos. You can follow them on Twitter at
Bendubos and you can read his writing at USA Today
(00:25):
and on Rockets Wire, on USA Today and on Clutch Fans.
As I mentioned, Rockets losing overtime one thirty three to
one to twenty eight in a game that they had
a twenty five point lead at least six times and
just dominated the first half where at the very beginning
of this game it looked like, oh, maybe the Pels
are going to make a game of it. Hit three
(00:46):
quick threes and then just the Rockets laid waste to
this team in the first half and they got a
combined I believe it was twenty two of twenty nine
or twenty three of twenty nine. I'm go go double
check my math shooting from Kevin Durant and Amn Thompson
and they lose on the road after two days of
(01:07):
rest to the New Orleans Pelicans, Ben, I'm just gonna
let you get a crack at this because I'm sure
you got a lot to say.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, that was incredibly disappointing to lose a twenty five
point lead in the second half to a five and
twenty two team, But really it fits with what we've
seen since the calendar turned to December, and I think
some of the talking points after the Denver loss the
other night have missed the mark.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Like I understand why we're talking.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
About the officiating that was really bad, and I understand
why it's frustrating to lose another close game, But all
this talk about, oh, can they close out games against
good teams, there're zero to five against top tier teams
in the West. Well, no, they actually offensively made some
really tough shots against the Nuggets and fought back. The
issues were defensively going into tonight. Their overall rating in
(01:59):
December was ten, which is well down from the season. Overall,
they were seventh on offense, a little bit down. They
were thirteenth on defense. That's where the slippage really was.
And tonight they let the Pelicans shoot about seventy five
percent for the second half. That's staggeringly bad. And now
We're seven games into December, they're three and four. So no,
it's not just tip your hat to Denver or blame
(02:20):
the officials, because that was really bad in fairness, but
that's just one game. Like, they have a losing record
this month. And this is a team that going into
December was on a sixty plus win pace, that had
the second best net rating I think, the fifth best
in NBA history entering this month, and they just have
not looked right the entire month. And we can sit
(02:41):
here and make excuses. The first two losses were Utah
and Dallas on night two of back to backs, and
I know they were short handed, Shingoon had an illness
in there as well, but even with those factors, they
shouldn't have been down fifteen to twenty points midway through
the third quarter to teams like Utah and Dallas. I mean,
worst case, those games should be close. You shouldn't be
getting blown out thirty minutes into the game. And then
(03:05):
even the games at home that they've won, the Kings
were up by seven midway through the third quarter. The
Kings are terrible. The Clippers took them down to the wire,
the closest thing to a complete game they had was
the win over the Suns, who were missing Devin Booker
and Jalen Green, and even that one, the Rockets were
down by nine early in the second quarter. The Rockets
(03:27):
this month, they just have not played a complete game.
And that's what to me tonight is just a perfect
microcosm off. Yeah, they looked really good the first twenty
four twenty seven minutes, but they just cannot put forty
eight minutes together. They do not have that consistent defensive
intensity that they did a season ago, and once you
let go of the rope, it's tough to get it back.
(03:47):
And so this loss is the worst of them all
because you had rass you had a twenty five point
lead on the road against a terrible New Orleans team. Yeah,
it's a really bad loss, but I think it's it's
more than just one out of eighty two. It's a
perfect microcosm of what they've been since the calendar turned
to December. It's frustrating, and you know there will be
a temptation to look at the final possessions and where
(04:10):
things went wrong. And I certainly think Kevin Durant should
get more shot attempts late in games than he did
in this one when you know, say what you will
about the Pelicans double teaming him. But when Katie in
the last minute of overtime decided, screw it, I'm going
to shoot no matter what, he got an easy dunk
and he got fouled on a three where even though
it was a tough shot, the Pelicans panicked because it's
(04:30):
Kevin Durant and he gets three free throws, and that's
what gave the Rockets a chance. To me, the bigger
story is this team. Defensively, it looked like going into
this month they had figured it out. At one point
they were ranked second in the league. But right now,
I don't know what you want to attribute it to.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Dave.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You know, they don't have Dylan and Fred. I think
that intensity is missing. Maybe it's that, you know, they
lost Tari midway through November, and you could survive it
a week or two, but then you know, eventually some
of the guys get worn down. I don't know. I'm
open to explanations. I guess you can say they're trying
to scale up read Shepherd and you're too small point guard.
(05:06):
He's you know, limited on that side. But I mean
tonight read barely played downstretch of the game, and they
still got abused defensively.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So yeah, I don't know what it is, but it's
a problem.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, and it's it's definitely not a one guy thing.
I mean part obviously, I think they're still in the
way top five have to take a look top five defensively. Yeah,
I mean there's a huge gap between one and everyone else,
but still they're up there. So I don't want to
like say, it's been terrible all year, but like tonight,
it was absolutely terrible in the second half. You know,
(05:35):
Jabari was extremely active, but he was getting you know,
they were scoring on him certainly a lot. It wasn't
just Jabari. I'm not singling him out, I promise, but
you know, Jabari also did not have a good shooting
night by any stretch. I think he was five of
eighteen double checking here, but you know, a lot of it, frankly.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
To me is.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
You know you're missing Dylan in the same that he
covered for a lot. I mean, you're seeing a huge
gap right now. Look, I know Shnggun fans are gonna
get upset when I say this, but you take a
look at Shangun's on off and it's a huge difference
defensively when he's in and when he's not. He's been
amazing this year. He's a clear All Star, so I
want to make sure that that's clear. But you know,
that's part of it. I think that can get rectified
(06:20):
over time because he's shown it last year that he
can be part of that system. And I'm not throwing
him under the bus for today at all. I thought
it was across the board, but it was definitely defensively
because they could not stop anybody in that third and
fourth quarter, and I think it was really frustrating to me,
was you know, they probably should have lost the game,
(06:40):
yet had two clear wide open looks from Reed Shepherd.
One was just staggeringly wide open the first one, and
he just missed it. And then Shangun got the board,
gave it back to him and set the screen to
clear him off the corner, and he missed that one too.
I was just like, Oh, he's got this, He's going
to tie the game. The way the Rockets played in
(07:03):
the second half, they deserve to lose. Maybe this wakes
them up. But to me, it was defense that was
the number one story, but the number two story is
closer and getting that ball to Katie. I'm even coming
into this game, I was staggered. I was just surprised
to see that in the clutch time moments this year,
(07:23):
Shangun has taken more than twice as many shots as
Kevin Durant. Now that's known shade on Shangun. Shangun does
a good job, and you want Shangun to have the
ball because he's probably your best playmaker passer, but to
not have Kevin Durant shooting the ball, and this is
on KD in a lot of ways, and I think that,
you know, he's got to step up. You noted it
(07:45):
Benon when we were talking live or you know during
the game in real time that like wow, suddenly when
they were down four, he just got real aggressive with
ball and they suddenly made some headway. He's got a
call for the ball. I don't know if this is
like like the mama bird feeding the baby birds, like hey,
I want to give Shangun his opportunities. I want to
give Jabari his opportunities. I want to give a men,
you know, a shot as well, because you do want
(08:08):
that long term down the line, that is, but you
know that's closing time. That's what Katie's getting paid the
big bucks for, and you want him taking those shots well.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And I also questioned the coaching a little bit because
I thought when this game got really tight, the Rockets
were leading by four to six points for most of
the fourth quarter, and then where New Orleans went from
you know, down by a couple of possessions to pretty
much a fifty to fifty game was that stretch when
Shangoon picked up his fifth foul and the Rockets played
three plus minutes without Shoon and without Reed. Shepherd and
(08:41):
KD hit a couple of mid range shots, and then
the Pelicans started trapping him earlier in the clock, and
those possessions were awful. Dave like A Men had the
one near the end of the game, but other than that,
A Men was not doing much late in the game
when he got those one on one situations, Shangoon wasn't
on the floor, Reid wasn't on the floor. And so
who's going to create your offense in those situations if
(09:04):
you don't have Shingoon? And I understand if you want
to say it's five fouls, we'll put Reid in there,
but you need someone and That's why I do give
Reid a little bit of a pass now. It is frustrating,
you know, I said on Blue Sky as soon as
the game ended, like you can't be more Houston sports
hashtag than getting your generational shooting prospect two wide open
looks at tying threes and then clanking them both. Well,
(09:26):
Reid hadn't played in like thirty real time minutes at
that point, so if he's a little rusty, like I
sort of understand it. Like it sort of felt like
the coaching staff was indecisive. Midway through the fourth quarter.
There was a stretch when Reid was at the scorer's
table and then he was pulled back, and it seemed
like e May couldn't decide if he wanted to roll
with the defensive lineups or if he wanted to go offense.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
We know they.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Closed with Reid, and that was sort of odd that
they didn't close with Reid tonight, because in Denver they
did and.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
It worked really well.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Like with Reid at the point, they got some really
good looks late in that game, and if not for
that bizarre foul call with the men and Tim Hardaway Junior,
the Rockets probably win that game, and so it was
really odd that they had read at the scorer's table.
It's like they saw in the need and then pulled back.
And so I sort of understand if he's a little
rusty for that final possession in overtime, But then yeah,
(10:16):
at the end of regulation, it's like, if the Pelicans
are gonna double KD and trap him that aggressively and
you don't have the personnel to attack and make them
pay on the back side, then what's gonna change? And
then like you adjust the personnel at least to an extent,
you bring back Shangoon, and yet KD is still deferential.
(10:39):
It just seemed very inconsistent. It seemed very random. It
felt like there was a point in overtime that Kade
finally said, ef it, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna
go shoot, and that's when the Rockets nearly came back
and won that game. But I don't know, the real
story is letting a game you led by twenty five
(11:00):
get close in the first place. The defense we've been
talking about, but the crunch time I thought it was
it was strange from KD. It was also strange from
the coaching staff. Quite Frankly, it just felt like, you know,
there was just a lot of indecision all the way around.
That's what you know, Craig Ackerman and Ryan Hollands said
on the broadcast. When you know there were a couple
of times and the drives inside that Shangoon and the men,
(11:20):
it felt like neither one of them knew when they
wanted to shoot, even when they were relatively open. It
just felt like all the way from KD Shangoon and men,
and all the way to emy Udoka and Dave, I've
got to get in one more rent before I hand
things back off to you. I hated seeing e May
get into it with Derreck Queen when the clock was
running out in overtime. Let Derreck Queen celebrate. That's a
(11:42):
hell of a win to come back from twenty five
down against a so called contender. I mean, we hope
they're a contender. They sure as hell don't look like
one now. But that's a really good win for the Pelicans.
And at some point, you know, turn the frustration to
your own locker room. The other night, I sort of understood,
you know, the press conference going after the and you
know me, I'd be the ultimate hypocrite if I said,
don't go after the officials. But you know that's a
(12:05):
one off tonight. I don't care what happened. You lost
to a five and twenty two team when you led
by twenty five. I don't want to see you chewing
out the other team, chew out your own team. There's
a million guys you could pick on for that game
going wrong, and you know that's just it's it's time
running out. I'm not trying to say it's representative of
em Udoka, because I'm sure he's going to light into
(12:26):
them postgame. I'm sure they'll have a practice tomorrow leading
into that rematch in Denver on Saturday. So it's not
to say that he doesn't have other opportunities to light
into his team, and I hope and trust that he will,
But right now it's for me. David's sort of like
the other night. I understand why the storyline was about
the officiating. It was really bad. It was on the
worst I've ever seen tonight. I don't want any talk
(12:46):
about you know, oh, were the Pelicans show voting too much? No,
the Rockets need to be absolutely furious with themselves. They
had no business losing that game.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, they can. They deserve to talk a little bit
of trash after the Rockets collapse like that, you know,
just to just to go over a couple of the
numbers of the game. I know, if there's a few
questions in the chat that I want to address. You know,
the Rockets dominated the glass seventy to forty eight. They
still got one hundred and seven shots up to their
ninety seven. There were two reasons, in my opinion, aside
(13:17):
from the defense, of course, because the Pelicans, that's the
primary reason. But as far as offense matching their offense,
the three point shooting, Rockets just ten of thirty two
thirty one percent, Repelicans shot forty almost forty one percent
from three And turnovers. I mean the Rockets had eighteen
turnovers in this game, six by Kadi for a piece
(13:37):
by Jabari and a men, two by Shanhun. You know,
that's really kind of minor. Really it was kd a
men and Jabari coughed it up. I mean, Jabari, look,
I'm I love Jabari. He had a bad game front,
you know, offense and defense. I thought he missed open shots,
took a lot of shots. They were of course they
were the ones given to him. I don't think he
(13:58):
forced very much. Did not like the game that he
played today. It was if somebody had asked in the chat,
can we talk about Shangoon and the three point shooting? Yeah,
Shangun's won four seventeen from three in his last seven
eight games or so. Hasn't been able to hit the three.
(14:18):
You know, since his five of eight performance in the
first game against OKAC, I believe he's back under thirty percent.
In other words, taking out that first game and the
rest of the season, he's under thirty percent now, you know.
I don't know if it's fatigue or what. As a
matter of fact, when it comes to Shangoon, Shangun has
been putting up huge numbers and deserves a lot of
(14:38):
accolades for that. But when it comes to Shangoon last
ten twelve games, I don't know what it is. I
don't have a theory. I don't know what to tell you.
But the plus minus is not moving the needle when
he's out there, and then not tonight, because it started
that way in the first half and in the second
half they started to slip when Shanghun was off. But
it's been that way. I think in the last ten
(15:00):
twelve games, overalls plus minus is negative. It's bizarre. It
wasn't that way last year at all. It wasn't that
way before this stretch. So I don't know if he's
got tired legs or what it could be. He's putting
up numbers, taking a lot of shot attempts, but the
team's not feeling the overall met impact when he's out there.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
And I also don't think for the month as a whole,
that Steven Adams has been the Steven Adams that were
used to and so I think it's a double whammy.
You know, the Rocket's trouperpower is their rebounding, it's their physicality,
and the two big men have just not been themselves
this month. You know, Steven was a little bit better tonight.
Although one more nitpick, I've got to get in on
the coaching, Dave. I thought it was very odd when
(15:38):
the Pelicans tied it on those two queen free throws
with nine seconds left. Rockets had a couple of timeouts,
didn't use one, and so they gave it to Shangoon,
and yet when Shingoon drove to the basket, Dave, I'm
sure you noticed it was Steven Adams defender that came
over and made it to where it was almost an
impossible shot for Shangoon and not saying Shininggoon wouldn't have
beten a second defender no matter what. But if you
(16:00):
have a spacer there and you also have Kevin Durant
on the court, then it's much easier for Shooon to
get a true one on one opportunity, the way he
did the other night in Denver when Reed Shepherd was
on the floor closing out the game instead of Steven Adams. Now, overall,
I think Stephen had ten boards tonight and he was
a little better. But the reason I bring up Stephen
in regards to your larger point that it's not about tonight.
(16:21):
So the three losses before this one that the Rockets
had in December, two of them Stephen didn't play the
two in Utah and Dallas on night two of back
to backs, which, no, you don't get to say it's
just because night two of back to back when you're
down twenty ish points midway through the third quarter to
bad teams.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
We can say it's not the end of the world,
but it's a bad performance nonetheless, and then the game
the other night in Denver, Stephen played sixteen minutes.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
He had zero rebounds. I'm sorry, that's not a good showing.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I know Jonas Valanunas played relatively well, and I'm sure
there's tactically some things Denver did, but I suspect Stephen
would be the first to tell you that he should
never play sixteen minutes zero rebounds.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I wonder if it ever has before in his career.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
And so the reason I bring that up is to say, yeah,
like Shinggoon's efficiency has has nose diets of late, and
he didn't deliver in the clutch tonight, but in these
losses in December, it's sort of been a double whammy,
and that it's not like Stephen. Well, two of the
losses he literally hasn't been available, and overall he just
hasn't been as impactful period. And so if you take
(17:25):
away that massive advantage in rebounding and physicality, you know,
the two star level impact big men that it looked
like they had to start this season, then that's when
you go from a really good team to just the
blaw version that we've seen since the calendar turned to December,
and so again, just to be clear, that's not blaming
(17:47):
Stephen for tonight. I thought he was a little bit
better in that final possession. That's not on him. If
he's on the court and the Rockets don't call time out,
then sure his man as especially if Stephen goes to
crash the offensive glass is going to help on Shangoon.
If Shinogoon drives in, it is what it is. That's
not his fault. But the month as a whole. Yeah,
you're right, Shoun has some grass, but quite frankly, so
has Steven and so what you get is a Rockets
(18:08):
teams that's still good, but.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
They don't have the superpower.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
To go back to what you said in the past day,
they don't have that superpower that they did the first
six weeks of the season.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, and their record right now sixteen and eight, I
believe matches where they were exactly last year, and they
have a tough stretch coming up as well. I will
say this if I'm looking for a silver lining, I
mean Reid in the second half had some bad moments.
The second half was bad for a lot of players.
I did think Reid played pretty well in the first half,
(18:38):
Like we were watching this going, wow, he's got He's
had some good point guard moments at least I thought.
Noticed that he did have seven assists tonight without a turnover,
eleven points, but just four of twelve, shooting three of
ten from three, none bigger than the two at the
very end that were wide open that could have died
the game. As far as free throws, that was huge
because he may met this in post game he said
(19:01):
they made their free throws. Referring to Derek Queen, I
believe he made four clutch free throws.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yep, we did not.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Adams missed one of two, I believe in the shock,
and then Shinhun with forty four seconds left with the
rockets up to missed both, which is frankly unlike him.
Just yeah, I don't know what to say about that.
Usually you can count on Shinun for at least one
or two, but yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
We've also got to talk about the Tory Easton situation. Like,
sorry to take this beyond just this game, but what
we learned pregame that it's not the oblique, but now
he's struggling with the shen again.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Dave I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That's a red flag, you know me, I said, as
soon as Torii suffered the oblique strain, the reactions, some
of them were over the top. There's no such thing
as injury prone people, but there are such a thing
as chronic injuries. And this is the third season in
a row going back to and I'm assuming it's you know,
I think they would have clarified if it wasn't the
(19:59):
same shin.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I'm pretty sure they would have clarified.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
And so for them, they didn't say left or right,
but I think it's pretty implicit that this is the
same issue that he's had the last couple of years.
When you know, two years ago he had the stress
fracture and then in March of twenty four he had surgery.
Tried to come back last year, missed an entire month
midway through the year, couldn't play back to backs. He
said he was feeling much stronger going into this season,
(20:24):
and I am inclined to believe that. You know, maybe
this is a situation where because of the oblique, he
wasn't really keeping up with his conditioning over the past month,
and so maybe the last week or so, as the
oblique has all the way healed, he hasn't gotten the
ramp up period that he did in training camp and
in the preseason. But the fact that it's an issue
at all, the fact that we're now in his third
(20:46):
season since that stress fracture, since that, I mean, it's
terrible for Tari. I'm certainly not blaming him, but I'm
just speaking to you know, the predictive. Yes, yeah, I
mean it's something that you know certainly that the contract
it probably played into those negotiations.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
It could again next summer.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
But just in the context of the season, if you
read what he may said pregame, he said they hope
to get him back within the next few games. Dave,
that's a pretty big quote. That's not that doesn't sound
like to me that they're expecting him to return two
days in Denver. They're not ruling it out, but saying
we hope that he's back within the next few games.
You know, that's very different than last Saturday when he
(21:25):
blew us away at practice and said that, yeah, they're anticipating,
you know, Tari playing Monday night in Denver. Well, now
it's almost a week later and they're hoping within the
next few games. So it's not Tari's fault. He's he's
working his butt off.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
It all traces back to just an unfortunate incident in
the twenty three preseason. But I mean, if it's the
third season in a row that this is apparently still
an issue, it's worrisome. I mean, I'm not going to
say that it's that it's going to be like crushing
for his season or career, but it's it's not nothing either.
It's not a random one off like the obliqueise. I
(21:59):
guess that's way out put it.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, you know, if I'm gonna trust Rafels don't for anything.
Obviously at this point, I trust him for a lot
as far as building this team. But I mean his
contract management has been unbelievable, and I think he's wise
to play a little bit of hardball here with whatever
figure they have because he hasn't been available. I mean,
I noticed that that comment that was just made about
(22:22):
Zion playing more games than Tari last three seasons. I
really don't know if that's true. I have to go
take a look at that. But you know, he hasn't
been available, and he's a he's a really good player.
You need Taris on this team. He's chaos. He creates
a lot of problems for the for the opposing team.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Uh, you know, Tay, he's and he's the hedge for
Jabari and a Men. Like that's not to let Jabari
and a Men off the hook. Now, A Men was
very good for the game overall, but he struggled down
the stretch. Jabari, as you mentioned a couple of times,
was underwhelming the whole way through. It felt like, but
if either of those two guys has a bad night,
Tari's the hedge. Well, now you don't have the hedge,
(23:01):
and so it just sort of compounds the issue where
if one of those guys has a bad night, then
then what else can the staff really do? And so
it's not just missing Tari. You know what, he provides
the twenty five minutes or so off the bench, But
you also don't have the insurance policy if one of
your big guns doesn't have it going on.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, I know absolutely, I'm with you one hundred percent.
I I mean, this is their ze and two now
on this six game road swing leading up to the
Christmas Day game against the Lakers. The funny part about
this is we had this chaotic game against the Nuggets
and who's on deck Denver At Denver again, they go
right back to the scene of the crime, and that's
(23:39):
where they're going to be playing on Saturday. I mean,
you can exercise these demons right away, get all this out.
But that's a really, really tough team, even with some
of their injuries. I don't know if Peyton Watson I
didn't follow up on his injury situation. I don't know
if he'll be available on Saturday. But you know, they've
got to get this taste out of their mouths because
this is just a terrible, terrible second half performance, and
(24:00):
I do think that there are some flaws here. I
will say the Pelicans, we talked about this on Monday
after the game, that this was a bit of a
trap game because they've been playing much better since Borego
took over as coach.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
There.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I think were second in the league in pace, and
at the very beginning of the game, I thought, man,
this could be a recipe for a problem for the Rockets.
You know, just with Herb excuse me, with Herb Jones
defending Kadi. We've talked about this in the past, like
really physical defenders can give KD issues. Yet he's seven
of seven shooting in the first half.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
But look, how I know you have to tip your
hat to herb a little bit for what he did
in the second half when he turned it around.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
But look what happened on his sixth foul.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
All KD has to do even if it's a contested shot,
he's Kevin Durant. He strikes so much fear into the
heart of these defenses that even if it's a bad luck,
there's a decent chance he's going to go to the
line for three fruit throws just because he is that
feared in the clutch, and so it's not as easy
as it sounds. I'm sure to your point earlier on
the Mama bird and analogy, I'm sure he would have
(24:59):
loved to see Shangoon or a man get that dagger
bucket to win a close game, which the Rockets haven't
done enough of this season. But some of it, I mean,
even if the looks aren't good, just try just put
it up. And I mean he's seven feet tall and
one of the best shooters in me A history. Maybe
he makes it anyway, or more likely, maybe he just
gets fouled because teams are that damn paranoid of him.
(25:21):
But I know what you're getting to like Herb Jones
is a great defender, and he did work in the
second half tonight. But I do think some of it.
Whether you blame the coaching staff, Kevin Durant or both,
just trust him. Just give the guy a chance, and
it would definitely be better than what they did alternatively tonight.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Let's put it that way.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
It's a good question. I don't have the answers to that.
I think their goal is is say, hey, get the
ball in the hands of the guy that can create
the best with fred out meaning okay as far as
are the best semblance of a point in meaning Shangun,
and so he can either try to score or create. Now,
Shangun has not been efficient in the clutch this year.
He's probably forty five to fifty percent true shooting in
(26:00):
the clutch, but he has created and made past so
I think that they're thinking, Okay, he can playoff Shangun
and get Katie the ball. They're certainly playing a lot
of defensive attention to Katie, but I think this is
going to become after this game. A heavy focus of
the coaching staff is get the ball to Kevin Durang.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
By the way, there's a comment in the chat that
I want to highlight that the sort of dovetails what
you and I were talking about during the game. Even then,
the Rockets were kind of lucky in the first half.
The Pelicans missed a ton of open shots that they
were making in the second half. You and I talked
about that. In the first half the Pelicans got a
lot of good looks and just clanked them, and then
the second half they went in And so big picture,
(26:38):
I'm not saying where they're yet, because even though this
month has been awful, look sixteen and eight, it's not
like the end of the world. It's not like they're
that far off the spreadsheet. But let's play this out like,
let's say that that they have some flaws that you know,
this team just isn't as close to the top tier
contention as we wanted to think going into the year.
I'm not personally saying I'm all the way there yet,
(27:00):
but you know, this is a bad loss. I get
why people are going to panic. This is not a
fun week to be a rocketsman. So let's play this
out in the worst case scenario, at a bare minimum,
I would feel better about it if they were developing
Reed Shepherd, like one of one of the real silver
linings for me out of that Denver game, as frustrating
as it was, like, Reid played really well down the
(27:21):
stretch of that game, including the two big threes in
the fourth quarter, one with a minute left.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, tonight.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I know he had the two looks at tying threes,
but I think you sort of have to put an
asterisk on that after sitting for at least thirty minutes
of real time. What's frustrating to me is that it
felt like, you know, eBay wanted to go back to
read then pulled back for the sake of having a
defensive lineup. Only the defense was terrible the whole time.
It was terrible, shredded in the second half with and
(27:48):
without Reed Shepherd. Quite frankly, it was shredded the first
half too. The Pelicans just missed the shots. So it's
sort of like, if they're not good enough anyway, then
at least try and develop Reed Shepherd, who we all know.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
At some point.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I'm not saying that you know that Kevin Durant's over
the hill, but at some point in the next you know,
the longest possible time frame, I'll say at least in
the next three or four years. At some point KD
is going to age out. It happens to everyone. Father
time does not stop. And so the reason we were
sort of bullish on not just this season but the whole,
you know, generation of the Rockets is that as KD
(28:24):
ages out, your young guys can progressively take on more
and more responsibility and step up and two bigger roles. Well,
the one guy as an offensive engine that showed perhaps
the most upside, not consistent upside, but upside, would be
Read Shepherd, and now he's sitting on the bench at
the end of this game, all while the Pelicans young
(28:45):
guys are going out there and making plays. And so
that's what makes it doubly frustrating for me, Dave. It's like,
I understand that Read year two is going to be
a defensive liability, but you're sitting him and then you're
getting shredded defensively anyway. And so it's sort of like
I could swallow the losses a lot more, even bad losses,
if at least Reach Shepherd's out there, and maybe it's like, Okay,
(29:06):
then even if it doesn't pan out, maybe this is
you know, I don't want to say next gen Steph
Curry because that's unfair to him, but like a potential,
you know, all star level player that you're developing. But
when you're going with defensive lineups that aren't performing defensively,
when the doubles and traps are so aggressive on KD
that he can't get off a shot, and then your
(29:28):
other guys are so limited offensively that you can't do
anything out of four on three scenarios, That's where it's
just really frustrating. It's like, what what do you do well?
What are you doing well both short term and long term?
What positives do you take out of this game? Like
I understand it's one game, eighty two game season, all
that stuff, but I guess to bring the pod full circle,
it's not one game. They're three and four in December.
(29:50):
They've lost to not just New Orleans but Utah and
Dallas as well. Like, this is not a one off.
These are real trends that have been happening for a while.
It's not the end of the season. It's not that
they can't turn them around, but it's it's not nothing either.
It's not one of eighty two. These are these are
real issues.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah. And and those you know, the Dallas and Utah
losses were second game of back to back. You're missing Adams.
I think Shangoon was out for one of those games.
I'm not going to make excuses. I just did, but
I'm not making excuses for the losses in those games.
But tonight is the worst loss of the season.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Barn manure.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
It might be there have been some clunkers. I remember
some road games, but you know, you're right with expectations
where they are.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
And twenty five in the second half on a five
and twenty two team, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, And I think it's just watching down the stretch.
It sometimes it just feels this way. It's not this way,
but it feels like, well, why did you get Kevin Durant?
You know, you're still rolling with a men, and well
Shangoon first and then the men. You know after that
in the clutch, you know, there's just some a little
bit of frustration with that. I think they'll get it
ironed out. But yeah, this is a tough loss. And
(30:56):
now you go right back to the fire pit basically,
and Denver, you're gonna face Jokis again. You're gonna face Murray.
That was a nasty game, tough game. Should have won
the game for obvious reasons. We've discussed all that, and
now they get another crack at anything. You expect differently
in this game. Maybe Tari's back for this one. Let's
hope knock on wood. That would make a difference for
the Rockets. Denver, of course, is missing several key defensive
(31:20):
guys as well, and I wouldn't just say just defensive guys,
but Braun Brown, excuse me, Gordon and possibly Watson.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
By the way, Dave to wrap up the pod, an
amazing social media post that mental reference earlier because I
changed out my Rockets hat for a Texans one right
before we post, right before we started recording. For this reason,
Jason Williams, longtime Clutch Fans user you know him as
an Astro Rocket, posted this to Blue Sky. I'm far
more confident watching the Texans right now than the Rockets.
(31:50):
This was unfathomable a month ago, Like it's just it's
crazy to think about, but it's true. Like we recorded,
I remember when the Texans or when the Rocket had
that throwing one in Milwaukee, on a Sunday afternoon in
mid November. I remember making the joke that the Texans
beat the Jags rallied behind Davis Mills just to save,
(32:12):
just to ruin their draft pick positioning, thinking that the
Texans were playing for draft positioning at the time. Now
they've won six in a row and they look like,
you know, a legit contender, and the Rockets, I'm not
going to say they've like fallen off the map. Sixteen
and eight is not the end of the world, but
it's a reminder of just how quickly things can change
for better or for worse.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
So at least all the Texans.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And if I could just wrap it up with a
bow and put a silver lining on it, I will
say We've seen this in the NBA a lot, where
teams will go through lolls and then they'll go hit
a stretch, even if it's a tough schedule, and just
wreck shot. And maybe they'll get this ironed out and
figured it out. I mean, look, I'm not all the
issues we just discussed, they're real. I'm not ignoring them.
I'm just saying that this was I don't know how
(32:51):
to explain some of the malais you know. I'll just
also I didn't mention this. Jabari had a lazy pass
in the late the third quarter. I believe it was
that I thought shifted some things to it, that the
whole game wasn't the reason for it, but tried to
throw it. I believe to Katie. They ran scored in transition.
He dunked over Jabbari, no taunting call, which was a
little a bit of a shock, and I think the
(33:13):
Rockets either turned it over or didn't score. And then
they scored again before the quarter. There was just some
plays that was just highlighting one of many that in
the second half, they just seemed disconnected. Like I said,
they're going to go right back into the fire against Denver.
So hopefully this is ironed out right quickly.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
By the way, once you get through the Denver game.
The schedule after that, now some of these are on
the road, but Kings, Clippers, Lakers, Calves, Pacers, Nets, Mavericks, Suns,
Trailblazers twice, Kings and Bulls. So on paper, as bad
as things look, now, you're about to enter stretch where
you're favored almost every game. That's the glass off full view,
(33:52):
the glass half empty view. They were favored by a
lot tonight and we saw the result.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Absolutely, Ben, appreciate you doing this. I know we went
a little long tonight. I appreciate everybody joining us on
a game which wasn't the most exciting to recap for sure,
But we'll be back Saturday night. Rockets will play the
Nuggets and let's hope they don't fall oh and three
to Denver this season. Thanks everybody, have a good one.
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