December 12, 2025 • 28 mins
Thursday’s “ClutchFans Live” postgame show reacts to Houston’s 115-113 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers (6-19). The Rockets are now 16-6 on the 2025-26 NBA season.
Topics include a fourth-quarter takeover by Amen Thompson (12 points in the frame on perfect shooting); relatively inefficient nights from Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun; and the difficult six-game road trip ahead.
This episode can be viewed in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QwnC27gxyE
Topics include a fourth-quarter takeover by Amen Thompson (12 points in the frame on perfect shooting); relatively inefficient nights from Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun; and the difficult six-game road trip ahead.
This episode can be viewed in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QwnC27gxyE
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome into the post game guys. It is good news.
Rockets win the game one fifteen to one thirteen against
a team that should have been much better than their
record this year, and tonight looked like it. The way
that some of these guys played. Rockets basically were you know,
played ball to wall with the Clippers. This game basically
(00:23):
eke it out a men. Thompson's offensive rebound was seventeen
point two seconds left proved to be the difference after
the Clippers well that James Harden three had just tied
it with thirty something seconds left, and Ben you mentioned
it as you got back that last basically fifteen thirty
seconds of the game felt like it took an hour.
(00:45):
But Rockets escape after a series of fouls and free
throws and all kinds of mess and they're now sixteen
and six and escaped the six and now nineteen Clippers
here at home.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, a win is a win, And I think a
lot of what happened tonight. They came out pretty rusty
and sloppy after that long break, and Kevin Durant in
particular was terrible in that first half, and there were
a couple of stretches where they almost blew it open.
They had it up to an eight to nine point
lead and let the Clippers back in every time. And
if you had even an average Kevin Durant first half,
I think it's one of those games where you could
(01:18):
have had them at arms length and then they sort
of succumbed to the record instead because you let them
play from in front for a lot of the game.
Then it led a team that you know, their record
is what it is right now, but they have a
lot of the same parts from the team that looked
like a juggernaut to end last season. You've still got
some great individual talents between Hard and Kawhi and Zubox,
and they made this a lot more stressful than I
(01:42):
anticipated going into the game. But at the end of
the day, this was when the Rockets couldn't lose because
the schedule coming up is difficult, a six game road
trip three to six against the Nuggets and the Lakers.
So yeah, home game against Clippers. You couldn't afford to
lose this one. So before we go into the individuals,
this was, you know, nothing's a must win over a
two games, but this is this was a really need
to win and they got it. Done.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, you know you mentioned it. Early on KD was struggling.
He was won for his first seven really no rebounds,
no assists for most of the first half, and you
kind of look up and you're like, man, you know
who's going to step up? Shngun wasn't taking a ton
of shots, but was efficient. I think he hit seven
of his first eleven. Finished too for his last eleven,
(02:26):
but early on was was definitely quite efficient. It was
really a typical Rockets game in the sense of, you know,
Emo Udoka said it. They they were sloppy. That's not typical.
I think a lot of people are mentioning this. You
said the same thing. They had eighteen turnovers, AD.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And Shon had five turnovers apiece.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, it was. It was messy. It was sloppy. But
you know, as Emo Udoka said, and I jotted it down,
when we're turning the ball over at that higher rate,
we want to get some back, and he's pointing to
their superpower and that's rebounds. It's it's fitting that a
men's rebound offensive rebound was kind out of the game
winner because the difference tonight was sixty four to thirty
five on the boards.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, and you know who only had one turnover. Amen
Thompson twenty points, nine boards, eight assists, eight of twelve shooting.
For all the criticism that A Men has gotten at
times this season, because you know, going into the year,
we all hyped this up as a big three, and
perhaps that was a little aggressive for Amen Thompson going
into year three, just twenty two years old. But boy
(03:28):
on an off night at least shooting and efficiency wise
from KD and Shingoon. Now, they did pick it up
in the second half, but A Men was great throughout.
I don't care how much is on ball, how much
is off. He was great on both ends of the floor.
And the Rockets don't win this game without him. So
for all the talk this year, or you know, just
lasering in on A Men Thompson every possession, don't forget
about this game. This would have been a bad loss.
(03:49):
And because you got the peak version of A Men Thompson,
that's why he didn't lose it.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I know some people are mentioning my
mic is a little off, so I'm not sure if
it's something here or if it's something on it on
the software side, But he.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Turn some issues with the Riverside lately. Apologies for that.
We're working on it. I do wonder I saw someone
you know, pointing out rip playback in the comments. I
do wonder if Riverside's bannedwidth. It's a little stretch because
so many people having to figure out their you know,
post playback plans. But we'll see.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, and I was in
I stayed in playback tonight. We had our final game
in the Clutch Fans playback room. It was a lot
of fun. You know, the game was really quite interesting.
You know, email broke down how they game planned defensively
for this one. This is what they've done, you know,
a lot the last couple of years, or Emao O
Dooka has done. He puts Alprin shangun on the guy
(04:41):
that he wants to shoot threes in this case Chris Dunn, Yeah,
he had. I mean it was notable in the first half.
We were talking about it in playback shnggon could sag
Off have done eight to ten feet? Now Done did
start knocking down.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Some things and that's when the game flipped a little bit.
Rockets are playing in front and then when Done made
the threes all of a sudden, Shangoon couldn't sag back
as much, and and everything got a lot more free
flowing for Kawhi and James, right.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And that put the primary responsibility of Zubach on Jabbari.
Now that it wasn't always on Jabbari. Shingun got him,
you know a lot of times because there were zones
and switches. But Zubach had himself a monster knight thirteen
of fourteen, that's right. He missed one shot for thirty
three points and seven boards, and they needed every one
(05:30):
of those because really they didn't get efficient knights from
Harden or Kawhi the hardened situation. You know, Shangoon overall
had had a good game. He was quite efficient until
you know, some of his misses were those putbacks at
the end just before amends. I think three of those
misses counted as as offensive tips that he just kept
volleyballing it up there. He had a really good game.
(05:53):
Twenty two points, fifteen boards, five assists, four steals. Like
I said, not overall effishent on the night, but certainly
was very fish in the first half. There was one
play I want to definitely pick at a little bit,
and that was. I'm sure the coaches are going to
talk to him heavily about it. Yeah, at the end
of the game when he drove and he wanted a foul, yeah,
we we talked about it in real time. I noted
(06:14):
it in real time. He laid on the ground, had
both of his hands.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Up like five.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It was five on four for a good stretch. They
just whipped the ball until they found Harden, who knocked
out a three to tie the game. Fortunately and Men
had the tip in. But boy, that that was almost costly. Now,
I want to balance that with Shangun had a couple
of nice isolation drives yeah, to score, including one little
a key Me esque you know throw, you know, fake
it with the right hand, come back and turn and
(06:41):
hook it over. So it balanced out. But I'm sure
they're going to talk to him about that because that's
that's basically a known flaw. I think if Shangun is
sort of the complaining and the criticizing it is.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And I thought in a lot of the late game
execution situations the last month or so he had grown
out of that. This was sort of going back to
that Detroit game is what it made me think of.
And so Hopefully it's an outlier. I didn't see it
as much over the past month, but I agree with you.
Staying down on the floor in that situation and allowing
the opponents to go five on four. That's tough. It
(07:13):
shouldn't have happened. I'm sure they'll point it out. But
the bigger thing, you know, Shinnoun's efficiency was down, But
I do think a lot of it, Like they had
to lean on him a lot for shot creation because
Kadi he did get hot for a stretch in the
third quarter, but he was terrible in the first half
and for the game overall. Like he just looked I
don't know what the word is, other than not himself.
(07:33):
Like he just looked sloppy, lethargic, Like the legs just
weren't there for whatever reason. And like when he tried
to create one on one, he had a lot of
just balls, so he dribbled off his foot. He would slip.
I don't know. You know, the one thing about the
clippers between Kawhi Chris down, there's a lot of length,
there's a lot of physical bodies. They used zoobox on
(07:54):
him a little bit too on the perimeter, and he
held up so the Clippers did have a lot of long,
physical wings with you know, active hands that gave him problems.
But for whatever reason, like Katie just did not have
the juice tonight, and so some of shingoons inefficiency, I
think they had no choice but to lean on him
for shot creation. And so the nine of twenty two,
I give him a little bit of a pass for that,
(08:14):
just because the Rockets didn't have much help. I actually thought,
you know, one of the bigger takeaways from this game,
and we'll see, we'll see how it last, especially when
the Rockets get healthy. But this was a game where
you could see when it was in the half court late,
the Rockets really needed a fifth starter that they could trust.
Like ima Udoka was trying to patch this together, you know,
subbing Reed for offense a Kogi for defense, and he
(08:37):
was doing the best he could. But you know, Reid
really helped them offensively tonight. It was a big game.
He had some nice moments of creation in the fourth quarter,
but then he was targeted defensively, as you would expect
with a team of veteran scorers led by James Harden
and Kawhi Leonard, and so it's sort of like the
push and pull and then the Kogi's out there, but
can he really create enough offense for you? Aaron Holliday
(08:58):
played really well tonight, but like, there's a reason you
started the year with Aaron Holliday not even in your
regular rotation. So the Rockets tried to get to the
finish line, patching together some combination of Reid Holiday and
a Kogi. They survived tonight. But in general, I do
think this was a game that reminds you that, hey,
like this team. Tonight they got the win. That's great,
(09:18):
But long term, you know, ideally Tari or DFS, if
it's not them, then maybe you have to look elsewhere
in the trade market. Spoiler alert, we have a trade
deadline preview show coming out in the next day or two,
so the Rockets could have external options. But trade season
starting on Monday, December fifteenth, unofficially. But yeah, tonight, I
(09:39):
just thought the Rockets did the best they could. But
this was a game where Imo Udoka filling out that
lineup beyond the clear top four was tough for him.
They did the best they could, but it was it
was not pretty. That's the best way I'll put it.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, you know, you talked about the men a little bit.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Men.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Thompson helped hold James Harden to seven of eighteen shooting tonight.
But interestingly enough, as you pointed out, we're talking about
point guard men, but he was eight of twelve from
the field. But if you want to see the vision
of point guard and men, go watch the beginning of
the fourth quarter where he had three consecutive plays where
you're like, assist, assist, assist. I think it started with
(10:17):
a sort of an inTransition, beautiful pass to read it
in the corner for you know, a corner three belf baseline,
a little bit off baseline. You know it's not the
most advance read, but it is a very nice pass
over traffic to find him, which was great. Then he
gets a steal in transition, find Steven Adams for the slam,
(10:39):
and then comes back on the next play over. I
believe it was he was in a half court set,
found Jabbari underneath for a dunk and quickly racked up
three assists. There's potential there. We definitely know the flaws.
There's all of our players have different flaws and different things.
But you know, a men's improving in that regard.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And someone in the chat pointed out that, you know,
a men really need to Alpa. I mean, that's true.
Alpi's a top fifteen player. Everyone needs him. But I
think the possessions that people are going to focus on
late in the game, when it was KD getting the
ball at the top, hitting Shangoon on the short roll,
and then a men darts in because a men's guy
is going up to try and provide some extra help
(11:22):
on KD and Shangoon. I mean, you're gonna run more
offense in the final five to six minutes of a
close game through KD and Shangoon. So we've got to
get out of this whole thing of, you know, making
a late game possession a referendum of a men as
a point guard because spoiler alert, if Fred and Fleet
were out there, he'd be off the ball too. I
think in those possessions where it's most impactful, you'd still
(11:44):
have the same KD Shangoon two man game as the
initial preferred action. And so I don't think that's a
slight on a man at all, Like it's more a
credit to KD and Shangoon. They made the plays that
were there, and a men finished at the room for
all there he's got this year for not finishing. He
did finish tonight, including through traffic in the final twenty
(12:05):
seconds of the game. By the way, Dave, I've got
to get in a rant. I wanted to say this
off the top. I waited, what is it twelve minutes?
Oh my god. From a fan perspective, I was actually
there with my mom tonight, and man, we've been a
brutal game to take a parrot to if they lost
to the freaking Clippers. Thankfully they didn't, but the last
minute for someone that doesn't go to a ton of games,
(12:25):
it's like the NBA just needs to take a step
back and think of the fan experience. Like I'm I'm
understanding of the replay reviews because they want to get
the calls right. But just the two calls that I'm
going to focus in on, and you know, one went
each way in terms of where the mistake was made.
In my opinion, just sometimes we get way too in
(12:46):
the weeds trying to get every call right. Just ask
someone sitting on a bar stool, and I think they
could get the Jabari foul when Chris Don and Nicholas
Batoum were on his back with ten seconds left, and
then the the kawhi that slight little chicken wing that
he gave to Aaron Holliday. Letter of the law. The
NBA might can argue those as the right call. That's
(13:08):
not good for the fan experience. I'm sorry. Like Jabari
had the rebound clear as day. Those two guys are
climbing on his back. They clearly make contact. First, Jabari
is not trying to make contact with his head area,
like that's why they didn't call it flagrant. That was obvious.
It's if Chris Don is going to lean over him
and make contact with his torso then yeah, as Jabari
(13:30):
tries to hold the ball, of course there's gonna be
a risk of some contact. Chris Done is putting his
head in position for that to happen, and he's initiating
the contact. So either no call, and I'd be fine
with no call in that situation. It either be a
jump ball or the Rockets would call a timeout or
call the foul on who initiates the contact. Don't call
(13:51):
the foul and call it on basically the reactor, Like
that's just ridiculous to me. The logical thing just don't
call it at all. Say the contacts marginal and either
a jump ball or the Rockets will call a time out,
and then the other way. Look, it's a two point game.
There's a little bit of contact. Kawhi Leonard's Hall of Famer,
like this is one of the best player's NBA history,
Like there was way more contact that Michael Jordan gave
(14:13):
to Byron Russell than what Kawhi Leonard did to Aaron
Holliday tonight. Like I don't want to see the game
decide in a little call like that. It's a little
bit of contact, and kudos to Aaron Holliday for selling
it a little bit. Do I want to see the
game decided that way? No, just yeah, I'll get off
my soapbox now. But it just to me, it's just
so silly, Like I'm not even that mad at the
(14:34):
reviews because they want to get the calls right and
if teams save their challenges, which both teams did and
use them, then it is what it is. But I
don't want to see a game decided by just those
were just two ticky tack calls, and to me, it's
just regardless of whether they're letter of the law right
or wrong. You just don't need to call the game
that TICKI tack when it's a two point margin in
(14:55):
the final fifteen seconds.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Come on, Yeah, this is kind of the double edged
sword the replay. You want the replay thing, but sometimes
when they have to go back to the replay, they
have to go letter of the law on that thing.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And you know what's crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
You know what's crazy about the Jabbari thing is they
reviewed it twice, so they spend all this time reviewing
to see if it was a flagrant, which was silly
to begin with. Yeah, but then then they actually challenge
it and they go review it again. I'm like, well,
you know, you guys have to make these decisions split
second time, and now you're going back and reviewing. It
is an exhausting way to watch the game. I fully
agree with you the entire thing. Then it was really tough.
(15:29):
You want the players to decide it, not the officiate it.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, just just let them play. I mean it's just
you know, that sequence to me, it was really thrilling them.
Then put back to go up three, that's great, and
then it felt like, you know, it's it's at a crescendo.
And the Clippers are going to get a shot now,
you know, to the Rockets credit one thing I will
say that shouldn't be overlooked. After the the Aaron Holliday make,
he uncharacteristically missed the first of those two free throws
late the Rockets picked up full court and you know,
(15:54):
that was a bad turnover by Nicholas Batom, But it
was a turnover because the Rockets, you know, their effort
was dialed up. There was no easy release file like
Batoomb was anticipating, and so that's where the chart over
came from. Like that, that was a bad mistake. Buttomb
will be the first to admit it, but the Rockets
effort helped cause that mistake. So even though it wasn't
you know, it's not the way you dried up as
(16:15):
far as you know, a winning play in the last
ten seconds, it was a winning play nonethe last. So
I do want to give a hot tip to that.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, you know, and the way the Rockets have played
in a couple of games, there's a couple of them.
You do worry about what's coming. You do have at
Denver coming up. Rockets again, going through this week of
just one game, they don't play again until Monday, which
is just crazy. But you want to see that offense
get back there. You kind of need Tari back at
some point. You need DFS to to join the party,
(16:43):
so to speak. But he still I'm not taking anything
away from the Rockets. Still really good team. I thought
tonight the word that people are describing up and down
here was sloppy. They still ended up getting away with it.
And again, to me, I'll just keep calling it their superpower.
It's rebounds. I cannot stress enough to have that kind
of rebounding advantage. What that means to a team when
(17:05):
it wins. I mean the Rockets were I guess forty
six percent from the field, Clippers fifty percent, but the
difference in shot attempts ninety three to seventy eight all
because of those rebounds. And you, like he may said,
you're gonna cough up some turnovers or on nights when
you do cough up a lot of turnovers, like you said,
Ben ten between Katie and Shangun, another four for Jabari.
(17:26):
You know you need that kind of thing, and so
you got to give basically credit to night to Jabari.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Shangun at Lari had a really nice stretch early in
the fourth quarter when the Rockets finally got a little
bit of separation. Jabari defensively was insanely active. So shout
out to him for that.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, there were a couple
of times I thought you'd Defindish Kawhi pretty well. Yeah,
I mean Jabari, the main thing I've been a little
bit frustrated with him lately is just the threes, two
of eight from three to night. I just want to
see him. I don't want to see him fall into
this mud of like thirty three to thirty five percent threes.
It's okay, it's solid, but it's not great. I want
(18:03):
this guy to really hit that forty percent mark. And
just two of eight from three tonight, and you know,
badly missed one of them late off the corner baseline.
But I mean, Jabari is if we were noting it
in there, he looks more spry that one alleyup that
I think Shangoon threw it to him. Maybe it was
a man, I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
He there.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
We all thought that was a men at first, and
then we're like, well that's Jabbari. He got some real
air on that, and I think it's just overall the
way he moves, the confidence in which he moves. We've
talked about this quite a bit, but just the way
he was able to put the ball on the floor
and get to spots. I don't think it was a
super showcase tonight, but I'm still quite happy with Jabari.
(18:43):
I think you have to look at him as high
end role player upside, so you're grading a little bit differently,
But I still think you've got something potentially special there
in Jebury.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And I do think this was low key and encouraging
game from Reed Shepherd. I really wish he had hit
that three in the final twenty seconds because the room
for to come off of Toyota Center. If he answered
the hard and three with one of his own, it
was a good luck. Unfortunately, it didn't go down, and
the Rockets, you know, got enough offensive rebounds to still
score that possession. Anyway, as you said, that's their their superpower.
But I thought I may Judoka. You know, they did
(19:14):
sort of go back and forth offense defense subs, but
he did play a lot late in the game. He
showed some some creation shops in the fourth quarter, and
you know, there was a stretch where they got separation
with both Reed and Aaron in the game despite being
really undersized, and so I know it's not imy Udoka's
favorite thing to do. You could see that Emy was
searching for anything, you know, he played the jumbo lineup
(19:35):
late in the first half, which they hadn't done a
ton of lately. In the second half they went to
the other extreme, and so I think this reflects as
he may said, it was a sloppy game in which
they were searching for any formula that that would work.
But I do think that the Clippers are They're not
a good team, but I do think that late in
a game like this, they are a tough matchup for
(19:56):
Reid in a way that teams on this upcoming road
trip probably won't be. Like I think Hardened and Kawhi
in particular, the combination of how physical they are, how
high IQ they are, their ability to hunt Reed in
half court situations, like the Clippers are not are not
nearly as good of a team as the Nuggets. But
(20:17):
I don't know if the Nuggets have guys on the
perimeter that are that capable of, you know, the juice
that on a given possession, even if they didn't shoot
well overall, just what James and Kawhi do and some
of it's just the fear they strike in the heart
of opposing defenses, which is what makes emy want to
turn back to to Joshua Koge and I didn't think
(20:37):
of it was actually Josha Kogy that that doubled Kawhi
I think on the late possession and basically forced that
Batoomb turnover. But yeah, the Clippers, for all their flaws,
there is a lot of high end talent there, and
I think that high end talent forcing a switch and
attacking read that was what sort of stressed e may
out in a way that the teams they're about to play.
(21:01):
No disrespectcause the Nuggets are obviously a better team overall,
but I don't know if they'll be quite as as
difficult for Reid specifically. Like we all know that the
last Nuggets game, Reid was excellent in that matchup, So
I do think there were some really encouraging things from
Reid tonight, especially in the second half, got overshadowed a
little bit because down the stretch the Rockets weren't sure
(21:21):
about the offense versus defense and trying to figure out
what the trade off would and should be. But I
think it's a building block after you know, that week
after Thanksgiving Reid was not himself. He had some terrible
turnovers against the MAVs. I thought low Ki. He was
much better tonight and he was rewarded by getting to
pretty much finish the game.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, I think people have talked about this in the
chat a little bit as well. I mean, he just
looks more comfortable out there defense on ball, defensive side.
There's definitely games where we've we've hashed that out and
that is a big issue. But you know, he looks
more comfortable offensively in more games than not. You're looking
up and he's pretty high in the box. Plus minus
(22:01):
tonight was a believe a plus six, you know. Yeah,
read as far as you know, we were talking about
this in the trade show and we'll'll come out here soon.
But if people all across you know, national media are
talking about the Rockets needing a point guard and you
bring in a point guard, if you do that, you're
talking about reduced, significantly reduced minutes for Reed Shepherd. And
(22:22):
I think what he's doing right now is incredibly valuable.
You've already seen a lot of growth in the first
twenty plus games here so far. I just I think
that they're putting a ton of stock into him. They
where they think he'll be by the end of the season,
where they think he'll be next year. It's hard to imagine.
I'm not saying it's impossible, because the Rockets do have
hopes to win this year, it's hard to imagine bringing
(22:44):
in a heavy minute point guard into this roster.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah, I agree. I mean, we'll talk about it more
on the trade show that obviously we taped a little
bit earlier, but we'll be releasing this weekend. But yeah,
if you're talking about bringing in a player of significance
in terms of minutes, well then you have to ask
the question of where are the minutes going to come
away from? And right now, yeah, there's a few people
you can point to. But when you get Tory Easton
(23:07):
and Jury and Phinney Smith back, and I think the
expectation is within the next month to have both of
those guys back, then yeah, I'm not sure where the
minutes would come from. I mean, that's what you have
to ask yourself. And it's just a it's a weird
question because Rockets fans have not seen this team at
full strength, but organizationally, like the Rockets, they know they
have these guys coming back. It's not like they're in hiding,
(23:29):
and so the expectation is that is that they're going
to be available. And by the way, I see a
comment in the chat, doesn't look like brook Lopez has
much left in the tank. Yeah, I would agree. I
watched him from the stands. He looked I don't want
to say totally washed, because I've seen guys of that age,
you know, have a rough game or two and bounce back,
but he did not look like the same guy, even
relative to a year or two ago. And I think, boy,
(23:52):
the break the Rockets got with brook Lopez unofficially, you know,
spurning them at the last minute and twenty twenty three
free agency, you know, people talk about it a lot
in terms of the all Perention Goon leap, and that's
not always fair because I do think that those two
could have played together. Where I think the real bump
came from is then getting Steven Adams at the ensuing deadline.
(24:13):
Because Steven Adams now compared to brook Lopez, now that's
a night and day difference. And I do feel pretty
confident that if you had Brook Lopez and all pri
Echon Goon in that twenty three to twenty four season,
you wouldn't have made the Steven Adams trade. And as
you said, like Steven Adams is not you know, he's
not single handedly the rockets superpower, but he is an
essential part of what their superpower is. And so yeah,
(24:34):
the Rockets got very lucky dodging the Brook Lopez bullet
because it led them to Steven Adams.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, Ben, correct me if I'm wrong. Rockets will not
be back here in Houston after Christmas. And it's I
think six. I got six straight here at Denver, at
New Orleans, at Denver again. That's because of the NBA
Cup scheduling issue at Clippers, these Clippers again or no
excuse me. I skipped a Sacramento at Clippers and then
(25:03):
at Lakers, which will be a great test. That's on
Christmas Day. So we're going to see another test for
the Rockets as they hit the road. A few of
those Sacramento, New Orleans, these Clippers are teams with poor records,
but I will say New Orleans just dropped. Let me
double check it. One hundred and forty three tonight against
the Blazers, beat them by twenty plus points.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Then you are to beat the first the other night
right before the Furst dominated the Lakers in the Cup quarterfinal.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, I think Zion is out and they are kind
of rolling with KRK Queen. Yeah, so we're gonna be
a little bit of that Spider Man meme with Queen
and Shangoon kind of you know, looking at each other.
So that'll be a fun matchup for sure. But we'll
see where they are. They're sixteen and six. I'm not
sure the Rockets are as amazing as we you know
that the first handful of game showed. But they are
(25:52):
really good team, very very clearly a really good team.
And you know, knock on Wood KD was just a
bad night tonight. But we'll see where they stand after
the six game road swing. Anything you want to add
before we close.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Up tonight, No, I think we pretty much had all
the high points. I'll just throw one more plug to
our trade season preview show to come out this weekend.
We'll put it on the latch pod podcast speed as well,
which is where I've been stashing these for listeners that
want to hear it in audio form. We get that
question some in the YouTube comments. Other than that, yeah,
I find it, Dave. I find this one tough to evaluate,
(26:26):
Like between the time off both teams had going into
this game, between the Clippers on paper being much better
than their record, between at least in terms of the
high end talent, between how uncharacteristically awful that first half
was for Kevin Durant, like beating the Clippers by two
points at home. I get that. You know, some people
(26:49):
might see that as a red flag. I'm inclined for
now to view it as a one off. And I
mean the good news is with this road trip coming up,
I mean it's gonna be resolved one way or another.
If they have a good road trip and go four
and two or better, then yeah, this is pretty clearly
a blip and either the Clippers are better than the
record or it was an off night for the Rockets whatever,
And and if they don't have a good road trip,
(27:11):
then like we'll have losses to talk about and we'll
go through how they lost the games. So either way,
whether this is a one off or the beginning of
a of a trend of them not playing as well,
I mean, it's going to get answered the next few
games anyway, as the schedule stipp in. So we'll revisit
this next week when they go to Denver for two games. Yeah,
we'll see. It should be a tough road leading up
(27:32):
to Christmas. But I mean they've generally played well in
their high profile matchups thus far, so knock on wood,
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
That's been the most Rockets win one, fifteen to one
thirteen to improve to sixteen and six on the year.
We will there we go.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
What's Truman?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Truman?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
There we go?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That is an adorable dog man. Seriously, So we'll be
back with the Trade Deadline show this weekend. Absolutely look
out for that and as far as live postgame shows,
we will be back on My day. Rockets get to
face the Nuggets in Denver. Thanks everybody, have a great weekend.
We'll talk to you soon.
Welcome into the post game guys. It is good news.
Rockets win the game one fifteen to one thirteen against
a team that should have been much better than their
record this year, and tonight looked like it. The way
that some of these guys played. Rockets basically were you know,
played ball to wall with the Clippers. This game basically
(00:23):
eke it out a men. Thompson's offensive rebound was seventeen
point two seconds left proved to be the difference after
the Clippers well that James Harden three had just tied
it with thirty something seconds left, and Ben you mentioned
it as you got back that last basically fifteen thirty
seconds of the game felt like it took an hour.
(00:45):
But Rockets escape after a series of fouls and free
throws and all kinds of mess and they're now sixteen
and six and escaped the six and now nineteen Clippers
here at home.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, a win is a win, And I think a
lot of what happened tonight. They came out pretty rusty
and sloppy after that long break, and Kevin Durant in
particular was terrible in that first half, and there were
a couple of stretches where they almost blew it open.
They had it up to an eight to nine point
lead and let the Clippers back in every time. And
if you had even an average Kevin Durant first half,
I think it's one of those games where you could
(01:18):
have had them at arms length and then they sort
of succumbed to the record instead because you let them
play from in front for a lot of the game.
Then it led a team that you know, their record
is what it is right now, but they have a
lot of the same parts from the team that looked
like a juggernaut to end last season. You've still got
some great individual talents between Hard and Kawhi and Zubox,
and they made this a lot more stressful than I
(01:42):
anticipated going into the game. But at the end of
the day, this was when the Rockets couldn't lose because
the schedule coming up is difficult, a six game road
trip three to six against the Nuggets and the Lakers.
So yeah, home game against Clippers. You couldn't afford to
lose this one. So before we go into the individuals,
this was, you know, nothing's a must win over a
two games, but this is this was a really need
to win and they got it. Done.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, you know you mentioned it. Early on KD was struggling.
He was won for his first seven really no rebounds,
no assists for most of the first half, and you
kind of look up and you're like, man, you know
who's going to step up? Shngun wasn't taking a ton
of shots, but was efficient. I think he hit seven
of his first eleven. Finished too for his last eleven,
(02:26):
but early on was was definitely quite efficient. It was
really a typical Rockets game in the sense of, you know,
Emo Udoka said it. They they were sloppy. That's not typical.
I think a lot of people are mentioning this. You
said the same thing. They had eighteen turnovers, AD.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And Shon had five turnovers apiece.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, it was. It was messy. It was sloppy. But
you know, as Emo Udoka said, and I jotted it down,
when we're turning the ball over at that higher rate,
we want to get some back, and he's pointing to
their superpower and that's rebounds. It's it's fitting that a
men's rebound offensive rebound was kind out of the game
winner because the difference tonight was sixty four to thirty
five on the boards.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, and you know who only had one turnover. Amen
Thompson twenty points, nine boards, eight assists, eight of twelve shooting.
For all the criticism that A Men has gotten at
times this season, because you know, going into the year,
we all hyped this up as a big three, and
perhaps that was a little aggressive for Amen Thompson going
into year three, just twenty two years old. But boy
(03:28):
on an off night at least shooting and efficiency wise
from KD and Shingoon. Now, they did pick it up
in the second half, but A Men was great throughout.
I don't care how much is on ball, how much
is off. He was great on both ends of the floor.
And the Rockets don't win this game without him. So
for all the talk this year, or you know, just
lasering in on A Men Thompson every possession, don't forget
about this game. This would have been a bad loss.
(03:49):
And because you got the peak version of A Men Thompson,
that's why he didn't lose it.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I know some people are mentioning my
mic is a little off, so I'm not sure if
it's something here or if it's something on it on
the software side, But he.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Turn some issues with the Riverside lately. Apologies for that.
We're working on it. I do wonder I saw someone
you know, pointing out rip playback in the comments. I
do wonder if Riverside's bannedwidth. It's a little stretch because
so many people having to figure out their you know,
post playback plans. But we'll see.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, and I was in
I stayed in playback tonight. We had our final game
in the Clutch Fans playback room. It was a lot
of fun. You know, the game was really quite interesting.
You know, email broke down how they game planned defensively
for this one. This is what they've done, you know,
a lot the last couple of years, or Emao O
Dooka has done. He puts Alprin shangun on the guy
(04:41):
that he wants to shoot threes in this case Chris Dunn, Yeah,
he had. I mean it was notable in the first half.
We were talking about it in playback shnggon could sag
Off have done eight to ten feet? Now Done did
start knocking down.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Some things and that's when the game flipped a little bit.
Rockets are playing in front and then when Done made
the threes all of a sudden, Shangoon couldn't sag back
as much, and and everything got a lot more free
flowing for Kawhi and James, right.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And that put the primary responsibility of Zubach on Jabbari.
Now that it wasn't always on Jabbari. Shingun got him,
you know a lot of times because there were zones
and switches. But Zubach had himself a monster knight thirteen
of fourteen, that's right. He missed one shot for thirty
three points and seven boards, and they needed every one
(05:30):
of those because really they didn't get efficient knights from
Harden or Kawhi the hardened situation. You know, Shangoon overall
had had a good game. He was quite efficient until
you know, some of his misses were those putbacks at
the end just before amends. I think three of those
misses counted as as offensive tips that he just kept
volleyballing it up there. He had a really good game.
(05:53):
Twenty two points, fifteen boards, five assists, four steals. Like
I said, not overall effishent on the night, but certainly
was very fish in the first half. There was one
play I want to definitely pick at a little bit,
and that was. I'm sure the coaches are going to
talk to him heavily about it. Yeah, at the end
of the game when he drove and he wanted a foul, yeah,
we we talked about it in real time. I noted
(06:14):
it in real time. He laid on the ground, had
both of his hands.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Up like five.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It was five on four for a good stretch. They
just whipped the ball until they found Harden, who knocked
out a three to tie the game. Fortunately and Men
had the tip in. But boy, that that was almost costly. Now,
I want to balance that with Shangun had a couple
of nice isolation drives yeah, to score, including one little
a key Me esque you know throw, you know, fake
it with the right hand, come back and turn and
(06:41):
hook it over. So it balanced out. But I'm sure
they're going to talk to him about that because that's
that's basically a known flaw. I think if Shangun is
sort of the complaining and the criticizing it is.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And I thought in a lot of the late game
execution situations the last month or so he had grown
out of that. This was sort of going back to
that Detroit game is what it made me think of.
And so Hopefully it's an outlier. I didn't see it
as much over the past month, but I agree with you.
Staying down on the floor in that situation and allowing
the opponents to go five on four. That's tough. It
(07:13):
shouldn't have happened. I'm sure they'll point it out. But
the bigger thing, you know, Shinnoun's efficiency was down, But
I do think a lot of it, Like they had
to lean on him a lot for shot creation because
Kadi he did get hot for a stretch in the
third quarter, but he was terrible in the first half
and for the game overall. Like he just looked I
don't know what the word is, other than not himself.
(07:33):
Like he just looked sloppy, lethargic, Like the legs just
weren't there for whatever reason. And like when he tried
to create one on one, he had a lot of
just balls, so he dribbled off his foot. He would slip.
I don't know. You know, the one thing about the
clippers between Kawhi Chris down, there's a lot of length,
there's a lot of physical bodies. They used zoobox on
(07:54):
him a little bit too on the perimeter, and he
held up so the Clippers did have a lot of long,
physical wings with you know, active hands that gave him problems.
But for whatever reason, like Katie just did not have
the juice tonight, and so some of shingoons inefficiency, I
think they had no choice but to lean on him
for shot creation. And so the nine of twenty two,
I give him a little bit of a pass for that,
(08:14):
just because the Rockets didn't have much help. I actually thought,
you know, one of the bigger takeaways from this game,
and we'll see, we'll see how it last, especially when
the Rockets get healthy. But this was a game where
you could see when it was in the half court late,
the Rockets really needed a fifth starter that they could trust.
Like ima Udoka was trying to patch this together, you know,
subbing Reed for offense a Kogi for defense, and he
(08:37):
was doing the best he could. But you know, Reid
really helped them offensively tonight. It was a big game.
He had some nice moments of creation in the fourth quarter,
but then he was targeted defensively, as you would expect
with a team of veteran scorers led by James Harden
and Kawhi Leonard, and so it's sort of like the
push and pull and then the Kogi's out there, but
can he really create enough offense for you? Aaron Holliday
(08:58):
played really well tonight, but like, there's a reason you
started the year with Aaron Holliday not even in your
regular rotation. So the Rockets tried to get to the
finish line, patching together some combination of Reid Holiday and
a Kogi. They survived tonight. But in general, I do
think this was a game that reminds you that, hey,
like this team. Tonight they got the win. That's great,
(09:18):
But long term, you know, ideally Tari or DFS, if
it's not them, then maybe you have to look elsewhere
in the trade market. Spoiler alert, we have a trade
deadline preview show coming out in the next day or two,
so the Rockets could have external options. But trade season
starting on Monday, December fifteenth, unofficially. But yeah, tonight, I
(09:39):
just thought the Rockets did the best they could. But
this was a game where Imo Udoka filling out that
lineup beyond the clear top four was tough for him.
They did the best they could, but it was it
was not pretty. That's the best way I'll put it.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, you know, you talked about the men a little bit.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Men.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Thompson helped hold James Harden to seven of eighteen shooting tonight.
But interestingly enough, as you pointed out, we're talking about
point guard men, but he was eight of twelve from
the field. But if you want to see the vision
of point guard and men, go watch the beginning of
the fourth quarter where he had three consecutive plays where
you're like, assist, assist, assist. I think it started with
(10:17):
a sort of an inTransition, beautiful pass to read it
in the corner for you know, a corner three belf baseline,
a little bit off baseline. You know it's not the
most advance read, but it is a very nice pass
over traffic to find him, which was great. Then he
gets a steal in transition, find Steven Adams for the slam,
(10:39):
and then comes back on the next play over. I
believe it was he was in a half court set,
found Jabbari underneath for a dunk and quickly racked up
three assists. There's potential there. We definitely know the flaws.
There's all of our players have different flaws and different things.
But you know, a men's improving in that regard.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And someone in the chat pointed out that, you know,
a men really need to Alpa. I mean, that's true.
Alpi's a top fifteen player. Everyone needs him. But I
think the possessions that people are going to focus on
late in the game, when it was KD getting the
ball at the top, hitting Shangoon on the short roll,
and then a men darts in because a men's guy
is going up to try and provide some extra help
(11:22):
on KD and Shangoon. I mean, you're gonna run more
offense in the final five to six minutes of a
close game through KD and Shangoon. So we've got to
get out of this whole thing of, you know, making
a late game possession a referendum of a men as
a point guard because spoiler alert, if Fred and Fleet
were out there, he'd be off the ball too. I
think in those possessions where it's most impactful, you'd still
(11:44):
have the same KD Shangoon two man game as the
initial preferred action. And so I don't think that's a
slight on a man at all, Like it's more a
credit to KD and Shangoon. They made the plays that
were there, and a men finished at the room for
all there he's got this year for not finishing. He
did finish tonight, including through traffic in the final twenty
(12:05):
seconds of the game. By the way, Dave, I've got
to get in a rant. I wanted to say this
off the top. I waited, what is it twelve minutes?
Oh my god. From a fan perspective, I was actually
there with my mom tonight, and man, we've been a
brutal game to take a parrot to if they lost
to the freaking Clippers. Thankfully they didn't, but the last
minute for someone that doesn't go to a ton of games,
(12:25):
it's like the NBA just needs to take a step
back and think of the fan experience. Like I'm I'm
understanding of the replay reviews because they want to get
the calls right. But just the two calls that I'm
going to focus in on, and you know, one went
each way in terms of where the mistake was made.
In my opinion, just sometimes we get way too in
(12:46):
the weeds trying to get every call right. Just ask
someone sitting on a bar stool, and I think they
could get the Jabari foul when Chris Don and Nicholas
Batoum were on his back with ten seconds left, and
then the the kawhi that slight little chicken wing that
he gave to Aaron Holliday. Letter of the law. The
NBA might can argue those as the right call. That's
(13:08):
not good for the fan experience. I'm sorry. Like Jabari
had the rebound clear as day. Those two guys are
climbing on his back. They clearly make contact. First, Jabari
is not trying to make contact with his head area,
like that's why they didn't call it flagrant. That was obvious.
It's if Chris Don is going to lean over him
and make contact with his torso then yeah, as Jabari
(13:30):
tries to hold the ball, of course there's gonna be
a risk of some contact. Chris Done is putting his
head in position for that to happen, and he's initiating
the contact. So either no call, and I'd be fine
with no call in that situation. It either be a
jump ball or the Rockets would call a timeout or
call the foul on who initiates the contact. Don't call
(13:51):
the foul and call it on basically the reactor, Like
that's just ridiculous to me. The logical thing just don't
call it at all. Say the contacts marginal and either
a jump ball or the Rockets will call a time out,
and then the other way. Look, it's a two point game.
There's a little bit of contact. Kawhi Leonard's Hall of Famer,
like this is one of the best player's NBA history,
Like there was way more contact that Michael Jordan gave
(14:13):
to Byron Russell than what Kawhi Leonard did to Aaron
Holliday tonight. Like I don't want to see the game
decide in a little call like that. It's a little
bit of contact, and kudos to Aaron Holliday for selling
it a little bit. Do I want to see the
game decided that way? No, just yeah, I'll get off
my soapbox now. But it just to me, it's just
so silly, Like I'm not even that mad at the
(14:34):
reviews because they want to get the calls right and
if teams save their challenges, which both teams did and
use them, then it is what it is. But I
don't want to see a game decided by just those
were just two ticky tack calls, and to me, it's
just regardless of whether they're letter of the law right
or wrong. You just don't need to call the game
that TICKI tack when it's a two point margin in
(14:55):
the final fifteen seconds.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Come on, Yeah, this is kind of the double edged
sword the replay. You want the replay thing, but sometimes
when they have to go back to the replay, they
have to go letter of the law on that thing.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And you know what's crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
You know what's crazy about the Jabbari thing is they
reviewed it twice, so they spend all this time reviewing
to see if it was a flagrant, which was silly
to begin with. Yeah, but then then they actually challenge
it and they go review it again. I'm like, well,
you know, you guys have to make these decisions split
second time, and now you're going back and reviewing. It
is an exhausting way to watch the game. I fully
agree with you the entire thing. Then it was really tough.
(15:29):
You want the players to decide it, not the officiate it.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, just just let them play. I mean it's just
you know, that sequence to me, it was really thrilling them.
Then put back to go up three, that's great, and
then it felt like, you know, it's it's at a crescendo.
And the Clippers are going to get a shot now,
you know, to the Rockets credit one thing I will
say that shouldn't be overlooked. After the the Aaron Holliday make,
he uncharacteristically missed the first of those two free throws
late the Rockets picked up full court and you know,
(15:54):
that was a bad turnover by Nicholas Batom, But it
was a turnover because the Rockets, you know, their effort
was dialed up. There was no easy release file like
Batoomb was anticipating, and so that's where the chart over
came from. Like that, that was a bad mistake. Buttomb
will be the first to admit it, but the Rockets
effort helped cause that mistake. So even though it wasn't
you know, it's not the way you dried up as
(16:15):
far as you know, a winning play in the last
ten seconds, it was a winning play nonethe last. So
I do want to give a hot tip to that.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, you know, and the way the Rockets have played
in a couple of games, there's a couple of them.
You do worry about what's coming. You do have at
Denver coming up. Rockets again, going through this week of
just one game, they don't play again until Monday, which
is just crazy. But you want to see that offense
get back there. You kind of need Tari back at
some point. You need DFS to to join the party,
(16:43):
so to speak. But he still I'm not taking anything
away from the Rockets. Still really good team. I thought
tonight the word that people are describing up and down
here was sloppy. They still ended up getting away with it.
And again, to me, I'll just keep calling it their superpower.
It's rebounds. I cannot stress enough to have that kind
of rebounding advantage. What that means to a team when
(17:05):
it wins. I mean the Rockets were I guess forty
six percent from the field, Clippers fifty percent, but the
difference in shot attempts ninety three to seventy eight all
because of those rebounds. And you, like he may said,
you're gonna cough up some turnovers or on nights when
you do cough up a lot of turnovers, like you said,
Ben ten between Katie and Shangun, another four for Jabari.
(17:26):
You know you need that kind of thing, and so
you got to give basically credit to night to Jabari.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Shangun at Lari had a really nice stretch early in
the fourth quarter when the Rockets finally got a little
bit of separation. Jabari defensively was insanely active. So shout
out to him for that.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, there were a couple
of times I thought you'd Defindish Kawhi pretty well. Yeah,
I mean Jabari, the main thing I've been a little
bit frustrated with him lately is just the threes, two
of eight from three to night. I just want to
see him. I don't want to see him fall into
this mud of like thirty three to thirty five percent threes.
It's okay, it's solid, but it's not great. I want
(18:03):
this guy to really hit that forty percent mark. And
just two of eight from three tonight, and you know,
badly missed one of them late off the corner baseline.
But I mean, Jabari is if we were noting it
in there, he looks more spry that one alleyup that
I think Shangoon threw it to him. Maybe it was
a man, I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
He there.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
We all thought that was a men at first, and
then we're like, well that's Jabbari. He got some real
air on that, and I think it's just overall the
way he moves, the confidence in which he moves. We've
talked about this quite a bit, but just the way
he was able to put the ball on the floor
and get to spots. I don't think it was a
super showcase tonight, but I'm still quite happy with Jabari.
(18:43):
I think you have to look at him as high
end role player upside, so you're grading a little bit differently,
But I still think you've got something potentially special there
in Jebury.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
And I do think this was low key and encouraging
game from Reed Shepherd. I really wish he had hit
that three in the final twenty seconds because the room
for to come off of Toyota Center. If he answered
the hard and three with one of his own, it
was a good luck. Unfortunately, it didn't go down, and
the Rockets, you know, got enough offensive rebounds to still
score that possession. Anyway, as you said, that's their their superpower.
But I thought I may Judoka. You know, they did
(19:14):
sort of go back and forth offense defense subs, but
he did play a lot late in the game. He
showed some some creation shops in the fourth quarter, and
you know, there was a stretch where they got separation
with both Reed and Aaron in the game despite being
really undersized, and so I know it's not imy Udoka's
favorite thing to do. You could see that Emy was
searching for anything, you know, he played the jumbo lineup
(19:35):
late in the first half, which they hadn't done a
ton of lately. In the second half they went to
the other extreme, and so I think this reflects as
he may said, it was a sloppy game in which
they were searching for any formula that that would work.
But I do think that the Clippers are They're not
a good team, but I do think that late in
a game like this, they are a tough matchup for
(19:56):
Reid in a way that teams on this upcoming road
trip probably won't be. Like I think Hardened and Kawhi
in particular, the combination of how physical they are, how
high IQ they are, their ability to hunt Reed in
half court situations, like the Clippers are not are not
nearly as good of a team as the Nuggets. But
(20:17):
I don't know if the Nuggets have guys on the
perimeter that are that capable of, you know, the juice
that on a given possession, even if they didn't shoot
well overall, just what James and Kawhi do and some
of it's just the fear they strike in the heart
of opposing defenses, which is what makes emy want to
turn back to to Joshua Koge and I didn't think
(20:37):
of it was actually Josha Kogy that that doubled Kawhi
I think on the late possession and basically forced that
Batoomb turnover. But yeah, the Clippers, for all their flaws,
there is a lot of high end talent there, and
I think that high end talent forcing a switch and
attacking read that was what sort of stressed e may
out in a way that the teams they're about to play.
(21:01):
No disrespectcause the Nuggets are obviously a better team overall,
but I don't know if they'll be quite as as
difficult for Reid specifically. Like we all know that the
last Nuggets game, Reid was excellent in that matchup, So
I do think there were some really encouraging things from
Reid tonight, especially in the second half, got overshadowed a
little bit because down the stretch the Rockets weren't sure
(21:21):
about the offense versus defense and trying to figure out
what the trade off would and should be. But I
think it's a building block after you know, that week
after Thanksgiving Reid was not himself. He had some terrible
turnovers against the MAVs. I thought low Ki. He was
much better tonight and he was rewarded by getting to
pretty much finish the game.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, I think people have talked about this in the
chat a little bit as well. I mean, he just
looks more comfortable out there defense on ball, defensive side.
There's definitely games where we've we've hashed that out and
that is a big issue. But you know, he looks
more comfortable offensively in more games than not. You're looking
up and he's pretty high in the box. Plus minus
(22:01):
tonight was a believe a plus six, you know. Yeah,
read as far as you know, we were talking about
this in the trade show and we'll'll come out here soon.
But if people all across you know, national media are
talking about the Rockets needing a point guard and you
bring in a point guard, if you do that, you're
talking about reduced, significantly reduced minutes for Reed Shepherd. And
(22:22):
I think what he's doing right now is incredibly valuable.
You've already seen a lot of growth in the first
twenty plus games here so far. I just I think
that they're putting a ton of stock into him. They
where they think he'll be by the end of the season,
where they think he'll be next year. It's hard to imagine.
I'm not saying it's impossible, because the Rockets do have
hopes to win this year, it's hard to imagine bringing
(22:44):
in a heavy minute point guard into this roster.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah, I agree. I mean, we'll talk about it more
on the trade show that obviously we taped a little
bit earlier, but we'll be releasing this weekend. But yeah,
if you're talking about bringing in a player of significance
in terms of minutes, well then you have to ask
the question of where are the minutes going to come
away from? And right now, yeah, there's a few people
you can point to. But when you get Tory Easton
(23:07):
and Jury and Phinney Smith back, and I think the
expectation is within the next month to have both of
those guys back, then yeah, I'm not sure where the
minutes would come from. I mean, that's what you have
to ask yourself. And it's just a it's a weird
question because Rockets fans have not seen this team at
full strength, but organizationally, like the Rockets, they know they
have these guys coming back. It's not like they're in hiding,
(23:29):
and so the expectation is that is that they're going
to be available. And by the way, I see a
comment in the chat, doesn't look like brook Lopez has
much left in the tank. Yeah, I would agree. I
watched him from the stands. He looked I don't want
to say totally washed, because I've seen guys of that age,
you know, have a rough game or two and bounce back,
but he did not look like the same guy, even
relative to a year or two ago. And I think, boy,
(23:52):
the break the Rockets got with brook Lopez unofficially, you know,
spurning them at the last minute and twenty twenty three
free agency, you know, people talk about it a lot
in terms of the all Perention Goon leap, and that's
not always fair because I do think that those two
could have played together. Where I think the real bump
came from is then getting Steven Adams at the ensuing deadline.
(24:13):
Because Steven Adams now compared to brook Lopez, now that's
a night and day difference. And I do feel pretty
confident that if you had Brook Lopez and all pri
Echon Goon in that twenty three to twenty four season,
you wouldn't have made the Steven Adams trade. And as
you said, like Steven Adams is not you know, he's
not single handedly the rockets superpower, but he is an
essential part of what their superpower is. And so yeah,
(24:34):
the Rockets got very lucky dodging the Brook Lopez bullet
because it led them to Steven Adams.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, Ben, correct me if I'm wrong. Rockets will not
be back here in Houston after Christmas. And it's I
think six. I got six straight here at Denver, at
New Orleans, at Denver again. That's because of the NBA
Cup scheduling issue at Clippers, these Clippers again or no
excuse me. I skipped a Sacramento at Clippers and then
(25:03):
at Lakers, which will be a great test. That's on
Christmas Day. So we're going to see another test for
the Rockets as they hit the road. A few of
those Sacramento, New Orleans, these Clippers are teams with poor records,
but I will say New Orleans just dropped. Let me
double check it. One hundred and forty three tonight against
the Blazers, beat them by twenty plus points.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Then you are to beat the first the other night
right before the Furst dominated the Lakers in the Cup quarterfinal.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, I think Zion is out and they are kind
of rolling with KRK Queen. Yeah, so we're gonna be
a little bit of that Spider Man meme with Queen
and Shangoon kind of you know, looking at each other.
So that'll be a fun matchup for sure. But we'll
see where they are. They're sixteen and six. I'm not
sure the Rockets are as amazing as we you know
that the first handful of game showed. But they are
(25:52):
really good team, very very clearly a really good team.
And you know, knock on Wood KD was just a
bad night tonight. But we'll see where they stand after
the six game road swing. Anything you want to add
before we close.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Up tonight, No, I think we pretty much had all
the high points. I'll just throw one more plug to
our trade season preview show to come out this weekend.
We'll put it on the latch pod podcast speed as well,
which is where I've been stashing these for listeners that
want to hear it in audio form. We get that
question some in the YouTube comments. Other than that, yeah,
I find it, Dave. I find this one tough to evaluate,
(26:26):
Like between the time off both teams had going into
this game, between the Clippers on paper being much better
than their record, between at least in terms of the
high end talent, between how uncharacteristically awful that first half
was for Kevin Durant, like beating the Clippers by two
points at home. I get that. You know, some people
(26:49):
might see that as a red flag. I'm inclined for
now to view it as a one off. And I
mean the good news is with this road trip coming up,
I mean it's gonna be resolved one way or another.
If they have a good road trip and go four
and two or better, then yeah, this is pretty clearly
a blip and either the Clippers are better than the
record or it was an off night for the Rockets whatever,
And and if they don't have a good road trip,
(27:11):
then like we'll have losses to talk about and we'll
go through how they lost the games. So either way,
whether this is a one off or the beginning of
a of a trend of them not playing as well,
I mean, it's going to get answered the next few
games anyway, as the schedule stipp in. So we'll revisit
this next week when they go to Denver for two games. Yeah,
we'll see. It should be a tough road leading up
(27:32):
to Christmas. But I mean they've generally played well in
their high profile matchups thus far, so knock on wood,
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
That's been the most Rockets win one, fifteen to one
thirteen to improve to sixteen and six on the year.
We will there we go.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
What's Truman?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Truman?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
There we go?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That is an adorable dog man. Seriously, So we'll be
back with the Trade Deadline show this weekend. Absolutely look
out for that and as far as live postgame shows,
we will be back on My day. Rockets get to
face the Nuggets in Denver. Thanks everybody, have a great weekend.
We'll talk to you soon.
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