November 25, 2025 • 25 mins
With All-Star forward Kevin Durant sidelined for personal reasons, Amen Thompson (28 points, 8 assists) picked up the slack in Houston’s 114-92 victory at Phoenix. The Rockets (11-4) have now won 11 of their last 13 contests, overall, while the Suns (11-7) lost for just the second time in 10 games.
Featuring Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty, Monday’s “ClutchFans Live” postgame show breaks down all the key takeaways, including big nights from Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., and Aaron Holiday.
Featuring Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty, Monday’s “ClutchFans Live” postgame show breaks down all the key takeaways, including big nights from Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., and Aaron Holiday.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome into the postgame guys. Happy Thanksgiving Week to everybody
you'll probably notice I am somewhere else for Thanksgiving Week.
And the Rockets, just without Kevin Durant go into Phoenix
and get a monster win behind the lead of A
Men Thompson, who I'm here with my good friend Ben Dubos. Ben,
(00:22):
I thought A Men was just spectacular in this game.
Rockets win one fourteen ninety two. And I guess the
team that had they lost today, they would have been
technically behind the Suns in the standings.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
So what did the Men finish with tonight twenty eight?
I know he shot ten of.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Sixteen twenty eight, eight and seven.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So he's had fifty points in his last two games.
And he was ten of eighteen on Friday. Tonight he
was ten of sixteen, So that's twenty of thirty four
for fifty points in his last two games. That's pretty good.
And Dave, I know you look at games the same
way I do, or at least similarly, and that we're
always looking for where the meat is being left on
(01:03):
the bone. That's an analogy I've used a couple of
times in our postgame pods, and I think you can
certainly argue that maybe we'll certainly read Shepherd has outkicked
his coverage relative to expectations going into the year, maybe
a little bit all per in Shangoon. So if those
guys fall off and read in particular struggle tonight as
(01:23):
a shooter, at least for the first half of the game,
then where are you going to be able to pick
up the slack? And obviously tonight there was no Kevin Durant,
so there was a lot of slack to pick up. Well,
the meat that was being left on the bone was
from Amen Thompson, and perhaps the analogy is even more
fitting since it's Thanksgiving week. But I mean, Amen, the
last two games. He started the first thirteen games for
the Rockets shooting like I want to say, forty six
(01:45):
percent from the field, and these last two, I mean,
it's made a world of difference. We didn't talk about
it that much against the Nuggets because it felt like,
you know, coming out of the Denver game, the main
storylines were primarily that you lost and Katie and Shingoon
both had bad nights, and then secondly, among reasons you
were closed. Reed. Shephard was the headliner, but a men
was very good, and he was finishing better in that game,
(02:06):
and he finished a lot better tonight as well. His
footwork on the drives was much better. He finished through contact,
and I went and looked last year, Dave. It's been
a little more exaggerated this year, but it's really not
that dissimilar. If you look at his sophomore season, through
five games, he was shooting forty six percent. Through the
first ten games, he was at fifty one percent. Then
(02:27):
the final whatever it was, I think sixty or so
games that he played, he was about fifty six percent
and that's the amend that we saw for the majority
of last season. Well, it feels like maybe slightly exaggerated
this year, and that it took until these last couple,
which were games fourteen and fifteen, but it feels like
that that touch is coming back, And the more you
(02:48):
think about it, it wouldn't shock me if the men
just stylistically is a slow starter, because his style of play,
you cannot replicate it in the offseason in that you know,
the f lewism is still going to be there, but
defenders are not going to contest him in the off
season when he's attacking off the dribble the way he
does in real NBA games, and because defenders aren't defending
(03:10):
it the same way, then he's not getting used to
the difficulty of finishing that it takes against NBA big
men who are going vertical, who are pushing you in
the back from the side, whatever the case may be.
And I just think our very first pod Dave, like,
if you go back and look at the first preseason
recap that we did at the beginning of October, I
(03:31):
made the point that a mend was someone who to
me isn't the same in the preseason because he doesn't
want to throw his body into harm's way. Well, I
think a similar logic can be said for early in
the season, but in a different way, like he's more
willing to throw his body into harm's way, but because
he's not used to defenders, I don't care what they
say in training camp in preseason and gym runs in
(03:53):
the off season, they are not defending him nearly as
physically as aggressively as they do in real NBA games.
With then it takes him a little bit of time
to sort of figure out, you know, the craft element
of the game and get the touch back what it
takes to finish at those awkward angles and through contact. Well,
it feels like the last couple of games against teams
that you know, the Suns were were undermanned a little bit,
(04:17):
but they do have physical bigs inside and obviously the
Nuggets the other night with Jokichen volunchunis, to me, it
feels less about who Amn is playing and more that
he's just he's in better rhythm. He just seems much
more comfortable with the ball in his hands. And the
reason I bring up that context, to me, it feels
sustainable what he's doing. It feels like what we saw
from the majority of last season and all the theories
(04:39):
about you know, why isn't he finishing as well? Is
it because he's being asked to be a point guard?
Does he need to be off ball more? Maybe it's
just he was a little bit rusty. It took him
some time, and now he's coming along and if he
is dape and that gives the Rockets so much. I'm
a buffer in case anyone else on the team balls
off a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, I mean, I think he's been a little bit
of a forgotten guy because you know, when he we
had this kind of narrative of Katie and Shan gun
to the superstars and everybody else needs to fall in line. Amen.
Thompson is a star in my opinion, he has not,
I agree, started out that this year on an offense
from an offensive standpoint. In that way, his true shooting
(05:16):
percentage is significantly down this year. Been there were so
many times in this game. I don't think there's any
bias in saying this that I was just like O
m G watching this guy make these moves, and I
you know, you could you heard the broadcasters on the
on the Peacock broadcast and Austin Rivers just drooling over
(05:39):
this guy. I mean, the thing is he has some
finishing issues that he's you know, as you just perfectly
outlined that he has shown, you know, earlier this year.
But the athleticism is I mean it is top one,
top two, top three in the league, whatever you want
to say. It is up there. He has moves that
(05:59):
he's got to be all finish and you know obviously
and be able to shoot. It's a big thing for him,
big thing. But this is a dog. I mean, he
is busting it on both ends of the floor. You
can just see it. He took that elbow to the
chin yep in this game, and you could just see
in his eyes like this competitiveness and he was going
to go back out there and he got you know,
patched up, and sure enough was back out there and
(06:22):
ironically knocked down a big three to kind of sort
of put it away. I just can't say enough good
things about this guy. Now he's leaving the team. In
net rating. You know, it was I think a plus
twenty five tonight. I need to double check that. But
just an absolutely fantastic game from a men tonight.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
And the ability to go both directions, the euro step,
the hesitation moves that he has. Quite frankly, David, it
reminds me of Donovan Mitchell, the craft that he has
going downhill. I thought that watching Mitchell last week against
the Rockets, the start stop, the ability to go in
either direction. And the reason I bring that up. Even
though a man has struggled to art this year, at
(07:01):
least from an efficiency perspective, I feel like the moves
have still been there. It's just he hasn't finished as well.
Like I feel like if you ran the film of
the first thirteen games before he's really come on the
last two, and we just didn't talk at talk about
him after the Denver game because there were other storylines
to get to. But the first thirteen games, I really
(07:22):
don't think that it was that different than the way
he played last season. It was just that he missed
the shots, like he got into good spots on the floor,
He seemed in control. Nothing seemed dramatically different other than
he wasn't finishing as well. And you know, if that
continues over a large sample, of course you worry about it.
I mean, it's fundamental to the game. You have to
be able to make shots. But he started slow last season,
(07:44):
and perhaps it's as simple as he started slow this season,
and now the last two games he's starting to go
to get going. And I see a comment in the
chat that maybe he needs to play on the wing
war because the last two games read Shepherd has played
a lot tonight and he started. I mean, there's maybe
some of that, but I thought a lot of what
happened tonight was him creating with the ball in his hands,
taking it at the top of the key and making
(08:05):
a play. So I'm not going to say there's nothing
to that. I mean, perhaps having reed to sort of
share the ball handling duties and some of the playmaking.
It allows him to have a little bit more juice.
Maybe there's something to that, but I don't think that.
You know, it's not like he's just cutting off ball. No,
he made a ton of plays with the ball in
his hands, just in an ISO situation, go out and make,
you know, a tough move and he did it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, and that's well said, Ben, because I think you
can attest to this. I mean, the rockets will tell
you in response to that criticism, Oh he's not a
point guard or you need a point guard. They feel
like they're doing just fine. I mean, obviously the offensive
rating tells quite a bit, but also they want to
put the ball in the hands of a man. They
want him to create, they want him to learn and grow,
and he is such a force when he's downhill goodness.
(08:53):
I mean, yeah, today was just an eye opening reminder
of just what this guy is capable of and what
he could be. I'm just super excited. There's a lot
of guy out this. Obviously, scheng Guns have a good year.
Katie's obviously amazing. We're seeing great things from Reed. But
don't sleep on a man like this guy is really
really good.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And these last two games, even though you lost the
Denver game and the big picture are really feel good.
Because if Katie starts to show some signs of aging
and he's thirty seven years old, it's not the end
of the world if his lips a little bit. But
look that the season as a whole, he's at just
over forty eight percent overall, thirty six percent on three,
sixty one percent through shooting. That's still really good. He's
the leading scorer on an eleven and fourteen that's now
(09:36):
one to eleven of their last thirteen games. So clearly
he's still an all Star, probably all NBA level player.
But if you buy into the notion and the sample
is still small, that maybe there's some slippage. He is
thirty seven, Father time is undefeated. Well, guys like a
men and Reed being able to step up the way
they had the last two games, that's the slack that
can be picked up. And I mentioned earlier if you
(09:57):
think Schengoon's played, even by his standards, a little too
well to start the season, in other words, maybe it's
not sustainable. Then if Shoon falls off a little bit, Okay,
this is where you can pick up the slack. The
same can be said for the insane efficiency you know,
reach Shepherd tonight when in the game at like a
true shooting of sixty six percent, which is absolutely amazing.
Is that sustainable along with forty nine percent and three
(10:18):
I don't know. I hope it is, but we'll see.
Now there's Thomas in the shad, you know read. Even
though it was a little bit of an off shooting
night for him, he did still make an impact the
vision with his passes. Defensively, had a couple of big plays,
so it wasn't a bad game by any means. But
he just didn't shoot at the blistering efficiency that we
had gotten accustomed to the last few weeks. But look,
if those things regress a little bit, and I don't
(10:39):
think any of them are going to regress hard. But
even if those things just regress a little bit, and
sure you worry about the margins are thin. The Rockets
have had some close wins, so how can you upset that. Well,
if you have the versions of Reach Shepherd you had
Friday and Amman Thompson the last two games, then you
can offset a lot of slippage elsewhere, and so to me,
that's really surely and you just put on the screen.
(11:01):
You know, Amen's the headliner, but he was far from alone.
Jabari improved handle. That ninety four foot sequence he had
in the third quarter was unbelievable. I don't even want
to think about what happens if Jabari tries that move.
The last couple of years did it try it? And
I also think, you know, the Suns are a team
to this point in the season, and we'll see how
sustainable it is when they play tougher competition. There was
(11:23):
a stat that you know, they've had a pretty weak
strength of schedule to this point. But look, the Suns
are a classic example of the sum as greater than
the individual parts, at least to this point in the season.
Like you wouldn't look at that roster and think, especially
without Jalen Green, that that's an eleven and sixteen. But
they play hard. They have the right culture, and so
when you're on the road and you're without your superstar
(11:44):
and KD, it's important for you to match that culture.
And certainly you know a men Tims and Jabari Smith
part of the reason there's such valuable players in the
big picture, it's not just how good they are individually.
But you know they both have just a perfect profile
as a teammate, Like they play so hard, they set
to right example, they're perfect Emmy Udoka culture guys. But
you go down the bench with who the Rockets were
(12:06):
missing tonight relative to the formula they thought they had
in mid September, they're down four of their nine expected
rotation players. Obviously no Fred and DFS, but you also
didn't have Tarisen, you didn't have Kevin Durant, and so
you had three minimum guys playing major minutes tonight in
Aaron Holliday, Josha Koge and Jade Davidson, and all of
them played really well, like I thought. You know, Josha
(12:28):
Kogi isn't as skilled as Dylan Brooks, but I thought
he played every bit as hard. And perhaps you know,
a Kogi played a lot of the last few seasons
in Phoenix, so perhaps you know, you should have been
talking more about you know, Dylan was really good as
you would expect in a revenge game against the Rockets. Well,
you know, a Kogi had his own revenge game against
the Suns and played really well. But I just thought
between the three of them, they matched the intensity and
(12:50):
those are minimum guys. So shout out to you know,
rafel Stone, Eli White, as Patrick purtieda to the front office.
You can give much of the credit to Imo Udoka
and the way he has guys at the end of
the bench ready. But I think the bottom line is
if you can match the culture of the Suns, and
to their credit, they seem to have come a long way.
We'll see how sustainable it is. I hope it's not
too sustainable because the Rockets have you know that twenty
(13:11):
twenty seven pick. But yeah, for now things seem to
be going well there. But it's like, if you can
match the culture, then the Rockets, even without kd just
with a Men and Shangoon have more high end talent.
And I feel like that's what happened. Like, you know,
Dylan was great as you would expect, but between a
Koge's defense and transition play and Aaron Holliday shot making,
(13:32):
those two sort of offset Dylan. I felt like Jad
Davidson gave them some good minutes and so between that,
I'll just call him the tryhard trio of a Kobe
Holiday and Jad Davidson, and so they sort of matched
the culture from the Suns and when you match that
culture and then you have the high end talent like
a Men Shangoon and Althrod Javari Smith in there as well.
(13:53):
Like there's a reason he was drafted at three. You know,
for all the talk that you know, people are asking
how much skill does he have. Maybe he's got a
skill that's the typically you know, top three pick, but
he's still pretty gam skilled, Like there's a lot of
things that he can do. He's looked better and flashes
this year. He gets showed a little bit more with
Kevin Zoran out tonight. But yeah, you match the culture
and the Rockets just have more high end talent, and
I think that's what we saw tonight.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, So I want to talk briefly about Jabari, or
I should say, before we talk about JABORI I want
to talk a little bit about you know, Ree Shepherd
two of nine. Tonight, the broadcast talked about sort of
the targeting, but he did have some good defensive pressures.
I think with him, he makes some spectacular defensive plays,
but a lot of it are is those you know,
risks going out there and trying to take those passes,
(14:35):
and some of them pay off really well. Some get
don't not so much. But tonight, you know, after this
really hot run, he's been almost just two for nine,
but picking up the slack again tonight, Aaron Holliday, it's
six three scores, twenty two points. What a luxury. This
guy isn't even in the rotation for the most part.
He's playing because guys are out and he has been amazing.
(14:59):
That's that's one, and yeah, certainly lets you talk about
that as well. But you know, Jabari tonight, I thought
the handle was so much like there were times where
you see how he's improved that handle. Twice, as you mentioned,
he went the length of the floor, grabbed a rebound
and just bolted and went that drove through traffic and
went the rest of the way. I'm not saying he's
got a lead handle or even this great handle, but
(15:21):
it's so much better than what it used to be.
Did you see that one play where I think he
drove kicked it to I think a kogi and then
a kogi right back to him. I think it was
a kogi, maybe it was a man, but right back
to Jabari for the duck that was beautiful. Twice in
the fourth quarter he drove and drew the defense and
kicked it to Capella. A Copella couldn't quite finish, but
he had created an opening for Capella. These are just
(15:44):
things that yeah, for somebody like Shengouon, that's you know, commonplace,
but for Jabari, these are significant improvements. I thought they
were on splay tonight.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, absolutely. And as far as Aaron Holiday that the
ten threes obviously six makes always looks good, but the
volume I think was really important. The Rockets had thirty
one threes as a team and Holiday had ten of them.
And I think against a team like Phoenix, and you know,
you did have a rest advantage going in they played
last night. Now both of those games were in Phoenix,
I believe, so they didn't have to travel in between.
(16:14):
But you did have a rest advantage. And I think
you also, even without KD, had a talent advantage. So
how can you get beaten? Well, I mentioned the culture,
but you can also get beaten by math. And early
in the game we saw the Suns putting up a
ton of threes. The Rockets got better defensively as the
game moved along at taking away those threes for the
final box, the Suns had thirty seven attempts from three
(16:36):
the Rockets had thirty one. That's that's pretty damn close.
And a lot of that comes down to Aaron Holliday,
and I think that's gonna be pretty important moving forward,
Like obviously Aaron's gonna play because Tory Easton is nowhere
near coming back. It does look like Kevin Durant's only
going to miss one more game. But even when Kad
comes back, Holliday was already in the rotation. And you
look at who the Rockets have coming up. So Golden
(16:59):
State on Wednesday, that's gonna be a difficult game. Golden
State always is. We'll see if they had Draymond Green
with the Rockets, according to reports, are not going to
have Kevin Durant, So that game, I don't care what
Golden State's record is in San Francisco. Presumably with Steph Curry,
it's going to be difficult, and I assume with Jimmy
Butler as well, that's probably going to be something close
to a Pickham in terms of the line. That's just
my guess. But then after Golden State, you have that
(17:21):
one difficult game going into Thanksgiving next weekday that might
be on paper, your easiest week of the year. Now
you have two games against Utah, then Sacramento Phoenix at home,
and Dallas. And so when you play teams like that,
there's two ways that you can lose. Culture or math.
Well there's more than two ways, but those are the
two easiest ways that you can lose. And so when
(17:44):
you're end of the bench, guys play the way the
tryhard trio tid tonight, that's what I'm going to nickname them.
We'll see if it takes off. But you know, between
Holliday at Kogie and JD. Davidson, you know, the culture
was there. It wasn't a game that the Suns could
just claim based on, you know, being at home, trying
harder the way they have in a lot of their
wins this year. And from a math perspective, the Suns
(18:06):
early in the game, if you look at the first quarterbox,
I did worry a little bit. They're putting up so
many threes, saying hold on. You know, the Suns under
their new coach are a very you know, analytics friendly
unit right now, and so I wondered, hey, are the
Rockets going to lose the math game in this especially
without KD. Not that Katie's a super high volume three guy,
but obviously he's one of the greatest shooters of all time,
(18:26):
so he helps you from a spacing perspective. And when
Holliday came in and made those four threes, I feel
like in the first ten or so minutes of the
game for him, like that completely changed the flow of
the game and for the game overall. It made it
to where the Rockets matched them from a culture perspective,
they came close to matching them from a math perspective.
And if they do that, then they're just going to
(18:48):
have more high end talent. And that's especially going to
be important in the next week when the schedule eases up,
and it should be that talent advantage even more so
when they get Kevin Durant back.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah, you know, it's funny washing Dylan Brooks tonight, who
by the way, was awesome obviously was very amped up
from this game, twenty nine points eleven of twenty two
from the field and hitting some shots that you're like, Dylan,
you know, like wow, he was impressive. I also think
watching him, I'm reminder, I guess I get that clarity
of oh, that's what we got away with for two years, right,
(19:21):
guy does get away with a lot of fouls. I
mean we have the same thing, I think in a
way with a kogi and that type and the men
probably at times with that type of fiscal defense. I
mean you can look at the entire OKC roster and
say the same thing. So it's not abnormal. But you know,
he was I thought, really really good tonight. But what's
interesting is the Rockets technically were out rebounded fifty one
(19:41):
fifty tonight. They really feasted in transition eighteen to four.
As you said, they continue to shoot well from three
point range over forty one percent tonight, and I think
it was fifty two to thirty points in the paint
as well. You know, we didn't mention Shangun. The thing
I liked about Shangun tonight, I didn't think he played
up to the level of the physicality in this game.
I think he had five boards. He just looked at times,
(20:04):
especially early on, a little bit soft. That I'm not
saying Shenguon's a soft player, just he did tonight. He
still had some star level moves in this game, especially
one when Booker was guarding him and he had a
double spin which was gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
But had a couple of nice threes too.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's what I was going to get at. He's hitting
the threes. So he started out, I think he was two.
That's well, he's two for three and missing another one
later on, but two for four tonight from three point range.
This just continues. We're talking about Jabari's handle. Got to
talk about Shingoon's three as well. That is a really
really good sign where when a men's three comes around
like this, I mean they're just going to be cooking
(20:38):
with gas yea at that point. So, I mean, I
was truly happy with the way it went, this game went.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I also think the rebounding. You wouldn't think that losing
Kevin Durant is a big deal for the rebounding battle
because he's not a big rebounder himself, but actually do
think it's a factor just because the Rockets don't have
the collective size advantage as a team, and so Katie,
even if he's not a great rebounder, he's someone that
because he's seven feet tall, opposing defenses have to pay
a lot of attention to him to keep him off
(21:07):
the glass. It's just it may be subconscious, but you
see a guy that big, you give more resources to him.
And when Kevin sat out there, then the big guys
who have and they didn't start double big tonight, So
Shingoon was the only big out there. But whether it
Shingoon and Adams or just Shingoon or just Adams, they
get more attention paid to them when the Rockets aren't
(21:27):
as big across the board. And in this game it's fine.
Obviously the floor was more opened up for men who
took advantage. All that matters is winning. Jabari took advantage
as well, so you can't complain. I just think the
rebounding is sort of byproduct that you know, they didn't
go double big, there was no KD and just collectively
they weren't as big across the board, and so I think,
you know, were there plays that Shinggun was a little
bit soft. Absolutely, I'm sure he'd be the first to
(21:49):
admit that. But I also think some of it's just
sort of tactically, the Rockets made the choice to play
with you know, a little more pace, as a men
said in this postgame interview, to sort of open up
the floor. He took advantage to Jabari so did her
on holiday, so did Jady Davidson. You can go up
and down the roster. Obviously it was the right strategy
because this was a really good offensive game for the Rockets.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, absolutely so we Rockets. As you mentioned, they're gonna
play Golden State on Wednesday before we wrap up. Just
curious your thoughts on this game, Draymon. You know, as
you kind of highlighted earlier, Draymond may be out for
this one with the I guess apparently Donovan land landed
on his right ankle. I believe sprain hard to see
him back for this game. That is huge because it's
(22:29):
kind of that physical defender that kind of can complicate
things for Shangun. We'll see how that game plays out.
That would be a huge win if you could get
that without Kadi.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Rockets Warriors, It's always nice to win in that building.
I'm sorry, Like we've all been through trauma over the years,
So if the Rockets win, it doesn't matter how it comes.
But I also think, like without Katie, I'm just curious,
like who can land the plane? Like I doubt the
Rockets are good enough unless the Warriors have widespread injuries.
I e. More than just Draymond, Like, you know, maybe
if it's Straymond and Jimmy or staff something that we
(22:59):
haven't heard yet. Assuming the Warriors are anywhere close to
full strength, I think at least it's going to be
a competitive game. And now without Kadi, who's going to
land the plane? You know, the one game that the
Rockets won at Golden State in the playoffs was the
one where Fred just went nuts down the stretch and
basically lifted them to that game six win. Obviously Fred's
not available now, so I am sort of curious. Like
(23:19):
it's early in the year, Cup's probably off the table.
For anyone curious about the NBA Cup math and the
schedule ramifications to go to clutch fans dot net and
I've got a blog detailing all the scheduling options. Spoiler
alert is probably going to be another Rocket's Warriors game
in Houston added to the schedule in that second week
of December. But as far as this game, I just
(23:40):
want to see who from the Rockets young guns. Since
there's no kd it's going to step up and hopefully
make big shots down the stretch. It's not Oracle Arena,
but I still want to call it oracle based on
all that we've been through over the years. To me,
that's the big question. You know, they finally got that
breakthrough when on the road in the playoffs, they couldn't
close out the series, but they did get the game
six on the road, and it was Fred that took
(24:01):
them to the finish line. Well, now there's no Fred,
there's no Katie. So given the history, and you better
believe anybody that's in a Rockets uniform, even if they
weren't on the team last year, let alone in the
twenty twenties, I'm sure Clon Capella is gonna be having
some bad flashbacks. Everybody's aware of the history, and so
if you see a young guy like a man like Jabbari,
(24:22):
like Reid, whoever it is, stepping up and getting you
to the finish line, that's bigger than one game out
of eighty too. We'll see if they can do it,
but I would love to see it. To me, I'm
actually sort of looking forward to it, and that without
KD there's lower expectations, like I don't see a scenario
where unless someone gets hurt that I'm going to be
devastated based on the result. Even if they lose, but boy,
if you can win that game at Golden State, you
(24:43):
know the gear Step has. Looking how he played in
the two games they want at San Antonio against the
Spurs with Wemby, I mean it's an opportunity, That's how
I'm looking at it. And if a men in Jabari
continue to play the way they did tonight and hopefully
read but Shangoon as well. Shangoon had an off game tonight,
relatively speaking, maybe he's too for an uptick. Let's see
if you're young guys can beat Step and Jimmy in
(25:03):
San Francisco. If they can, that's a feel good one.
That's bigger than one of eighty two.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Absolutely, that's Ben Domos guys. I appreciate everyone who's come
in and supported us tonight. I hope everybody has a
great Thanksgiving week with family, friends, loved ones. Like I said,
we may go Wednesday night, probably not, but we'll see
how that goes. But for sure we'll be back for
the next Sunday game. So I hope everybody has a
great Thanksgiving and go Rockets. Thanks everybody,
Welcome into the postgame guys. Happy Thanksgiving Week to everybody
you'll probably notice I am somewhere else for Thanksgiving Week.
And the Rockets, just without Kevin Durant go into Phoenix
and get a monster win behind the lead of A
Men Thompson, who I'm here with my good friend Ben Dubos. Ben,
(00:22):
I thought A Men was just spectacular in this game.
Rockets win one fourteen ninety two. And I guess the
team that had they lost today, they would have been
technically behind the Suns in the standings.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
So what did the Men finish with tonight twenty eight?
I know he shot ten of.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Sixteen twenty eight, eight and seven.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So he's had fifty points in his last two games.
And he was ten of eighteen on Friday. Tonight he
was ten of sixteen, So that's twenty of thirty four
for fifty points in his last two games. That's pretty good.
And Dave, I know you look at games the same
way I do, or at least similarly, and that we're
always looking for where the meat is being left on
(01:03):
the bone. That's an analogy I've used a couple of
times in our postgame pods, and I think you can
certainly argue that maybe we'll certainly read Shepherd has outkicked
his coverage relative to expectations going into the year, maybe
a little bit all per in Shangoon. So if those
guys fall off and read in particular struggle tonight as
(01:23):
a shooter, at least for the first half of the game,
then where are you going to be able to pick
up the slack? And obviously tonight there was no Kevin Durant,
so there was a lot of slack to pick up. Well,
the meat that was being left on the bone was
from Amen Thompson, and perhaps the analogy is even more
fitting since it's Thanksgiving week. But I mean, Amen, the
last two games. He started the first thirteen games for
the Rockets shooting like I want to say, forty six
(01:45):
percent from the field, and these last two, I mean,
it's made a world of difference. We didn't talk about
it that much against the Nuggets because it felt like,
you know, coming out of the Denver game, the main
storylines were primarily that you lost and Katie and Shingoon
both had bad nights, and then secondly, among reasons you
were closed. Reed. Shephard was the headliner, but a men
was very good, and he was finishing better in that game,
(02:06):
and he finished a lot better tonight as well. His
footwork on the drives was much better. He finished through contact,
and I went and looked last year, Dave. It's been
a little more exaggerated this year, but it's really not
that dissimilar. If you look at his sophomore season, through
five games, he was shooting forty six percent. Through the
first ten games, he was at fifty one percent. Then
(02:27):
the final whatever it was, I think sixty or so
games that he played, he was about fifty six percent
and that's the amend that we saw for the majority
of last season. Well, it feels like maybe slightly exaggerated
this year, and that it took until these last couple,
which were games fourteen and fifteen, but it feels like
that that touch is coming back, And the more you
(02:48):
think about it, it wouldn't shock me if the men
just stylistically is a slow starter, because his style of play,
you cannot replicate it in the offseason in that you know,
the f lewism is still going to be there, but
defenders are not going to contest him in the off
season when he's attacking off the dribble the way he
does in real NBA games, and because defenders aren't defending
(03:10):
it the same way, then he's not getting used to
the difficulty of finishing that it takes against NBA big
men who are going vertical, who are pushing you in
the back from the side, whatever the case may be.
And I just think our very first pod Dave, like,
if you go back and look at the first preseason
recap that we did at the beginning of October, I
(03:31):
made the point that a mend was someone who to
me isn't the same in the preseason because he doesn't
want to throw his body into harm's way. Well, I
think a similar logic can be said for early in
the season, but in a different way, like he's more
willing to throw his body into harm's way, but because
he's not used to defenders, I don't care what they
say in training camp in preseason and gym runs in
(03:53):
the off season, they are not defending him nearly as
physically as aggressively as they do in real NBA games.
With then it takes him a little bit of time
to sort of figure out, you know, the craft element
of the game and get the touch back what it
takes to finish at those awkward angles and through contact. Well,
it feels like the last couple of games against teams
that you know, the Suns were were undermanned a little bit,
(04:17):
but they do have physical bigs inside and obviously the
Nuggets the other night with Jokichen volunchunis, to me, it
feels less about who Amn is playing and more that
he's just he's in better rhythm. He just seems much
more comfortable with the ball in his hands. And the
reason I bring up that context, to me, it feels
sustainable what he's doing. It feels like what we saw
from the majority of last season and all the theories
(04:39):
about you know, why isn't he finishing as well? Is
it because he's being asked to be a point guard?
Does he need to be off ball more? Maybe it's
just he was a little bit rusty. It took him
some time, and now he's coming along and if he
is dape and that gives the Rockets so much. I'm
a buffer in case anyone else on the team balls
off a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, I mean, I think he's been a little bit
of a forgotten guy because you know, when he we
had this kind of narrative of Katie and Shan gun
to the superstars and everybody else needs to fall in line. Amen.
Thompson is a star in my opinion, he has not,
I agree, started out that this year on an offense
from an offensive standpoint. In that way, his true shooting
(05:16):
percentage is significantly down this year. Been there were so
many times in this game. I don't think there's any
bias in saying this that I was just like O
m G watching this guy make these moves, and I
you know, you could you heard the broadcasters on the
on the Peacock broadcast and Austin Rivers just drooling over
(05:39):
this guy. I mean, the thing is he has some
finishing issues that he's you know, as you just perfectly
outlined that he has shown, you know, earlier this year.
But the athleticism is I mean it is top one,
top two, top three in the league, whatever you want
to say. It is up there. He has moves that
(05:59):
he's got to be all finish and you know obviously
and be able to shoot. It's a big thing for him,
big thing. But this is a dog. I mean, he
is busting it on both ends of the floor. You
can just see it. He took that elbow to the
chin yep in this game, and you could just see
in his eyes like this competitiveness and he was going
to go back out there and he got you know,
patched up, and sure enough was back out there and
(06:22):
ironically knocked down a big three to kind of sort
of put it away. I just can't say enough good
things about this guy. Now he's leaving the team. In
net rating. You know, it was I think a plus
twenty five tonight. I need to double check that. But
just an absolutely fantastic game from a men tonight.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
And the ability to go both directions, the euro step,
the hesitation moves that he has. Quite frankly, David, it
reminds me of Donovan Mitchell, the craft that he has
going downhill. I thought that watching Mitchell last week against
the Rockets, the start stop, the ability to go in
either direction. And the reason I bring that up. Even
though a man has struggled to art this year, at
(07:01):
least from an efficiency perspective, I feel like the moves
have still been there. It's just he hasn't finished as well.
Like I feel like if you ran the film of
the first thirteen games before he's really come on the
last two, and we just didn't talk at talk about
him after the Denver game because there were other storylines
to get to. But the first thirteen games, I really
(07:22):
don't think that it was that different than the way
he played last season. It was just that he missed
the shots, like he got into good spots on the floor,
He seemed in control. Nothing seemed dramatically different other than
he wasn't finishing as well. And you know, if that
continues over a large sample, of course you worry about it.
I mean, it's fundamental to the game. You have to
be able to make shots. But he started slow last season,
(07:44):
and perhaps it's as simple as he started slow this season,
and now the last two games he's starting to go
to get going. And I see a comment in the
chat that maybe he needs to play on the wing
war because the last two games read Shepherd has played
a lot tonight and he started. I mean, there's maybe
some of that, but I thought a lot of what
happened tonight was him creating with the ball in his hands,
taking it at the top of the key and making
(08:05):
a play. So I'm not going to say there's nothing
to that. I mean, perhaps having reed to sort of
share the ball handling duties and some of the playmaking.
It allows him to have a little bit more juice.
Maybe there's something to that, but I don't think that.
You know, it's not like he's just cutting off ball. No,
he made a ton of plays with the ball in
his hands, just in an ISO situation, go out and make,
you know, a tough move and he did it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, and that's well said, Ben, because I think you
can attest to this. I mean, the rockets will tell
you in response to that criticism, Oh he's not a
point guard or you need a point guard. They feel
like they're doing just fine. I mean, obviously the offensive
rating tells quite a bit, but also they want to
put the ball in the hands of a man. They
want him to create, they want him to learn and grow,
and he is such a force when he's downhill goodness.
(08:53):
I mean, yeah, today was just an eye opening reminder
of just what this guy is capable of and what
he could be. I'm just super excited. There's a lot
of guy out this. Obviously, scheng Guns have a good year.
Katie's obviously amazing. We're seeing great things from Reed. But
don't sleep on a man like this guy is really
really good.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And these last two games, even though you lost the
Denver game and the big picture are really feel good.
Because if Katie starts to show some signs of aging
and he's thirty seven years old, it's not the end
of the world if his lips a little bit. But
look that the season as a whole, he's at just
over forty eight percent overall, thirty six percent on three,
sixty one percent through shooting. That's still really good. He's
the leading scorer on an eleven and fourteen that's now
(09:36):
one to eleven of their last thirteen games. So clearly
he's still an all Star, probably all NBA level player.
But if you buy into the notion and the sample
is still small, that maybe there's some slippage. He is
thirty seven, Father time is undefeated. Well, guys like a
men and Reed being able to step up the way
they had the last two games, that's the slack that
can be picked up. And I mentioned earlier if you
(09:57):
think Schengoon's played, even by his standards, a little too
well to start the season, in other words, maybe it's
not sustainable. Then if Shoon falls off a little bit, Okay,
this is where you can pick up the slack. The
same can be said for the insane efficiency you know,
reach Shepherd tonight when in the game at like a
true shooting of sixty six percent, which is absolutely amazing.
Is that sustainable along with forty nine percent and three
(10:18):
I don't know. I hope it is, but we'll see.
Now there's Thomas in the shad, you know read. Even
though it was a little bit of an off shooting
night for him, he did still make an impact the
vision with his passes. Defensively, had a couple of big plays,
so it wasn't a bad game by any means. But
he just didn't shoot at the blistering efficiency that we
had gotten accustomed to the last few weeks. But look,
if those things regress a little bit, and I don't
(10:39):
think any of them are going to regress hard. But
even if those things just regress a little bit, and
sure you worry about the margins are thin. The Rockets
have had some close wins, so how can you upset that. Well,
if you have the versions of Reach Shepherd you had
Friday and Amman Thompson the last two games, then you
can offset a lot of slippage elsewhere, and so to me,
that's really surely and you just put on the screen.
(11:01):
You know, Amen's the headliner, but he was far from alone.
Jabari improved handle. That ninety four foot sequence he had
in the third quarter was unbelievable. I don't even want
to think about what happens if Jabari tries that move.
The last couple of years did it try it? And
I also think, you know, the Suns are a team
to this point in the season, and we'll see how
sustainable it is when they play tougher competition. There was
(11:23):
a stat that you know, they've had a pretty weak
strength of schedule to this point. But look, the Suns
are a classic example of the sum as greater than
the individual parts, at least to this point in the season.
Like you wouldn't look at that roster and think, especially
without Jalen Green, that that's an eleven and sixteen. But
they play hard. They have the right culture, and so
when you're on the road and you're without your superstar
(11:44):
and KD, it's important for you to match that culture.
And certainly you know a men Tims and Jabari Smith
part of the reason there's such valuable players in the
big picture, it's not just how good they are individually.
But you know they both have just a perfect profile
as a teammate, Like they play so hard, they set
to right example, they're perfect Emmy Udoka culture guys. But
you go down the bench with who the Rockets were
(12:06):
missing tonight relative to the formula they thought they had
in mid September, they're down four of their nine expected
rotation players. Obviously no Fred and DFS, but you also
didn't have Tarisen, you didn't have Kevin Durant, and so
you had three minimum guys playing major minutes tonight in
Aaron Holliday, Josha Koge and Jade Davidson, and all of
them played really well, like I thought. You know, Josha
(12:28):
Kogi isn't as skilled as Dylan Brooks, but I thought
he played every bit as hard. And perhaps you know,
a Kogi played a lot of the last few seasons
in Phoenix, so perhaps you know, you should have been
talking more about you know, Dylan was really good as
you would expect in a revenge game against the Rockets. Well,
you know, a Kogi had his own revenge game against
the Suns and played really well. But I just thought
between the three of them, they matched the intensity and
(12:50):
those are minimum guys. So shout out to you know,
rafel Stone, Eli White, as Patrick purtieda to the front office.
You can give much of the credit to Imo Udoka
and the way he has guys at the end of
the bench ready. But I think the bottom line is
if you can match the culture of the Suns, and
to their credit, they seem to have come a long way.
We'll see how sustainable it is. I hope it's not
too sustainable because the Rockets have you know that twenty
(13:11):
twenty seven pick. But yeah, for now things seem to
be going well there. But it's like, if you can
match the culture, then the Rockets, even without kd just
with a Men and Shangoon have more high end talent.
And I feel like that's what happened. Like, you know,
Dylan was great as you would expect, but between a
Koge's defense and transition play and Aaron Holliday shot making,
(13:32):
those two sort of offset Dylan. I felt like Jad
Davidson gave them some good minutes and so between that,
I'll just call him the tryhard trio of a Kobe
Holiday and Jad Davidson, and so they sort of matched
the culture from the Suns and when you match that
culture and then you have the high end talent like
a Men Shangoon and Althrod Javari Smith in there as well.
(13:53):
Like there's a reason he was drafted at three. You know,
for all the talk that you know, people are asking
how much skill does he have. Maybe he's got a
skill that's the typically you know, top three pick, but
he's still pretty gam skilled, Like there's a lot of
things that he can do. He's looked better and flashes
this year. He gets showed a little bit more with
Kevin Zoran out tonight. But yeah, you match the culture
and the Rockets just have more high end talent, and
I think that's what we saw tonight.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, So I want to talk briefly about Jabari, or
I should say, before we talk about JABORI I want
to talk a little bit about you know, Ree Shepherd
two of nine. Tonight, the broadcast talked about sort of
the targeting, but he did have some good defensive pressures.
I think with him, he makes some spectacular defensive plays,
but a lot of it are is those you know,
risks going out there and trying to take those passes,
(14:35):
and some of them pay off really well. Some get
don't not so much. But tonight, you know, after this
really hot run, he's been almost just two for nine,
but picking up the slack again tonight, Aaron Holliday, it's
six three scores, twenty two points. What a luxury. This
guy isn't even in the rotation for the most part.
He's playing because guys are out and he has been amazing.
(14:59):
That's that's one, and yeah, certainly lets you talk about
that as well. But you know, Jabari tonight, I thought
the handle was so much like there were times where
you see how he's improved that handle. Twice, as you mentioned,
he went the length of the floor, grabbed a rebound
and just bolted and went that drove through traffic and
went the rest of the way. I'm not saying he's
got a lead handle or even this great handle, but
(15:21):
it's so much better than what it used to be.
Did you see that one play where I think he
drove kicked it to I think a kogi and then
a kogi right back to him. I think it was
a kogi, maybe it was a man, but right back
to Jabari for the duck that was beautiful. Twice in
the fourth quarter he drove and drew the defense and
kicked it to Capella. A Copella couldn't quite finish, but
he had created an opening for Capella. These are just
(15:44):
things that yeah, for somebody like Shengouon, that's you know, commonplace,
but for Jabari, these are significant improvements. I thought they
were on splay tonight.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, absolutely. And as far as Aaron Holiday that the
ten threes obviously six makes always looks good, but the
volume I think was really important. The Rockets had thirty
one threes as a team and Holiday had ten of them.
And I think against a team like Phoenix, and you know,
you did have a rest advantage going in they played
last night. Now both of those games were in Phoenix,
I believe, so they didn't have to travel in between.
(16:14):
But you did have a rest advantage. And I think
you also, even without KD, had a talent advantage. So
how can you get beaten? Well, I mentioned the culture,
but you can also get beaten by math. And early
in the game we saw the Suns putting up a
ton of threes. The Rockets got better defensively as the
game moved along at taking away those threes for the
final box, the Suns had thirty seven attempts from three
(16:36):
the Rockets had thirty one. That's that's pretty damn close.
And a lot of that comes down to Aaron Holliday,
and I think that's gonna be pretty important moving forward,
Like obviously Aaron's gonna play because Tory Easton is nowhere
near coming back. It does look like Kevin Durant's only
going to miss one more game. But even when Kad
comes back, Holliday was already in the rotation. And you
look at who the Rockets have coming up. So Golden
(16:59):
State on Wednesday, that's gonna be a difficult game. Golden
State always is. We'll see if they had Draymond Green
with the Rockets, according to reports, are not going to
have Kevin Durant, So that game, I don't care what
Golden State's record is in San Francisco. Presumably with Steph Curry,
it's going to be difficult, and I assume with Jimmy
Butler as well, that's probably going to be something close
to a Pickham in terms of the line. That's just
my guess. But then after Golden State, you have that
(17:21):
one difficult game going into Thanksgiving next weekday that might
be on paper, your easiest week of the year. Now
you have two games against Utah, then Sacramento Phoenix at home,
and Dallas. And so when you play teams like that,
there's two ways that you can lose. Culture or math.
Well there's more than two ways, but those are the
two easiest ways that you can lose. And so when
(17:44):
you're end of the bench, guys play the way the
tryhard trio tid tonight, that's what I'm going to nickname them.
We'll see if it takes off. But you know, between
Holliday at Kogie and JD. Davidson, you know, the culture
was there. It wasn't a game that the Suns could
just claim based on, you know, being at home, trying
harder the way they have in a lot of their
wins this year. And from a math perspective, the Suns
(18:06):
early in the game, if you look at the first quarterbox,
I did worry a little bit. They're putting up so
many threes, saying hold on. You know, the Suns under
their new coach are a very you know, analytics friendly
unit right now, and so I wondered, hey, are the
Rockets going to lose the math game in this especially
without KD. Not that Katie's a super high volume three guy,
but obviously he's one of the greatest shooters of all time,
(18:26):
so he helps you from a spacing perspective. And when
Holliday came in and made those four threes, I feel
like in the first ten or so minutes of the
game for him, like that completely changed the flow of
the game and for the game overall. It made it
to where the Rockets matched them from a culture perspective,
they came close to matching them from a math perspective.
And if they do that, then they're just going to
(18:48):
have more high end talent. And that's especially going to
be important in the next week when the schedule eases up,
and it should be that talent advantage even more so
when they get Kevin Durant back.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah, you know, it's funny washing Dylan Brooks tonight, who
by the way, was awesome obviously was very amped up
from this game, twenty nine points eleven of twenty two
from the field and hitting some shots that you're like, Dylan,
you know, like wow, he was impressive. I also think
watching him, I'm reminder, I guess I get that clarity
of oh, that's what we got away with for two years, right,
(19:21):
guy does get away with a lot of fouls. I
mean we have the same thing, I think in a
way with a kogi and that type and the men
probably at times with that type of fiscal defense. I
mean you can look at the entire OKC roster and
say the same thing. So it's not abnormal. But you know,
he was I thought, really really good tonight. But what's
interesting is the Rockets technically were out rebounded fifty one
(19:41):
fifty tonight. They really feasted in transition eighteen to four.
As you said, they continue to shoot well from three
point range over forty one percent tonight, and I think
it was fifty two to thirty points in the paint
as well. You know, we didn't mention Shangun. The thing
I liked about Shangun tonight, I didn't think he played
up to the level of the physicality in this game.
I think he had five boards. He just looked at times,
(20:04):
especially early on, a little bit soft. That I'm not
saying Shenguon's a soft player, just he did tonight. He
still had some star level moves in this game, especially
one when Booker was guarding him and he had a
double spin which was gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
But had a couple of nice threes too.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's what I was going to get at. He's hitting
the threes. So he started out, I think he was two.
That's well, he's two for three and missing another one
later on, but two for four tonight from three point range.
This just continues. We're talking about Jabari's handle. Got to
talk about Shingoon's three as well. That is a really
really good sign where when a men's three comes around
like this, I mean they're just going to be cooking
(20:38):
with gas yea at that point. So, I mean, I
was truly happy with the way it went, this game went.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I also think the rebounding. You wouldn't think that losing
Kevin Durant is a big deal for the rebounding battle
because he's not a big rebounder himself, but actually do
think it's a factor just because the Rockets don't have
the collective size advantage as a team, and so Katie,
even if he's not a great rebounder, he's someone that
because he's seven feet tall, opposing defenses have to pay
a lot of attention to him to keep him off
(21:07):
the glass. It's just it may be subconscious, but you
see a guy that big, you give more resources to him.
And when Kevin sat out there, then the big guys
who have and they didn't start double big tonight, So
Shingoon was the only big out there. But whether it
Shingoon and Adams or just Shingoon or just Adams, they
get more attention paid to them when the Rockets aren't
(21:27):
as big across the board. And in this game it's fine.
Obviously the floor was more opened up for men who
took advantage. All that matters is winning. Jabari took advantage
as well, so you can't complain. I just think the
rebounding is sort of byproduct that you know, they didn't
go double big, there was no KD and just collectively
they weren't as big across the board, and so I think,
you know, were there plays that Shinggun was a little
bit soft. Absolutely, I'm sure he'd be the first to
(21:49):
admit that. But I also think some of it's just
sort of tactically, the Rockets made the choice to play
with you know, a little more pace, as a men
said in this postgame interview, to sort of open up
the floor. He took advantage to Jabari so did her
on holiday, so did Jady Davidson. You can go up
and down the roster. Obviously it was the right strategy
because this was a really good offensive game for the Rockets.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, absolutely so we Rockets. As you mentioned, they're gonna
play Golden State on Wednesday before we wrap up. Just
curious your thoughts on this game, Draymon. You know, as
you kind of highlighted earlier, Draymond may be out for
this one with the I guess apparently Donovan land landed
on his right ankle. I believe sprain hard to see
him back for this game. That is huge because it's
(22:29):
kind of that physical defender that kind of can complicate
things for Shangun. We'll see how that game plays out.
That would be a huge win if you could get
that without Kadi.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Rockets Warriors, It's always nice to win in that building.
I'm sorry, Like we've all been through trauma over the years,
So if the Rockets win, it doesn't matter how it comes.
But I also think, like without Katie, I'm just curious,
like who can land the plane? Like I doubt the
Rockets are good enough unless the Warriors have widespread injuries.
I e. More than just Draymond, Like, you know, maybe
if it's Straymond and Jimmy or staff something that we
(22:59):
haven't heard yet. Assuming the Warriors are anywhere close to
full strength, I think at least it's going to be
a competitive game. And now without Kadi, who's going to
land the plane? You know, the one game that the
Rockets won at Golden State in the playoffs was the
one where Fred just went nuts down the stretch and
basically lifted them to that game six win. Obviously Fred's
not available now, so I am sort of curious. Like
(23:19):
it's early in the year, Cup's probably off the table.
For anyone curious about the NBA Cup math and the
schedule ramifications to go to clutch fans dot net and
I've got a blog detailing all the scheduling options. Spoiler
alert is probably going to be another Rocket's Warriors game
in Houston added to the schedule in that second week
of December. But as far as this game, I just
(23:40):
want to see who from the Rockets young guns. Since
there's no kd it's going to step up and hopefully
make big shots down the stretch. It's not Oracle Arena,
but I still want to call it oracle based on
all that we've been through over the years. To me,
that's the big question. You know, they finally got that
breakthrough when on the road in the playoffs, they couldn't
close out the series, but they did get the game
six on the road, and it was Fred that took
(24:01):
them to the finish line. Well, now there's no Fred,
there's no Katie. So given the history, and you better
believe anybody that's in a Rockets uniform, even if they
weren't on the team last year, let alone in the
twenty twenties, I'm sure Clon Capella is gonna be having
some bad flashbacks. Everybody's aware of the history, and so
if you see a young guy like a man like Jabbari,
(24:22):
like Reid, whoever it is, stepping up and getting you
to the finish line, that's bigger than one game out
of eighty too. We'll see if they can do it,
but I would love to see it. To me, I'm
actually sort of looking forward to it, and that without
KD there's lower expectations, like I don't see a scenario
where unless someone gets hurt that I'm going to be
devastated based on the result. Even if they lose, but boy,
if you can win that game at Golden State, you
(24:43):
know the gear Step has. Looking how he played in
the two games they want at San Antonio against the
Spurs with Wemby, I mean it's an opportunity, That's how
I'm looking at it. And if a men in Jabari
continue to play the way they did tonight and hopefully
read but Shangoon as well. Shangoon had an off game tonight,
relatively speaking, maybe he's too for an uptick. Let's see
if you're young guys can beat Step and Jimmy in
(25:03):
San Francisco. If they can, that's a feel good one.
That's bigger than one of eighty two.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Absolutely, that's Ben Domos guys. I appreciate everyone who's come
in and supported us tonight. I hope everybody has a
great Thanksgiving week with family, friends, loved ones. Like I said,
we may go Wednesday night, probably not, but we'll see
how that goes. But for sure we'll be back for
the next Sunday game. So I hope everybody has a
great Thanksgiving and go Rockets. Thanks everybody,
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