December 5, 2025 • 30 mins
The Rockets (15-5) are now No. 2 in the Western Conference standings after Friday’s blowout victory over Dillon Brooks and the Phoenix Suns. Featuring Ben DuBose and Dave Hardisty, our “ClutchFans Live” postgame show breaks down all the highlights, including a career milestone for Kevin Durant (31,000 points) and more promising signs from Amen Thompson (game-high 31 points, +33).
This episode can also be viewed in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoD_duJJm0U
This episode can also be viewed in video form here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoD_duJJm0U
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome into the show. Everybody. Rockets without Alprin Shangoun, who
is out with an illness tonight, just absolutely lay waste
of the Phoenix Suns. After a first quarter that was
a little bit bumpy, Rockets use Kevin Durant burst on
a night where he's historic night for Kevin Durant. He
scores his thirty one thousand point of his career. Rockets
(00:25):
win one, seventeen to ninety eight over Dylan Brooks, who's
sure enough was red hot to start the game, and
Dylan Brooks and Jalen Green both get their video tributes
coming back to Houston here with Ben Debos, the Great Ben.
You got to follow him at Bendibos on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Ben.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
This was, you know, like I said, some touchy moments
there in the first quarter, but Rockets just used how
they are always successful to just blow this team out.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, second game in a row that didn't start well,
and yet it was pretty much over by the midpoint
of the third quarter, which is what good teams do.
They don't let lesser teams hang around. And the Suns
thirteen to ten aren't a bad team, but without Devin
Book or without Jalen Green, they're not at their best.
And even though the Rockets didn't have all per Inch
shing Goon, when you have Kevin Durant and a Men
Thompson and you're now fifteen and five, Houston's the better
(01:12):
team and they clearly made that visible tonight. I think
the big story was Kevin Durant, who you know, the
thirty one thousand career points milestone, just the eighth in
NBA history to hit that, so kudos to him. But
I thought this was a really nice game to see
the makeup of the Rockets, and specifically the kd led Rockets,
because early in the game, Dave, they got punched in
(01:33):
the mouth. The Sun's led by nine a minute or
two into the second quarter, and this felt like a
game where I think Dylan had I believe, sixteen in
the first quarter. He had twenty three for the game,
so it speaks to how the Rockets turned it around
on the fly. But early on, even though we all
knew going in that this was a potential Dylan Brook's
revenge game, his homecoming in Houston. At the same time,
(01:53):
until the ball is tipped, it's tough to be ready
for that level of intensity, and early on the Rockets
without Shooon didn't have one of their usual engines and
they got punched in the mouth. And it's always useful
to see how your team responds, and I thought it
was really telling. Kevin had a fantastic second quarter. But
what stood out to me most Dave, he checked back
in at the nine to forty eight mark of the
(02:15):
second quarter after playing more than ten and a half
minutes in the first quarter on night one of back
to back. And I don't know if either we'll admit
to this, but I feel pretty confident that Emo rudoka
A did not plan on bringing Kevin back that early,
and b would not have done it of his own volition.
I think it was a combination of Ema wanting to
do it, but also Kadi saying, hey, I'm ready to
(02:38):
go back in because Kadi didn't like how that game
was going. He takes ownership in this team. And then,
as you said, he went on that incredible run in
the second quarter and the game was flipped. And I
think that speaks to even in you're nineteen, at thirty
seven years old, the professionalism that he plays with, it's
just so so valuable. I was having a conversation with
someone in the front office the other day Sacramento game,
(03:00):
when I had pointed out how hard Katie was playing
in the second half, even after the game was largely
put away. They had a little bit of underwhelming first half,
and I think Emay got into him a halftime. They
wanted to make amends, and they did in the second half.
And this person's point to me was, Katie always cares.
There might be some nights where the juice isn't quite there.
They all acknowledged that night two of the back to
(03:21):
back in Utah, Katie and Shoangoon to start the game,
it wasn't quite where you would like it to be,
especially defensively, but they definitely cared, and we saw that
in the second half when they fought back from you know,
down twenty one to getting within a point. And I think,
at age thirty seven in nearly his third decade in
the NBA, to have someone who cares that much, Dave,
that's just so valuable to you know, absorb the blows
(03:43):
that Dylan Brooks gave them early in the game and
want to respond himself. It felt like this was Katie's
you know, I know, it's a regular season game. I'm
not getting crazy here, but it felt like, you know,
the Michael Jordan meme. If I took that personally, it
felt like Kevin Durant on a much smaller scale was
doing that tonight after what Dylan Brooks did at the
start of this game. And so to have a guy
with all of his accomplishments, one of only eight players
(04:04):
NBA history to break thirty one thousand career points, you're
nineteen age thirty seven to take this type of game
seriously on night tu of it back to back to
want to play. I looked it up. He played almost
twenty two minutes in the first half. Now, thankfully because
the Rockets took care of business. He then to play
it all in the fourth quarter. So he was only
at about thirty two for the game. So he should
be fine for tomorrow night in Dallas. But I think
(04:25):
just the mental makeup of Kevin Durant, it's not saying
he's going to go balls to the wall every single night,
because some nights the juice might not be there. But
the comparison this front office person made to me was
actually to Fred van Fleet from the standpoint of the professionalism,
not saying that Kevin and Fred are the same players.
Obviously Kevin is far better, but I think one of
the things that people really respect about Fred is just
(04:47):
how seriously he takes every game, and even if he's
not making shots, you can see how competitive he is,
how consistently dialed in. That's pretty rare for guys of
that age that are as accomplished as they are in
the league. And you know, the front office for and
didn't make this comparison to me, but I'll make it.
Even when James Harden was several years younger here in Houston,
there were games day where we'd see hardin and the
(05:07):
body language just wasn't quite right, and we'd say, this
wasn't James's game. You never feel that way with Kevin,
even now at thirty seven years old, and I just
I'm so impressed by that. To see we all know
how good Kat as a shooter, all three levels, getting
to the bucket, the mid range, the threes, But to
see how seriously he takes his craft, the competitive fire,
(05:28):
the fact that all of that is still there nearly
three decades into his time in the NBA, I don't know.
To me, this it's not a game that individually means
all that much in the grand scheme, although it does
move you to number two in the West. But I
just think it says so much about the Rockets mental
makeup and specifically their leader, Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, and it's funny. I know you didn't get a
chance to see ems press conference. He didn't say exactly
some of those things. He didn't mention the Dylan head
to head, but he did say in the first quarter, Katie,
he didn't like some of the spots, you know, not
getting the ball on a couple of in a couple
of instances, and he was disappointed. He was frustrated, and
I think it showed in that second quarter. So I
(06:05):
think your instincts are right on. He just was fantastic
in that period. A man was as well. I think, Jabbari,
we're going to talk a little bit about this sort
of magical which, at least in the advanced numbers are
showing this magical combination between Jabari, KD and Adams is
spending outrageously successful so far to start this year. But
(06:27):
Durant was awesome. I mean, he just in that second quarter.
I don't remember how many he finished exactly with that
period he had at least sixteen twenty I can't remember.
It was a high number. In the second period. He
just blew that game open. And they, like you said,
their defense today was really good after that first quarter.
I mean the overall, it's really fascinating to me because
(06:49):
the Rockets hit twice as many threes as the Suns
today while taking and I'm talking about exactly twice as
many while taking exactly half as many threes. I think
there were five of thirty six and the Rockets were
ten of eighteen. That was, you know, the difference. The
defense today was really good. Yes, I saw a few
(07:10):
people responding to tweets that the Suns missed open threes.
Yes they did. It wasn't the entire thing. The Rockets
had a good defensive game plan. As always, there are
going to be some open threes missed, but five of
thirty six they held them to, and pretty much the
second half of the way the Rockets jumped on them
out of out of the locker room as well. This
game was pretty much over mid late third quarter, So
(07:32):
go ahead and.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Kevin for the season. Now. I looked at his postgame numbers.
They just updated over on stat Muse, he's now above
fifty percent shooting. His screw shooting is at sixty two.
He's at thirty nine percent from three, at eighty nine
percent from the free throw line, so almost at fifty
forty ninety. He's averaging now over twenty five points per game,
almost four assists per game because he's had eight in
(07:54):
the last two. The Rockets are at the twenty game mark,
and so you know, it's basically the quarter pole the season,
and they're fifteen and five, so it doesn't the cogenius
to do the math and figure out, hey, they're on
pace to win sixty which is really good. They have
one of the best net ratings in NBA history. So
at the team level, everything is going really well. We've
talked about that, but Kevin individually, you know, when he
(08:14):
had that weak break over Thanksgiving when he left for
personal reasons. It just so happened that it came after
those two bad shooting games that he had against the
Cavs and the Nuggets, and because he went more than
a week without playing, it's only natural to sort of
look at his stats and they were still very good.
Don't get me wrong, but the shooting splits, they were
like forty eight percent overall, a little bit about thirty
(08:35):
six percent from three, about sixty and a half, sixty
one true shooting. Well, now, all of a sudden, give
him a couple of games to fatten up on, and
this happens over eighty two games in the NBA, those
numbers look pretty much right in line with what he
did in Brooklyn and Phoenix. Again, we're talking twenty five points,
five rebounds, four assists per game, fifty percent shooting, almost
forty percent from three, almost ninety percent from the free throw line,
(08:57):
sixty two percent true shooting right on the nose. That's
phenomenal production at age thirty seven, and as the tip
of the spear of scorer. And you know, you give
Alpha and Shinogoon a lot of credit for the season
as a whole, but Shoogoon didn't play tonight, and Kevin
was still that efficient even after a relatively slow start,
like he missed some shots in the first quarter of
the game when I think Dylan was playing especially hard,
and then boy did it flip in a big way.
(09:19):
And I just I can't say enough good things about
the guy. Like we all know, this is one of
the greatest players in NBA history. But the one thing
you fear with the guy of his age is just
going to be the year that there's any slippage. Well, Dave,
we're at the quarter point at the season now, and
both in terms of the team results for the Rockets,
how it's impacting winning, but also just the individual stats.
I don't see any signs of slippage at all. This
(09:39):
still looks like an all NBA level player who we're
just fortunate to have as the best player on this
basketball team. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Absolutely, you know, I see a few people mentioning that
my mic doesn't sound quite right.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I don't know how it sounds to you, Ben, but
sounds good to me.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Okay, I'm checking everything. I'm not sure if I'm missing
Maybe it was just a little bit farther away. Now
it's hopefully okay. But yeah, I mean, Kadi was He
was to me the star of the game. I mean
a man had the team high thirty one points and
was incredibly efficient in his own right. Twelve to seventeen
had a couple of really nice highlight plays. There was
that one where he just blew by Dylan Brooks. Another
(10:13):
guy was hammered by a screen by Adams and then
he went past I believed Gillespie for sort of a
double clutch jam in a transition play. You know, this
was not his point guard resume game tonight, not at all.
You know, the assists weren't there necessarily for him, but
as far as all the finishing was but on ball
(10:34):
attacking he was fine.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
And the funny thing is we talked about this earlier.
His you know, points per possession when he actually is
in isolation is really good. Best on the team this year,
ahead of Durant, ahead of Shangun. Obviously, Shangun and Durant
do a little bit more of that, so the volume
is a little bit higher for them, but he's been
really good there. So you know, to me, with a man,
(10:56):
terrific showing tonight as far as his efficiency, but I
just I already know that a men Thompson's going to
be a terrific like base floor role player that already exists.
I'm really fascinated as a Rockets fan and want to
see more of the on ball and then explored because
I think this is the time where if you do
(11:16):
end up having a guy who could be an engine
or a primary he's not Chris Paul. We know that
he's never going to be a Chris Paul level style
point guard. But if he could be a guy that
you give the ball to in the clutch to make
things happen downhill or creating, you've got to explore that
and see that. And on one note to talk about this,
the way this guy works. This is his third year.
(11:38):
Last two years he shot sixty eight point four percent
from the line. He's now over eighty percent. He was
six of six tonight. This guy works. You know, I
know you and I Ben. We've talked to different people
this week. They rave about the way this guy works.
They rave about his potential and what he has. I
just you got to give him a little bit more
(11:58):
runway on the point guard stuff. He's not that now,
but I think you just got to give him more
time on that.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, And some of the point guard debates got
kicked into overdrive because Mark Spear's over at ESPN slash
Ndscape did the article of profiling them in as a
point guard and it rubbed a few people the wrong way. Look,
one thing I'll say about that, so the Rockets themselves
will tell you that they believe in him and Thompson
as a point guard and they like what he's been doing. Now,
some people will inevitably respond, well, what else are they
(12:25):
going to say? Okay, that's fair. But I also think
that when you dive deeper into some of the critiques
that are out there, some of it is simply being
deferential to the roster the Rockets have with Kevin Durant
and all for In Shangoon, which is not analogous to
the roster that Fredvin Fleet led the last couple of years. Like,
I see a lot of criticisms that lead with, well,
(12:46):
the Rocket's best offense is when Katie and or Shingoon initiate. Well, yeah,
those are probably two top fifteen players in the NBA.
Of course it is if Fred and Fleet were here,
I don't think you'd see Fred van Fleet or want
fredin Fleet to lead picking rolls. I think a lot
of people would probably be critical of Fred for dribbling
the air of the ball. Not because I personally believe that,
but it's just when you're in sort of that third
(13:08):
banana role behind two guys as good as Kevin Durant
and Alfriend Shoan Gooon, you're a lightning rod for criticism.
So the last couple of years, a lot of the
sort of steadying things that Fred does that we really
liked when the Rockets were trying to sort of get
off the ground floor and go from bottom feed or
to quasi contender. I don't know if they'd be quite
(13:29):
as beloved on a team that has two top fifteen players,
two potential all NBA guys and Kde and Shin Gooon.
So some of you know, people question, oh, you know,
can of men run a pick and roll? How good
is his handle? And he had three turnovers in the
first quarter. By the way, he had zero the rest
of the game. So he did, to his credit, figure
it out as the game moved along. But I do
think some of the things that that a men gets
(13:50):
sort of criticized for in some ways are good awareness,
Like you don't want your point guard to initiate every
set when you have Kevin Durant and all for Chhouin
Gooon out there. Like if they are that good as
scorers and playmakers, why would you not lean into them more?
I wouldn't want Fred to come back and all of
a sudden start, you know, initiating every set of the offense. No,
I'd want to run more through Katie and Shindoon and
(14:11):
when it's high leverage, go two man game with those two.
So some of the critiques I think are misguided to
begin with, because no, you don't want a men to
be a dropped in with the Fred formula the last
two years. No, the formula is changed now that you
have Kevin Durant and all for in Shingon, and I
think maybe we didn't all fully, you know, sort of
recalibrate to that until we saw them on the floor.
(14:32):
And then the second thing I would point out with
the men. So the shooting does need to improve, and
it did tonight, but for the season as a whole,
going into tonight, I think he was at like fifty
three percent true shooting. Last year he was slightly above
sixty our guest tonight, maybe it bumps up closer to
fifty four, but it's still down quite a bit, and
so that needs to improve somewhat. But it could be
(14:52):
that if the decline is more modest, and we'll see
what happens. We're just a quarter into the season. I
do think there's more value in when he attacks downhill
with the ball in his hands. You mentioned the isolation play.
It strikes so much fear in the heart of a
lot of these defenses. And there have been multiple coaches
that have told us in the gatherings at Tutison are
(15:13):
about the rim pressure a men going downhill. What that
does for the defense, even if the true shooting slips
a little bit. What it does for the offense by
breaking down those defenses leading to easy clean up opportunities
for the likes of Shingoon and Steven Adams and Jabari
Smith Junior. It might be worth it. Now, I'm not
saying going from sixty to fifty three is worth it. No,
(15:33):
The finishing needs to pick back up a little bit.
But I don't know, Like, let's say he finishes this
year at fifty seven fifty eight, but he's doing it
while being much more aggressive with the ball in his
hands and thus collapsing the defense a little bit more
than say the sixty sixteen and a half he had
last year, and he was largely functioning off ball. That
trade off might be worth it in terms of what
it means for the team. So I would just say
(15:54):
keep those things in mind. He's certainly not a traditional
point guard. But look, at the end of the day,
the Rockets are fifteen to five, They're at a pace
of sixty games. A man is their point guard for
a team that's on a sixty plus one pace in
the tough Western Conference, that's played a relatively difficult schedule,
that right now has one of the five best ratings
in NBA history according to the latest stats that I've seen.
Give the guys some grace like at some point the
(16:16):
position of point guard. I talked to Jabari Smith Junior
about this today at Shooter Run Day, the position of
point guard. Jabari made the case it's the second most
difficult in sports, behind a quarterback in football. And just
like the quarterback in football, it is so tied to
wins and losses, and so if your team is succeeding
at the level that the Rockets are second best rating
(16:36):
in the league now second best on both the offense
and defense, and so kudos to a man he's as
the weeks that progress, he's gotten a lot closer to
last year with his defense. Obviously, Josha Koge, someone in
the chap pointed out Rockets are now thirteen and one
when Joshua Kogi starts, which I think speaks to sort
of the combination of a Kogie and men and Jabari
as defensive stoppers, and that starting vibe when all three
of them are out there together. But then offensively, look
(16:58):
if your team is second best in the league and
Kevin Durant and Alfrid Shangoon. I know Shinangoon didn't play tonight,
but for the best majority of the season, the ads
are putting together performances the way they have. Why would
you not be a little deferential. The job of a
point guard is to win. The job of a point
guard is to understand what's going on and put your
(17:18):
team in the best position to succeed. Amn Thompson is
doing that this season. I'm not saying it's perfect, but
I do think a lot of the criticisms are because
it just aesthetically doesn't look the way we think it
should look, both within the history of the NBA the
recent history of the Rockets with fred been Fleet, who's
very small, I get that it looks different, but at
some point, for a position that's intertwined with team success,
(17:40):
how can you deny that he's helping the Rockets win
a lot of games.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, and I can tell you I just from again
talks this week, they're not taking the ball out of
his hands anytime soon. I mean, he's not gonna have
the ball all the time. You've got all these you know, Katie,
tonight eight assists, shangun, I'm leading the team and assists.
You're gonna have other playmakers on this team, but they
are going to explore this. And you know, if you
guys remember, you know, you and I talked about this
(18:06):
Ben even then in twenty three in that draft, we
knew that there was like these strong vibes and words
about how much they loved the men Thompson. You have
to you have to remember that draft was Wemby and
Scoot and I was in on the Scoot ipe as well.
I'll be totally honest about that. But you know, then
you had Miller and of course you had a men Thompson.
(18:27):
They loved this dude. And I had somebody tell me,
you know this week, just again off record, who that was.
But it was just you know, if we had the
number one pick, we would have taken Wemby, but we
would have hated passing on the man. That's how much
they loved him. They would have taken him too, and
that was that's not revisionist history. I think every redraft
has him at too at this point anyway. But I'm
(18:48):
saying that's how they felt at that time, and I
know it because we were like, what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
You know?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
And he has to me been terrific. There's tremendous upside
in this guy. I'm really happy with how he's played. Yeah,
the point guard stuff needs to improve, and it's going
to I think, but like I said, they're not taking
that ball out of his hands anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I'll never forget Draft Day twenty three. They put on
a remarkable poker face when there were some rumors on
draft day that Portland might go with a men instead
of Scoot Henderson, or perhaps a men instead of Brandon
Miller if those were the two on the board, and
I was told, oh, there's a clear top four will
be okay. No, they would not have been okay. That
(19:30):
was totally you know, poker facing. They wanted a men,
and thankfully he felt a Ford. It all worked out.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, And to be clear, I was really excited about
the men, but he felt like a constellation prize to Scoot,
and boy was that wrong, you know he is. Anyway,
Rockets just scored big time on that one Jabari tonight,
sixteen points. I thought he had some really nice drives today.
Put the ball on the floor, attack the basket. I
(19:57):
want to point this out because I kind of teased
it a little bit earlier. When you look at the lineups,
the three man lineups this year with that have at
least one hundred and fifty minutes, This durrant Adams Jabbari
lineup is way up there. It's like one hundred and
thirty plus. This is before today's game, folks. One hundred
and thirty point two offensive rating, one oh two point
four defensive rating. Again, maybe it's too early, or just
(20:21):
had twenty games here or so. You know, they seem
to have some sort of magical vibe. I mean, Adams
has had an impact pretty much whenever he plays. But
that to thrive tonight, plus thirty three for a man
he's not in that trio, but plus twenty nine for Kdi,
plus twenty nine for Jabbari, I think plus eighteen for Adams.
(20:42):
This is again, this is not a knock on Shangoon.
Shangun's been terrific, but this team wins really in a
variety of ways. I think there's a lot of players,
single players you can take out of this unit, and
it's no disrespect to them. They're still going to succeed.
It's going to take two or three guys pulled for
this team to really drop off because they just do
(21:02):
so many things and plug in players to fill those gaps.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, and right now you still don't have Toy Eastandri
and Finny Smith. Like, that's the crazy thing. They're doing
all of this while relatively short handed and obviously no Fred.
And we'll see what happens tomorrow night in Dallas. It's
Night TUA back to back for the Rockets. Crazy thing.
It's also Night Tuva back to back for the MAVs,
who are going to be getting in later because they
are playing in Oklahoma City tonight. We'll see if they
(21:27):
have Anthony Davis available tomorrow. Unfortunately, the Rockets won't have
Steven Adams and he may said for now the plan
is to only play Steven in half of all back
to backs the silver lining there So after these two games,
the Rockets only have one more back to back until January.
It's December twentieth and twenty first at Denver and Sacramento.
(21:48):
I think it goes without saying they'll play Steven assuming
he's healthy in Denver where against Joe Kitchen Balanchunas. You
need the size, the Kings are terrible team. You should
be able to win anyway, and then by the time
you get into January maybe you evaluate that. But even
if you don't well by January, you should have at
least try Easton back and probably Dorian Finney Smith as well.
So the whole, you know, surrounding, the whole surrounding construct
(22:09):
of the team changes. But yeah, I just think you're
exactly right. There's so many different ways that this team
can win. A men at plus thirty three, I don't
know if he's the full blown point guard. I don't
know that that necessarily matters at this point. He is,
if not the engine, one of the engines, and they
are really benefiting from that. I think in the modern
NBA it's more engine than point guard that really matters
(22:30):
at the end of the day when it comes to
when it comes to driving wins and losses, especially when
you get in these half court playoff situations, and to
the question on the screen, will shinou me back next game,
I hope. So he was at shoot around today, so
I don't think whatever illness he has is that bad.
It wouldn't surprise me. This is just me guessing, But
it wouldn't surprise me if maybe because they knew Steven
(22:53):
wouldn't be available in Dallas, if they said, hey, if
it's not realistic for you to play two games in
twenty four hours, take this one off, get some fluids,
get some rests, and then hopefully you can play tomorrow
in Dallas when Steven isn't out there. And you know,
even if the Rockets running back to back again, the
MAVs will be as well, so hopefully, so hopefully that
sort of evens out a little better and the Rockets
(23:14):
can keep this thing going.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
That's actually a great point. I hadn't even thought of that, Ben,
to be honest with you, I think that actually makes
sense as you're describing it, because we knew Adams wasn't
gonna play one of these he's out tomorrow. Actually, we
thought we suspected Adams would play in the Dallas game
just because of their bigs. You know, you did Mark
Williams back for the Sons, who didn't play in the
previous game against Houston, but you know, and Adams did
(23:36):
great tonight. I just think that that makes sense to
why you're describing it. Knowing Adams is out, you can
have shin Gun out tonight, get that extra day arrest,
play tomorrow. Dallas is improved. I will say that the
offensive ratings game, Oh go ahead.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Oh, I was gonna say. Anthony Davis played tonight in
Oklahoma City, which sort of surprises me because that's a
game that you think the MAVs and they are getting
blown out as we're recording this would lose anyway, so
I would have thought they would save Ad for home.
But as of last weekend, AD wasn't cleared for both
ends of a back to back. We'll see if the
maps still having on that same restriction, but it could
(24:11):
be that if AD's unavailable, then that then that makes
Steven a little bit less important to the Rocket's not unimportant,
because obviously Steven's just a fantastic player, as you illustrated
that trio in particular with Stephen K D and Jabari
has been phenomenal this year. But if there's no AD,
then the factors that led to sort of that double
Big being unveiled into the maps a year ago aren't
quite there, and obviously the maps are missing other pieces,
(24:32):
including Derek Lively as well.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, exactly, And we talked about this earlier, but Shingoon
sort of owns Gafford but really has struggled in games
against AD at times. Today's game one eighteen point two
offensive rating for the Rockets one hundred flat, one hundred
point zero on the defensive ratings, so their defensive rating
is going to improve. I think they're two right now
overall on defense. But yeah, all around, good game. I
(24:58):
do think, like I said, Dallas has much improved. But AD,
you know, I was surprised. I'm with you. I thought,
you know, you might as well just throw that game
in Oka see away and feel like your best shot
is at home against Houston on Saturday. So if ADS
out tomorrow, I think Rockets should have that one. I
don't want to say easy, because, like I said, Dallas
has improved. Nemhard is a rookie playing really well. Cooper
(25:19):
Flags starting to come in, you know, into focus now,
really starting to play well. But you know, Houston should.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
End that game and by the way, to bring the
pod full circle. You know, we talked about well to
bring our entire podcast full circle, to go back to
when we started these at the beginning of the season,
you wondered if the identity was shifting because earlier this
year the Rockets were top two in the league in offense,
but defense was middle of the pack. We've talked tonight
(25:47):
that the defense is now equal to the offense, both
the number two in the NBA and I think this
week the Rockets got punched in the mouth by Dylan
Brooks to start this game. But earlier in the week
they lost to Utah in a game that you described
as maybe the first time all season that you felt
underwhelmed that even though they fought back, look, they should
(26:08):
have never been down twenty one, and it was the
first night you could say the Rockets just didn't happen
because the earlier loss is you know, you lose very
close games on the road to teams like you know, Detroit, OKC.
San Antonio. You sort of tip your hat like it's
not that it's not that bad of a loss. You're
pretty pleased that the Rockets competed, and sometimes they don't
know your way. The game in Utah was the one
(26:28):
where you say, hey, the intensity wasn't there, the focus?
What is this going to lead to the next two games? Dave?
They have responded in a big way and they did
it with a defensive identity. They did not allow either
the Kings or the Suns to get to one hundred points.
And in today's NBA, at the pace that games are
played at, that speaks volumes to who they are defensively.
We talked about the trio of a Men Jabari and
(26:51):
Joshua Koge in that starting lineup now thirteen to one
when josh is a starter, But I think when they
play with this level of defensive intensity, and this is
a team that we know the gifts they have offensively
with Kevin Durant now, but if they have a top
two defense, and they can, if they can maintain that
level of offense even against bad teams, that's when you get,
(27:12):
assuming hell potentially a juggernaut, a sixty plus one team,
which is what they're on pace to do now. Like
if there was one nitpick, you could have had a
couple of games ago. Hey they didn't take night Tuber
back to back in Utah. That seriously, and they are
going to get tested by that again on Saturday in Dallas,
so we'll see how they fare, but they have responded.
It's not that beating the Kings and the Suns at
home is anything to write home about. These are teams
(27:33):
that aren't that good, especially the Suns, and they're currently
diminished form without Devin Booker and Jalen Green. But to
go out and systematically just take them apart with your
defense and to hold them blow one hundred points, that
just speaks to a very well coached team, one that's
very cohesive, that at this point has an identity that
is two way. In contrast to early in the year,
(27:55):
this is not just a team that wants to go
out and outscore you. This is a team that sort
of has that same type of grinded out ability that
they did a year ago, only this time they have
Kevin Durant to boot. And I think that's where you know,
it's sort of fitting like it feels like on the
night that Jalen Brooks at Jalen Brooks, Jalen Green and
Dylan Brooks came back to Houston. The Rockets have finally
(28:16):
assumed the identity of last season's team in regards to
having that defensive tenacity that grint, but they also now
have the offensive gear, the consistent offensive gear with Kevin Durant,
that they didn't a year ago, and so perhaps in
some ways it's symbolic the first time that Kevin Durant
faces the Suns and the first time that the Rockets
(28:37):
see Dylan and Jalen back in Houston. Although Jalen didn't play,
it feels like this is the Rocket's vision sort of
coming to fruition, and this is what, assuming health with
the key pieces, they should be for most of this season.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yep, after Schnight, Rockets do fall to fourth and offensive rating,
but still, I mean with the point seven matter of fact, Ben,
I'll just call close on this note. I was looking
at the twenty seventeen eighteen Rockets team, very special team,
number one in the league that year in offense one
fourteen point one offensive rating. There are seventeen teams in
(29:09):
the league this year with a higher offensive rating than
that team. That's how the NBA is just constantly evolving
and shifting. In this particular year, you've got four teams Denver,
New York, now, Boston, and Houston with higher than one
hundred and twenty offensive rating. We'll see if that continues.
Rockets number two in defense. There is a large gap
between OKC and Houston and really all the other teams,
(29:33):
but Houston is starting to get a little nudge. They're
about a one and a half two point lead over Detroit,
who's third. So Rockets defense is coming along. It's improving
over the last ten fifteen games, and their offense has
just been incredible. You know, no matter who you plug
at take out of that thing, it's just been phenomenal
this year. So great win. We'll be back tomorrow night.
(29:55):
I believe David Wiener Beematha will be here tomorrow night
for that one after uh you know it will be
a road game against Dallas. Ben appreciate you doing this
and everybody for watching. We will see you guys tomorrow
Welcome into the show. Everybody. Rockets without Alprin Shangoun, who
is out with an illness tonight, just absolutely lay waste
of the Phoenix Suns. After a first quarter that was
a little bit bumpy, Rockets use Kevin Durant burst on
a night where he's historic night for Kevin Durant. He
scores his thirty one thousand point of his career. Rockets
(00:25):
win one, seventeen to ninety eight over Dylan Brooks, who's
sure enough was red hot to start the game, and
Dylan Brooks and Jalen Green both get their video tributes
coming back to Houston here with Ben Debos, the Great Ben.
You got to follow him at Bendibos on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Ben.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
This was, you know, like I said, some touchy moments
there in the first quarter, but Rockets just used how
they are always successful to just blow this team out.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, second game in a row that didn't start well,
and yet it was pretty much over by the midpoint
of the third quarter, which is what good teams do.
They don't let lesser teams hang around. And the Suns
thirteen to ten aren't a bad team, but without Devin
Book or without Jalen Green, they're not at their best.
And even though the Rockets didn't have all per Inch
shing Goon, when you have Kevin Durant and a Men
Thompson and you're now fifteen and five, Houston's the better
(01:12):
team and they clearly made that visible tonight. I think
the big story was Kevin Durant, who you know, the
thirty one thousand career points milestone, just the eighth in
NBA history to hit that, so kudos to him. But
I thought this was a really nice game to see
the makeup of the Rockets, and specifically the kd led Rockets,
because early in the game, Dave, they got punched in
(01:33):
the mouth. The Sun's led by nine a minute or
two into the second quarter, and this felt like a
game where I think Dylan had I believe, sixteen in
the first quarter. He had twenty three for the game,
so it speaks to how the Rockets turned it around
on the fly. But early on, even though we all
knew going in that this was a potential Dylan Brook's
revenge game, his homecoming in Houston. At the same time,
(01:53):
until the ball is tipped, it's tough to be ready
for that level of intensity, and early on the Rockets
without Shooon didn't have one of their usual engines and
they got punched in the mouth. And it's always useful
to see how your team responds, and I thought it
was really telling. Kevin had a fantastic second quarter. But
what stood out to me most Dave, he checked back
in at the nine to forty eight mark of the
(02:15):
second quarter after playing more than ten and a half
minutes in the first quarter on night one of back
to back. And I don't know if either we'll admit
to this, but I feel pretty confident that Emo rudoka
A did not plan on bringing Kevin back that early,
and b would not have done it of his own volition.
I think it was a combination of Ema wanting to
do it, but also Kadi saying, hey, I'm ready to
(02:38):
go back in because Kadi didn't like how that game
was going. He takes ownership in this team. And then,
as you said, he went on that incredible run in
the second quarter and the game was flipped. And I
think that speaks to even in you're nineteen, at thirty
seven years old, the professionalism that he plays with, it's
just so so valuable. I was having a conversation with
someone in the front office the other day Sacramento game,
(03:00):
when I had pointed out how hard Katie was playing
in the second half, even after the game was largely
put away. They had a little bit of underwhelming first half,
and I think Emay got into him a halftime. They
wanted to make amends, and they did in the second half.
And this person's point to me was, Katie always cares.
There might be some nights where the juice isn't quite there.
They all acknowledged that night two of the back to
(03:21):
back in Utah, Katie and Shoangoon to start the game,
it wasn't quite where you would like it to be,
especially defensively, but they definitely cared, and we saw that
in the second half when they fought back from you know,
down twenty one to getting within a point. And I think,
at age thirty seven in nearly his third decade in
the NBA, to have someone who cares that much, Dave,
that's just so valuable to you know, absorb the blows
(03:43):
that Dylan Brooks gave them early in the game and
want to respond himself. It felt like this was Katie's
you know, I know, it's a regular season game. I'm
not getting crazy here, but it felt like, you know,
the Michael Jordan meme. If I took that personally, it
felt like Kevin Durant on a much smaller scale was
doing that tonight after what Dylan Brooks did at the
start of this game. And so to have a guy
with all of his accomplishments, one of only eight players
(04:04):
NBA history to break thirty one thousand career points, you're
nineteen age thirty seven to take this type of game
seriously on night tu of it back to back to
want to play. I looked it up. He played almost
twenty two minutes in the first half. Now, thankfully because
the Rockets took care of business. He then to play
it all in the fourth quarter. So he was only
at about thirty two for the game. So he should
be fine for tomorrow night in Dallas. But I think
(04:25):
just the mental makeup of Kevin Durant, it's not saying
he's going to go balls to the wall every single night,
because some nights the juice might not be there. But
the comparison this front office person made to me was
actually to Fred van Fleet from the standpoint of the professionalism,
not saying that Kevin and Fred are the same players.
Obviously Kevin is far better, but I think one of
the things that people really respect about Fred is just
(04:47):
how seriously he takes every game, and even if he's
not making shots, you can see how competitive he is,
how consistently dialed in. That's pretty rare for guys of
that age that are as accomplished as they are in
the league. And you know, the front office for and
didn't make this comparison to me, but I'll make it.
Even when James Harden was several years younger here in Houston,
there were games day where we'd see hardin and the
(05:07):
body language just wasn't quite right, and we'd say, this
wasn't James's game. You never feel that way with Kevin,
even now at thirty seven years old, and I just
I'm so impressed by that. To see we all know
how good Kat as a shooter, all three levels, getting
to the bucket, the mid range, the threes, But to
see how seriously he takes his craft, the competitive fire,
(05:28):
the fact that all of that is still there nearly
three decades into his time in the NBA, I don't know.
To me, this it's not a game that individually means
all that much in the grand scheme, although it does
move you to number two in the West. But I
just think it says so much about the Rockets mental
makeup and specifically their leader, Kevin Durant.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, and it's funny. I know you didn't get a
chance to see ems press conference. He didn't say exactly
some of those things. He didn't mention the Dylan head
to head, but he did say in the first quarter, Katie,
he didn't like some of the spots, you know, not
getting the ball on a couple of in a couple
of instances, and he was disappointed. He was frustrated, and
I think it showed in that second quarter. So I
(06:05):
think your instincts are right on. He just was fantastic
in that period. A man was as well. I think, Jabbari,
we're going to talk a little bit about this sort
of magical which, at least in the advanced numbers are
showing this magical combination between Jabari, KD and Adams is
spending outrageously successful so far to start this year. But
(06:27):
Durant was awesome. I mean, he just in that second quarter.
I don't remember how many he finished exactly with that
period he had at least sixteen twenty I can't remember.
It was a high number. In the second period. He
just blew that game open. And they, like you said,
their defense today was really good after that first quarter.
I mean the overall, it's really fascinating to me because
(06:49):
the Rockets hit twice as many threes as the Suns
today while taking and I'm talking about exactly twice as
many while taking exactly half as many threes. I think
there were five of thirty six and the Rockets were
ten of eighteen. That was, you know, the difference. The
defense today was really good. Yes, I saw a few
(07:10):
people responding to tweets that the Suns missed open threes.
Yes they did. It wasn't the entire thing. The Rockets
had a good defensive game plan. As always, there are
going to be some open threes missed, but five of
thirty six they held them to, and pretty much the
second half of the way the Rockets jumped on them
out of out of the locker room as well. This
game was pretty much over mid late third quarter, So
(07:32):
go ahead and.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Kevin for the season. Now. I looked at his postgame numbers.
They just updated over on stat Muse, he's now above
fifty percent shooting. His screw shooting is at sixty two.
He's at thirty nine percent from three, at eighty nine
percent from the free throw line, so almost at fifty
forty ninety. He's averaging now over twenty five points per game,
almost four assists per game because he's had eight in
(07:54):
the last two. The Rockets are at the twenty game mark,
and so you know, it's basically the quarter pole the season,
and they're fifteen and five, so it doesn't the cogenius
to do the math and figure out, hey, they're on
pace to win sixty which is really good. They have
one of the best net ratings in NBA history. So
at the team level, everything is going really well. We've
talked about that, but Kevin individually, you know, when he
(08:14):
had that weak break over Thanksgiving when he left for
personal reasons. It just so happened that it came after
those two bad shooting games that he had against the
Cavs and the Nuggets, and because he went more than
a week without playing, it's only natural to sort of
look at his stats and they were still very good.
Don't get me wrong, but the shooting splits, they were
like forty eight percent overall, a little bit about thirty
(08:35):
six percent from three, about sixty and a half, sixty
one true shooting. Well, now, all of a sudden, give
him a couple of games to fatten up on, and
this happens over eighty two games in the NBA, those
numbers look pretty much right in line with what he
did in Brooklyn and Phoenix. Again, we're talking twenty five points,
five rebounds, four assists per game, fifty percent shooting, almost
forty percent from three, almost ninety percent from the free throw line,
(08:57):
sixty two percent true shooting right on the nose. That's
phenomenal production at age thirty seven, and as the tip
of the spear of scorer. And you know, you give
Alpha and Shinogoon a lot of credit for the season
as a whole, but Shoogoon didn't play tonight, and Kevin
was still that efficient even after a relatively slow start,
like he missed some shots in the first quarter of
the game when I think Dylan was playing especially hard,
and then boy did it flip in a big way.
(09:19):
And I just I can't say enough good things about
the guy. Like we all know, this is one of
the greatest players in NBA history. But the one thing
you fear with the guy of his age is just
going to be the year that there's any slippage. Well, Dave,
we're at the quarter point at the season now, and
both in terms of the team results for the Rockets,
how it's impacting winning, but also just the individual stats.
I don't see any signs of slippage at all. This
(09:39):
still looks like an all NBA level player who we're
just fortunate to have as the best player on this
basketball team. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Absolutely, you know, I see a few people mentioning that
my mic doesn't sound quite right.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I don't know how it sounds to you, Ben, but
sounds good to me.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Okay, I'm checking everything. I'm not sure if I'm missing
Maybe it was just a little bit farther away. Now
it's hopefully okay. But yeah, I mean, Kadi was He
was to me the star of the game. I mean
a man had the team high thirty one points and
was incredibly efficient in his own right. Twelve to seventeen
had a couple of really nice highlight plays. There was
that one where he just blew by Dylan Brooks. Another
(10:13):
guy was hammered by a screen by Adams and then
he went past I believed Gillespie for sort of a
double clutch jam in a transition play. You know, this
was not his point guard resume game tonight, not at all.
You know, the assists weren't there necessarily for him, but
as far as all the finishing was but on ball
(10:34):
attacking he was fine.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
And the funny thing is we talked about this earlier.
His you know, points per possession when he actually is
in isolation is really good. Best on the team this year,
ahead of Durant, ahead of Shangun. Obviously, Shangun and Durant
do a little bit more of that, so the volume
is a little bit higher for them, but he's been
really good there. So you know, to me, with a man,
(10:56):
terrific showing tonight as far as his efficiency, but I
just I already know that a men Thompson's going to
be a terrific like base floor role player that already exists.
I'm really fascinated as a Rockets fan and want to
see more of the on ball and then explored because
I think this is the time where if you do
(11:16):
end up having a guy who could be an engine
or a primary he's not Chris Paul. We know that
he's never going to be a Chris Paul level style
point guard. But if he could be a guy that
you give the ball to in the clutch to make
things happen downhill or creating, you've got to explore that
and see that. And on one note to talk about this,
the way this guy works. This is his third year.
(11:38):
Last two years he shot sixty eight point four percent
from the line. He's now over eighty percent. He was
six of six tonight. This guy works. You know, I
know you and I Ben. We've talked to different people
this week. They rave about the way this guy works.
They rave about his potential and what he has. I
just you got to give him a little bit more
(11:58):
runway on the point guard stuff. He's not that now,
but I think you just got to give him more
time on that.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, And some of the point guard debates got
kicked into overdrive because Mark Spear's over at ESPN slash
Ndscape did the article of profiling them in as a
point guard and it rubbed a few people the wrong way. Look,
one thing I'll say about that, so the Rockets themselves
will tell you that they believe in him and Thompson
as a point guard and they like what he's been doing. Now,
some people will inevitably respond, well, what else are they
(12:25):
going to say? Okay, that's fair. But I also think
that when you dive deeper into some of the critiques
that are out there, some of it is simply being
deferential to the roster the Rockets have with Kevin Durant
and all for In Shangoon, which is not analogous to
the roster that Fredvin Fleet led the last couple of years. Like,
I see a lot of criticisms that lead with, well,
(12:46):
the Rocket's best offense is when Katie and or Shingoon initiate. Well, yeah,
those are probably two top fifteen players in the NBA.
Of course it is if Fred and Fleet were here,
I don't think you'd see Fred van Fleet or want
fredin Fleet to lead picking rolls. I think a lot
of people would probably be critical of Fred for dribbling
the air of the ball. Not because I personally believe that,
but it's just when you're in sort of that third
(13:08):
banana role behind two guys as good as Kevin Durant
and Alfriend Shoan Gooon, you're a lightning rod for criticism.
So the last couple of years, a lot of the
sort of steadying things that Fred does that we really
liked when the Rockets were trying to sort of get
off the ground floor and go from bottom feed or
to quasi contender. I don't know if they'd be quite
(13:29):
as beloved on a team that has two top fifteen players,
two potential all NBA guys and Kde and Shin Gooon.
So some of you know, people question, oh, you know,
can of men run a pick and roll? How good
is his handle? And he had three turnovers in the
first quarter. By the way, he had zero the rest
of the game. So he did, to his credit, figure
it out as the game moved along. But I do
think some of the things that that a men gets
(13:50):
sort of criticized for in some ways are good awareness,
Like you don't want your point guard to initiate every
set when you have Kevin Durant and all for Chhouin
Gooon out there. Like if they are that good as
scorers and playmakers, why would you not lean into them more?
I wouldn't want Fred to come back and all of
a sudden start, you know, initiating every set of the offense. No,
I'd want to run more through Katie and Shindoon and
(14:11):
when it's high leverage, go two man game with those two.
So some of the critiques I think are misguided to
begin with, because no, you don't want a men to
be a dropped in with the Fred formula the last
two years. No, the formula is changed now that you
have Kevin Durant and all for in Shingon, and I
think maybe we didn't all fully, you know, sort of
recalibrate to that until we saw them on the floor.
(14:32):
And then the second thing I would point out with
the men. So the shooting does need to improve, and
it did tonight, but for the season as a whole,
going into tonight, I think he was at like fifty
three percent true shooting. Last year he was slightly above
sixty our guest tonight, maybe it bumps up closer to
fifty four, but it's still down quite a bit, and
so that needs to improve somewhat. But it could be
(14:52):
that if the decline is more modest, and we'll see
what happens. We're just a quarter into the season. I
do think there's more value in when he attacks downhill
with the ball in his hands. You mentioned the isolation play.
It strikes so much fear in the heart of a
lot of these defenses. And there have been multiple coaches
that have told us in the gatherings at Tutison are
(15:13):
about the rim pressure a men going downhill. What that
does for the defense, even if the true shooting slips
a little bit. What it does for the offense by
breaking down those defenses leading to easy clean up opportunities
for the likes of Shingoon and Steven Adams and Jabari
Smith Junior. It might be worth it. Now, I'm not
saying going from sixty to fifty three is worth it. No,
(15:33):
The finishing needs to pick back up a little bit.
But I don't know, Like, let's say he finishes this
year at fifty seven fifty eight, but he's doing it
while being much more aggressive with the ball in his
hands and thus collapsing the defense a little bit more
than say the sixty sixteen and a half he had
last year, and he was largely functioning off ball. That
trade off might be worth it in terms of what
it means for the team. So I would just say
(15:54):
keep those things in mind. He's certainly not a traditional
point guard. But look, at the end of the day,
the Rockets are fifteen to five, They're at a pace
of sixty games. A man is their point guard for
a team that's on a sixty plus one pace in
the tough Western Conference, that's played a relatively difficult schedule,
that right now has one of the five best ratings
in NBA history according to the latest stats that I've seen.
Give the guys some grace like at some point the
(16:16):
position of point guard. I talked to Jabari Smith Junior
about this today at Shooter Run Day, the position of
point guard. Jabari made the case it's the second most
difficult in sports, behind a quarterback in football. And just
like the quarterback in football, it is so tied to
wins and losses, and so if your team is succeeding
at the level that the Rockets are second best rating
(16:36):
in the league now second best on both the offense
and defense, and so kudos to a man he's as
the weeks that progress, he's gotten a lot closer to
last year with his defense. Obviously, Josha Koge, someone in
the chap pointed out Rockets are now thirteen and one
when Joshua Kogi starts, which I think speaks to sort
of the combination of a Kogie and men and Jabari
as defensive stoppers, and that starting vibe when all three
of them are out there together. But then offensively, look
(16:58):
if your team is second best in the league and
Kevin Durant and Alfrid Shangoon. I know Shinangoon didn't play tonight,
but for the best majority of the season, the ads
are putting together performances the way they have. Why would
you not be a little deferential. The job of a
point guard is to win. The job of a point
guard is to understand what's going on and put your
(17:18):
team in the best position to succeed. Amn Thompson is
doing that this season. I'm not saying it's perfect, but
I do think a lot of the criticisms are because
it just aesthetically doesn't look the way we think it
should look, both within the history of the NBA the
recent history of the Rockets with fred been Fleet, who's
very small, I get that it looks different, but at
some point, for a position that's intertwined with team success,
(17:40):
how can you deny that he's helping the Rockets win
a lot of games.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, and I can tell you I just from again
talks this week, they're not taking the ball out of
his hands anytime soon. I mean, he's not gonna have
the ball all the time. You've got all these you know, Katie,
tonight eight assists, shangun, I'm leading the team and assists.
You're gonna have other playmakers on this team, but they
are going to explore this. And you know, if you
guys remember, you know, you and I talked about this
(18:06):
Ben even then in twenty three in that draft, we
knew that there was like these strong vibes and words
about how much they loved the men Thompson. You have
to you have to remember that draft was Wemby and
Scoot and I was in on the Scoot ipe as well.
I'll be totally honest about that. But you know, then
you had Miller and of course you had a men Thompson.
(18:27):
They loved this dude. And I had somebody tell me,
you know this week, just again off record, who that was.
But it was just you know, if we had the
number one pick, we would have taken Wemby, but we
would have hated passing on the man. That's how much
they loved him. They would have taken him too, and
that was that's not revisionist history. I think every redraft
has him at too at this point anyway. But I'm
(18:48):
saying that's how they felt at that time, and I
know it because we were like, what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
You know?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
And he has to me been terrific. There's tremendous upside
in this guy. I'm really happy with how he's played. Yeah,
the point guard stuff needs to improve, and it's going
to I think, but like I said, they're not taking
that ball out of his hands anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I'll never forget Draft Day twenty three. They put on
a remarkable poker face when there were some rumors on
draft day that Portland might go with a men instead
of Scoot Henderson, or perhaps a men instead of Brandon
Miller if those were the two on the board, and
I was told, oh, there's a clear top four will
be okay. No, they would not have been okay. That
(19:30):
was totally you know, poker facing. They wanted a men,
and thankfully he felt a Ford. It all worked out.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, And to be clear, I was really excited about
the men, but he felt like a constellation prize to Scoot,
and boy was that wrong, you know he is. Anyway,
Rockets just scored big time on that one Jabari tonight,
sixteen points. I thought he had some really nice drives today.
Put the ball on the floor, attack the basket. I
(19:57):
want to point this out because I kind of teased
it a little bit earlier. When you look at the lineups,
the three man lineups this year with that have at
least one hundred and fifty minutes, This durrant Adams Jabbari
lineup is way up there. It's like one hundred and
thirty plus. This is before today's game, folks. One hundred
and thirty point two offensive rating, one oh two point
four defensive rating. Again, maybe it's too early, or just
(20:21):
had twenty games here or so. You know, they seem
to have some sort of magical vibe. I mean, Adams
has had an impact pretty much whenever he plays. But
that to thrive tonight, plus thirty three for a man
he's not in that trio, but plus twenty nine for Kdi,
plus twenty nine for Jabbari, I think plus eighteen for Adams.
(20:42):
This is again, this is not a knock on Shangoon.
Shangun's been terrific, but this team wins really in a
variety of ways. I think there's a lot of players,
single players you can take out of this unit, and
it's no disrespect to them. They're still going to succeed.
It's going to take two or three guys pulled for
this team to really drop off because they just do
(21:02):
so many things and plug in players to fill those gaps.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, and right now you still don't have Toy Eastandri
and Finny Smith. Like, that's the crazy thing. They're doing
all of this while relatively short handed and obviously no Fred.
And we'll see what happens tomorrow night in Dallas. It's
Night TUA back to back for the Rockets. Crazy thing.
It's also Night Tuva back to back for the MAVs,
who are going to be getting in later because they
are playing in Oklahoma City tonight. We'll see if they
(21:27):
have Anthony Davis available tomorrow. Unfortunately, the Rockets won't have
Steven Adams and he may said for now the plan
is to only play Steven in half of all back
to backs the silver lining there So after these two games,
the Rockets only have one more back to back until January.
It's December twentieth and twenty first at Denver and Sacramento.
(21:48):
I think it goes without saying they'll play Steven assuming
he's healthy in Denver where against Joe Kitchen Balanchunas. You
need the size, the Kings are terrible team. You should
be able to win anyway, and then by the time
you get into January maybe you evaluate that. But even
if you don't well by January, you should have at
least try Easton back and probably Dorian Finney Smith as well.
So the whole, you know, surrounding, the whole surrounding construct
(22:09):
of the team changes. But yeah, I just think you're
exactly right. There's so many different ways that this team
can win. A men at plus thirty three, I don't
know if he's the full blown point guard. I don't
know that that necessarily matters at this point. He is,
if not the engine, one of the engines, and they
are really benefiting from that. I think in the modern
NBA it's more engine than point guard that really matters
(22:30):
at the end of the day when it comes to
when it comes to driving wins and losses, especially when
you get in these half court playoff situations, and to
the question on the screen, will shinou me back next game,
I hope. So he was at shoot around today, so
I don't think whatever illness he has is that bad.
It wouldn't surprise me. This is just me guessing, But
it wouldn't surprise me if maybe because they knew Steven
(22:53):
wouldn't be available in Dallas, if they said, hey, if
it's not realistic for you to play two games in
twenty four hours, take this one off, get some fluids,
get some rests, and then hopefully you can play tomorrow
in Dallas when Steven isn't out there. And you know,
even if the Rockets running back to back again, the
MAVs will be as well, so hopefully, so hopefully that
sort of evens out a little better and the Rockets
(23:14):
can keep this thing going.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
That's actually a great point. I hadn't even thought of that, Ben,
to be honest with you, I think that actually makes
sense as you're describing it, because we knew Adams wasn't
gonna play one of these he's out tomorrow. Actually, we
thought we suspected Adams would play in the Dallas game
just because of their bigs. You know, you did Mark
Williams back for the Sons, who didn't play in the
previous game against Houston, but you know, and Adams did
(23:36):
great tonight. I just think that that makes sense to
why you're describing it. Knowing Adams is out, you can
have shin Gun out tonight, get that extra day arrest,
play tomorrow. Dallas is improved. I will say that the
offensive ratings game, Oh go ahead.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Oh, I was gonna say. Anthony Davis played tonight in
Oklahoma City, which sort of surprises me because that's a
game that you think the MAVs and they are getting
blown out as we're recording this would lose anyway, so
I would have thought they would save Ad for home.
But as of last weekend, AD wasn't cleared for both
ends of a back to back. We'll see if the
maps still having on that same restriction, but it could
(24:11):
be that if AD's unavailable, then that then that makes
Steven a little bit less important to the Rocket's not unimportant,
because obviously Steven's just a fantastic player, as you illustrated
that trio in particular with Stephen K D and Jabari
has been phenomenal this year. But if there's no AD,
then the factors that led to sort of that double
Big being unveiled into the maps a year ago aren't
quite there, and obviously the maps are missing other pieces,
(24:32):
including Derek Lively as well.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, exactly, And we talked about this earlier, but Shingoon
sort of owns Gafford but really has struggled in games
against AD at times. Today's game one eighteen point two
offensive rating for the Rockets one hundred flat, one hundred
point zero on the defensive ratings, so their defensive rating
is going to improve. I think they're two right now
overall on defense. But yeah, all around, good game. I
(24:58):
do think, like I said, Dallas has much improved. But AD,
you know, I was surprised. I'm with you. I thought,
you know, you might as well just throw that game
in Oka see away and feel like your best shot
is at home against Houston on Saturday. So if ADS
out tomorrow, I think Rockets should have that one. I
don't want to say easy, because, like I said, Dallas
has improved. Nemhard is a rookie playing really well. Cooper
(25:19):
Flags starting to come in, you know, into focus now,
really starting to play well. But you know, Houston should.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
End that game and by the way, to bring the
pod full circle. You know, we talked about well to
bring our entire podcast full circle, to go back to
when we started these at the beginning of the season,
you wondered if the identity was shifting because earlier this
year the Rockets were top two in the league in offense,
but defense was middle of the pack. We've talked tonight
(25:47):
that the defense is now equal to the offense, both
the number two in the NBA and I think this
week the Rockets got punched in the mouth by Dylan
Brooks to start this game. But earlier in the week
they lost to Utah in a game that you described
as maybe the first time all season that you felt
underwhelmed that even though they fought back, look, they should
(26:08):
have never been down twenty one, and it was the
first night you could say the Rockets just didn't happen
because the earlier loss is you know, you lose very
close games on the road to teams like you know, Detroit, OKC.
San Antonio. You sort of tip your hat like it's
not that it's not that bad of a loss. You're
pretty pleased that the Rockets competed, and sometimes they don't
know your way. The game in Utah was the one
(26:28):
where you say, hey, the intensity wasn't there, the focus?
What is this going to lead to the next two games? Dave?
They have responded in a big way and they did
it with a defensive identity. They did not allow either
the Kings or the Suns to get to one hundred points.
And in today's NBA, at the pace that games are
played at, that speaks volumes to who they are defensively.
We talked about the trio of a Men Jabari and
(26:51):
Joshua Koge in that starting lineup now thirteen to one
when josh is a starter, But I think when they
play with this level of defensive intensity, and this is
a team that we know the gifts they have offensively
with Kevin Durant now, but if they have a top
two defense, and they can, if they can maintain that
level of offense even against bad teams, that's when you get,
(27:12):
assuming hell potentially a juggernaut, a sixty plus one team,
which is what they're on pace to do now. Like
if there was one nitpick, you could have had a
couple of games ago. Hey they didn't take night Tuber
back to back in Utah. That seriously, and they are
going to get tested by that again on Saturday in Dallas,
so we'll see how they fare, but they have responded.
It's not that beating the Kings and the Suns at
home is anything to write home about. These are teams
(27:33):
that aren't that good, especially the Suns, and they're currently
diminished form without Devin Booker and Jalen Green. But to
go out and systematically just take them apart with your
defense and to hold them blow one hundred points, that
just speaks to a very well coached team, one that's
very cohesive, that at this point has an identity that
is two way. In contrast to early in the year,
(27:55):
this is not just a team that wants to go
out and outscore you. This is a team that sort
of has that same type of grinded out ability that
they did a year ago, only this time they have
Kevin Durant to boot. And I think that's where you know,
it's sort of fitting like it feels like on the
night that Jalen Brooks at Jalen Brooks, Jalen Green and
Dylan Brooks came back to Houston. The Rockets have finally
(28:16):
assumed the identity of last season's team in regards to
having that defensive tenacity that grint, but they also now
have the offensive gear, the consistent offensive gear with Kevin Durant,
that they didn't a year ago, and so perhaps in
some ways it's symbolic the first time that Kevin Durant
faces the Suns and the first time that the Rockets
(28:37):
see Dylan and Jalen back in Houston. Although Jalen didn't play,
it feels like this is the Rocket's vision sort of
coming to fruition, and this is what, assuming health with
the key pieces, they should be for most of this season.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yep, after Schnight, Rockets do fall to fourth and offensive rating,
but still, I mean with the point seven matter of fact, Ben,
I'll just call close on this note. I was looking
at the twenty seventeen eighteen Rockets team, very special team,
number one in the league that year in offense one
fourteen point one offensive rating. There are seventeen teams in
(29:09):
the league this year with a higher offensive rating than
that team. That's how the NBA is just constantly evolving
and shifting. In this particular year, you've got four teams Denver,
New York, now, Boston, and Houston with higher than one
hundred and twenty offensive rating. We'll see if that continues.
Rockets number two in defense. There is a large gap
between OKC and Houston and really all the other teams,
(29:33):
but Houston is starting to get a little nudge. They're
about a one and a half two point lead over Detroit,
who's third. So Rockets defense is coming along. It's improving
over the last ten fifteen games, and their offense has
just been incredible. You know, no matter who you plug
at take out of that thing, it's just been phenomenal
this year. So great win. We'll be back tomorrow night.
(29:55):
I believe David Wiener Beematha will be here tomorrow night
for that one after uh you know it will be
a road game against Dallas. Ben appreciate you doing this
and everybody for watching. We will see you guys tomorrow
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