Rockets Game 6? No Problem! A White Sox Sweep? No Problem? The 7th Floor Bathroom? Umm...

The A-Team discusses a Rockets' chance to win in the Bay Area, the return of Lance McCullers in Chicago, a potential Giannis trade, AC's new fear unlocked: the 7th floor urinal and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
My girl.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Nolan Hockey.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Multed by the magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Chill lge down for the only home grown.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Afternoon team is talking your teams. Adam Clinton and Adam
Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
A Tonight It's Game six. Welcome in to the A
Team Sports Talk seven ninety as we get you ready
for the latest most important game in the Rocket season.
Wex back in the fold today. I'm not gonna lie, buddy,

(01:00):
I missed you yesterday. I did not like not being
able to celebrate that Game five victory without you.

Speaker 5 (01:06):
My bad.

Speaker 6 (01:08):
You had things to do.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
It's it was you were You had an excused absence,
for sure, I know you didn't. But it was a
lot of fun and it just means that we can
kind of go over it again today before we get
to the latest installment of what is rat Like. I
heard last night, I think as they were signing off,
Brian Anderson say that that was the best first round
series so far between the Clippers and the Nuggets, and

(01:30):
I can't I can't argue with that. But if the
Rockets extend this to a Game seven. I feel like
they're going to have a very good submission to argue
that point.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
Their games have been a lot more last second, last possession.
They also have the moment of.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
The playoffs so far.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
Yeah, that was one of them so early in the playoffs.
I probably oversold that a little bit, but it's something
we'd never seen before, the Aaron Gordon dunk. But yeah,
their games have been like that, and you know, I
guess since you brought it up here, I'll get it
out of the way early. That was pretty good game
sick for James Harden to help his team extend their series.
He did not have a good Game five in what

(02:06):
looked like this might be a usual path, but he
was very very, very very good in helping them push
their series to a seventh game. Somebody's performance tonight in
a Rockets uniform will probably need to mirror that a
little bit if the Rockets are gonna do the same
and push a series they trail three games to two
to a series they host game seven for with winner

(02:28):
take all, winner advances. As you know me, the win
or go home. I always I like to make fun
of myself and bristle at that. Well, the Rockets are hosting,
They're already at home. They're gonna they want to win
and stay home, because not only would a win in
Game seven allow them to continue, but they would literally
stay home one whole day off for either of these teams.

(02:51):
Whomever wins, they'll be playing two days from now. They
Rockets and Warriors got on in every other day's span
of basketball a couple games ago. Obviously, they played two
nights ago, with the Rockets winning. They played tonight, and
if the Rockets win, they will play again on Sunday,
and whomever wins will play two days from then as
the team in the next round. In the Rockets case,

(03:13):
they would host the Minnesota Timberwolves. In the Warriors case,
they would travel to Minnesota to take on Alex Rodriguez's team.
But we'll get there when we need to get there. Yeah,
we'll definitely look at a little bit of what happened
in Game five that should translate, that has to translate,
that better come to play in game six, regardless of venue.

(03:33):
And I do think despite not winning either of the
two games there previously in this series, Games three, in
Game four, I think the Rockets certainly can look at
the basketball that they played for the majority of those
ninety six minutes and think it didn't impact us in
a way that we can't overcome it. Now, they're probably
not gonna like all the minutes they played there the
first few minutes of the first quarter of Game four
and second half similarly, to have those two runs put

(03:56):
in their face. The Rockets then did it all in
one game themselves. That's what Game five was for Houston.
Houston was down eight to five, and then they were
up by twelve, and then they were up by twenty,
and then they were up by thirty, all thanks to
ten nothing run, a twelve nothing run, an eighteen nothing run.
So it has happened on both sides. Hopefully we'll hear
from a few of the players as they prep for

(04:18):
the final time this afternoon and their thoughts on what
they can do to force this back to Houston. Golden
State didn't want to come here. Golden State played Game
five early in the third quarter like, we don't want
to come back here. That's why they took all their
starters out. That's why they said, why chase this one
at potentially the expense of our bodies? In Game six?

(04:38):
To me, that's the only thing of great significance that
happened in Game five. Willing to discuss all the things
that happened in Game five, ye, the comeback, the headbutt,
the backing of teammates, the addition of technical fouls. The
only player that's been ejected in this super intense series

(04:58):
is Cam Spencer's.

Speaker 6 (05:02):
Cam Spencer's brother. Even for you, that's.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
Good, Well, that's because Zach Zarba did it to everybody
in attendance on Wednesday night. He called him camp when
he made the crowd, and then I said it during postgame,
so I wasn't very happy about it. Well he did,
you know, wells it was well deserved, and it's it's
what's it to me? It can't help but kind of
point out that double standard a little bit. There's no

(05:25):
question it was intentional, and that's what clears it up.
It was an intentional headbutt. You're not allowed to do that.
He got ejected. You've got other players doing things that
you would think are outside of the rules enough that
they would also But the rockets, I know, the questions
keep coming for the players, for the coach, for everybody involved.
How do you handle the antic? How do you do that.

(05:45):
They've handled, in my opinion, brilliantly. Yeah, get your own
technicals show. You're not going to back down, push back,
get in their face. They've been on all those things
and never to the expense of having a player leave
the game, even a technical foul freethrow that's been awarded
to this the opposition because of it, when you could
have had you just stood there and taken it. I

(06:07):
think they've handled it well. I don't think it's taken
him out of their game, which is really the only
thing that matters from a mental standpoint. From however, what
has ever boiled over, Rockets have handled it quite well,
and I hope that continues for two more games.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Well, I you know, since you brought his name up,
So for the record, the first person to bring up
an official's name on the show today was not me.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
Yeah, I had nothing to do with his call, to
do with his work on. He was trying to do
our job. He was on the microphone, he was trying
to speak clearly, and he goofed.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
I thought that crew did a great job.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
I thought Zach Zarba, who I was admittedly not worried about,
but he's a lot of people that I talked to,
not fans. I'm talking about like organization people and just
NBA people in general are actually very high on him.
They like him a lot, whereas I've always kind of
been like, I just feel like he's when he referees
Rockets game specifically, I feel like some things have happened,

(06:58):
but I can't. I cannot complain about anything. I mean,
it's hard to complain about anything in a game in
which you're leading at thirty one points at one point
in the game. Even the cute little run that Cam
Spencer's brother and company made to get it to within
thirteen I think is as close.

Speaker 6 (07:14):
As they got it.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
I love the fact that, like some Warriors fans online were,
you know, kind of getting after the Rockets for having
to put their starters back in Well, what did you
expect them to do? Just go ahead and let them
finish that come back and let the season go by
the wayside.

Speaker 6 (07:34):
I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
Yeah, if the Rockets starters would have gotten hurt, then
it would have mattered to me. And I don't mean
to be right by any means. It's not a good situation.
You absolutely did not want to have to do it,
but the only reason you're concerned about it is, well,
something could happen. The only reason they're out of the
game is because something could happen. It's not a back
to back, They're not going to be in my opinion,

(07:57):
The Warriors don't, in my opinion, gain anything from forcing
the Rockets to put their starters in the game. They
don't gain anything from having all the players that aren't
going to play a role in this series outside of
Moses Moody play well. They didn't give their awesome starters,
did not get a new blueprint from their awful reserves
on how to beat the Rockets because the Rockets that

(08:18):
were on the court aren't a factor in this series.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Ever, So, what happened earlier this season between these two teams,
the Rockets reserves came all the way back from a
thirty one point deficit, so.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
Well, they were playing players that matter.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah, But what I'm saying is these two teams at
this point, and Ema even said this, they know each
other so well. They played each other more than any
other teams played each other besides the Rockets and the
Thunder this year. I don't want anybody else who played
two teams five times we've played them twice as much
now well now, yeah, But I'm just saying as far
as the regular season, like, no wonder they hate each other,
they're sick of each other, and but you know what,

(08:50):
I want them to be sick of each other for
another night after this. I need that. I need that
in my veins. So a lot to like about Game five,
particularly the first half. I said this yesterday. The Rockets
played their most perfect first half of basketball this season.

Speaker 5 (09:07):
And they even put the cherry on top of that
because they'd never missed. Yeah, they played good basketball. They
defended well, they rebounded well, they ran their offense well.
But the shots also went in and at a ridiculously
high rate.

Speaker 6 (09:19):
But to in a row for Frev Van Vliet, maybe
he's turned it around.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
Well, you have to hear he is definitely doing something
differently if you're watching him, it's not and I don't
mean the results those are rather obvious. But I'll explain
a little bit of what I think I'm seeing from
Fred on the shots that he's taking and why I
think they have a much higher chance of going in.
They clearly have gone into a sixty seven percent rate
over the last two games. On his eighteen three point
attempts and even better percentage from inside of three point

(09:44):
line eight of thirteen in both games, twelve of eighteen
combined in the last two games on his three point attempts,
So a little bit above what Fred can and needs
to bring to the table. Jalen Green, talking today at
their hotel shoot around before tonight's Game six, he again
as he has throughout the series, with very good self awareness,
correctly assessed his own series. We'll share that with you too.

(10:08):
The Astros. I don't think I would say this very
often during the regular season, and I know the White
Sox are hotter than the Astros. They've won one in
a row and the Astros have lost one.

Speaker 6 (10:18):
In a row.

Speaker 5 (10:19):
But yeah, the Astros, Ace and Ace and Lance McCullers
are the three starter schedule for this series. Yep, this
is a It's not a Rockets like must win, but
it's a gone, come on, let's go ahead and take
care of maybe pushing yourselves further past five hundred. Do

(10:40):
you enter the series in second in the American League
West or two games over five hundred four teams very
closely bunched together, basically one fifth of the way through
the season, and that includes, not surprisingly to me, the Athletics,
who are right there with you. Go ahead and take
care of the White Sox, send them to eight and
give them a three game losing streak. I get yourself

(11:02):
a three game winning streak. Take care of a team
that isn't interested at all in winning baseball games. You are,
and you've gotten to sixteen and fourteen through the first thirty.
I'll make the next thirty a little bit better than that.
And you can do that by starting today. Of course,
we'll have that for you. It'll get us into Astros
on deck at five thirty six forty first pitch, we'll
get the Rockets game started over our news radio seven

(11:24):
forty k tr H. They've got an eight o'clock tip,
so a seven point thirty Rockets countdown. Of course, a
seven o'clock Rockets launch pad. AC will have count down
with you alongside MT for the ballgame tonight. I will well,
starting at three. I guess I could say I'll stay
on the TV side. I'll be over on the TV
side for tonight's game along with Calvin Murphy over on
Space City Home Network. Will get started at seven thirty

(11:46):
and all four of those mentioned are hopefully looking forward
to a seven thirty tip over at Toyota Center, that is,
when the Game seven is scheduled to tip off in Houston.
Should there be a need for a game game seven.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
There is a need for a Game seven in that
I need that to happen, and everybody else in town
does too. First things first, take care of business tonight.
We will discuss the aforementioned Jalen Green when we return.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (12:19):
Carry on allay, Sun, There'll be when you are done,
l YOI we had to rest, don't you cry?

Speaker 5 (12:32):
No.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
In some respects, this is my favorite hour of the show. Okay, well,
because we can play things like this and then we
can't starting at three.

Speaker 5 (12:45):
Yeah, it just gets us right into the content. I
love those hours.

Speaker 6 (12:48):
I know you do. You would have hated yesterday's show.
Somebody sidetracks and that went that bad.

Speaker 5 (12:53):
Normally, when I'm not here at the pace and I'm around,
which I was, I'll usually listen and fire off of
texts to you.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
Well, I wondered if you were listening to any of
the show yesterday, given what.

Speaker 5 (13:05):
You were to get in and out of Austin with
the uh student retrieval process as fast as possible, and
I was able to do some work on the way
up on a day I wasn't working because I'm not
the driver, and I knew if anything was going on.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
What would you do.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
I didn't know about this work you were doing.

Speaker 5 (13:24):
I mean you were still on TV yesterday.

Speaker 6 (13:25):
Yes, in this student retrieval process.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, well that's also very on brand for WEX. But
what work were you doing on the way up there?

Speaker 5 (13:33):
Well, I had to provide the beautiful show and I
got you some nice graphic.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
For those of you who don't know, this is not
some like over the top television production WEX. Well I
know that, but you know, budget dictates things. I think, yeah,
we all would. And but you know, being the former
TV guy and type a personality he is, Yeah, well yeah,
we we we all are in some respects. But yeah,

(13:59):
you do a little bit more TV these days. It's
it's only natural that you would construct the fine graphics
we see every day with all the pertinent content info.

Speaker 5 (14:08):
So I knew when I got there, I didn't know
what actually happened. I knew Robin, who are most my
driver for the day. I knew she had also your
wife also my wife.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
Okay, she I.

Speaker 5 (14:21):
Knew she had work to do and didn't realize when
we got there that was all she needed. She had
to do it, and that's all she did the whole time.
Her work, Yes, actual, real, you know, good work, not
this nonsense we do every day. So she went to
the basically, she went to the library and did work
that's awesome in their house. And then Samantha and I

(14:44):
packed everything that wasn't packed, brought a suitcase, four bins,
two Duffel bags. She had all of her clothes already
packed because she's your kill. Took a long, long, really time.

Speaker 6 (14:56):
Over under two hours.

Speaker 5 (14:58):
Well, I didn't even want to look at the clock,
and I told her, don't tell me what time it is,
because I was hoping it was much earlier than it
was when we finally had the car. Brilliantly tetrist which
was kind of the only thing that was fun for me,
and I knew it would be, so that's I had
to do that.

Speaker 6 (15:09):
Yeah, I'm like you in that way. I do the
exact same thing. I played touts with all that that's
a mad thing.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
So that's a mad thing, and it just just didn't
happen as fast as a pace, so that does I
would have hoped, So there was no way I could
get back in time to share some wisdom with the
people here in Houston. I had to save it all
for today.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
Well, okay, let's start right there, because I have a
very important question. Actually, I have two important questions about
both Game five and tonight's Game six, regarding the Rockets
and that other stupid team, which Jalen Green. Are we
getting tonight? And when I say that, that could actually
mean a lot of different things. I could be saying
Game two Jalen versus every other game of the series.

Speaker 6 (15:45):
Or and here's where.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
The second question comes in, define the version of Jalen
Green that we got in Game five, because even though
we only scored eleven points. You know, you ever noticed
that when Steph Curry scores thirteen, nobody's like, oh, I
got Well, that's because he has a resume that he does.
But when Jalen Green scores just two points less, but
they win by like thirty one at points of the game,

(16:08):
even if it.

Speaker 5 (16:09):
Was Jalen's worst game in the history of his life
in the playoffs, it would have only been his fifth
worst playoff game. That was the sixth worst playoff game
for Steph Curry in terms of points score thirteen points
in a one hundred and fifty two game postseason career.
I know you asked about Jalen, but since you brought
it up, yes, and I know they've been really they

(16:31):
basically thought summer started when Spring started. The Wexley research team.
They've been nowhere to be found for weeks, but they are.
They are still working a little bit in this series.
So I need to go call those. So no, they're fine.
Steph currye hundred and fifty two playoff games, first seventy
six playoff games of his career, which one runs through
May of twenty eighteen. He had nineteen of those games.

(16:52):
That's twenty five percent of those games where he had
a turnover percentage in any individual game of twenty percent
or higher. It basically means he turned the ball over
a lot.

Speaker 6 (17:01):
This means he was.

Speaker 5 (17:02):
Careless or just try to do too much, was a
heavily used player. Whatever the case, maybe twenty five percent
of his games or a turnover percentage of twenty percent
or higher and tip it's just a number of he
obviously turned the ball over a lot in those games,
that's a lot. And in the next seventy six games,
which he just completed with the fifth game of this series,

(17:23):
he went seventy one consecutive games without doing that even
one time, and then in the five games of this
series he's done it twice.

Speaker 6 (17:32):
Yeah, so first.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
Seventy six games of his career he basically did it
once every four games. Next seventy six games of his career,
he didn't do it once in any of the games
except for two of the five against Houston, two of
the five against Houston, and includes game five. They did
not win the one nine to one to Ozho six
game when he did it the first time in this series.
So he want to kind an indicator that you should

(17:54):
have won or you will win. You're in the game,
and it's an indicative of how you've been able to
defend him. Really, the point I'm making how the Rockets
have been able to defend him. And I still think
they played good defense against him in all of the
games in this series, even when he nearly had a
triple double, even when he's popped for thirty plus, they're
still doing the things that will usually indicate you're gonna

(18:15):
have a chance to win this game, because if he's
scoring more, that obviously means the others who have had
to pick it up for him in the games where
he's scoring less haven't done that. You're not gonna see
he and Pajemski and he'll do that. You may see
he and Butler do that, and we have, but it's
very unlikely that it's going to go that way. The
Rockets haven't changed their philosophy on how to defend Steph
Curry this entire season. All ten games, they've tried to

(18:38):
play it the same way. At different points in time.
They've had different personnel available to them, and luckily for them,
in all five games of this series, unlike all five
games of the regular season series, they've had the same
group available to them. He didn't even play in two
of those games during the regular season, so you throw
that out. The Rockets didn't have everybody they have at
their disposal now then, and the intensity level is very

(19:01):
different for both teams. But I think there we're going
to see more of the same, even if it's a
oh my god, Steph Curry's hot. He just scored thirteen
points in five minutes oh my god, Steph had thirty
five tonight. That to me is not why they will
win or lose this game.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
Yeah, well, okay, so I have, you know, relegated myself
to knowing that we're not we're not gonna likely in
the next two games should they be played. Get a
thirteen point eight point respectively outing from Steph Curry and
Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 5 (19:31):
Yes, six of twenty two from the floor for those two.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
And how about the fact that what he scored thirty
six in Game three, Steph, he has scored thirty combined
the next two games.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
Right, And much like the people trying to tell everybody,
oh my god, Jalen scored less than ten points in
all these straight games going into the playoffs, Steph Curry
played five minutes of the second half. Of course, he
only scored thirteen point. Jalen Green was playing out the
string for his consecutive game streak in game eighty, Game
eighty one, and Game eighty two, and who cares if

(20:01):
he didn't get to double figures in the whatever tiny
number of minutes that he played in those games the
two seasons, So carrying that over into his postseason performance
is foolish. And I was unfortunately seeing too many people
do that. But he has recognized what hasn't been there,
and he basically said as much today. For those that
were in San Francisco covering the Rockets availability this afternoon,

(20:24):
Jalen Green said the following, as transcribed by Kelly Eco
of The Athletic, I don't think I've played good at all,
for real. At one game at the crib that's Houston,
which was pretty good, But overall I haven't really been myself.
But that's okay, first time experience. Just got to get
back to being aggressive and stop overthinking. And it sounds

(20:44):
to me like he has to keep telling him this
each game at points in each game, because I do
think it's been difficult for him to get to that
in this first postseason experience. Just playing You asked for
a Game five description. I thought that's what he did
in Game five up until knock knees with Steph Curry
late in the first quarter. He was aggressive, he was

(21:04):
sharing the basketball, He figured out a way to finish
at the rim. When he got fouled by Steph Curry
on that baseline drive, Steph Curry hit his right hand,
it knocked the ball free and he tapped it in
with his own left hand, all in one motion to
get the three point play. He made the early three
to give the Rockets the lead, which they never gave back.
He played basketball the way they need him to play basketball,

(21:27):
and that's still whether or not the shots go in.
When the shots go in, that just gives you that
much more kind of cherry on the top of it,
so much more leeway, maybe so much more cushion on
the scoreboard. But he hasn't played the way they need
him to play overall, careless turnovers, lack of focus at times,
a lack of confidence driving to the rim, meaning he

(21:47):
doesn't know what he's gonna do when he gets there.
He is he looking to pass? Is he looking to finish?
Does he already know where the defense is coming from
to make it a more difficult play. He's had a
hard time getting a handle on that, and he's by
no means alone. Look at what the Amen Thompson series
has been, you know, from game one to where we
are now going into Game six, it's like a totally

(22:08):
different player.

Speaker 6 (22:09):
Yeah. Now, he's a guy that I would never trade
for victim women Yama.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
My understanding that was the topic of conversation. I didn't
bring it to the table, but yes, what's why. The
people that we are here for are more than welcome
to join the show by any means necessary via social
media on our handles, our respective handles. Two of us
as lowly humans at mister Cole Thompson, we just use
our names Adam J. Wexler and at Adam Clinton right

(22:34):
there on the socials.

Speaker 8 (22:35):
Get rid of the regular Cole Thompson, but they're on
Twitter already.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
Listen to this guy. Yeah, the other guy's regular Cole Thompson.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
Sounds like me with my Instagram accountster, I got to
put a stupid underscore between my two names because some
jackass doesn't even use his account and has my handle.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
Every once in a while. Go look at it. I'm
telling everybody nothing. It's funny that it's just not necessary
for this other person at.

Speaker 6 (22:58):
I would DM him to ask him about it, but
he wouldn't see it.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
We'll see if Clinton slide in slides into the other
ACS dms this afternoon or not. But like I said,
you can join us on the program. Share your thoughts.
What do you think about this upcoming game six? What
do you think they have to do to make sure
there is no response from the Warriors and end of
this series tonight seven one three two one two five,
seven ninety. You guys like us enjoy what's always out

(23:21):
there on social media. That's why we hit you with
best of X, and that's what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Next the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (23:33):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 9 (23:34):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts
to day.

Speaker 5 (23:38):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 9 (23:41):
History repeats itself type bang, you'll succeed. Never doubt that
you're the one two plus for no one build lead.
You're the best X. Nothing's gonna ever top. You know
you're the best.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
X.

Speaker 6 (23:59):
Post it. Never see you're the best of it.

Speaker 9 (24:04):
Breaking the entire internet.

Speaker 6 (24:08):
All right, let's break the Internet. No, I'm serious this time.

Speaker 4 (24:12):
Occasionally we come across something and in this case this
is via a text from cold this morning that actually
might break at least the Warriors Internet. Because it hurts
to be told you're wrong, or to have your your
faults pointed out, your flaws, your warts, or your stupidity

(24:36):
in this case. But you know, we here in Houston
have had to deal with the Warriors machine for a
long time. And that machine is not just the team
that is has been dominated over the past decade and
won a lot of games and titles and all that stuff.
Like the respect is there for what Steph Curry and

(24:56):
then you know Klay Thompson when he was there have done,
and even Draymond Green from a win standpoint, like, I'll
recognize everything those guys have done to help win championships.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
But what I will not do is a.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
Sit around and act like the fans had anything to
do with that, Like from a physical standpoint, some of
them actually, I think honestly believe that they won those championships,
at least the way they will talk about the situation.
But I really it's gotten to a point now where
in this series specifically and even going back to the
regular season, America, it's time for America to heal. It's

(25:32):
time for America to fight back against this BS bubble
insulated narrative that the Warriors are not only can do
no wrong themselves, but are somehow victims when it comes
to physical play, especially this time of year. Nobody is
one hundred percent right now, you just got done. Wex

(25:52):
talking about the bumps and bruises that Jalen Green has
played through in order to complete eighty two games played,
which no one else did, and everybody around the league
is dealing with something right now. It's the playoffs we're
getting into May. It's like any sport later year goes
more you're gonna be dealing with from an ailment standpoint.
So the fact that Steph Curry is running around and

(26:15):
sometimes having effective games with a bum thumb is impressive,
but he's hardly like an outlier, and nobody wants to
hear about him being hunted or that we're, you know,
here in Houston, Dylan Brooks and the like are intentionally
trying to injure him or make his injury that exists worse.

(26:36):
And so finally a national voice had had enough and
said as much on a podcast. This is Zach Low,
who I think a lot of people that follow the
NBA feel like he's well respected, and this is what
he had to say about this BS narrative, that the
Warriors are actually victims.

Speaker 10 (26:56):
There is no more Homer broadcast in the entire NBA
and for all I know, in the world of sports
than the Warriors broadcast you don't have to take what
they say with the grain of salt. You have to
take what they say with a silo of salt. And
of course they're going to bring it up and accuse
the Rockets of nefariousness. You have Draymond Green on your team.

(27:17):
You don't think that dude is a ultra physical to
the point that he's borderline like getting teed up or
ejected from half the games and be any dirty trick
not dirty. I retract the word. I use it in
the facetious sense. Any bit of extra physicality and let
me grab an army.

Speaker 6 (27:33):
I would just say, let's give it a rest, win
game six.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
I mean that sounds like me doing a show, like
any number of times the Rockets have played before or
after a Warrior's game or a series over the last
ten years, we've.

Speaker 6 (27:45):
Been doing radio that whole time.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
For the most part, it's just I guess it was
a breath of fresh air to hear him. But this
all started Wednesday night, just after the game. Wex had
done the he was on the bricst he was still
wrapping up the postgame show. And this is in typical
Wex fashion, peel the curtain back He's holding his cell phone,
which is still mounted into the miniature tripod to his head,

(28:11):
listening to something while he has his headset on.

Speaker 6 (28:13):
What are you listening to?

Speaker 11 (28:14):
Now?

Speaker 6 (28:14):
What press conference are you listening to?

Speaker 4 (28:16):
And he proceeds to explain to me because I hadn't
seen it all yet. The game had just ended and
I wasn't downstairs in the postgame scrum that the Warriors
broadcast was feeding into this narrative that Dylan Brooks basically
had a machete out there on the court and was
hacking away at Steph Curry every time he took a
jump shot.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
It's amazing how much has been said about it when
literally nothing should be said about it, not one thing.
Have you seen what Dylan Brooks is doing in this series?
What you mean nothing contesting a jump shot?

Speaker 6 (28:49):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (28:49):
Playing basketball? Right, Yeah, I've seen it. He plays basketball
each game. He's played all five games. I've seen it.
So what is it in specifically that we're referring to. Oh,
he's trying not to let the other guy score legal. Uh, yeah,
I've seen that all five games too. He hasn't been
called for a foul once on a follow through on
any shot. It's a foul if you do certain things,
but he hasn't done those things. And it's not just

(29:09):
Dylan Brooks. It clearly is for the purposes of the
storyline and the narrative, and and he's not even really
feeding into it. He's a common sense communicator. Oh, this
guy's got a bad whatever in his case. He said ankle,
of course we're gonna go after it. He's not saying
I'm going to bash his wrist with my forearm even

(29:30):
if it gets a foul called on me, because I
know his wrist hurts. That is literally what Draymond Green
did in a previous series against the Rockets to an
injured James Harden. He's not trying to defend him.

Speaker 6 (29:41):
And admits it.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
He's well, he doesn't have to admit it.

Speaker 6 (29:44):
It was.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
He was not during a defensive play. It was while
James Harden has had his hand out near his body, Draymond.

Speaker 6 (29:50):
So he just smashed it.

Speaker 5 (29:51):
It's it's a foul, and that that is a you know,
fouls are technically illegal, but they're not outside of the
normal basketball stuff. So I'm not gonna go that far.
But what is it the Rockets are doing? Have you
ever noticed many three point shooters will hold their hand
out after a shot, and obviously Steph Curry does it.
It works for him. He makes the shot so often
this is just part of what he does. So guess

(30:11):
what it's going to get hit. And as Steve Kerr
himself explained at length, what is happening is perfectly one
hundred percent legal. Now he explained it in a way
that I think is absolute, utter crazy Wednesday at four
to thirty.

Speaker 6 (30:29):
Stuff.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
It's total it's total nonsense, and he's one hundred percent
going to be wrong. I will happily say otherwise if
there's a change made next year. Nobody is complaining about this.
Nobody is worried about this. Nobody is getting injured by
this epidemic.

Speaker 6 (30:46):
Either. It's a nothing.

Speaker 5 (30:47):
This guy's had a fine year, he's gonna have a
fine series, he's gonna continue to have a fine career.
Teams are shooting at an all time high. So the
league's gonna say, we got to stop this. We gotta
keep players from defending three point shoot the way we're
allowing them to defend them. Now, there's nothing wrong with
how they're defending. Now, nobody thinks this that I've ever
heard of on or off the record, and so I

(31:08):
think this is just a total nonsense in side a
series ploy by Steve Kerr. If I can buy three
calls in game six, then it would be awesome. I've
already rested my guys because we got our butts kicked
in game five. We were in no contest, a no show.
This team that should be prepared for everything that's been through,
everything completely black. Just we're not ready to play. So
I got to see if I can steal some call,

(31:30):
steal some opportunities here, even get Dylan or whomever's defending
him into foul trouble with this utter nonsense that this
is a league wide problem and other coaches know it
and everybody's been talking about it, then why is everybody
making all these shots all the time. I don't understand, Steve.

Speaker 6 (31:46):
It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Speaker 5 (31:48):
It is you just said it, so it would be
the dumbest thing we've ever heard. It just came out
of your mouth on this particular topic. Now, Otherwise I
don't really have an issue with some of the stuff
that's happened, and I like this. This is part of
a series, This is what we've been missing here for
the last several non postseason seasons for Houston. This is
what it's all about. The longer it goes, the more
chatter becomes. This series has been hotly contested from the jump.

(32:11):
If you noticed earlier, I couldn't help but make sure
we all had an accurate tally as we headed into
play for tonight. There's been a few kerfuffles and instances
where players have gotten together. I ran out of character,
so I would have written it like this when I
posted it. As we head in two games six tonight.
These are the only players that have earned technicals or

(32:32):
flagrant in the Rockets Warrior series. This is the only
group only listed players, very small number of names here,
the only players who've been hit with a tech or
flagrant in this series through five games. It's just Draymond
Green and Tari Easton and Pat Spencer and A Men
Thompson and Steven Adams and Dylan Brooks and Steph Curry
and Trace Jackson Davis and Quinton Post and Alprin Shanoon

(32:52):
and Jalen Green. Just those eleven players, Only those eleven
different players, many of them have more than one technical
and there's been an ejection. That's how many different people
are trying to advance and giving everything they have to
it and maybe taking it to the we're not backing
downstage to the point where the referees have to step in.

(33:15):
This hasn't been quite the late game heroics that Denver
and the La Clippers have produced, but every bit as intense,
if not more so. And if their Game six is
anything like this, Game six will be locked in until
the forty seventh minute, forty eighth minute, maybe the fiftieth minute.
If this series hits over time for the first time,

(33:36):
that's best of.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
X the eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 11 (33:42):
Ninety back at it here on a Friday edition of
the program Sports Talks seven to ninety x AC with
you leading you up to a big, big, potentially Houston
sports weekend. It's gonna start off that way.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
But if the Rockets can somehow get this thing back
to a Game seven, which as WEX mentioned, will tip
off at seven point thirty on Sunday night, in the
event that it is a seventh and decisive game, then
you got a big, big weekend where you'll have Game
six tonight alongside fromber Valdez opening the series in Chicago

(34:25):
against the White Sox, the electric Hunter Brown going in
Game two, and then the return of Lance mccullors, where
you can really book in yourself a nice weekend. It's
a very winnable series, a sweepable series. Dare I say,
if your bats do anything in Chicago, and then obviously
if the Rockets are forcing a game seven, well that's
just gonna be awesome.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
Yeah, it's a simple process. You take care of who
you can take care of, and the White Sox are
that for every team in baseball. They didn't get swept
in their last series. They won one time. They are
coming off that win. They did get a shutout in
that win. That means basically, whoever threw in that game,
how they did it. But they won't be thrown today
against the Houston Astros. They got Jonathan Cannon, who has
actually pitched well against the Astros in the past, Davis

(35:07):
Martin and Bryce Wilson. Their pitching stav isn't particularly good.
Their offense is significantly worse. They're one of the handful
of offenses that are worse than Houston's so far this season.
Nobody worse than the Rangers, but pretty bad. Nonetheless, Rangers
do have the worst offensive baseball if you measure it
by runs, kind of important. They score the fewest runs

(35:27):
per game of anybody in baseball. And they did something
I thought was pretty interesting this weekend. Now they have
an alternative, So I think it's one reason why they
made the move. I talked all off season about. Yeah,
I kind of like what the Rangers did this offseason.
I like the addition of Jake Berger. I like the
addition of Jack Peterson. Jack Peterson has been a humongous
fall on his face, and Jake Berger's been almost identical.

(35:50):
They had to demote him, a player they didn't just
sign in free agency. They traded prospects for with the
Marlins to land Jake Berger. And he has been so bad, poor,
so unable to help this awful, awful offense that he's
a big reason for why they are. They just said,
all right, we'll see if he can get it together.
In the miners, he's nineteen for one hundred. He's got

(36:14):
thirty two k's in those one hundred bats. He's hitting
one ninety as ops is five sixty one. Clearly that
is grounds for demotion. Hitting one ninety six with thirty
six strikeouts at one hundred and seven at bats, but
a slightly higher ops at six thirty two is the
Astros version of that Christian Walker. They don't have a

(36:38):
first basement in the miners that they could bring up,
which is what the Rangers have done. I don't think
they would be asking Christian Walker to do this either,
and I don't think they need to do this because
it doesn't seem like the same thing, even though the
numbers are remarkably sadly similar. In this coming off of
what we were talking to you about Wednesday after the
Astros game when we were doing the Tenth Inning Show,

(37:00):
it's just over and over and over again. The Astros,
who had three good days of offense, and I include
the Wednesday game a good day of offense. They had
four runs, but they had ten more at bats with
runners in scoring position. They left twelve men on base,
which means a lot of times they were leaving runners
on base that were in scoring position. And Christian Walker
was the ultimate culprit, unfortunately, and that's been the case

(37:20):
all year wherever he bats, if it's fourth or it's fifth.
I don't think it's a coincidence because every year. It's
a coincidence with whatever players are struggling in that role.
It's not a coincidence Teams are pitching certain ways to
certain players in front of them, saying, do I really
want to give the guy hitting in front of Christian
Walker something to hit with two outs?

Speaker 6 (37:37):
Why?

Speaker 5 (37:38):
I don't care if I load the bases. I don't
care if I push a runner into scoring position, I'd
rather pitch to him. So the opportunities keep going up,
but the role results keep staying the same. Two strikeouts
with the runners in scoring position, the other one an
opportunity as well to get guys in and couldn't do it.
Three chances, three fails. It's this team would be in
a lot better position than the good position they're actually in.

(38:00):
They're sixteen and fourteen with a very poor showing from
their offense as a whole, and by no means is
it all on Christian Walker. Hello, Jordan Alvarez, let's get
a week of great baseball and maybe we'll shake free
of this Yiners hit two sixty over the last handful
of games, and it's like a miracle that he's hit
two sixty. You've had to switch Jeremy Pania into the

(38:21):
leadoff spot. Jose al Tuve has been there for what
half a decade, but something had to be done. And
it's not it's Jeremy's fault. Jeremy Diden hasn't done this,
and it's not it's Jose. It's a team wide, constant
through thirty games issue that I mean, the Astros are
going to win this division if these thirty games are
their worst offensive thirty games of the year. I'd love

(38:42):
to tell you I know that they will be, but
I don't know that I've seen evidence to say for
sure that it is.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
I I just want him to do what you said
at the very outset of this segment, which is obviously
beat up on a very very winnable club or a
club that you can win these games against. But considering
how the rotation lines up for this series, you should
definitely win the first two and then let's see, Like
I get, I get that it'd be nice to see

(39:09):
Lance mccollor's re debut as a major league pitcher here
in Houston, but it kind of it's kind of nice
to see it on the road against a winnable situation,
so that maybe he doesn't necessarily run into a buzz
saw and can ease his way back into things.

Speaker 5 (39:26):
I think what has to happen, and you're saying it
without saying it. It's not even that they have to win
these first two games, so they're not looking up.

Speaker 6 (39:32):
Man.

Speaker 5 (39:32):
We don't want to four game lose. They need good
pitching performances. So if I mean Lance isn't throwing six
innings against the White Sox, probably he probably throws five.
If everything goes well, maybe he throws four.

Speaker 6 (39:45):
Tends to pitch.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
You need fifteen outs, twelve outs from your bullpen with
your aces going on Friday and Saturday.

Speaker 6 (39:53):
Don't wear them out.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
Get your six or seven innings Fromer gave him eight
last time out there. If those things happen and win
or lose, then you're in good position to win. Lance
mccullor's start, you win it.

Speaker 8 (40:05):
You need fifteen strong innings combined between Hunter Brown and
fromberval doos over the weekend.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
Well, I think, I mean, that's that's not too much
to ask from a guy like Fromber And honestly, it's
getting to the point where that's not too much to
ask from Hunter.

Speaker 5 (40:17):
They can just keep film Aton's brother down and keep
Andrew Vaughn von down and Josh Palacius down and Michael A.
Taylor down and they're all hitting under two hundred. Hopefully
they can keep them there.

Speaker 6 (40:27):
See, but we make these jokes.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
We made these jokes last year, and they found a
way to lose a game to the White sauce game.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
You shouldn't lose games to the White soxe. And to
lose sixty five times this year, well it shouldn't be.
They're not gonna there will probably go something in oh
against three maybe four teams this year. The teams they
barely play.

Speaker 6 (40:45):
Well, they should be one of them. They play them
six times, well they should go six and zh.

Speaker 5 (40:49):
We will see if they manage to do that. We'll
get you on the other side. Kick off the three
o'clock argrap back in on a specific item of great
interest on Rockets winning Game six. We'll do that when
we come.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Back the A ten on Sports Talk seven ninety two
lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your Team's Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 6 (41:23):
Three o'clock hour underway. That means we are another hour.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
Closer to both Astros Baseball and Game six between the
Rockets and the Warriors Houston taking care of business Wednesday
night in game five. We've talked a little bit about that,
but they cannot keep their season alive unless they continue
to take care of business the rest of this series.
That begins tonight with a later tip, but not the

(41:50):
latest of tips. Out on the West Coast in San Francisco,
you'll hear that game over on news radio seven forty
k t RH. You'll also see it here. Actually, what
is this situation on Space City? Are we Are they
doing the alternate channel?

Speaker 11 (42:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (42:03):
Two games got alternate. Yeah, Astros on SCN two and
then the Rockets will be on SHN the original.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
I wanted to make sure we were giving the viewers
the accurate information. So yeah, Astro's game will be heard
here on seven to ninety. Rockets game will be heard
down the dial on seven forty. And that's your television
because we're not They're not on any other channel.

Speaker 6 (42:25):
It's it's all Space City.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
Speaking of which, we were talking to a number of
parties out there in the Bay Area. I know Vanessa
Richardson joined the Matt Thomas Show, but also emy Udoka
came on to uh you know, talk about what's going
on in this series. And I gotta say this, especially
after seeing the way uh Steve Kerr handled everything after

(42:50):
the game, and frankly just how he is in general.
It is nice when all the nonsense started the other
night that somebody asked imy Adoka what his response would be,
and he said, how would you respond to that?

Speaker 6 (43:02):
And he said, I wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (43:03):
Yeah, the nonsense about what the broadcast was saying and
the Rockets doing certain things, specifically with an injured player,
how would you respond to that? He said, I wouldn't
And they went on to the next question, one that
was much more important, hopefully for him to answer, and
so there I love his response to that. I think
the team has the same response. It's it's really not
about what the Rockets are doing, and that's that has

(43:25):
so little to do with how they're having some moderate
amount of success on an outstanding player. Honestly, last night's
finish in the Knicks Pistons game could show you what
a delicate situation this is. You've got the Steph Curry
of the Knicks. Everybody knows who's going to have the
ball late in the game. Obviously they're a little lefty
Jalen Brunson, who's been phenomenal in his postseason career, both

(43:48):
briefly in Dallas and now permanently in New York, where
some are going out on a limit saying he's the
greatest nick that's ever lived, and that's going to be
what we all think when his run is done. We'll
wait on that one just a minute. But he did
score forty. He did the game hit, the game winning three,
just a few minutes after his defender, who's been awesome,

(44:09):
Osor Thompson, forced him to just dribble it out of
bounds and turn it over late in a super tight, close,
every possession matters game because Thompson is an awesome defender
against this player, and Amen Thompson was also an awesome
defender against that very same player the very game after
he was announced as the Defensive Player of the Month,

(44:32):
and he couldn't stop Jalen Brunts and Jalen Brunson drove
out him four or five times in the fourth quarter
of a super tight game, and a men couldn't stop him.
And it takes you to the final play last night
with I think most of you have seen final offensive
play for the Knicks. He was able to completely shake
Amend's brother Asor. And I've watched it one hundred times.
I'm like, did he push off? He must have pushed off.

(44:54):
That's Brian Russell and that's Michael Jordan. He definitely pushed
him right, and I still see it. I think he
just made such an unbelievable cut. If there was any
kind of physical push, it was minimal, and it just
got a great, great, well respected young defender out of position.
He hit the game winning three. The Rockets have to

(45:15):
like what they've been able to do, and if they're
able to do it again, they'll they'll be coming back
to Houston. But you can like your position all you want,
you still have to go out there and finish the deal.
But that's where the conversation will bring you. The part
of the conversation with email U Doak and the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross earlier today begins about the position
that they're in going into this game six.

Speaker 6 (45:36):
Yeah, guys, they're feeling confident.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Obviously, to your point, we had some really close games
and I had opportunities in both of them, and it
was time to put the script. Obviously, you got to
win these games and then make a few subtle adjustments
to come out with a different outcome.

Speaker 12 (45:51):
You're such a smart man when it comes to staying
away from social media, and for that I applaud you.

Speaker 6 (45:55):
I cannot do that.

Speaker 12 (45:56):
So what I've done is looked around and everybody's given
me their experts on what's going to have to happen
for them to win the game, or what's going to happen.

Speaker 6 (46:03):
For you guys.

Speaker 12 (46:04):
It feels like to me, the overall sentiment is that
Jimmy Butler's going to have to have a bigger role offensively.

Speaker 6 (46:10):
You would like to curtail that.

Speaker 12 (46:11):
What's the most effective thing you think your guys have
done to make him a non effect of the last
couple of games.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Well, attention to detail with what he likes to do,
But the main thing is keeping him off the free
throw line. Obviously the game he had twenty seven, he
had twelve free throws twelve or twelve.

Speaker 6 (46:26):
There and other than that reguarded him.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Okay, I think he was seven for sixteen from the field,
and if you don't put him at the free throw line,
nine of his twelve or not not even on shots.

Speaker 6 (46:35):
They were just foules. We gave him off ball.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I mean the one three pointer obviously late hurt us,
but keep him off the free throw line. Stand down
with the pump fakes and understand he's trying to bait
fouls is a big thing, and he has his big
games traditionally across the board, and when he gets the
free throw line and he can get his rest, he
can get everybody else set defensively, and so we.

Speaker 6 (46:53):
Got to keep him off the line.

Speaker 13 (46:54):
ROCKETEC coach Eima Adoko with zero on Sports Talk seven
to ninety.

Speaker 6 (46:58):
Coach. One thing that.

Speaker 13 (47:00):
People don't really talk about a lot nationally is when
this series shifted from a couple of days off between
games to just one day off in between games. I
feel like that gives the younger team in your squad
the advantage. Would you agree with that and just in
general adjusting when a series does go to the every other.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Day Yeah, I think you know, the fresher younger teams
of an advanta is there. You got their main three
players that are thirty five and over, and so the
way we want to be aggressive defensively and physical and
you know, have attention to detail on these guys. You
want to make a tough on them every possession and
so physically that starts to wear on you obviously mentally

(47:38):
as well, and the freshness goes away when you don't
have two days of rest. And so we like where
we're at right now. Like I said, we can duplicate
what we did last game and be.

Speaker 6 (47:49):
Physical there and without fouling. That's a benefit to us.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
And you would think part of the reason they shut
it down early was to try to get rested up
for this game.

Speaker 13 (47:57):
Jalen Green looked like you had a bit of an
issue at the beginning of the game. How is he
feeling and what are your expectations for him in game six?

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Oh, he's good to go. Jalen's always good. He's gonna
play through everything. He cut cut base line of bumpkned
knee with Curry and so literally came out, got some
ice and heat on it, and it was good to
go from there. So that minor bumped that he's gonna
play through, as you know, and just a quick stinger
in the game.

Speaker 12 (48:24):
Look, you need to win. You need to win a
game based off of forty eight minutes. But there were
two stretches in game four here that really hurt the
early start and then the eighteen to one start for
them in the third quarter. Obviously you want to a
race that is there anything do you chop up games
like that? I've actually before, but do you think about
those five or six integral parts of games that go, Hey,

(48:46):
this separates us from winning a close game like we
can do against his Golden State team.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
Definitely, a big part of this series is to avoid
the runs. They're a big momentum team that it's going
off of turnovers and and things of that nature. Putting
them at the free throw line, and we did all
the above. Obviously, it started the game we had too
many turnovers that got out ran, and then to start
the third quarter it was a little bit more of
the same. But love how we bounced back last game.
Obviously forty to twenty four in the first quarter, so

(49:14):
we guard extremely well and we were obviously scoring at
a high level, so bounce back from that. I loved
how the starters came out there and then did the
same thing in the third quarter.

Speaker 13 (49:24):
It's been a very physical series, a lot of trash
talk at which I'm sure you love, and there's been
a lot of reviews for altercations, but what is it
like for you as far as talking to the team
about you want to keep that physical and mental edge,
but you don't necessarily want to give up free points
with technical fouls, and you also don't want anybody getting ejected.

Speaker 6 (49:42):
Yeah, it's a balance.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
If you understand both teams are being aggressive, you can
play physical without being dirty or anything like that. And
so for us, we know who they are, they know
who we are, and you.

Speaker 6 (49:53):
Got to avoid the antics from certain guys and not
get caught up.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
And then I think our guys have done a decent
job of that.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Overall.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
There's going to be some physicality and things that happened
as far as that, but for the most part, if
you do get a.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
Technical or something, you move on to the next play.

Speaker 6 (50:07):
But not getting baita into things, that's the main thing.
And so a big, big theme going into.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
The series was not getting caught up in certain things
by certain players, and I think we've done a decent
job of that.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
I think they've done an incredible job of that. We
talked about that a little bit earlier. Appreciate the boys
getting email on as they always do each and every week.
The full interview available to you at Sportstalks seven ninety
dot com or via our podcast page or via the
iHeartRadio app. We know you know that you should have
SportsTalk seven ninety number one on your presets if you
haven't already updated the apple. That's first things first, go

(50:39):
ahead and do that. Then you can take advantage of
that feature of having the iHeartRadio app offer you the
ability to set those presets. Put sports Talk seven ninety
number one on your presets. You won't miss a thing
that we have here for you on the air. One
other thing that I certainly think also two things that
stood out Jalen Green. We noticed it when we were
at the game that he had obviously twitched something with

(51:00):
his knee, and to hear that it was just basically
him and Jalen said the same thing after the game,
just banging knees there, and we could see the treatment
he was getting while he was on the bench. He
came back later in the fourth quarter or first quarter
after the injury I think clearly was not needed at
full go the rest of the game because they were
blowing the Warriors off the floor, at least the good
Warriors they were. And the other thing he mentioned is
I think he's onto something if they want to go

(51:22):
ahead and get that started. I think if you were
playing a three on three over thirty five men's league,
I agree Draymond, Jimmy, and.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
Steph would crush. They would basically be unbeatable. I have
a little grain in your beer to be in that.

Speaker 5 (51:37):
It was a thirty five and older three on three
team with those three players on it, I think would
give me any other three players walking the planet. I
think they might beat them all.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
Maybe I'm I'm just bullish because I sit here in
Houston and we cash checks for the team. But the
Rockets haven't been trailing by double digits in every single
game of this series.

Speaker 5 (51:59):
Every single game the Warriors have. But they've won three times.

Speaker 6 (52:03):
I know.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
I'm just they've blown a double digit lead three times.

Speaker 4 (52:06):
Yes, yes they have. That is one way to look
at it, for sure. I just feel like, top to
bottom with the way things have gone with their defense.
They and I said this yesterday, they're they're just dumb
enough to win this series because they don't know any better.
I don't know why they can't, though. I just don't

(52:26):
look at the Warriors as some juggernaut.

Speaker 5 (52:28):
Nobody nobody does. That should not be confusing to anyway
nobody views really, I know this is where we get
into the semantic. Well this person nobody. Nobody viewed them
going into the playoffs, nobody viewed them once they got
But they're not a jugger. Nobody in the West is
a juggernaut. Even Oklahoma City. Every series was winnable by
every team that was in it except for Memphis. As
you've seen play out so far in the Western Conference playoffs.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety, that.

Speaker 4 (53:05):
Is the eight teams four SOX seven ninety, Space City
Home Network wex ac Cole Thompson with you on a
Friday edition of the program, Game six tonight between the
Rockets and the Warriors. By the way, when you're hearing
emy Udoka last segment and he's talking about uh Jalen
Green and the bumping of the knee with Steph Curry

(53:30):
and the fact that he's playing through some things, because
I think there's been times this year, like right now
with Steph Curry, he's not one hundred percent, but nobody is.
Somebody was talking about this with me. There are certain
guys that they will sell out on both ends and
they can because they're just freak athletes mainly. I mean,
I'm in Thompson's one of them, but I'm talking about

(53:51):
primarily scorers that do this.

Speaker 6 (53:52):
This is why Jordan was so great.

Speaker 4 (53:55):
He was an all defensive type on that into the
floor in addition to doing all the stuff he was
doing as a score Are you of the belief because
I am that there are just some guys that your
offense is just gonna suffer if you sell out on defense,
and you have to sell out on defense on this
team if you're playing for em Udoka, which is what
this person was saying as well.

Speaker 5 (54:15):
It's something I brought up as this series was kind
of unfolding because we'd already played five games, seen five
games against this team, three of which included Steph Curry,
and I did think when you looked at two of
the players in particular, Jalen Green and Fred Van Vliet,
and you could add both of them outside of Jalen's
Game two to the first several games of this series.
They weren't necessarily the only defenders by no means, but

(54:39):
they were spending a lot of time chasing Steph and
Steph which has been documented over and over and over
again about how much he moves on offense. I think
that does take a little bit out of you, a
little bit out of you from a shooting perspective. But
then in game four, in Game five, further into the series,
with less rest in between games games, one of the

(55:01):
players who's been chasing around Steph Curry has absolutely been
unstoppable offensively with his jumper, and that's Fred van Vliet,
hitting twelve of eighteen shots, hitting sixteen of twenty six
shots overall. The eight of the three pointers were the
first number I mentioned, So it really doesn't match.

Speaker 6 (55:18):
Up very well. That's why I say, some guys.

Speaker 5 (55:21):
You're not supposed to be. I think it should have
impact almost everybody, and I think you've seen it. The
bigger the star if you can put a team around
him that allows you to just absolutely buy into that theory.
I don't want him selling out on defense. I don't
want them hunting him necessarily, but I don't want him
selling out on defense. You better believe absolutely that's been
happening for ten years, eleven years with Golden State because

(55:46):
of who they have out there. Andre Igwadala won an
MVP of the Finals Draymond Green's been his teammate for
every season of his career. I believe or you know,
at point they need other players to do those things
so they don't have to also ask him to. Nico
Harrison did that last year for Luca. He built a

(56:07):
team absolutely perfectly around one star scorer and one star
offensive player, with brilliant defensive players both in the back
court as reserves, and obviously their entire front court, and
then some. They had Lively, they had Gafford, they had PJ.

Speaker 6 (56:23):
Washington.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
They were more than capable of shutting other teams down
even if they hunted Luka Doncic. Lakers aren't built the
same way, and so in Minnesota hunted Luka Doncic, they
kicked their butts, they embarrassed them. I'm not going to
get into that because it'll sound like I'm like everybody
else trying to point out all the reasons they lost
that aren't Lebron James, when in fact, he's one of
the biggest reasons why they aren't moving on the main reason.

(56:47):
We'll get to that, I'm sure some other time, because
we got Rockets basketball here. Jalen's performance from how much
he's giving defensively, If that's what you were getting at,
I don't really think that's there. I just think he's,
As he said himself, it's been much more of a
mental thing trying to figure out how to be Five
games into this regular season series, he hadn't and the
team hadn't figured out the best way to get him going.

(57:09):
It's all but one game in this series. They haven't
figured out the best game, best way to get him
going offensively. But if he goes out there and has
nine rebounds like he had the other night, six or
seven assists like he's had in this they'll be just fine,
even if maybe he's not scoring twenty, maybe not hitting
the majority of his shots.

Speaker 4 (57:28):
It's just so odd because if Jalen Green scores thirty
eight points, I'm guaranteeing a Rockets win, isn't it Like
wouldn't you agree?

Speaker 5 (57:37):
I would put the number even lower? But yes, yeah,
point as for sure.

Speaker 8 (57:40):
So.

Speaker 4 (57:40):
But every other game in this series, including Game five
where they were stomping them in a mud hole and
walking it dry, he's not been much of anything offensively.

Speaker 5 (57:51):
Well, scoring wise, He's what I mean. I think he
had a good offensive game in Game five. It just
wasn't coming.

Speaker 6 (57:55):
It was in the flow of the offense too.

Speaker 5 (57:57):
He only took eight shots right, scored eleven points, had
to assists, had eight rebounds. I said nine, He had eight.
He also turned it over zero times. That's good offense,
that's good basketball. What do you do in Game four?
He said, Hey, buddy, I know your name is buddy,
but I'm calling you buddy. Would you like the basketball
because you can have it right at the beginning of

(58:17):
the game. Hey, Brandon, you want the ball. You can
have it too.

Speaker 6 (58:19):
I don't care.

Speaker 5 (58:19):
I don't need it tonight. You guys can have it.
They the Rockets can't have that. Turnovers have been a
non issue big picture, but when they have those rash
of turnovers the beginning of the game and the beginning of
the second half, it was a huge issue. They've been
pretty good about it. He's been very good about it,
except for that very small, tiny portion, which is a killer.
That's playoff basketball. I can't point to one little stretch

(58:42):
of time and say, oh, you just got to push
that aside.

Speaker 6 (58:45):
They all matter.

Speaker 5 (58:46):
Three minutes of Game three. I don't know which three
minutes they matter three minutes tonight. Well, if you're out
playing them for forty five minutes and you got a
ten point lead going into the final three minutes. What
if you have a bad three minutes, You're gonna lose
by one. They're gonnaut score in a short period of
time by such a large margin that all of the
work you pit in, all the focus you put in,
all the intensity that you put in, all the communication

(59:08):
that you successfully executed, what goes out the window because
you lost focus for three minutes.

Speaker 6 (59:14):
Yeah, I hope that's not the case.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
I don't think we're at the point in this series
where the familiarity does factor in.

Speaker 5 (59:21):
I mean, to me, it's it's that's what what I
described was game for. They had no focus at the
beginning of the game, They had no focus at the
beginning of the third quarter, absolutely annihilated the Warriors for
the other forty minutes.

Speaker 6 (59:31):
This is why I'm so convinced they're the better team.

Speaker 5 (59:34):
Right, But that's why I'm so convinced that you have
to prove it by not doing those things. That's why
it's forty eight minutes and last segment I said, oh,
the Rockets have blown a ten point lead three times.
I don't believe that for a second, because ten point
leads in the first half of games aren't blown leads.
I've watched enough NBA basketball in today's NBA not really
in any air, ten points is nothing.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
In the ninety four finals, it would have been insurmountable.
That's that's probably true.

Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
But you're right. I mean, it's just a style of
game that they play. It's hard.

Speaker 5 (01:00:03):
Like I keep going back to their blowout win. That's
as hard as anything else that anybody's done this postseason,
getting a lead against a good team and not ever
letting them back in the game. You had the lead
so early. They never threatened. Not one minute of that
game after you went up double figures did the Warriors
with their starters in the whole game. They never threatened

(01:00:24):
that lead because you always had answer, because you never
lost focus.

Speaker 6 (01:00:27):
This is why I think they're the better team.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
This is why a lot of people are like, I
know a lot of people are actually like, this is
foregone conclusion. The Warriors win tonight. Why why are you
have you watched the series? Because it's the Rockets beating themselves.
If that's how you feel, it's what you're talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:00:44):
Right, But this whole conversation excludes the one other part
of it. I mean, Golden State is still making this happen,
Jalen Green. I'm talking about him giving the ball to Buddy.

Speaker 6 (01:00:53):
Well.

Speaker 5 (01:00:53):
What doesn't happen in the regular season is teams don't
guard you for fifty five feet. Well in the postseason
they might.

Speaker 6 (01:00:59):
They are with him.

Speaker 5 (01:00:59):
That what they were doing, they were putting pressure on it.
They were making him uncomfortable, and it worked and they
made that happen.

Speaker 6 (01:01:05):
He didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:01:05):
He turned it over, but it was because of the
pressure they were putting him on out putting on him defensively.
A men's turnover to start the game, that's that's not
without the Warrior's help. They he drove baseline, he had
nowhere to go with the basketball because of how they've
been defending him, and he threw it out of bounce
because Fred was nowhere near where he threw the ball.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
I'm gonna throw you another wrinkle, though, if a men
Thompson has found himself, which I know that sounds ridiculous
because when did he lose himself during the regular season.

Speaker 6 (01:01:32):
Never?

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
But he hadn't looked like himself for most of this series.
He's been out there, but he until Game five, he
really hadn't looked like the demon that we've all become
used to here in his latest season. But I'm here
to tell you that he if he plays like that
the next two games, because there will be two games,
it doesn't matter what Jalen Green does necessarily, because that's

(01:01:55):
offsetting enough of it already. Look at the games where
Jalen wasn't a big score in a the men was
just a nothing on offense. And I'm not asking him
to score twenty five like he did in Game five.
But if he gives you fourteen sixteen and he's doing
all the other things defensively, he doesn't even have to
have five steals over under two and a half steals tonight,
you know, like one.

Speaker 5 (01:02:13):
Hundred and twenty four minutes in the first four games
for a Men Thompson over those one twenty four he
had three steals and two blocks. In his thirty five
minutes of Game five, when he didn't have to play
much more because of the blowout, he had five steals
and three blocks, two more steals than the whole rest
of the series combined, one more block than the whole
rest of the series combined, and he found his spots

(01:02:36):
and his teammates found him in those spots. It only
took him twelve shots to get to twenty five points
because he was always in the right spot. He obviously,
like everybody else, hit his free throws. This has That
was the Amen Thompson that exploded onto the NBA media scene.
Oh my gosh, I didn't realize Ament Thompson is a
future star. The future for sure started in Game five.

Speaker 6 (01:02:58):
That's why I wouldn't trade him.

Speaker 5 (01:03:01):
We probably will revisit that because it's such a fun,
ridiculous topic. There's two trade topics that one. I'm okay
with the Amen Wemby topic because it's so silly. But
now that Jannis's season has come to a crashing end again,
I don't want to talk about any Giannis trade to
the Rockets right now because the Rocket season isn't over.
But I'm aware it's being talked about, and it is

(01:03:23):
a possibility that Yannis will bounce the ball the next
time in the NBA for somebody other than Milwaukee. So
we will get into that probably a little bit later
this hour on the eight Team.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
It's the A Teams Sports Talks seven ninety xac Cole
Thompson with you on a Friday afternoon. This is one
of those where I just want everything to start. I
want the Astros game to get underway so that it
can bridge the gap between the time we get off
the air and the time that Game six can start
ruining my life even if they win.

Speaker 6 (01:04:06):
Like, I'm not like wex these things there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
I mean, Game five was great because it was like
over almost midway through the first quarter that you didn't
have to stress it. Every other game in this series
has not.

Speaker 6 (01:04:18):
Been that way.

Speaker 5 (01:04:19):
I like the stress.

Speaker 6 (01:04:20):
No no, no, no no no.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
Well, when you're pressure is about three games to one,
it's pretty much gonna be stressful if you're able to advance.
So I'm all for it tonight. Make it last as
long as possible. Get it to a game seven. Then
you have the opportunity to advance. You don't have an
opportunity to advance until you get it to a game
seven because you weren't able to win but one of
the first four games, even though they had a chance.
And as we sit here today, there's five games into

(01:04:45):
this series. One of the two teams has had a
chance to win all five games, and it isn't Golden State.
Golden State's been blown out. Rockets have lost by double figures,
But in none of the games that they lost were
they blown out, were they not in the game with
five minutes to go? Was it not a one or
two possession game late in the game. The final margin
was a little larger than that because you started at

(01:05:07):
a couple bucket difference and they outplayed you down the stretch,
so it grew. It wasn't a situation where they weren't
there at the end or they couldn't have put three
more good minutes together and walked out of there with
the win. That's all, great, Neto, It's all about what
you do down the stretch of those close games. Those
they've only had a chance to win three games, Great,
they've won them all. That's why you're down in this series.

(01:05:29):
When it has been a game, a close, dramatic, intense finish.
Golden State's the team that's been able to come through
in all three of those instances. You know, they hit
just enough free throws in the game that went one
o nine, one zero six to offset the Rockets charge
late in that game. The fact that the Rockets had
that last shot to take a one point lead probably
would have been a couple of ticks left had scheng
gun shot gone in or Steven Adams or somebody else

(01:05:51):
been able to tip it in before they went back
and it to more free throws, and again the Rockets
were out of timeouts, so they had to just take
the ball out and throw it into Fred and hope
for it desperation three, which wasn't too far off, but
often enough that it didn't go in that they didn't
get a basket. We've talked almost none about the Eastern
Conference postseason over the two weeks that they've been running.

(01:06:12):
Hadn't been a whole lot of compelling storylines from those
on the Western Conference side. Obviously, the Knicks Pistons series
was outstanding, and unfortunately two series had their final game end.
That was one of them. The Pacers Bucks game was
the other, with a fumble, a football like fumble, Gary
Trent Junior fumbling the ball out of bounds on a

(01:06:33):
pass right at him, right in his hands.

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):
With the lead in overtime, Jade Cunningham couldn't even tide
his disgust.

Speaker 5 (01:06:40):
Yeah, that was the play this last night Kate Cunningham
and the Pistons that actually drew something up that had
the Knicks defense scrambling. Mickel Bridges absolutely left the only
good three point shooter on the entire Pistons team, even
though he hadn't made one in the second half, he
made six in the first. He had to leave him
because he had to get over to where Cad Cunningham

(01:07:01):
had gotten around the defense, put a hand in his face,
and Cunningham delivered a beautiful, simple, easy pass right into
the hands of Malik Beasley, right behind the three point line,
right where they needed him to be to send that
game to overtime. And you could see it live and
you could definitely see it on the replay. He was
already positioning his hands and his eyes on making the
basket before he received the pass, so he fumbled it

(01:07:24):
out of bounds. Storyline from that series was how great
the games were. A storyline from the first series I
mentioned was, well, I'm saying it right this time. This
is the WEX way of saying it. Tyrese Haliburton's dad.
That is how we're supposed to refer to him. It
should never be a storyline. It became a storyline, and
it was with the player who talked again, this is

(01:07:46):
Giannis after a season about his disappointment. He didn't want
to answer questions about what his future might hold, and
he said in a very respectful way, I'm not doing
that today. He talked about the incident. I think said
very accurate things and heartfelt things, correct, things that the
league should absolutely take heat of, and the Pacers certainly did.
With Halliburton's dad not grounded, available for a future. Just silliness,

(01:08:09):
but it brings us to Giannis chatter and Yannis is
an NBA champion with a very different looking roster. He
has continued to put up insane numbers in the postseason,
and this year was no different. He was absolutely statistically incredible,
and he doesn't really do it like anybody else. You're
not giving him the ball on the post and the

(01:08:31):
half court offense. It's not usually that he's just breaking
guys down. He's beating guys up and down the court.
He's out athleticizing guys on his way to the basket,
and he's dominating the glass and feeding teammates.

Speaker 6 (01:08:42):
He's a much.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
Better actual basketball player even without those conventional ways of
scoring than people give him credit for, especially since he's
awful at shooting threes, which the fewer he shoots, the
easier it is to overcome that issue stop shooting them.
Some years he's better than others, but it's still a
pretty desirable player elsewhere in the league. And when you
keep losing in the manner that they're losing in the
weaker East, you have to wonder if this, with two

(01:09:07):
years remaining on his contract, is the year he says
to the Bucks, I think it's time to explore a
change and move me.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
Well, as Brian Windhors is going to explain, if that
is the case, then there are two teams that he
thinks you should keep an eye on, and they're both
in Texas, and neither of them are the Mavericks. So
I'll let him do the rest. But this is very
very interesting considering we haven't even gotten to the draft
lottery yet.

Speaker 14 (01:09:36):
I want to point two teams out to you, the
San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets. Both of them
are in the lottery. I know Houston still playing. They
might win tonight. They're in the lottery. They have Phoenix's pick,
which is a whole nother problem. They have a whole
bunch of pieces on their roster. What if they hop
up into that top four? Look out there, look out there.

Speaker 5 (01:09:57):
The draft lottery is just days away. Today's second. Ten
days from now, they'll hold the NBA Draft lottery. The
Rockets with the ninth highest combination of basketball or of
ping pong balls, gives them a three point eight percent
chance to go number one, a seventeen point three percent
chance to, as Wendy said, move into the top four.

Speaker 6 (01:10:16):
That's a pretty significant chunk.

Speaker 5 (01:10:19):
Yeah, Or if nothing crazy happens in the lotter, even
for them, they'll have the ninth pick, which is where
they currently sit. If nothing changes and teams behind them
don't jump them and force everybody backwards, so their pick
is a little bit worse. He mentioned the San Antonio Spurs.
They have their own pick, which is one spot ahead
of Houston's, with a nine percent chance uptick and their

(01:10:41):
chance to go one through four. But they have the
eighth pick, and they also have the Atlanta pick, which
is the thirteenth pick, and the corresponding odds to go
with if.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
They get the number one pick in the draft. I'm
driving to San Antonio and burning down the Alamo.

Speaker 5 (01:10:53):
So I just couldn't let this go. I knew at
some point this week we'd get to it. An account
that does it, you know, covers basketball a little bit
of an aggregator, but well over one hundred thousand followers
posts the following the Spurs are expected to ask about
Giannis as they're committed to putting together a contending team
now with Wemby, as Jake Fisher reports, and so they

(01:11:13):
add to that san Antonio has well, they said san
Antonio have because they don't know grammar. San Antonio has
thirty six future picks over the next seven years. And
it is true, they do have thirty very but it's
very It is the dumbest thing you could ever write,
because you're just trolling people who don't understand what you mean.

(01:11:36):
I'll explain it to you. They have their own first
round picks basically for the next seven years.

Speaker 6 (01:11:41):
That's seven of them and one other. And the other
picks are.

Speaker 5 (01:11:46):
Almost useless, almost one hundred percent useless in a giannisn
Aakeempo trade. Yeah, but they have thirty six picks, So
I'm gonna make it sound like they've got all these assets,
when in reality they have their own picks, a couple
of pick swaps that equate to that, but they don't
have ten first round picks round pick.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
If you're making a deal with Milwaukee and you're the Spurs,
they're going to ask for one of Darn Fox or
Victor Woman Yama. If they're trading you Yannis, that's what
they're gonna do. Well, they're gonna get told no, that
trade's not happening.

Speaker 3 (01:12:20):
The A team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
Ninety A team rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
We are going to be joined at the top of
the hour by Danielle Lerner.

Speaker 6 (01:12:37):
Of the Houston Chronicle.

Speaker 4 (01:12:38):
By the way, she is in the Bay Area covering
that series, and catch up with her on Rockets Warriors
Game six tonight, trying to force a Game seven that
if you weren't listening or you didn't know this earlier,
WEX mentioned it seven point thirty tip on a Sunday night,
I cannot imagine on a Sunday the for a Game

(01:13:00):
seven the Rockets would have any sort of problems having
every butt in the seat. But you never know. That
place is amazing when it's full. You just got to
get him in there. But real quick, going back to
last segment with the whole Yiannis talk, I mean it
is out there.

Speaker 6 (01:13:16):
You heard Brian Windhorse.

Speaker 4 (01:13:18):
The worst trade proposal ever was in the Athletic I
know you saw this.

Speaker 5 (01:13:22):
Yeah, but our listeners would love to hear it.

Speaker 6 (01:13:25):
This is insane, all right.

Speaker 4 (01:13:27):
So the Athletics says, yeah, Yannis, he's coming to Houston.
He's gonna be a Rocket. Nice, he's gonna wear red,
not thirty four though, Nope, you're not wearing that. You
might be able to take some pointers from him, you know,
because it's convenience and all that, but you're not getting
his number.

Speaker 5 (01:13:42):
I mean, I don't think he's going to be the
Warren Moon to your cam Ward, but we'll see.

Speaker 4 (01:13:49):
Moving on, I can't even I mean, Warren never played
in that city. It's so stupid. There's not even anything
to compare it to.

Speaker 6 (01:13:57):
There's nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:13:58):
Still, you remember Warren Moon being on the sidelines for
all these Titans games over the years, like dream is
sitting courtside for all these Rockets games, like the very
last game they had that and the game before that,
and the game before that, and thirty games each regular season.

Speaker 4 (01:14:11):
By the way he does still to this day, looked
like he could put up about twenty and ten, but hopefully.

Speaker 5 (01:14:17):
But him in that thirty five and older league I
was talking about.

Speaker 4 (01:14:19):
I bet Draymond wouldn't smack his wrist. Maybe fifty and older.
Dream will punch you in the face. If you're Billy
Pultz and others. Curtin Imphius, give me another one. That's
a tough one. I would have to really go into
the vault for that. Was it Milwaukee or the Celtics.
It was just yesterday, it was anniversary, might have been today.

Speaker 5 (01:14:37):
Well you might be thinking of a I think there's
a nice Charles Barkley punch to Greg Kite's face.

Speaker 6 (01:14:42):
No, no, no, this is dream. Okay, this is dream early career.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
He's still a keem as a matter of fact, because
I remember reading the caption, but I can't remember who
the opponent was. His mouth needed stitches afterwards. Rough for him.

Speaker 5 (01:14:56):
All right, So what's the trick?

Speaker 4 (01:14:58):
He got a technical and stayed in the game. By
the way, just wanted to put that out there. I
think the streams were different.

Speaker 6 (01:15:03):
The trade.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
Uh, the Rockets get Yannis at tenth to Coombo and
Jeremy Grant.

Speaker 6 (01:15:10):
That's a good deal.

Speaker 5 (01:15:11):
So Portland is involved in this three team.

Speaker 4 (01:15:13):
Deal, the Blazers would get Alpa and Shingoon and Jacques Landell.

Speaker 5 (01:15:20):
Okay, so we've lost one rotation player from the current team.

Speaker 6 (01:15:23):
Yeah, Jaquelndell, No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 5 (01:15:25):
Jock, by the way, is out tonight after playing in
Game five.

Speaker 6 (01:15:28):
I don't get it.

Speaker 4 (01:15:31):
The Bucks get a Men Thompson. So I'm already out.

Speaker 6 (01:15:34):
On the deal.

Speaker 5 (01:15:35):
And that's two rotation players Jalen Green.

Speaker 6 (01:15:37):
That's a third.

Speaker 4 (01:15:38):
Cam Whitmore, Okay, Donovan Klingen's corpse?

Speaker 6 (01:15:42):
What is this?

Speaker 5 (01:15:43):
What?

Speaker 6 (01:15:43):
Why?

Speaker 4 (01:15:44):
What?

Speaker 5 (01:15:44):
Because he's a good player.

Speaker 4 (01:15:46):
Twenty twenty five first rounder via Phoenix, twenty twenty seven
first rounder via Phoenix, twenty twenty nine first rounder the
most favorable of Milwaukee, Portland or Washington, and twenty twenty
eight and twenty thirty Milwaukee swap rights extinguished.

Speaker 5 (01:16:04):
Can you just run that through for people one more
time and say they get these four players, but this
number of first round picks us three first round picks
plus those four players three from the Rockets, one from Portland.

Speaker 6 (01:16:16):
Uh, well, four from the Rockets.

Speaker 5 (01:16:19):
Because men Jalen and Cam the only three Rockets headed there.

Speaker 6 (01:16:22):
Oh to the Bucks.

Speaker 5 (01:16:22):
Yes, yeah, and Donovan Clinton like what they're getting for
you honest, because that's what they're giving up. Yeah, it's stupid,
but if you say it this way, it sounds even worse.
They're gonna get the fourth pick in the twenty twenty
three on NBA draft, Amn Thompson maybe the first. No,
this is what he was. He was the fourth pick
in the twenty twenty two draft. In Jalen Or twenty

(01:16:43):
twenty one, they're gonna get another first rounder and Cam
went More. I already forgot Clinging because everyone was to, oh,
I think the Rockets are gonna take them. I think
the Rockets are gonna take Clinging at three, another top
seven player, Donald and these other three first round picks
for not that young anymore. Jannis an A Takupo. Really,
he's for thirty, he's really, but he's also played a

(01:17:06):
billion games. He's definitely he's and his hole like Russell Westbrook.
It's all athleticism. And I'm specifically bringing up russ because
they both are awful at shooting threes. After all these years,
there's no additional.

Speaker 4 (01:17:21):
Dever won that game last night if he get hit
a layup, he blew like the Billions layup.

Speaker 5 (01:17:26):
I know, God, he's not because he can't finish. He
can't dunk it. Every time it happened here, he couldn't
done it.

Speaker 4 (01:17:32):
Crazy thing is, though, he gets to the rim, which
takes that athleticism, but he can't get the athletic now.

Speaker 5 (01:17:38):
He can get there, he just can't get above there.

Speaker 6 (01:17:41):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:17:41):
I'm not concerned about Giannis during this current contract. He's
only got two years. But if you're trading for Giannis
for two years and this is you know, all your
all you're giving up to get him. I mean I
don't mean all, I mean you're giving this all up
to get him. Well, you certainly can't have that in mind.
Next year's year thirteen, at age thirty one, the Rockets
would be the Bucks. If they trade like that for you, Honis,

(01:18:05):
you're taking away two of pro arguably your two most
important players and a men and alprint and you're also
losing arguably you're a next most important player. He's somewhere
in the top three. Jalen Green, You're not gonna have
Fred forever. Dylan's obviously not getting another contract. I wouldn't
think so. Who's even playing with Giannis anymore?

Speaker 4 (01:18:23):
I'm like athletic and I and look I, I mean
I have a little bit.

Speaker 6 (01:18:29):
Of the Rockets.

Speaker 5 (01:18:31):
Wanting to get better immediately is absolutely something they're thinking about.
The Rockets looking at this year's team and saying, look
how close we already are. If we stick together, we
might get closer, and if we make a deal for someone,
we might get closer. They have zero interest in changing
the course of their franchise by gutting it. There is

(01:18:52):
no trade out there that they will gut their franchise for.
I can guarantee you that two players that are change
could have changed the fortunes for their teams this year
were traded at the deadline. One went to Golden State.
They didn't have to cut their franchise. He's an old,
thirty five year old butler. Another San Antonio Spurs I
should say three traded for Diaron Fox and he's not

(01:19:14):
nearly the level of player we're talking about, but they
didn't have to give up anything to get him. And
then obviously Luca. The Lakers didn't have to gut their
franchise to get Luca.

Speaker 6 (01:19:23):
The Lakers already have their franchise gutted.

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
And they have a player who's not according with him
win because he's always hurt, and they used that to
move on and get Luca. The Rockets don't have anything
available like that. There's not going to be a GM
on the other end, that's saying, well, we can either
try to keep winning with our franchise player where everybody
loves us and we saw out every game, or we
can trade Giannis away for nothing and pennies on the

(01:19:48):
dollar like these other trade That trade doesn't exist. There's
no reason for the Rockets to basically start over.

Speaker 6 (01:19:57):
Smith Junior still in this deal.

Speaker 5 (01:20:00):
This is absolutely starting over from scratch.

Speaker 4 (01:20:02):
So what I said was who wrote that? Because I
want their home address so I can do a wellness check.

Speaker 5 (01:20:06):
I'm not anti getting a player of that caliber, even
though I think there's a better way to do it,
a better player out there, probably, but I'm not getting
my team for it. I want to advance the team.
He's playing on a team that has comparable talent to
what you just turned your Rockets into, and he's losing
in the first round in the East with it constantly.
What do you think he's going to do? In the West,

(01:20:27):
just less.

Speaker 4 (01:20:28):
A bunch of dumb I don't know why anybody wrote this.

Speaker 6 (01:20:31):
But it wasn't Danielle Lerner. I can tell you that much.

Speaker 5 (01:20:35):
Danielle Lerner was elite on the socials over the last
couple of days. If you don't know why, I'll point
it out. When she joins us next. She is there
on site covering the Rocket says Game six gets set
to begin. She joins us next.

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
The AE on Sports Talk seven ninety two. Lifelong Houston
sports guy's named at him talking your team. So, Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 5 (01:21:11):
Let's get right into it here in the four o'clock
hour on The A Team. Adam Wexley, Adam Clint, and
Cole Thompson here with you on the Friday edition of
The A Team. It's Game six tonight out in San
Francisco Chase Center, where the Rockets will try to get
a first win on the road in this postseason, which
would send them to a Game seven back here in
Houston if they're able to get it. Obviously, they won
Game five to continue their season, won it in a

(01:21:33):
very strong offensive and defensive ever, put up one hundred
and thirty one points did bring their starters back into
the game, but nonetheless won rather easily. And there are
a bunch of different things that came out of game
five and certainly over the five games. We need to
discuss with Houston Chronicle Rockets beat writer Danielle Lerner, who
is on site with the teams they get prepared for
tonight's game, And Danielle, we very much appreciate your time,

(01:21:56):
but as I teased into this interview here, I do
have to get to first things first. Press conference situations
over at Toyota Center usually have myself, if I'm able
to attend postgame, and yourself seated in a similar right
side of the room position, which gives us a nice
angle on who might be trying to get in the room,
because there's a nice little window in the door. And

(01:22:17):
the picture you posted of an eager but maybe impatient
Fred van Vliet awaiting his teammates to wrap up was
legendary on social media. I enjoyed it very much.

Speaker 15 (01:22:27):
You know, I try to contribute to the memescape as
much as I can.

Speaker 5 (01:22:31):
It is one hundred percent going to land in the
social media stratosphere many many times over in the future.
I will make certain of it. Fred van Vliet, he's
topic number one. Why has he shot the ball like
he shot the ball in the last two games.

Speaker 15 (01:22:48):
I mean, I think the Rockets have done a much
better job with their spacing, right. That was the main
thing that they talked about after the Game one loss.
Is their spacing on the floor was terrible. Everybody was
being very impatient, you know, rushing their shots, not waiting
for other guys to get set up. And so I
think the improof spacing has naturally led to you know,
kicking the ball out more to Fred for those open threes.

(01:23:11):
But I think it's also partially on him, where he
just kind of had to say, Okay, look like we
need somebody to score the ball consistently, especially to add
kind of another dimension to the offense from what Alvirin
Shangun is doing inside, and they're not getting that consistently
really from anyone else. So he said, I've got to
do it. And you know, I think that they've needed

(01:23:31):
that from him. You know, if you look at his
highest scoring games this season, a lot of them were
against high caliber opponents like the Thunder, like the like
the Calves. You know, he's stepped up against the bigger teams,
and I think that that's what the Rockets need him
to continue to do in the series.

Speaker 4 (01:23:48):
There's so many guys that you've looked to as the
series has progressed, because now we're going into Game six
and you obviously, if you're a Rockets fan, you want
another game played, and the organization wants that. But it's
take in some evolution of you know, Fred's jump shot,
Jalen Green, what version of him are you getting any night?
But I think a men Thompson is the guy with

(01:24:09):
the highest trajectory because he just, for whatever reason, almost
looked out of his own element in the first couple
of games and then he's kind of slowly but surely
come around. But Game five he looked like the demon
we all know and love.

Speaker 15 (01:24:22):
Yeah, I mean, that was definitely his best game these playoffs,
and I think for him and a lot of the
other young guys who are experiencing the postseason for the
first time, they've said like it is a learning curve,
you know. I know that's not something that fans want
to hear at this point, especially after you win fifty
two games in the regular season, you kind of feel like,
you have an idea of who this team is and
how they should play on the big stage, but it

(01:24:43):
is different. And Jalen said it after the first game.
He was like, oh, it was the core look huge.
You know, my legs were kind of shaky. And fourth,
that's happening to a men Thompson as well. But you
know we saw him, like you said, get back to
his old self. And I think when it starts on
the defense, and that's kind of for the team as
a whole. When they start on the defensive end coming

(01:25:04):
in lights out, that naturally leads to shots falling on
the other end, whether in transition or in the half court.
So you know, we saw a man pick STEP's pocket
a couple of times, run out for that one big dunk,
and I think that was kind of where the momentum
started turning in the Rockets favor.

Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
There are several plays that specifically should be pointed out
that a mend made.

Speaker 6 (01:25:24):
That was one of them.

Speaker 5 (01:25:25):
The other duck was one of them. But I have
to point out that Dylan Brooks portion of yet another
play when he got his own offensive rebound a men
did and then dunked it on Gary Payton. The second
and then basically said, hey, refs, give me a technical
because I'm going to go right in his face and
I'm gonna scream at him before Dylan Brooks pulled him away.
I was on the radio side that night and was
watching it intently.

Speaker 6 (01:25:44):
The refs.

Speaker 5 (01:25:45):
I don't know if they didn't see it or wanted
to cut him or brake because we're in this highly
contested series, but it's the kind of thing they usually
would want to have to call to prevent anything more
from happening. I say it to bring up Dylan Brooks
in the role you think he's played in the development
of some of these players, the attitude this team has,
and his own personal involvement in helping them get to

(01:26:05):
a game six.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:26:08):
I mean, I think Dylan Brooks is really the archetype
of kind of the attitude that Imodoka has tried to
instill around the Rockets, which is just toughness, don't back
down from anybody. And I think a man already was.

Speaker 6 (01:26:19):
That, right.

Speaker 15 (01:26:20):
That's his personality naturally. That's if you listen to him
and his brother and their families, you know, talk about
his childhood. He's been that for a long time as well,
it wasn't something that they had to transform him into,
and so I think he and Dylan are very much
similar personalities. And even a men was like, oh my god,
I was so in the heat at that moment that

(01:26:40):
I didn't realize that it was Dylan who actually stepped
in and pulled me away from Peydon. But he kind
of was like, that's kind of crazy, because usually we're
doing that for Dylan, right. So the fact that multiple
guys on that team can, you know, kind of play
that role both of peacemaker and of instigator, I think
is indicative of the growth of the team together into

(01:27:02):
kind of one personality and one identity.

Speaker 4 (01:27:04):
Talking to Danielle Lerner here on Sports Talk seven to ninety,
she's in San Francisco for tonight's Game six between the
Rockets and the Warriors. You know, it's interesting that there
is so much chatter about the future of this Rockets
team while their season is still underway. And I know,
you know, we're supposed to just think that because it's
three to one, they'll roll over, and but this is
not the same Warriors team. And I you know, I

(01:27:26):
like to say that the Rockets and this is complementary
when I say this, are just dumb enough to win
this series still, but that lends itself to the youth
movement that has gotten us to this place. Are you
surprised that there are, you know, superstar trades being thrown about?
And I know the answer to that, but like, are
you surprised even more so that the way the Rockets

(01:27:46):
are responding to that? Emai Udoka and even rafel Stone
when you talk about this, they're very coy about it
and you never really know what they're actually thinking, and
it makes me wonder if they would pull the trigger
on certain deals.

Speaker 15 (01:27:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I think that they would be
foolish to not be involved in those conversations this summer. Like,
I fully expect them to have conversations both internally and
externally about some of these stars who are available, because
why would you not consider it? But I don't think
that they're willing to kind of mortgage the entire young
core that they've built in order to get one of

(01:28:21):
those guys.

Speaker 6 (01:28:21):
I think that that would really.

Speaker 15 (01:28:23):
Undo all of the progress that they have made in
the investment that they've made in these.

Speaker 6 (01:28:27):
Guys over the last several years.

Speaker 15 (01:28:29):
Could they part with some of them, Yeah, sure, but
I don't think it's gonna be a thing where, you know,
some of these trade scenarios I'm seeing thrown around or
so just by fans online, but some some national media
as well, saying oh yeah, they're just gonna give up
like eight players for your honest like, that's not happening.

Speaker 6 (01:28:46):
You know, Uh, what would you guys?

Speaker 15 (01:28:48):
What what would Giannis come here for then to play
by himself? So I don't know. I think that the
playoffs are definitely going to inform what Rafelstone in his
front office do this summer, but it's not going to
be like the deciding factor.

Speaker 5 (01:29:04):
As you kind of look in on what game six
percents the Rockets, do you look at how they responded
being down one game to none, how they played in
game two, how they responded playing an elimination game two
nights ago here in Houston, and how obviously well they
played then, And thinking about what you expect to see
from this group tonight, I don't.

Speaker 15 (01:29:24):
Just because I think this team has been so unpredictable
and inconsistent all season, and that's been.

Speaker 6 (01:29:30):
In a good way and in a bad way.

Speaker 15 (01:29:31):
You know, we've seen some of their worst losses where
when they played down to really bad teams. Some of
their best wins were when they really stepped up against
some of the best teams in the league. So I
kind of have given up trying to predict what this
team is going to do. But I also think, you know,
they do play really well when they have their backs
against the wall when they need to. But the other

(01:29:52):
thing that I don't really trust is their ability to
sustain that offense. I think they've gotten contribution from a
lot of different guys in this series. Jalen Green obviously
had that one big game, but has been pretty inconsistent,
and he was telling us this morning, like, I know
that I've had ups and downs. I don't feel like
I've played well at all minus that game too, and

(01:30:14):
he said there is a playoff mode when the Vets
talk about it, like I felt it in Game two.
I haven't been able to recapture that, and I'm just
gonna have to try my best to do it. So
you know, it's not a thing that these guys are
just deciding what to flip a switch or not. It's
it's really credit to the Warriors for trying to take

(01:30:35):
them out of some of the things that they like
to do. But you know, even if the defense is
super locked in, I think it comes down and making shots.

Speaker 4 (01:30:43):
Yeah, and they're going to have to do that somehow,
some way on the road. I think I said this like,
this is going to be of the games they have
to win. I've actually almost expected them to blow out
the Warriors in Game five. Maybe not to the degree
that they did, but you know, your season's on the line,
you're on your home floor. With the way the Emay
coaches this team, I just wasn't that surprised. But I

(01:31:05):
feel like, you know, the pressure will start to go
on the Warriors a little bit tonight since they're on
their home floor. But if the Rockets forced this game,
I think this is the hardest game to win because
then it's like Game seven.

Speaker 6 (01:31:17):
Anything can happen.

Speaker 4 (01:31:18):
This is of the games they've had to come back
in this series to force it to get to that
seventh game. I think this will be the most difficult
given all the circumstances.

Speaker 15 (01:31:28):
Yeah, I agree for all the reasons that you just said,
and also for the fact that at this point these
two teams are so familiar with one another that it
just makes it that much harder to prepare and scout.
You know, at this point, the Warriors know the threats
that the double big lineup is going to bring and
the rocket zone defense is going to bring. They kind
of understand the type of ball pressure that can potentially

(01:31:48):
disrupt Shaleen Green and disrupt the offense. You know, they
understand the threat that a Men Thompson is as an
on ball defender. So there's really no more surprises. I
think that either team can on each other. So it
really is just gonna come down to execution.

Speaker 5 (01:32:04):
It's what it usually comes down to what we get
to this point of the postseason, and we look forward
to hearing it here, seeing it here, and reading about
it from you as well, Danielle. We certainly appreciate the
time and enjoy the contest tonight. Thanks guys. Danielle Lerner,
Rockets beat writer for the Houston Chronicles. She mentioned they're
just gonna have to make shots. They went six for

(01:32:25):
twenty nine from three point distance in Game one.

Speaker 6 (01:32:28):
Did the Rockets.

Speaker 5 (01:32:29):
They've shot better than forty one percents in the series
on threes. Since that continues, I like the chances of
a Game seven on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:32:39):
Night, the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:32:50):
Well, the PR battle for baseball supremacy continues. Not surprisingly,
New York and LA dominate. Hunter Brown is not your
pitcher of the month because well, broadcasters and PR people
like New York better than Houston.

Speaker 6 (01:33:07):
See what I did there?

Speaker 5 (01:33:09):
I did? See what you did there?

Speaker 6 (01:33:11):
Now? Max Freed was good.

Speaker 5 (01:33:13):
Max Freed is your American League Pitcher of the Month,
as selected by the aforementioned group of people. He did
have a very good month. Max Freed posted a one
to one nine ERA for the month that was better
than Hunter Brown's pathetic one point two to two ERA
for the month. They each gave up five earned runs,

(01:33:36):
but Max Freed got two more outs. Thus his ERA
was point zero three better than Hunter Browns.

Speaker 6 (01:33:43):
It is a stupid mustache.

Speaker 5 (01:33:45):
He did give up five unearned runs, so he actually
gave up ten runs during the month and change. Again,
this goes back to the April portion of the season.
Should you have pitched in that portion of the season,
he had more homers allowed, more by pitch three to nothing,
more walks if you were strikeouts, worse whip, worse batting
average against. But again all were good just all worse

(01:34:09):
than Hunter Browns. He did manage to have a quality
start four times in the six times they gave him
the ball. Hunter did it all six times they gave
him the ball. Just running down their their daily work.
If you were Hunter Brown, then you gave up to
earned runs two earned runs, none, none, none, and then
one when he scoreless inning streak was snapped. Your team

(01:34:30):
managed to win four of those six games, as you
were essentially dominating the competition each time you had the baseball.
Max Freed's team won all six times they gave him
the ball, and I still am just The Weschler research
team has been on this for the last twenty minutes
since the announcement was made, and they can't figure it
out either. Maybe you guys can help me explain how

(01:34:51):
the Yankees won all six of Max Fried's starts. I'll
tell you how many runs the Yankees scored in those games,
twenty and then they had nine, then three straight games
of four, and then another game with eleven. Was it
Freed's pitching that helped get them a win in every
one of those games? The script, we'll put it back
into the computer and see what they spew out. His

(01:35:11):
first start of the year, he was unable to give
them five innings, gave up six runs to earned his
next start of the year again, I can't get you
six innings today. I pitched well, but luckily we scored
nine runs, so we're gonna win anyway. And then his
last four starts have all been awesome. That's how you
have a one one ninety alright. I don't think there's
much difference, But I don't really see how you could

(01:35:35):
even spin it and say, oh, yeah, I have to
vote for Max Freed.

Speaker 6 (01:35:39):
I'm looking at both of these plays.

Speaker 5 (01:35:41):
Everybody knows you guys can I'm just trying to give
you the facts of it. I know how it happened.
I know why it happened. I told you why it happened.
Tell us explaining it to you. Tell us you've already
You've already done it.

Speaker 6 (01:35:52):
Tell us. I don't have to, it's already been said.
I want you to say it. Though.

Speaker 5 (01:35:57):
The numbers don't suggest that he out pitched Hunter Brown.

Speaker 6 (01:36:00):
This month, but what is his uniform?

Speaker 5 (01:36:02):
Suggest that the Braves are dumb for letting the Yankees take.

Speaker 6 (01:36:06):
Him from him? Yeah, and that mainly that he's a Yankee.

Speaker 5 (01:36:09):
He wears pinstripes.

Speaker 6 (01:36:13):
I hate this place.

Speaker 5 (01:36:14):
It's a Picture of the Month award, I know.

Speaker 4 (01:36:17):
But I know what it is for real, and it's
gonna happen perpetually throughout the rest of time because of
the scandal.

Speaker 6 (01:36:23):
Yep, that's what I did. I did that too, all right,
maybe not, but.

Speaker 4 (01:36:29):
I think anything is even remotely close at any given
time with any other picture in any given team, not
just the Astros, and a Yankee or a Dodger is involved,
it's gonna go to those teams.

Speaker 6 (01:36:39):
Let's freeze it this way.

Speaker 8 (01:36:40):
If there's any picture that's near what an Astro is doing,
I think baseball voters will pick against the Astro.

Speaker 5 (01:36:46):
This baseball voters, you're using it very liberally. Sure, these
are specifically chosen voters. This is It's not They're not
handed out balance for the Baseball writers of America. They're
handed out ballots from their respective teams that they cover.

Speaker 8 (01:37:00):
So the chosen voters, when they look at an era,
when they look at the final line, when they look
at the strikeout rate, if anyone is near an Astro,
they will pick against the Astro. Because of the scandal,
And twice they could have picked a ranger, but they didn't.

Speaker 6 (01:37:11):
They could have well, they don't even matter, but oh.

Speaker 5 (01:37:15):
They're one of their pitchers was outstanding.

Speaker 6 (01:37:17):
But they don't matter, and he pitches for them. Was
he as good as Hunter Round?

Speaker 5 (01:37:21):
Well, I already told you I don't think anybody in
the American League that starts games was better than Hunter Brown.
You know where my vote was gone, even though I
could live anywhere and say that, because all I did
was give you the numbers.

Speaker 6 (01:37:30):
You know the silver lining of this right?

Speaker 5 (01:37:32):
Uh, it's chip on his shoulder. Please for a Pitcher
of the Month award? Yeah, I don't think so.

Speaker 6 (01:37:38):
Why not?

Speaker 5 (01:37:40):
I mean unless it helps him with his contract negotiations,
but he already has. Scott Boris.

Speaker 6 (01:37:44):
I think he's good. You know who would have taken
that personally.

Speaker 5 (01:37:48):
Michael Jordan. Yeah, if Isaiah Thomas had been given the
Eastern Conference Player of the Month award over Michael, if.

Speaker 8 (01:37:55):
He was given the most Improved Player of the Week award,
he'd taken that person.

Speaker 4 (01:37:58):
What if he had all the credentials but then he
didn't win the award? You know what that would sound like.
I had all the credentials, but I didn't get it.

Speaker 5 (01:38:04):
It's funny that Michael so tremendously basketball gifted and worked
really really hard at getting better at being basketball awesomeness.
But the only reason he really won all this much
is because of the mental side of it. It was
only because he took offense to everything that was it
well technically, he took it personally. That's what taking offense is.

(01:38:25):
He took it personally.

Speaker 6 (01:38:26):
That's gonna be bad for me financially.

Speaker 7 (01:38:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:38:32):
The players, pitchers, relievers of the month were all handed
out earlier today and there was not an Astro on
the list. He was the only one that was there
to certainly have a case to be made for it.
He will start his second month of pitching technically third
when he gets to start tomorrow afternoon two afternoon games
Saturday Sunday in this White Sox series to play this
evening six forty first pitch, So we're a little over

(01:38:53):
an hour away from the two of us getting you
into Astros on deck. The Astros have a couple of
questions for Chandler Rome, who will join us in about
thirty five minutes, the top of the five o'clock hours
he usually does on Friday afternoons about some things that
the team is doing personnel wise and roster wise, and
they made the simple move today as expected, and Brian

(01:39:15):
a Bray, who's now once again available to pitch for
the Astros, paternity lists day ended. They made the move
yesterday with aj Bluebaugh after his loan start, and everything
else is now back in place with the roster that
they have for this team that's two games over five hundred.
Has seen the Mariners win their last four games, which
actually gives them a two game lead over the other
teams in this division. The other three, the Astros, Athletics,

(01:39:36):
and Rangers, are essentially the same two with sixteen wins,
one with seventeen different number of games played. But I
think it's there's gonna be a lot of season where
this is what their standings look like. A's have gotten
much worse pitching than I think they thought they were
going to, but they've been able to overcome a lot
of that with their offense. The Mariners, not very surprisingly,

(01:39:58):
have had injuries to their starting hitching staff. It was
almost a given after the year they had last year
it was going to happen. Gilbert has an injury right
now that has him on the il and people are
pretending to be optimistic that it isn't what they all
think it is. Bye, but we'll see.

Speaker 4 (01:40:15):
I don't feel bad here in Houston, by the way,
which by the way, we're going to get to in
a little bit.

Speaker 6 (01:40:21):
Are you kidding me? Just under the radar? That was
said today?

Speaker 5 (01:40:26):
It wasn't It was said on Wednesday.

Speaker 6 (01:40:28):
That's what I meant. I'm very diffused sure.

Speaker 5 (01:40:31):
When it was said, and I really didn't think much
of it because I just thought so many things have
happened already over this three year time period, plus the
first go around we're talking about Lancema Colors and his
subsequent arm issues.

Speaker 4 (01:40:43):
Well, hang on, hang on, hang on, I hate innerrupt.
I've got to do my thirty for thirty voice. What
if I were to tell you a prominent Astros player
had an injury that was way worse than the team
led on, would you believe me?

Speaker 5 (01:40:55):
It's why you and I are definitely different on this,
and it has a lot to do with the ASTRA
side of it and how they report things. It definitely
rubs a lot of people the wrong way, and I
don't even see that in this I think, like worse
than what.

Speaker 6 (01:41:09):
Well here's the deal.

Speaker 4 (01:41:10):
You had Kyle Tucker and Lance mccullor's junior missing significant
significant time.

Speaker 6 (01:41:15):
Obviously mccullor's has missed much more.

Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
But in both cases you were asking for updates and
you just weren't getting the real story. And in some
cases it felt like they were trying to, like, you know,
do a little misdirection for I don't know why just
say it.

Speaker 5 (01:41:31):
In one case, does it feel like it was misdiagnosed,
thus mishandled, And then the other does it seem like, well,
there's so much that's gone wrong, we don't have to
tell you everything. And the first one was Kyle, yeah,
the second.

Speaker 6 (01:41:42):
One was Lance.

Speaker 4 (01:41:43):
But in the first one, that actually is a bad
commentary on your medical staff.

Speaker 5 (01:41:48):
The first one, that's why, that's way worse. I don't
this is who cares. And in the second one, to
a certain degree, but it's.

Speaker 4 (01:41:53):
Like, okay, well, then stop telling us he's close all
the time and he's looked good in his last bullpen session.
If really he just had a second Tommy John, well,
that's not what happened. What happened is he kept having setbacks.

Speaker 5 (01:42:03):
Because one I believe him when he said it and
I'm sure it's true this did part of this, not
this last go around, but the first go around. It
happened over their COVID situation. And just how anybody involved
in baseball could have allowed this. And I know what
labor laws are like, but you're holding these not during COVID. Yeah,

(01:42:23):
during COVID and during the labor negotiations of what I
meant to say, they wouldn't let the players see the
specialists on the team. They wouldn't they didn't have a
workout program to continue to follow because they weren't allowed
to talk to the people that worked for the organization
because they were on different sides of the negotiating fence.
And a setback occurred during that period of time in
Lance Pacullor's case, and he had plenty of other setbacks. Now,

(01:42:45):
if you're saying that they're lying, and he didn't have
any setback, he just had a surgery that here's nowhere
near recovering from.

Speaker 6 (01:42:51):
I don't believe that to be true.

Speaker 5 (01:42:52):
Whether or not they gave us the information that they
probably could have, I don't doubt that for a second.

Speaker 6 (01:42:57):
Of course they didn't.

Speaker 5 (01:42:58):
It's definitely a pattern of behavior that they don't feel
like it's necessary to tell you what most other teams do,
if not all other teams do. Heck, other teams have
flat out releases. Here are the players that are hurt.
Here's what's going on with all of them. This team
has chosen a different path, so very different path.

Speaker 4 (01:43:14):
The moral of the story is the voters got it
wrong on Hunter Brown. But somebody that I have sparred
with numerous times giving Hunter Brown a lot of love,
will tell you who that is and what he had.

Speaker 1 (01:43:26):
To say next The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:43:36):
I got you here on the eighteen, halfway through our
three most days that brings you our signature segment. I
have mentioned last week. Our signature segment during the non
football portion of the season often entails us trotting out
the Friday A team draft. We will begin doing that
shortly today. We will just continue talking about the excellence

(01:43:58):
of the Astros' pitching staff as I They've been one
of the best in baseball all season. Their bullpen has
been incredible. The opportunity to stay in and potentially get
back in the game on Wednesday was on full display
after aj Bluebaugh got the first four innings worth a bullpen,
gave you a five shutout and kept them right there
at seven runs, only able to get four of their own.

(01:44:19):
Get the full recap on that game coming up in
an hour when we bring you the Astros on deck
show here on the A team. But they're starting pitching,
certainly at the top. It's why I always think would
always think the Astros have a chance. Did think they
had a chance last year, clearly against the Tigers, and
in any playoff series. When you're able to trot out
two guys like fromnber Valdez and Hunter Brown to open

(01:44:39):
up a series, you're in good shape. Now this is
a little less important series, but they're able to trot
out fromber Valdez and Hunter Brown in the first two
games of this series tonight and tomorrow afternoon. Lance mcculler's junior.
We talked about him last segment, but didn't really describe
it as maybe we should have with a little more
time here. He got the nod that he was getting

(01:45:02):
the ball on Sunday. Joe Spot mentioned that before Wednesday's
game than Lance mccullors junior met with the media shortly
to kind of talk about the feelings of getting back
on the mound and kind of what all he's been through,
and in his process of talking about what he's been through,
he seemed to indicate there were more procedures in his
timeline than maybe were once thought. No, he had the
Tommy John surgery initially, but that was during an entirely different,

(01:45:24):
entirely different stretch of missed an entire season portion of
his career. This has been two entire seasons, no pitching
in twenty three, no pitching in twenty four for the Astros,
and obviously we're into the beginning of month two and
he will make his return to the mound. Last time
he pitched in a Major League game non spring training
was of course, the World Series in twenty twenty two,

(01:45:45):
and subsequently has needed multiple procedures, which you were kind
of alluding to, maybe there was a second procedure that
wasn't definitively known before the flexer strain, which ultimately when
we talk about, oh well, he had another Tommy John,
this surgery is at least as taxing, if not more so,
to return from, and the severity of the injury. Similarly, so,

(01:46:06):
whatever it all took, thinking back on it and that
it took two years plus for him to return to
the mound, and we don't know what his future holds
beyond Sunday's start. I had little doubt there was a
lot going wrong and it was difficult for him to
successfully go through his rehab. We know there were setbacks

(01:46:27):
and these aren't well, he'll either going to shut him
down for a little while there, Well we have to
go back in potentially, well, we have to fix it again.
This setback is derailing any hopes.

Speaker 4 (01:46:37):
Which starts over almost essentially. Yeah, and it's been frustrating.
I mean, we've all been frustrating. So I can't even
imagine him because it's not even the physical that's obvious.
It's just the mental side of sports is so difficult anyway.
And then when you add this scenario or this situation

(01:46:57):
to it, I just it can your mind can play
tricks on you. And I know it's been difficult for
Lance because I mean, it's it just it's obvious that
it has to have been. But you know, a guy
like him, We just got done talking about a Hunter
Brown as a chip on his shoulder. Lance is very
much a chip on his shoulder guy. And when you

(01:47:19):
can't even try to execute to get the chip off
the shoulder, because physically you can't perform. That's that's gotta
be insanity.

Speaker 5 (01:47:28):
Yeah, the next thing for him with that chip is, oh,
you don't think I can pitch?

Speaker 6 (01:47:32):
Well? Do you?

Speaker 5 (01:47:32):
You think I'm just coming back? You just think I'm
gonna go out just a guy, kick the ball every
fifth day and be just a part of this team. Now,
I'm gonna go out. That's what he wants to have
happen is go out there and help this team win
and make this team better. You know, if he ends
up in this starting rotation because he's successful in doing so, well,
all of a sudden, you're making decisions on well, where
where do I want Ryan Gusto's innings to come from?

(01:47:54):
And where do we want tonight's featured attraction on the
Sugar Lance Space Cowboys Bobblehead collection to go. That Spencer Araghetty,
by the way, not yet ready to return to the Astros,
but tonight is Bobblehead night over at Constellation Field for
the spaghetti Arraghetty Bobblehead. He's featured on his Bobblehead cooking food.
It is spaghetti. It's a very neat bobblehead. But all

(01:48:16):
these arms, and of course with Bluebell now making his
major league debut and Gusto doing what he's done in
Araghedtty and Brown before him, just another opportunity to say, Man,
I don't know how they're doing it. This worst farm team,
first farm system in baseball keeps trotting out guys that
get major league hitters out. I guess, I guess it's
something must be in the air here down in Houston,
because I don't see it. This farm system stinks awful.

Speaker 6 (01:48:39):
Who do you think?

Speaker 4 (01:48:40):
Who do you think mel Kiper Junior thinks is worse
at their job? Quarterback evaluators in the NFL or MLB
minor league pipeline assessment urs.

Speaker 5 (01:48:49):
Yeah, I'll admit some of these guys aren't a plus prospects,
and so maybe that's all you're looking at. Well, if
you don't have a future star, if you don't have
a Dylan Cruz, if you don't have as and we
don't care what you have. But one of these players
that was in their system while they were being ranked
in the bottom five is Hunter Brown, and he's the

(01:49:11):
second best pitcher in the American League this month, this
month to Max Free stupid your fat Pala.

Speaker 6 (01:49:18):
Jeff P.

Speaker 5 (01:49:19):
Yeah, anonymity sake. JEFFP wrote an article for one of
the entities that covers Major League sports and other sports
for Letter Network. He seemed rather a pro Astros and
pro hunter In this piece, m Hunter browns.

Speaker 6 (01:49:36):
What he was?

Speaker 4 (01:49:37):
Yeah, I mean it was well he The The best
part is some of these quotes from the other astros.

Speaker 5 (01:49:42):
I'll let you handle those. I'll read the passing portion.

Speaker 6 (01:49:45):
Go ahead.

Speaker 5 (01:49:45):
Diesel has arrived, carving lineups, snatching hitter's dignity, writing one
more chapter in the story of a naysayer slang doubt
squashing triumph.

Speaker 6 (01:49:56):
Why aren't you saying it like him?

Speaker 5 (01:49:59):
Thanks Carl. Diesel has arrived, carving lineups, snatching hitters dignity,
writing one more chapter in the story of an asayer
slang doubt squashing triumph? Is that better lex passing is
in the Dolts?

Speaker 6 (01:50:12):
It's so good. It's oh Man, on that date it
was boring.

Speaker 4 (01:50:18):
It's just so like I'll never forget seeing him before
the twenty twenty two World Series. On media day, you know,
the first base side of the club level, all the
players are spread out everywhere at their tables so that
we can all have enough room to be around them,
and you know, get our short answers from some guys
and no answers from other guys, and then long answers

(01:50:40):
from others. And there's Jeff wearing his medium suit, leaning
up against the pillar inside the club area.

Speaker 6 (01:50:49):
We've walked by that.

Speaker 4 (01:50:50):
Pillar many many times when we go to get on
the elevator and he sees me, and I see him,
and I nod at him, and he goes Clinton and
I go Jeff, and then.

Speaker 6 (01:51:01):
I kept walking. Nice.

Speaker 5 (01:51:03):
What an interact.

Speaker 4 (01:51:04):
We don't like each other. I have that confirmed. I'm
good authority. He does not like me and I don't
like him, but everybody knows that it was.

Speaker 5 (01:51:11):
A nice little piece.

Speaker 6 (01:51:12):
Though you didn't block me yet, though. Do you have the.

Speaker 5 (01:51:15):
Altuve quote at hand or the Josh Hater quote?

Speaker 4 (01:51:18):
Oh you mean when he was going around asking everybody,
you know, what was what was going on? If you
were facing me, what would you be looking for? I
believe is the question. I wish I could do an Altuve.
He says, oh, Brown, that's easy, hard in a way,
and then Paina said the same thing, and then Bregman
said the same thing. It was, uh, but my favorite

(01:51:41):
part was Josh Hater. He embraced that ass whooping. He's
talking about when he gave up the nine runs in
Kansas City last year and how that basically fueled him
to be what he is now, which is what he's
gonna do with this snub.

Speaker 5 (01:51:54):
And it's the same thing you can do when you
go out there. He's embracing I'm I'm going to dominate
you today. This is going to be fun.

Speaker 6 (01:52:00):
Not for you but for me.

Speaker 1 (01:52:04):
The on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:52:13):
Why can't national entities get the logo right for the Rockets?

Speaker 5 (01:52:18):
That's good to update that if you could police people.

Speaker 6 (01:52:21):
But also why did the Rockets come out without logo?
That's another.

Speaker 5 (01:52:26):
We had a nice conversation with Melvin, Devin and Andre
after game. The new Houses, Andre Newhouse and his well,
his friends are the ones that we're friends with now
because they were cheering for the home team and this
was at a home game for the Houston Rockets.

Speaker 6 (01:52:43):
Family.

Speaker 5 (01:52:44):
Yeah, but I've separated them no matter what their relationship.

Speaker 4 (01:52:47):
Is because he was the one wearing the stupid curry
bleep he referred to.

Speaker 5 (01:52:51):
I respect his explanation for why.

Speaker 6 (01:52:53):
Well, that was funny. But what did he refer to
him as?

Speaker 5 (01:52:56):
It was too hard to remember. It was very clever.
It was James Harden, very much in the manner I
would speak about people who just changed his first and
last name to basically be the opposite. However you'd like
to come up with that.

Speaker 4 (01:53:08):
Well, it was a feminine version, has a direct opposite
word for it.

Speaker 5 (01:53:15):
Yes, soft that was.

Speaker 4 (01:53:16):
The way it was his first name that he turned
into a I don't remember what it was.

Speaker 5 (01:53:21):
I don't either.

Speaker 6 (01:53:21):
What's the feminine version of James?

Speaker 5 (01:53:23):
That's why it's a little bit more. Janet Well said, yeah,
you'd have to change it. Janet Soften, Well, now you're
putting it. You're trying to pretend like it's a former
radio host and him and.

Speaker 4 (01:53:33):
His wife exactly. You know where he's from, right, He's
from southern California.

Speaker 5 (01:53:39):
So what do you think about staying true to who
you are even though it's not where you are.

Speaker 7 (01:53:46):
C J.

Speaker 5 (01:53:46):
Stroud repping the Rockets all year, he's been a postseason game.

Speaker 6 (01:53:49):
I didn't like that.

Speaker 5 (01:53:50):
Now the Clippers game, like he didn't know it's not
his fault, not his fault. That what he's from out there,
and then he's also now lives here I'm talking about
he was thinking the answers of it's fine, it's normal, it's.

Speaker 4 (01:54:02):
Okay, listen, you can't listen. If let's just say, for
the sake of argument, it's nineteen ninety in Chicago, and
I don't know what crappy quarterback was for the Bears
back then.

Speaker 5 (01:54:17):
Before Jim McMahon or after.

Speaker 6 (01:54:19):
It'd be after Jim McMahon.

Speaker 4 (01:54:20):
So whoever that was, but they would have had to
have been good for this analogy to work. So just
let's just say they had a star quarterback, call.

Speaker 6 (01:54:27):
Him j Cutler.

Speaker 4 (01:54:29):
I can't because in nineteen ninety that's weird. He was
like twelve, all right, So keep going so you can
get through all this. Yeah, So basically, there there he
is sitting court side for a Bulls Pistons game, and
afterwards he starts dapping it up with Bill Ambier and
Isaiah I love these guys because I'm from Detroit. What's
Michael supposed to think of that? What are Bulls fans
supposed to think of that? But that's their guy and

(01:54:50):
he's fraternizing with the enemy.

Speaker 5 (01:54:52):
But they rock many times over Rockets weren't playing the Clippers.

Speaker 4 (01:54:56):
No, the Rockets were playing the Warriors. And there's CJ
dapping up Steph Curry? Did you not see this?

Speaker 5 (01:55:01):
That's not what I was talking about because that was
absolute nothing to me.

Speaker 6 (01:55:06):
It's a star.

Speaker 5 (01:55:07):
Steph's a star. This is what people do. They're stars.

Speaker 6 (01:55:10):
You guys need to get on it.

Speaker 5 (01:55:12):
Hate did see it? I don't have to see the video.
I was there.

Speaker 6 (01:55:15):
Well, a lot of things I hate. That's not one
of them. Well, that is one of them.

Speaker 4 (01:55:18):
For me.

Speaker 6 (01:55:20):
I am on brand at all times.

Speaker 4 (01:55:21):
There's no diet me to get you get it one
hundred miles per hour all the time with this, and
Steph Curry and the rest of the Warriors can go
pound sand for the next two games.

Speaker 5 (01:55:31):
So the Bulls won a title in ninety one, so
let's go with their quarterback then.

Speaker 4 (01:55:36):
If that's all right, well it needs to be the
year before when the Pistons were beating perfect.

Speaker 5 (01:55:39):
Totally normal, regular, everyday, average NFL starting quarterback.

Speaker 6 (01:55:43):
What's his name?

Speaker 5 (01:55:44):
Jim Harbaugh?

Speaker 6 (01:55:45):
Seriously, I knew Jim that he was at that year.
He was in the nineties.

Speaker 5 (01:55:51):
Wow do you think that? How do you think that
would have gone with Jim not great. Yeah, because the
bulls that are the pistons he was wapping it up with.
It would be like this guy is weird. Yeah, and
then he'd be wearing khakis at the time. He's probably
gonna be probably gonna be unsaved by the Bell sometime soon?

Speaker 4 (01:56:07):
Was he unsaved by the Bell? I don't watch that.
I never watched that show. I never got into it.

Speaker 5 (01:56:12):
Yeah, CJ go into a Clippers game, CJ talking to
dapping up Steph Curry at Toyota Center after a Rocket's
lost to the Warriors.

Speaker 4 (01:56:21):
Totally fine. Not totally fine. That's where you're wrong fundamentally ethically.
So what happens is mortal.

Speaker 5 (01:56:28):
If he's leaving the game and Steph is doing a
postgame interviewing, CJ is still there and Steph calls him over,
what's the play for CJ? No, blow him off, don't
even look at use one of the fingers on his
hand to point at him.

Speaker 6 (01:56:44):
Oh, that wouldn't be CJ's style.

Speaker 5 (01:56:46):
They go over there and just walk right by and
not stop, totally ignore him and do it on purpose,
like you don't hear him, or go over there and
actually talk to him. And then go about your day.

Speaker 4 (01:56:58):
Nope, Nope, that's definitely all the answers that you presented.
That's the worst choice. That is what happened can't happen again.

Speaker 6 (01:57:06):
Well, why do I feel it? Because here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:57:08):
It's four point fifty two Central Standard Time on Friday
May second. The Rockets win tonight, there's a Game seven
on Sunday night. CJ's in the building, no doubt about.
He's course sighted.

Speaker 6 (01:57:22):
Now I see what you're saying.

Speaker 5 (01:57:23):
Well, you know he's currently unless he's already left. He's
in California. Yeah, but he's coming back Fiveday seven. Sure,
he's got a private jet. I know he can.

Speaker 6 (01:57:35):
Why wouldn't he for Game seven?

Speaker 5 (01:57:36):
You don't think he has Jayden Higgins and Jalen Knowl
and Justin Watson on site somewhere surreititiously in California.

Speaker 6 (01:57:44):
He can afford to fly them out too.

Speaker 5 (01:57:46):
Can Now he's got to get tickets for them too.

Speaker 6 (01:57:48):
His rookie contracts still lucrative.

Speaker 5 (01:57:50):
Are you anticipating a CJ. Stroud first shot Rockets first
shot before Game seven?

Speaker 6 (01:57:56):
Is that what you're getting now?

Speaker 4 (01:57:56):
If he intends on wapping up Steph Curry at any
point during the night, I will have those privileges revoked.

Speaker 8 (01:58:01):
Now, I will agree with ac on one thing. In
an elimination game, you represent your city. You were not
allowed to go.

Speaker 5 (01:58:06):
Cho s always representing the city.

Speaker 8 (01:58:08):
You can't fratnize with the enemy afterwards when you lose
in your own backyard.

Speaker 6 (01:58:12):
I'm sorry. That's why I brought up the.

Speaker 4 (01:58:14):
Bulls and the pistons, because that was a heated, hated
rivalry with bad blood on both sides, and the pistons
would kill them every year until they didn't. And that's
what needs to happen tonight. And that's what absolutely needs
to happen on Sunday. And when CJ's there, I want
step I want him to tell Steph where he can
go directly, you know, to the locker room. Yeah, that's

(01:58:36):
what What did you think I was gonna say? Just
making sure the listeners are falling along? Yeah, that's where
you can go, directly to the hot, hot locker room
probably place.

Speaker 5 (01:58:44):
How do I get there? Okay, it's down. This flight
is there?

Speaker 6 (01:58:47):
Down?

Speaker 5 (01:58:47):
And take the elevator down one hundred floors? All right?

Speaker 6 (01:58:50):
Keep going?

Speaker 5 (01:58:50):
Nope, you're not there yet. Keep going. Keep going.

Speaker 4 (01:58:53):
That's not your stop if you don't take it off
on this floor. This floor is reserved for you.

Speaker 6 (01:58:59):
What floor?

Speaker 5 (01:59:00):
What what Florida?

Speaker 6 (01:59:01):
I hit? What number?

Speaker 5 (01:59:01):
It starts with a six, ends with a six, and
there's a six in the middle.

Speaker 4 (01:59:07):
That's a Teresa joke right there. Do you know what
our Wi Fi network is entitled?

Speaker 5 (01:59:13):
Are we about to hit a break or something? Are
you gonna tell everybody this now? I'm gonna wait till
five o'clock. You'll never guess it. Well, I think we've
had a discussion a little bit like this before to
keep this as a very fun segment.

Speaker 4 (01:59:24):
The Wi Fi home password, it's not the past word.
I'm not giving that out network.

Speaker 5 (01:59:30):
So if I drive by there two of them, I
can find it. Yes, it's not like Clinton's one.

Speaker 6 (01:59:36):
Clanton is not in there.

Speaker 4 (01:59:37):
Seem like something that Clanton would do. I didn't name
it rock Face one. See you guys think I named it.
You're going in a completely different direction. My lunatic wife
is the one that did this.

Speaker 5 (01:59:48):
Of the and the password for the Wi Fi two
different things. The passwords easy both unchanged from installation. Well
one of.

Speaker 4 (01:59:58):
Them, one of ours is is Wi Fi and the
other one is Fiber. There's two different companies Avault. I'm
not telling you until five o'clock out.

Speaker 6 (02:00:06):
That's the teas.

Speaker 5 (02:00:07):
Yes, the Tea's is stick around for Chandler Rome and
the home Internet names.

Speaker 4 (02:00:14):
See what you're thinking right now is we've got a
guess next segment.

Speaker 6 (02:00:18):
We can't be sucking it up with all that.

Speaker 5 (02:00:19):
Maybe maybe he'll give us his.

Speaker 6 (02:00:21):
I mean, do I have to stick around for this?
I guess what are you leaving?

Speaker 4 (02:00:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (02:00:24):
Why not?

Speaker 6 (02:00:26):
I mean so?

Speaker 5 (02:00:27):
I mean, I don't they need Circus six sixty six?

Speaker 6 (02:00:31):
Wow, psycho Circus six six six.

Speaker 4 (02:00:36):
I can only imagine what the password is and no,
you can't have it.

Speaker 1 (02:00:40):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:01:02):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are d a team.

Speaker 4 (02:01:08):
Ay, it's the five o'clock hour. It is the eighteen
wexac Cole Thompson with you and as promised, the Man,
the Myth, the Legend, Chandler Rome joining us for the
next few to discuss all things astros and MLB. All right,
why shouldn't I be mad that Max Freed beat out

(02:01:29):
Hunter Brown for some meaningless monthly award for pictures.

Speaker 6 (02:01:33):
Because it's meaningless.

Speaker 16 (02:01:35):
I would still I would still put pretty heavy money
on Hunter Brown to be in the race for the
big award at the end of the season. But look,
I mean, it's not as if Max Freed had demonstratively
like worse stats than Brown. Like you can't even throw
Tyler Mallley of the Rangers up there. I mean, you
could have really just picked any of those three guys
out of a hat and eat all three of them

(02:01:56):
were worthy what would have been worthy winners. But you know,
this happened to Hunter last year too. I think it
was in June. Is either June or July of last year.
This happened to him where he was pretty it was,
if not the front runner, right up there for a
guy that should on Pitching of the Month didn't win it,
and then he just kind of kept going and just
kind of kept building and blossoming into an ace. So

(02:02:16):
who knows, maybe that'll maybe that'll just keep going this year.

Speaker 5 (02:02:20):
Be on the mound tomorrow, the second of the three
games in this series fromber Goes tonight. What are your
thoughts as we sit here today two days out from
Lance mccullor's junior's return to the Mound for the Astros.
A what to expect maybe in this initial outing or two,
and you know what kind of possibilities for him to
cementing a spot as a helpful part of the twenty

(02:02:41):
twenty five Astros.

Speaker 16 (02:02:43):
Yeah, I mean I have no idea what to expect
from him on Sunday. He hasn't pitched in a major
league game in nine hundred and fifteen days. I don't
want this to sound crass, but even calling what he's
going to pitch it on Sunday a major league game
is a It's a little bit of a wretch given
the opponent he's going to face. But I mean still,
this is from from strictly a humanity standpoint of from

(02:03:08):
looking at this guy that has been out of the
game for two years for things completely out of his control.
His body has betrayed him. I mean, it is nice
on a personal level to see him come back from
this and to see him get on the mound. As
far as what to expect, you know, vlo, how he's
gonna look.

Speaker 6 (02:03:26):
What is the futures? I don't know.

Speaker 16 (02:03:28):
I think they and this sounds so cliche, but it
really does apply here. I think they are legit just
taking this one start at a time. They're gonna see
how this evolves, how this goes. The stats looked good
from Lance's last rehab start, obviously with double A Corpus Christie,
but we did not get there was no public data
about his VLO about kind of how it looked, so

(02:03:51):
don't really Obviously the results were good. He struck out
eight guys, but we don't know how any of that
stuff looked. I don't imagine he's gonna be throwing ninety
seven ninety six anymore. I don't imagine that we're going
to see the exact same pitch repertoire that we saw
a couple of years ago. He may have had to
modify some things. We already know that he shortened his
delivery a little bit, made it more compact, So it

(02:04:12):
may be a different look from mccolors. But look, you
can't argue with the stats that are out there from
when he is healthy, when he pitches, and when he's healthy,
he is a he is borderline dominant, and they it
would be a very welcome sign for the Ashers if
he could continue that and remain healthy.

Speaker 4 (02:04:31):
Chandler, did he like am I crazy? Did he under
the Radar just kind of let it slip that he
had two Tommy John surgeries in an interview a couple
of days ago or yesterday.

Speaker 16 (02:04:40):
No, he No, he didn't have two Tommy John's. I
think one of them was a again you get very
into the weeds as far as what ligaments and things
like that. The second one was a flexer tendon surgery.
He went in for flexor tendon surgery. And when they
went in, and he has said this before, when when
doctor Neil Elatrotch cut him open the second time, he

(02:05:00):
did not know what kind of surgery he was going
to be getting when he got the second when he
got the flexor tendon surgery, it could have been Tommy
John if they got in there and saw that he
needed it, but instead the flexor tendon was off the bone.
I think they did an internal brace procedure sort of thing,
which is a little bit different. I don't think necessarily
it was a Tommy John surgery in that sense. I

(02:05:22):
don't think the UCL was impacted, but it was more
of a flexor tendon sort of thing. And again, like
we're kind of splitting hairs there, it's all in the
same area. It's all in the elbow. It's all an
elbow thing. So he's had two major reconstructive elbow surgeries.
How about we just put it like that.

Speaker 5 (02:05:38):
Chandler Roam of the Athletic covers Major League Baseball and
the Houston Astros, joining us here for his weekly visit.
Brendan Rodgers is in the lineup tonight. He's playing second base.
He has been the starter at second now sixteen times,
including tonight. You've written about it a couple of times
on the contract and some deadlines and some options he
and the team have. Do you think he's seeing more

(02:06:00):
time recently so they can get to a final decision
because I don't think he's done anything to say, Oh,
there's nothing think about it. He's an astro and we
want him here all year. He hasn't performed particularly well.
I don't think Dubon has either offensively. But is there
a change sometime in the relatively near future about him
being even on the team.

Speaker 16 (02:06:18):
Well, he had his first opt out date in his
contract was today, so the fact that he is in
the lineup would suggest that he did not exercise that
opt out. He has another opt out on June first,
and also Brendan Rodgers signed an advanced Consent Form, which means,
because he has five years of major league service time,
the Astros can't option him to the minor leagues without
his consent because he signed that advanced consent form. They

(02:06:42):
could do that within the first forty five days of
the season, or they could just terminate the contract altogether
and they don't have to have They're not on the
hook for the money. From what I understand, doing the
Advanced Consent Form was strictly a money thing when it
was done. You know, you guys will remember very weirdly,
remember when they did the whole cam Smith production, they

(02:07:03):
put him on the roster and they announced all the
roster butt one guy, and Brendan Rodgers wasn't announced as
being on the opening day roster until the next day.
Well that was because they were trying to figure out
how they can make this work financially, because they if
you don't know by now, you should know, they're not
They're trying not to cross the luxury tax. They're penny pinching.
They are keeping their eye on the luxury tax now

(02:07:24):
because they traded Ralphie al Montero and got about three
million dollars of his salary to the Braves. I think
that makes it a little bit more likely that it's
not going to be a strictly financial decision with Brendan Rodgers.
You know, I to me, like, I don't think he's
been just unplayable. I don't think it's been a situation
where he's been like bad. I mean, he's they're working

(02:07:46):
on him with elevating the ball a little bit more.
They want him to hit the ball in the air
to his pull side, and he's shown some of that,
but obviously not in in long enough stretches. But I
think the wild card here is Bryce Matthews. Bryce Matthew
is obviously the guy that you know, they forecasted this
in spring training that he was gonna go to Triple A.
He's gonna play a ton of second base and with

(02:08:07):
his seal two they go on to left field. I mean,
you can kind of put two and two together of
kind of how they envision this going. If Bryce Matthews
will go down there and perform, And for the first
couple weeks of the Triple A season he did not
do that. He has looked better the last, you know,
a couple of weeks. So I do wonder. You know,
if Bryce Matthews keeps playing well and they keep seeing

(02:08:28):
things they like from him, they know he can handle
the position defensively at second base, it's all about the
bat and whether the bat's ready. He was Dana Brown's
first first round draft pick. As GM, we have seen
Dana Brown be very bullish and moving guys up that
he believes are ready.

Speaker 6 (02:08:44):
So who knows.

Speaker 16 (02:08:45):
If Bryce Matthews can can get on a little bit
of a role, maybe he could be the guy that's
the second baseman for this team. You know, later on
and the Brendan Rodgers thing kind of settles itself. But
I think Bryce Matthews has to show a lot more
sustained success offensively at Triple A. Before they had that conversation.

Speaker 4 (02:09:02):
It's still a tightly packed Al West. We were talking
a little bit earlier about the Seattle Mariners and their
pitching staff and how you know. Wex said, I'm not
surprised at all that they're dealing with some injury issues
since they had none last year. Is it as simple
as that with the Astros eventually maybe overtaking the Mariners.

(02:09:23):
I know that everything's still tightly compacted. It's only May second,
and the Astros probably haven't even played good consistent baseball yet.
But is that the key for the Mariners to kind
of fade back to the pack since they're suddenly like
at least finding some way to score some runs to
go with that pitching.

Speaker 16 (02:09:40):
I was about to say, have you looked at the
Mariners offense recently? Crushing they've been really good of yeah,
and I don't know if that can sustain cal Rawley
sitting a bunch of homers. And I know Julio hasn't
gotten going yet. But Jorge Polanco, who this team wanted
to be their second baseman, the Astros did. They wanted
him to be their second basement very badly. Jorge Polanco
is like the best hitter in baseball at the moment,

(02:10:02):
and they've got guys that are hitting the ball well,
and I think that is helping them kind of overcome
some of the pitching to fish, not proficiencies, but attrition
that they've had. But it sounds like George Kirby's gonna
be back soon. Matt Brash, I think, is rejoining the
team today. So I mean, look, if they're gonna hit
like that, they've got the pitching. They've got the depth
pitching wise to stand up with anybody. So I think

(02:10:23):
the key for them to quote unquote fall back to
the pack could be the offense kind of regressing to
a mean. So that's been maybe the most surprising thing
about the ALF so far has been both the Rangers
lack of offense given who's in their lineup, and then
the Mariners basically running the same lineup back that they
had last season and performing so well.

Speaker 5 (02:10:42):
Interesting that you bring up the Rangers in a move
they just made because it was an option they could use.
They had somebody to call up, and they obviously had
a player that was willing to do this, and Jake
Berger traded for him during the offseason. He's had a
Christian Walker like offensive start to his season and they
just flat out to mooted him, send him down and
hopes that he can get going in the right direction.

(02:11:02):
I don't think Walker's been quite that bad, although the
number suggests it's pretty close. Is anything on the horizon
for what they'd like to do with Walker if things
don't change.

Speaker 6 (02:11:14):
Well.

Speaker 16 (02:11:14):
The thing with Walker, the thing that Walker brings the
Burger doesn't. Walker is a phenomenal defensive first baseman. I mean,
and that's why he's going to stay in there, and
they're just gonna ride with him and let him, let
him try to see it through and look, I think
so I was thinking about this today because I figured
you guys would ask me about it. Like Christian Walker's
looked better, like the last nine or ten games, Like
you look at the stats and obviously like he's gonna

(02:11:36):
be he's gonna the cumulative season stats are gonna be
down for a while just for how poorly he started.
But he's looked better in recent games. I think the
thing with Christian Walker, and the thing that fans and
maybe us as you know, reporters latch onto, is like
his good games are really really good, like two doubles
and a homer, or like a homer, a big homer

(02:11:58):
in a big spot. You know, when he has high highs,
they are very high. His bad games are very bad,
like three strikeouts and runners in scoring position, like roll
over ground ball in the first pitch in a big spot.
Like he's never really had just a kind of steady
week where it's just like he's getting a hit or
two every night and the bats look good. It's been

(02:12:19):
very feast or famine with him, and I think once
he reaches some form of an equilibrium, I think we'll
see kind of who he really is. But you know,
I think he's looked better the last week, week and
a half or so. I know the season long stats
won't reflect it, and I know he had a pretty
awful game on Wednesday against the Tigers, but that's just
just kind of what we've.

Speaker 6 (02:12:38):
Seen from him.

Speaker 16 (02:12:38):
His good games, he is very involved. He's sitting the
ball over the fence, he's sitting the ball into the gap,
and you kind of think that that's where you're trending,
that that's gonna be the season long thing. And then
you know his low lows, his bad games are very bad,
and he looks very bad in those games. So I
think just some equilibrium. But I don't think they're in
any danger of I don't think he's in any danger

(02:13:00):
any sort of demotion or anything. I don't think that's
a parallel. But h yeah, he's got to get it
going because if they can, I said this on Qrushitty
Territory a couple of days ago, like they can make
Jeremy Peney the leadoff hitter Joseel two. They can can
claim he needs to hit second because of the time
from left field. They can play whoever they want in
right field. They can do whatever they want in the outfield.

(02:13:22):
Like the lineup's not going to function well with Yiner Diaz,
Jordan Alvarez and Christian Walker don't hit, and those three
guys have to get going for this thing to really
start looking like they envisioned it.

Speaker 5 (02:13:31):
Undoubtedly that was the case they knew kind of going
into the season. That's where the meat potatoes of an
offense that's going to be very good needs to be,
and it just hasn't been, regardless of what might not
be happening behind them or even in front of them
at the top of the order. And at some point,
I imagine both Walker and Daz specifically will look a
lot more like the hitters they have over the past
couple of years. Chandler certainly appreciate the time as always,

(02:13:52):
and look forward to catching up with you again next week.

Speaker 6 (02:13:54):
All right, thanks guys.

Speaker 5 (02:13:56):
Jenller Roma of The Athletic covering the Astros and May
League Baseball a little bit on what's in store this
weekend against kind of a major league team. According to
Chandler Roam the Chicago White.

Speaker 1 (02:14:07):
Sox the A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:14:17):
We need to have a conversation about what happened during
the break. Okay, well you weren't there. It got dark
real well, Cole walked in in the middle of it. Now,
from time to time on the show, Wex and I,
whether we intended to or not, the restroom decorum in

(02:14:39):
certain situations has come up on the show. Famously, we
had a conversation about whether or not it's cool at
all to even bring a drink in there, let alone
put it on top of whatever facility you're using at
a ballgame. You know my feelings about that very clearly.
I don't think Cole understands.

Speaker 8 (02:14:58):
What he's doing about but trust me, I can only
understand where you come from.

Speaker 6 (02:15:02):
So I'm standing there. I'm not done.

Speaker 5 (02:15:07):
This is just now, just now, you're it's not imperative
that you keep your buzz going.

Speaker 6 (02:15:15):
My buzz. Yes, of all people, I'm not done.

Speaker 4 (02:15:20):
But the toilet, the urinal was and it just starts
spraying right at me.

Speaker 6 (02:15:26):
Okay, oh is it okay? Because it wasn't for me?

Speaker 5 (02:15:29):
I feel like there's more story, just kind of fun well.

Speaker 4 (02:15:31):
How do you How would you have reacted in that scenario?
What would you have physically done? Because I'm gonna tell
you what I did. I would have backed up and
what if you were still in the process, I would
have stopped bingo.

Speaker 6 (02:15:46):
That's what I did.

Speaker 5 (02:15:47):
Good job.

Speaker 6 (02:15:48):
Oh yeah, I saw some athleticism here on the seventh floor.

Speaker 5 (02:15:52):
I didn't see any of it.

Speaker 6 (02:15:53):
No, that Urinal did. Though.

Speaker 4 (02:15:55):
I'm like, you're not attacking me today. It's game six.
I don't need any sort of bad juju coming my way.

Speaker 5 (02:16:00):
Were you giving some sort of ridiculous I'm trying to
throw my back out? Nothing so the center. Nothing should
have happened the way it did. I did everything in
the way I normally do. I even went to the
same one, which will never happen again. Did you send
a trouble ticket to maintenance?

Speaker 6 (02:16:13):
No? No, not yet.

Speaker 7 (02:16:14):
No.

Speaker 4 (02:16:15):
And I don't even know who I would call here.
It's no longer Bob because he retired.

Speaker 5 (02:16:19):
Are you gonna at least warn the people closest to
you which one to avoid?

Speaker 6 (02:16:23):
How would that note go? How would that note go?

Speaker 5 (02:16:25):
Hey, WEX, if before you leave here you need to go,
don't use the second one?

Speaker 6 (02:16:30):
I'm not warning you. I'm warning everybody with a note
on the door.

Speaker 4 (02:16:33):
That's generic saying, hey, out of order, don't use the
furthest one unless you want to wear what you went
in there to deposit.

Speaker 6 (02:16:41):
Okay, hold up, is it the furthest of the closest.

Speaker 4 (02:16:43):
The one furthest but it's closer to the sink. Well
you're going, where are you when you're reading the note?

Speaker 2 (02:16:49):
Call?

Speaker 6 (02:16:49):
Yeah, furthest. Very easy geography, well descripted.

Speaker 8 (02:16:52):
So see, this is what we got in the argument
about a couple of days ago when we were talking
about numbers, like is it the higher number means the lower.

Speaker 5 (02:16:58):
There's no context. You don't need context for what he's saying.
But you brought the sink into the conversation for no reason,
Like it doesn't have anything to do with the sink.

Speaker 6 (02:17:07):
It's further away. Well, it's the furthest one away from
the note you're reading on the door. When I put
it there.

Speaker 5 (02:17:14):
And the door are relatively speaking in the same position.
Their furthest from what you're talking about. There's no confusion.

Speaker 6 (02:17:23):
It's very confusing to me.

Speaker 4 (02:17:24):
It would be more confusing if I said, don't use
the second one because then.

Speaker 6 (02:17:27):
People are gonna be like, well, which one is the
second one?

Speaker 5 (02:17:29):
I just won't use any of the which is pretty
much a normal daily occurrence.

Speaker 4 (02:17:32):
I don't want to use this floor for the next
month until I know it's fixed. Well, I'm glad you're
back in here. It's ridiculous, like I should. I can't
work in these circumstances, in this condition. Yeah, you think
I got a lawsuit? Did something happen? I'm gonna call
mo caarm injury lawyers and see if I can get
some money out of iHeart or the building.

Speaker 6 (02:17:51):
I'm not gonna see iHeart.

Speaker 5 (02:17:52):
All right, I appreciate you giving us a call. We
could definitely do something for you. Why don't you explain
to me what happened here and we'll see what were.

Speaker 4 (02:17:58):
Then they're gonna record it. By the way, this conversation
is going to be recorded for legal purposes.

Speaker 5 (02:18:03):
Well, you'll just say, oh, I don't need to tell
you everything. Just pull the recording from when I said
it all on the air. Well for all of our
listeners they.

Speaker 4 (02:18:11):
Listen, I'm hardly the first person to deal with this situation.

Speaker 5 (02:18:14):
I don't remember this honestly ever happening Ever I've never
been to.

Speaker 6 (02:18:17):
Me either until today. Yeah, that never happened. I didn't
think it would have.

Speaker 5 (02:18:21):
I've had some instances where I'd prefer to have parts
of my clothing, especially my shoes, have remained dryer.

Speaker 4 (02:18:27):
But oh, you mean like the time we were at
the old building where this thing probably would have been
more likely to happen, and the garage kept flooding and
you had to take your shoes and socks off, hike
your pants.

Speaker 5 (02:18:39):
Up, I walk to your car, Houston, what are you
going to do?

Speaker 4 (02:18:42):
I mean, come on, Yeah, but it's like, oh, this
is a five hundred year storm. Well not when we
keep getting them every two years.

Speaker 5 (02:18:48):
It's only happened once. That's I only walked through a
full too. I just had work once. Yeah, well I
just had a talent.

Speaker 4 (02:18:54):
I had a five hundred year storm coming out of
that urinal just now, and I'm not.

Speaker 5 (02:18:58):
Happy about it. What are you worried about? It clearly
is not going to happen again.

Speaker 4 (02:19:02):
It isn't because I'm not gonna use it, not because
it's fixed.

Speaker 6 (02:19:05):
So let me get this straight.

Speaker 8 (02:19:06):
So you're gonna go down to the sixth floor from
huron out until you.

Speaker 6 (02:19:09):
More up to eight. I don't discriminate. Does eight have nice?

Speaker 5 (02:19:14):
We have five options in the bathroom on this floor.
Why don't you just use a different one? Because I
don't want to. I don't want to be there now
I'm upset. It doesn't sound like you want to be
here either. Well, I don't want to be No, I don't.
I mean, with your bathroom escapades, are you? Are you
with it enough? Have you come back to us enough
to give us a final thought on Rockets Warriors Game six?

Speaker 4 (02:19:37):
I feel cautiously optimistic, okay, like Aman Thompson's gonna make
Steph Curry's game turn into that urinal I just used
the first one, not the second one, So his.

Speaker 5 (02:19:48):
Shots will be all over the place, not to meet
it's mark.

Speaker 6 (02:19:51):
His mind will be all over the place.

Speaker 5 (02:19:52):
Four of twelve in this last game, nothing in the
first quarter for he or Jimmy Butler, only twenty two
points between twenty one points over the course of the game.
That's the other aspect of one of the more difficult
things about beating the Warriors over these last couple of
months is there are two guys you want to not
have those games, And it hadn't been much of this
series where they both have done that, but obviously in
the game that they did early that was a lot

(02:20:14):
to deal with for the Rockets. They came out on
the wrong end of it in Game one. They've they've
played even ever since Game one, two wins a piece.
They don't yet have a win on the road. Once
you lose home court advantage, well you have to win
a game on the road, and their only chance now
is tonight, and without it, the series ends. I mentioned earlier.
As a team, after that woeful performance of six of

(02:20:36):
twenty nine shooting threes, they've been an awesome every game.
There's no super high game, there's no super low game,
and they've shot forty one percent on threes as a
team since then. Fred's probably not gonna have his third
straight game of shooting unbelievably well. He might have a
third strong offensive game in a row, but I don't
think it's going to be quite at that level. So
you got Jalen Green, maybe he picks it up a

(02:20:57):
little bit on that end. From a scoring standpoint, I
think we saw Aaron Holliday in the last game, much
like we're going to see Aaron Holliday in this game.
I do expect them at least to expand the rotation
to him. I think the numbers are so obvious now
with Steven Adams at Albera and Shangun playing together, especially
on a night where the team is making their free throws,
that's going to be more of what we see. It's
continue to be very, very very positive for Houston, and

(02:21:20):
I would expect some of what Golden State does well
to be on display. The Rockets an't going to change
what they're doing defensively. All sorts of adjustments will be made,
and they've yet to feel compelled to make this change.
All signs defensively point to Steph Curry. You want to
shoot the ball. As long as you're not Steph, no
problem at all. It's been true for Jimmy, it's been

(02:21:41):
true for Pajemski. Quite out, get Buddy healed. If they
just challenge their shots, they're open and then the Rockets
send them out. Or the Rockets can run guys off
the three point line as often as possible while still
focusing on Steph. Steph can have his twenty five, have
his thirty. Don't let him get thirty five on sixteen

(02:22:01):
shots with nine assists. And seven boards and no turnovers.
If he gets thirty five without being his distributor, with
still turning the ball over, which he has done a
lot more of in this series, then you're gonna live
with whatever total it is. And I've said this countless times.
I hope it's true one more time. Even though it
seems to get him going when he's had some slow starts,
he drives to the basket and the finishes at the rim,

(02:22:22):
and he's had quite a few in this series. I'm
totally fine with it. If he is hurting Houston with
two point field goal makes, then he's not really hurting
Houston in my opinion.

Speaker 6 (02:22:33):
Can I drop my prediction? Yes, of course, Fred Vanvlee
drops twenty seven.

Speaker 5 (02:22:37):
Well, twenty five, twenty six, and twenty seven would be
the last three games for him.

Speaker 6 (02:22:41):
If he does that, I'd be pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (02:22:43):
Uh if Danielle Lerner, who was on with his earlier
mentioned Fred scoring, could have mentioned Dylan scoring when those
two or either one of them score like that. The
Rockets record is tremendous and I think it would still
hold true even in a playoff series and pretty much.

Speaker 4 (02:23:00):
Chas I just I'm like, why why did Jalen Green
go off in Game two.

Speaker 6 (02:23:07):
And why can't that happen tonight again?

Speaker 5 (02:23:10):
I mean, that was pretty special, it was. It probably
only happened like three or four times in eighty two games,
and then once in two games against Golden State, now
once in five.

Speaker 4 (02:23:20):
Yeah, but I mean, he's it's it's just such a
big gap between that and what he did in the
other games. I feel like, you know, why can't going
off doesn't mean twenty five I guess, but if he
scored twenty five points, you'd feel pretty good about your
chances of winning.

Speaker 5 (02:23:37):
Right, thirty eight points in Game two and thirty five
points in.

Speaker 6 (02:23:41):
The rest of the series, that's insane.

Speaker 5 (02:23:44):
So don't score below eleven or less, which is the
other four games. A seventeen, A nineteen, A twenty two
absolutely sounds like that's the kind of game they would win.
I expect us to hit the airwaves on Monday with
some fun, fun stuff to talk about, because we don't.
We're not on until they play two more. I know,
I know, we got astros on deck for you immediately,
it will come your way next we'll get you ready

(02:24:05):
for the Astros, and obviously later on tonight you know
what's coming with that game six with your Houston Rockets,
that'll get started over on news Radio seven forty KRH

Speaker 1 (02:24:15):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety