May 2, 2025 • 9 mins
Forcing a Game 6 the other night here at Toyota Center, the Rockets' look to withstand another tall task in trying to battle back in their series against Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Rolling back to San Francisco tonight with the series now at 3-2, covering the Rockets daily and also the Host of Locked On Rockets, Jackson Gatlin joins and shares a few of his predictions regarding tonight's tip-off and what must Houston do to push for a Game 7 set for Sunday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we're gonna get into a lot of Rockets talk
with Jackson Gatlin locked on Rockets in studio with me.
You can find him on Twitter at j T Gatlin
speaking of the Rockets game six tonight from the Bay
Area against the Warriors, and it's going to tip off
just after eight, I believe is when it is going
(00:22):
to be a tip off there in the Bay Area.
But the Rockets trying to win that one and keep
the season alive. Astros are in Chicago taking on the
White Sox five thirty or Astros on deck coming your
way here on your home of the Astros Sports Talk
at seven to ninety. But Jackson, you know just this
Rockets series. Heard you the other night with ac on
(00:45):
on Rockets launch Pad, and one of the things that
stood out to me was, you know, you're all over
this team and Jalen Green has been the storyline that
just won't go away in this series, and for a
good reason.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean Game two he was great.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
The other three I guess in this case now the
other four he's not been so great. But is this
team better without him on the floor.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I mean, I think if you go and look at
a lot of the different advanced numbers and different metrics
out there, and I could pull up a laundry list
of different advanced stats and everything that would suggest the
team is.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Better without him on the floor.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
But the problem is the way that this roster is
constructed is he's the one guy that has his specific
skill set on the team. He's the one dynamic lead
guard on the team. There's things that he can do
that Fred van Vliet only dreams that he could do
on a basketball floor. And so when you get the
good version of Jalen Green, that's when this Rockets team
is elite. That's when they're unbeatable, right, they're something like
(01:40):
thirteen to one to fourteen one this season when he
scores thirty or more points.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And so the proof is in the pudding.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
When you get the best version of Jalen Green, this
Rockets team looks incredibly good. You get alprin Chingud in
the middle doing his work facilitating rebounding, he's a much
improved defender. Then you get all the other guys, the wing, defenders,
everybody that makes this Rockets team special. And that is
honestly a championship recipe right there. The issue is and
has been for most of Jalen Green's career has been
(02:06):
the inconsistency in his game right night to night, Which
version of Jalen Green do you get now?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
This season?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I think he's done a remarkable job of kind of
eliminating a lot of the lows throughout the year. Right,
you don't see the lows, And even when he does
have like an off night bag game, he's gotten a
lot better about rebounding, responding the very next game out
after game one, I had a feeling that he was
going to respond in a big way in Game two,
and he comes out and you know, Erupts has thirty
eight points. Looks incredible, right, future superstar material. Then he
(02:35):
struggles on the road in games three and four, and
a lot of this has to do with how the
Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Are defending him. They change it on a game to
game basis.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Game two, they elected to take Draymond Green out of
a lot of the ballscreen actions, which really gave Jalen
kind of free reign to do whatever he wanted to
do offensively. He made all the right reads. He was
knocking down his shots eight threes that night. But then
you see the Warriors and they switch up their coverages,
and they've been the best defense in the NBA since
adding Jimmy Butler. And that's a tall task, that's a
tall order for Jalen Greed to navigate that on a
(03:04):
night to night basis. So for the Rockets, I mean,
I feel like here in game six, they're gonna need
something special from him, especially on the road. And look,
you got you know, I know, it's you know, everybody's
first playoff series, the first taste of postseason action for
all the young guys. That is right, Fred Dylan, Steven Adams,
they've been there, but you know you kind of I
think the expectation now should be like, look, you got
(03:27):
the first game, jitters out of the way. You responded
great in game two. He struggled on the road in
games three and four, struggled back at home in Game five,
although to be fair to his credit, it looked like
he was getting ready to have one of those special
Jalen Green performances. Had the and one basket. First hoop
of the game, changes hands, mid air scores at the rim,
absorbs contact, gets the free throw, and then he cans
a three pointer A couple possessions later. It's unfortunate that
(03:49):
he banged knees with Steph Curry and kind of sideline
him a little bit that game, and then by the
time he made it back on the floor, rockets were
rolled and the offense looked good. Everything was humming, So
he didn't really need to force the issue as much
in that game. But game six on the road in
the Bay Area, you're gonna need something special from not
only Jalen Green but also Alprin Shangoon and to men Thompson.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I'm gonna get to the rest of the guys in
a second, but I mean, tell me if I'm wrong here.
I kind of felt like there was a concerted effort
to get to the basket in game five, like it
was where you'd see some of those lanes being cut off,
and we're gonna settle for mid rangers or maybe even
an ill advised three. Even if it's wide open, you've
still got other options on the floor.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
But is that.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Something that maybe they've unlocked now that they feel like, hey, yeah,
we can bang you up down low, we can make
this happen. You know.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
It kind of feels like to me that they've just
they're starting to really understand the Warriors a little bit better.
And you see it game to game, literally from game
one to two, to three, to four to five, this
Rockets team has gotten a better understanding of the Warriors
as the series has progressed. And that's kind of the
beauty of like a seven game series. You deal with
the same opponent each and every night, and so you're
watching the coaches and what adjustments they make stuff for
(05:00):
the players. And I said this, you know, on my
show before the series even started, is you know, because
they're also young, they're also in experience. They haven't been
in a series like this before. Many of the players
up and down the roster. I figured that they would
get more comfortable as the series progressed because they would
start to understand, Okay, this is how the adjustments work,
this is what they're trying to do, This is how
they're trying to limit us offensively, this is where they're
(05:22):
trying to hurt us when they're on offense. And I
really do feel like you look up and down the roster,
different guys have really started to settle into this series.
And in game five, to me, the big difference maker was,
you know, after the first couple of games and especially
Game one. Emy talked about this a lot after the game,
that they played in a crowd too much. You know,
the Warriors love to pack the paint. They want to,
(05:42):
they won't will dare you to beat them from the perimeter,
and so they're they're having guys sag off defensively packing
the paint, and the Rockets played in a crowd way
too much in Game one. The difference there in Game
five is they made the right read. They did a
great job of getting a quick paint touch and then
getting that outlet pass, kicking it out to an open
show shooter. And then it didn't just stop there, because
you can, you know, get a quick paint touch, quick
(06:04):
driving kick, get it out to the shooter, and maybe
you get a quick rushed kind of three. You know,
Warriors get a decent close out on it. They did
a great job just moving the basketball around. So you
pass up a good shot off the initial kickout, you
swing it to the next man over, while the Warriors
defense is a rotation. You turn a good shot into
a great shot, and then at the end of the day,
you know, you just got to actually knock down the shots.
That's sometimes basketball just comes down to you like, did
(06:25):
you hit your shots or not? Like was the process good?
Sure is one thing, but did you actually make the shot.
You can generate all the wide open shots in the world,
but it doesn't matter if you can't actually get the
ball in the hoop. It's the name of the game.
And so for the Rockets there in game five, everybody
was firing on all cylinders and I just hope that
they didn't completely empty the clip in that one, so
they got a little bit of something left for game
(06:45):
six again.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Jackson Gatlin locked on Rockets hanging out with us for
the next couple hours here on the Sean Salisbury Show.
You know, you mentioned Fred and I almost kind of
worry with him. Is there a shelf life to this? Like,
you know, we've gotten good shooting performances in game four
and then of course game five he's able to do
it again. But I mean, does that kind of worry
(07:07):
you a little bit of Hey, if you're going to
try to count on that guy to provide that part
of your offense, it's going to not be something that's
going to be a long term solution. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I mean, here's the thing is, when the Rockets signed Fred, right,
he wasn't supposed to be any kind of a long
term solution Fred and Dylan when they were brought in was,
you know, the idea was to have them kind of
be more or less the training wheels for this young
core right, kind of guide them back to competitive basketball,
what it's like to be a professional, all that stuff.
And I think that's where you see a little bit
(07:37):
of the frustration with kind of where Jalen Green is
at in his career, his growth.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Kind of you know, the inconsistencies in his game.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Is there are some Rockets fans I see out there
who take who are frustrated on some nights where Fred is,
you know, getting up too many shots, this, that and
the other thing. And my message is usually, well, Fred
is a very willing like he will gladly sit in
the corner and let Jalen Green run the show and
take you know, eight shot attempts a night and all
only the open threes. Whatever he feels the need to
kind of force the issue, especially when Jalen doesn't have
(08:05):
it going, because the Rockets recipe for success is very
clearly they need one of Jalen Green or Fred van
Vliet on a night to night basis to have a
strong game from the perimeter to help keep the defense
on us. Right, run that two man game with alpharinhngun, generate,
decent looks, run the offense, all that stuff. And there's
some games where Jalen doesn't and he looks phenomenal, right,
looks like a future superstar. And then there's others where
(08:26):
he really struggles, right, really struggled there in Game four
of the early turnovers, the ball pressure from the Warriors,
all that stuff. So for Fred, I don't think that
there's necessarily a shelf life on it. He is a
very streaky shooter, and that's kind of the downside for
Fred is he doesn't have the downhill gravity, the athleticism
to get to the rim put that kind of pressure
on the Warrior's defense. So for Fred, it's very much
(08:46):
like is your shot falling. If it is awesome, you're
gonna look great. If your SHOT's not falling, things are
gonna get ugly, really really quick for this Rockets.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Offense again, Jackson Gallan join us here in studio, will
continue the Rockets conversation. You want to get in on
said rock It's conversation the phone line Semon one three
two one two five seven ninety against seOne three two
one two five seven nine zero. Something we did see
in Game five that we do hope we'll translate to tonight,
(09:13):
maybe even to Sunday. But why did it take so long?
We'll discuss here. It is The Shawn Salisbury Show, Sports
Talk seven ninety
As we're gonna get into a lot of Rockets talk
with Jackson Gatlin locked on Rockets in studio with me.
You can find him on Twitter at j T Gatlin
speaking of the Rockets game six tonight from the Bay
Area against the Warriors, and it's going to tip off
just after eight, I believe is when it is going
(00:22):
to be a tip off there in the Bay Area.
But the Rockets trying to win that one and keep
the season alive. Astros are in Chicago taking on the
White Sox five thirty or Astros on deck coming your
way here on your home of the Astros Sports Talk
at seven to ninety. But Jackson, you know just this
Rockets series. Heard you the other night with ac on
(00:45):
on Rockets launch Pad, and one of the things that
stood out to me was, you know, you're all over
this team and Jalen Green has been the storyline that
just won't go away in this series, and for a
good reason.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean Game two he was great.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
The other three I guess in this case now the
other four he's not been so great. But is this
team better without him on the floor.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I mean, I think if you go and look at
a lot of the different advanced numbers and different metrics
out there, and I could pull up a laundry list
of different advanced stats and everything that would suggest the
team is.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Better without him on the floor.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
But the problem is the way that this roster is
constructed is he's the one guy that has his specific
skill set on the team. He's the one dynamic lead
guard on the team. There's things that he can do
that Fred van Vliet only dreams that he could do
on a basketball floor. And so when you get the
good version of Jalen Green, that's when this Rockets team
is elite. That's when they're unbeatable, right, they're something like
(01:40):
thirteen to one to fourteen one this season when he
scores thirty or more points.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And so the proof is in the pudding.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
When you get the best version of Jalen Green, this
Rockets team looks incredibly good. You get alprin Chingud in
the middle doing his work facilitating rebounding, he's a much
improved defender. Then you get all the other guys, the wing, defenders,
everybody that makes this Rockets team special. And that is
honestly a championship recipe right there. The issue is and
has been for most of Jalen Green's career has been
(02:06):
the inconsistency in his game right night to night, Which
version of Jalen Green do you get now?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
This season?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I think he's done a remarkable job of kind of
eliminating a lot of the lows throughout the year. Right,
you don't see the lows, And even when he does
have like an off night bag game, he's gotten a
lot better about rebounding, responding the very next game out
after game one, I had a feeling that he was
going to respond in a big way in Game two,
and he comes out and you know, Erupts has thirty
eight points. Looks incredible, right, future superstar material. Then he
(02:35):
struggles on the road in games three and four, and
a lot of this has to do with how the
Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Are defending him. They change it on a game to
game basis.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Game two, they elected to take Draymond Green out of
a lot of the ballscreen actions, which really gave Jalen
kind of free reign to do whatever he wanted to
do offensively. He made all the right reads. He was
knocking down his shots eight threes that night. But then
you see the Warriors and they switch up their coverages,
and they've been the best defense in the NBA since
adding Jimmy Butler. And that's a tall task, that's a
tall order for Jalen Greed to navigate that on a
(03:04):
night to night basis. So for the Rockets, I mean,
I feel like here in game six, they're gonna need
something special from him, especially on the road. And look,
you got you know, I know, it's you know, everybody's
first playoff series, the first taste of postseason action for
all the young guys. That is right, Fred Dylan, Steven Adams,
they've been there, but you know you kind of I
think the expectation now should be like, look, you got
(03:27):
the first game, jitters out of the way. You responded
great in game two. He struggled on the road in
games three and four, struggled back at home in Game five,
although to be fair to his credit, it looked like
he was getting ready to have one of those special
Jalen Green performances. Had the and one basket. First hoop
of the game, changes hands, mid air scores at the rim,
absorbs contact, gets the free throw, and then he cans
a three pointer A couple possessions later. It's unfortunate that
(03:49):
he banged knees with Steph Curry and kind of sideline
him a little bit that game, and then by the
time he made it back on the floor, rockets were
rolled and the offense looked good. Everything was humming, So
he didn't really need to force the issue as much
in that game. But game six on the road in
the Bay Area, you're gonna need something special from not
only Jalen Green but also Alprin Shangoon and to men Thompson.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I'm gonna get to the rest of the guys in
a second, but I mean, tell me if I'm wrong here.
I kind of felt like there was a concerted effort
to get to the basket in game five, like it
was where you'd see some of those lanes being cut off,
and we're gonna settle for mid rangers or maybe even
an ill advised three. Even if it's wide open, you've
still got other options on the floor.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
But is that.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Something that maybe they've unlocked now that they feel like, hey, yeah,
we can bang you up down low, we can make
this happen. You know.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
It kind of feels like to me that they've just
they're starting to really understand the Warriors a little bit better.
And you see it game to game, literally from game
one to two, to three, to four to five, this
Rockets team has gotten a better understanding of the Warriors
as the series has progressed. And that's kind of the
beauty of like a seven game series. You deal with
the same opponent each and every night, and so you're
watching the coaches and what adjustments they make stuff for
(05:00):
the players. And I said this, you know, on my
show before the series even started, is you know, because
they're also young, they're also in experience. They haven't been
in a series like this before. Many of the players
up and down the roster. I figured that they would
get more comfortable as the series progressed because they would
start to understand, Okay, this is how the adjustments work,
this is what they're trying to do, This is how
they're trying to limit us offensively, this is where they're
(05:22):
trying to hurt us when they're on offense. And I
really do feel like you look up and down the roster,
different guys have really started to settle into this series.
And in game five, to me, the big difference maker was,
you know, after the first couple of games and especially
Game one. Emy talked about this a lot after the game,
that they played in a crowd too much. You know,
the Warriors love to pack the paint. They want to,
(05:42):
they won't will dare you to beat them from the perimeter,
and so they're they're having guys sag off defensively packing
the paint, and the Rockets played in a crowd way
too much in Game one. The difference there in Game
five is they made the right read. They did a
great job of getting a quick paint touch and then
getting that outlet pass, kicking it out to an open
show shooter. And then it didn't just stop there, because
you can, you know, get a quick paint touch, quick
(06:04):
driving kick, get it out to the shooter, and maybe
you get a quick rushed kind of three. You know,
Warriors get a decent close out on it. They did
a great job just moving the basketball around. So you
pass up a good shot off the initial kickout, you
swing it to the next man over, while the Warriors
defense is a rotation. You turn a good shot into
a great shot, and then at the end of the day,
you know, you just got to actually knock down the shots.
That's sometimes basketball just comes down to you like, did
(06:25):
you hit your shots or not? Like was the process good?
Sure is one thing, but did you actually make the shot.
You can generate all the wide open shots in the world,
but it doesn't matter if you can't actually get the
ball in the hoop. It's the name of the game.
And so for the Rockets there in game five, everybody
was firing on all cylinders and I just hope that
they didn't completely empty the clip in that one, so
they got a little bit of something left for game
(06:45):
six again.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Jackson Gatlin locked on Rockets hanging out with us for
the next couple hours here on the Sean Salisbury Show.
You know, you mentioned Fred and I almost kind of
worry with him. Is there a shelf life to this? Like,
you know, we've gotten good shooting performances in game four
and then of course game five he's able to do
it again. But I mean, does that kind of worry
(07:07):
you a little bit of Hey, if you're going to
try to count on that guy to provide that part
of your offense, it's going to not be something that's
going to be a long term solution. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I mean, here's the thing is, when the Rockets signed Fred, right,
he wasn't supposed to be any kind of a long
term solution Fred and Dylan when they were brought in was,
you know, the idea was to have them kind of
be more or less the training wheels for this young
core right, kind of guide them back to competitive basketball,
what it's like to be a professional, all that stuff.
And I think that's where you see a little bit
(07:37):
of the frustration with kind of where Jalen Green is
at in his career, his growth.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Kind of you know, the inconsistencies in his game.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Is there are some Rockets fans I see out there
who take who are frustrated on some nights where Fred is,
you know, getting up too many shots, this, that and
the other thing. And my message is usually, well, Fred
is a very willing like he will gladly sit in
the corner and let Jalen Green run the show and
take you know, eight shot attempts a night and all
only the open threes. Whatever he feels the need to
kind of force the issue, especially when Jalen doesn't have
(08:05):
it going, because the Rockets recipe for success is very
clearly they need one of Jalen Green or Fred van
Vliet on a night to night basis to have a
strong game from the perimeter to help keep the defense
on us. Right, run that two man game with alpharinhngun, generate,
decent looks, run the offense, all that stuff. And there's
some games where Jalen doesn't and he looks phenomenal, right,
looks like a future superstar. And then there's others where
(08:26):
he really struggles, right, really struggled there in Game four
of the early turnovers, the ball pressure from the Warriors,
all that stuff. So for Fred, I don't think that
there's necessarily a shelf life on it. He is a
very streaky shooter, and that's kind of the downside for
Fred is he doesn't have the downhill gravity, the athleticism
to get to the rim put that kind of pressure
on the Warrior's defense. So for Fred, it's very much
(08:46):
like is your shot falling. If it is awesome, you're
gonna look great. If your SHOT's not falling, things are
gonna get ugly, really really quick for this Rockets.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Offense again, Jackson Gallan join us here in studio, will
continue the Rockets conversation. You want to get in on
said rock It's conversation the phone line Semon one three
two one two five seven ninety against seOne three two
one two five seven nine zero. Something we did see
in Game five that we do hope we'll translate to tonight,
(09:13):
maybe even to Sunday. But why did it take so long?
We'll discuss here. It is The Shawn Salisbury Show, Sports
Talk seven ninety
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