00:00Very lackluster sports that we had yesterday.
00:02In fact, it was historical in all the ways that you don't want it to be
00:05as the Rockets were in Minnesota.
00:07We talked about this.
00:07This felt like this was going to be a turning point game
00:11or just maybe a linchpin game when it comes to what the Rockets are.
00:16And, yes, you're right, it was, unfortunately.
00:19They fall to the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime
00:22after having a 13-point lead in overtime, John Lopez.
00:27All right, so let's focus on that.
00:29I think it was 113, what was the final?
00:32110-108, sorry.
00:33You come back and you obviously, you know, you take a lead,
00:36then you force overtime.
00:37You take a 13-point lead in overtime in an enormous game.
00:43This is not anything to be, you know, just said in passing, you know,
00:47because that right there is your opportunity to put it away,
00:53show some focus, show some defense, some discipline.
00:59All of those things that they had shown at the very end of regulation
01:02and in the early portions of overtime.
01:04They looked dialed.
01:04I mean, you had Alper and Shang-Goon getting on the floor,
01:07stealing a basketball from, who was it again, that he stole the basketball.
01:11You got the bloody mouth?
01:12Yeah, bloody mouth.
01:13They had been fighting, clawing.
01:15It looked like this was the toughness win that they were going to get.
01:17But they showed none of that with a 13-point lead.
01:22Clearly, easily, without question, the most embarrassing loss of the season.
01:27And I think you'd have to go back a long way to find anything similar to that.
01:33Would 25 years be the long enough way?
01:35Because apparently, for the first time in 25 years,
01:37this is the largest deficit that a team has come back and won,
01:41deficit in overtime that a team has come back and won in the last 25 years
01:45that Minnesota 13-point deficit.
01:46In the National Basketball Association.
01:48I'm talking about just Rockets' losses with what's on the line.
01:51Because now you lost some ground, of course, to the Timberwolves for the 4th seed.
01:56You're in the 6th seed.
01:58You're facing the Nuggets if it ended today, that type deal.
02:01But it's stunningly bad how many second-half leads they've blown.
02:09They've blown an 18-point second-half lead, a 25-point, a 13-point overtime lead.
02:14Reggie, that doesn't point to anything but Ime Adoka.
02:17By the way.
02:17Nothing but Ime Adoka.
02:19This Minnesota team was without Anthony Edwards in this game.
02:22Anthony Edwards, who is a superstar in this league, who is their best player,
02:26and, as we mentioned yesterday, is one of, if not the clutchest players in the league.
02:30They didn't have him.
02:31They still whooped your ass at the end of the game.
02:33Now, of course, that's maybe a little bit of an exaggeration.
02:35You got yourself up 13 in overtime.
02:37But you had dudes getting thrown out.
02:39Nas Reed gets thrown out of this game.
02:40Rudy Gobert is fouled out in this game, and you find a way to grab defeat from the jaws of
02:44victory.
02:45This was a game that, if you were even the staunchest defenders of the Rockets,
02:49which I don't know that I'd fully count myself as that, but I probably along that side.
02:52You lean that way.
02:54That was a, okay, wipe my hands at it.
02:56Like, I'm done with it this year.
02:58And the thing that really got me, funny enough, was earlier on in the game,
03:02I thought I was going to set up to have a little bit of a spicy take where they win
03:04this game
03:05and I go, this is it for me.
03:06It's just the offense is abysmal.
03:09It is putrid, especially when you see if Kevin Durant is not knocking down shots
03:13as he wasn't early on the game, there's just nothing they have.
03:16And this is even considering, again, Anthony Edwards isn't playing.
03:18They knock down free throws.
03:20What sick fortune the Rockets have that they were perfect at the free throw line
03:25until the very end where Kevin Durant needs two free throws to tie the game
03:29to keep the game pushing in overtime.
03:31But that felt like the cruel irony of what this team has, you know,
03:35what they had wrought all season long by not having an offense that is sufficient,
03:39not having an offense that makes sense.
03:40So much of their diet, even when they're, you know, scoring the basketball,
03:45is bad shots that are made by dudes who are solid at making bad shots.
03:49And then when you get to the time where you need to make a shot,
03:51what you're going to go to is a bad shot.
03:52And if it doesn't go, that's to be expected.
03:55Because, again, you're taking bad shots.
03:57It just felt like there's no recourse in this particular season.
04:02Whatever they do in the postseason is what it is.
04:05But I'm done with it, man.
04:08Everything you just said is 100% accurate.
04:10But there have been – I want to make something very, very clear.
04:13You know, because he's been in the crosshairs somewhat, including by you.
04:18You've kind of come along and started to wonder about Eme Adoka.
04:21There have been various points this season when we've said, you know,
04:25if Fred Van Vliet was here or, you know what, they need an offensive coordinator.
04:29Or, boy, Steven Adams is such a key part of this.
04:33Boy this, boy that.
04:34This points to Eme Adoka.
04:37This is on him.
04:39Not winning those games when you have second-half leads.
04:41The way that this enormous, hugely enormous basketball game was just spit with no focus, as I said.
04:51Even the offensive possessions were too quick.
04:53I mean, just everything was bad.
04:55I'm going to throw some numbers at you.
04:57Tell me if you –
05:00Don't threaten me with a good time.
05:01If you see a trend here.
05:03The last two-and-a-half minutes of overtime.
05:05Okay.
05:06Okay?
05:07Points, 15-0.
05:09That's not good.
05:10Rebounds, 4-0.
05:12That's also not good.
05:13Assists, 4-0.
05:15Field goals, 6-0.
05:18I'm noticing a number key popping.
05:19Free throws, 1-0 made.
05:22Three-pointers, 2-0.
05:24Two-pointers, 4-0.
05:26So nothing was happening.
05:27Offensive rebounds, 1-0.
05:29Defensive rebounds, 3-0.
05:32Blocks, 0.
05:33Both had 0.
05:34Steals, 1-0.
05:36Points off turnovers, 5-0.
05:39Them boys were spent at the very end.
05:41Them boys were spent.
05:44Nah, they wasn't on the court.
05:45Zero.
05:47Across the board.
05:49That's not Fred Van Vliet or Steven Adams or whatever you want to pick.
05:53That's Eme Adoka.
05:54Yeah.
05:54That's Eme Adoka.
05:55I know that it sounds like I'm joking when I say they're spent, but I think they are, man.
05:58I think that this has been a wildly emotional season.
06:01I mean, I still remember there was a possession where, again, I have to send, I think I have
06:04to write a note to my neighbors, go put it on their door, because I know when a Rockets
06:07game gets one, they hear me.
06:09One of those moments was yelling at Tari Eason when he stops the ball and Kevin Durant's like,
06:13pass me the ball.
06:14Like, all of those types of frustrations that we go, oh, this bad team.
06:17These things have built up over the entirety of a season, and it felt like that was, again,
06:22as a linchpin game, as we had set it up to be, you get to the very end of it,
06:25and it's
06:26just like, dog, we had gotten ourselves, we had gotten to overtime, we had gotten ourselves
06:30up 13, and here the Minnesota Timberwolves are, without Anthony Edwards.
06:33Mind you, without Ayo Desumu, who is the backup point guard, who also wasn't playing in
06:38that game.
06:38Without Rudy Gobert, their defensive player of the year, and the dude in the post.
06:42Without Nas Reed, a nice six-man type guy that they had.
06:45Without all of that, here they are, Ayo Keister.
06:48At some point, it just felt like they let go of the rope.
06:50Like, it felt like they let go of the rope, and you know what?
06:52I will follow suit.
06:53I don't have expectations of this Rockets team right now, and I'm starting to turn my
06:57attention to, if I don't have expectations of this team right now, then where do they
07:01go?
07:02Like, I'm already mentally kind of in off-season mode, which is a damn shame, because as a
07:06team, even with some of the issues that you have, they don't really have a good bench
07:10right now, right?
07:11Clearly, they don't have a point guard.
07:12Their bench is bad right now.
07:12Right?
07:13All of those things.
07:14I mean, Aaron Holiday was in, I think, was it the first quarter we already seen Aaron
07:17Holiday in there?
07:18And that's no disrespect to Aaron Holiday, but that's a guy that has not been in your
07:21rotation a lot of the year.
07:22Even with the deficiencies that you could say, I think they're better than the performances
07:26that they've been putting up recently.
07:27And yeah, that does go to how much of that is coaching, especially when you say Emeo Doka
07:31is probably safe.
07:32Yeah.
07:33If you look at the...
07:34Okay.
07:34Well, we might have to circle back to that, because I don't think he should be.
07:37And I don't think that this presumption that he's safe, I get it, but crazier things have
07:44happened than this, have happened very recently.
07:46A couple of texts I want to get to real quick.
07:50This is accurate.
07:51The only non-zero that this texter saw was turnovers in the last 230.
07:55Yep.
07:56That's true.
07:56They had one turnover.
07:58So all zeros except the one turnover.
08:00Being negative.
08:01And John, how is that Emeo's fault?
08:03That's on the players.
08:04No, it's not.
08:05I think it's on all of them.
08:06But the responsibility to get this team focused, get this team, all those things that we're
08:10talking about, that is on one guy.
08:13And by the way, oh, they need an offensive coordinator.
08:15What the hell's he been doing?
08:17What the hell's he been doing?
08:18This is on him.
08:20Yeah.
08:20So, look, that one felt like a, you know, we're done here.
08:24Like, that one very much felt like a one, not even just because now you haven't lost
08:30the tiebreak to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
08:32You tied a game apiece.
08:33You have a game versus them again on April 10th, which will determine the tiebreaker.
08:38But you've lost the tiebreaker against the Lakers.
08:39You've lost the tiebreaker against the Denver Nuggets.
08:42You are going to be in the bottom portion of this top six in the West.
08:47And I don't believe in your capability of going and winning against any of those teams
08:51four games out of seven.
08:52And, like, this very much feels like we're done here for the season.
08:56And that is really disappointing considering the trajectory that you thought you were on
09:02at the start of the year.
09:04All right.
09:04You're in the loop here on Sports Radio 610.
09:06Coming up next, let's get back to the exciting portion.
09:08Actually, this is probably a little bit more depressing, though.
09:11Our question of the day.
09:12Inspired by that Rockets game where, honestly, the loss was kind of good.
09:15It gave us a maximum clarity.
09:17It allowed me to get to my place where I go, I know what this team is at this moment.
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