- 6 hours ago
Seth and Sean discuss the Rockets facing the 76ers tonight, why it's actually better to lose at this point, and what the remaining schedules look like for the Rockets, Lakers and Nuggets.
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00:00Meanwhile, the Rockets will hopefully be in the middle of a playoff run in a couple of weeks.
00:06I think technically, mathematically, it's an impossibility they could be eliminated by the draft.
00:11And especially if they're playing the Lakers, I feel like it's an impossibility
00:14because the Lakers are likely going to be missing at least two of their best players.
00:19Austin Reeves with an oblique injury.
00:21Luka Doncic, we know, is over, at least he was earlier this week, over in Spain
00:27trying to get whatever treatment he can get in Europe that he can't get here
00:31to try to get back on the court ASAP for the Los Angeles Lakers.
00:34There's certain stem cell treatments and platelet treatments and stuff
00:37that you can't get the same version over here.
00:41So it's not like it's necessarily anything, you know, black market or anything.
00:45It's just there's certain things that are cleared and more advanced over there than here.
00:49So he's not doing this in an alley in Madrid somewhere or something like that.
00:52That's what they would like us to believe.
00:54I think we've got a little bit of a Drago situation going on.
00:58They got him strapped to a table and they're injecting him with every peptide not known to man.
01:04The juice is dripping off the needle of the syringe when you kind of squeeze the little knob.
01:09That was when you knew, oh, man, the Soviets are playing dirty.
01:13They're using steroids.
01:14Rocky IV.
01:15Something our American athletes would never do in the 1980s.
01:18You wouldn't think of it back in the 80s, man.
01:21Rocky IV showed us the truth.
01:23Yeah.
01:24I can't believe the Soviets are doing that.
01:27Let's boycott.
01:29So the playoff picture looks like this.
01:32The Rockets can finish in one of three spots in the Western Conference.
01:36Oklahoma City and San Antonio are going to be the top two seeds.
01:42And Minnesota is going to be the sixth seed.
01:44And then you've got a bunch of teams that are going to be trying to play their way in seven
01:47through ten.
01:47The Nuggets, the Nuggets, the Lakers, and the Rockets are going to finish in some order three, four, and five.
01:54As of right now, the Nuggets are third in the West.
01:58They're 52 and 28.
01:59They've got two games left.
02:00They're a game and a half ahead of the Lakers and the Rockets.
02:03I would submit that the Nuggets assignment at three beating the Timberwolves in a seven-game series is a harder
02:13assignment than the Rockets, even if they were to finish five and have to go on the road to play
02:19the four-seeded Lakers because of how depleted the Lakers.
02:22The Lakers are missing a guy who's going to finish in the top five in the MVP voting, assuming he's
02:28played enough games.
02:29I know they've got that 65-game rule or whatever.
02:31But Luka Doncic is a top-five player in the league this year.
02:34He will likely be missing for that series as of right now.
02:37We'll see.
02:38So my question is this, Seth.
02:40If, first of all, do you agree with me?
02:43Would you rather be the five-seed playing the Lakers or the three-seed playing the Timberwolves, one?
02:48And, two, if, indeed, it's better to be the five-seed, how much effort should the Rockets be putting into
02:54these last three games if they're fine with, potentially, privately, fine with where they are right now in the seeding?
03:01You know, I get nervous whenever it gets, when coaches start trying to be clever about their seeding and everything.
03:08And yet, I'm not an NBA coach yet.
03:12And I think that, in an ideal world, I would rather have them play the Rockets.
03:19In an ideal world, they win out and, you know, they still end up playing them.
03:23And the Nuggets win a game.
03:24The Nuggets need to win one game and then the Rockets are out of the three-seed.
03:26Yeah, I mean, that's like, and I feel like that's very, very, very possible.
03:30Except that I also, I'm trying to figure out, okay, the likelihood of needing seven games to beat the Lakers
03:40versus seven games to beat Minnesota.
03:43Yeah.
03:44You know, and there's a much higher likelihood of needing seven games to beat Minnesota, obviously.
03:48No question.
03:48That helps you.
03:49But I feel like the Rockets play in the way they are and if they're facing the Lakers without their
03:54two best players or those guys aren't 100%, that they shouldn't need seven games.
03:58Right.
03:59So that, yeah, the home court advantage, the home court advantage, it doesn't factor into it as much just because
04:05it's, one of those series is much more winnable in six or fewer games than the other one.
04:10I want them.
04:10Regardless of where your home court is.
04:12Yes.
04:12What I want is, I want Denver to win.
04:14I want Denver to just win a game.
04:17So then you're basically locked into a series with the Lakers.
04:20Then you can go try to win so you can get home court in that series.
04:23I just don't want, I just really want the Lakers in the first round.
04:27It's by far the easiest assignment of all the teams that are in that three through six mix right now
04:32with the injuries that they have.
04:33Now, here's the wrinkle, too, though, is that the Nuggets, who, again, I want them to win one game so
04:39they can be the three seed.
04:40They play OKC and San Antonio in their last two games.
04:44Yeah.
04:44There's a decent chance they don't win either of those games if OKC, and, you know, unless they're resting guys.
04:48And that's the other wrinkle in all of this is which teams are load managing, which teams aren't.
04:54You know, is OKC even going to play their guys in these last couple?
04:58I mean, they're there.
05:00They're in of no concern of I don't think right now of of losing their number one seed.
05:05Yeah.
05:05Lakers play at 9 p.m. tonight.
05:08Oh, are you going to do a little scoreboard watch, a little watching?
05:10No.
05:11Not tonight.
05:12No, not.
05:12Maybe if there was an earlier game or something.
05:14Yeah, they're at Golden State.
05:16Lakers have Golden State on the road tonight.
05:19Home for Phoenix, home for Utah.
05:21The Rockets have Philly, Minnesota, and Memphis all at home.
05:26So we'll get, you know, if they were to somehow rise up and get the three seed,
05:29we'd get a mini preview of what that Minnesota series would look like next weekend, starting next weekend.
05:34Yeah, I just I want the Nuggets to win a game so we can start focusing on the Lakers, you
05:41know, four versus five.
05:42And wherever it starts, it starts.
05:43If it starts in L.A. next weekend because the Lakers are able to hold on to the four seed,
05:47great.
05:47For those who don't know, the Lakers do have the tiebreaker over the Rockets.
05:50They have the same exact record right now as the Rockets, but they're the four seed courtesy of, in part,
05:56those two wins they got over the Rockets a few weeks ago.
05:59So it's a weird spot, man.
06:01It is a weird spot to be in because the main thing I'm rooting for right now, at least as
06:06of today,
06:07losing is better than winning for the Rockets.
06:10You know, you got it tomorrow night.
06:12The Thunder and the Nuggets start at 8 p.m.
06:15Okay.
06:15Timberwolves versus Rockets begins at 8.30 p.m.
06:18Yep.
06:19So there will be a little bit of a staggered kind of monitoring and seeing how much you care about
06:24this game.
06:24Yeah.
06:25Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:26I'm just ready for the playoffs more than anything else.
06:28So we'll see.
06:29Rockets.
06:30Let me ask you this.
06:31Have you gotten a sense of this by the text line or anything else that when we talk about, you
06:35know,
06:35preferring to have the Lakers in the first round, I feel like in most years, most people in the fan
06:42base hate that.
06:43Come on.
06:43Quit acting soft and wanting to get the right matchup and being happy about the Lakers being injured.
06:48Yep.
06:49My suspicion is that because of the weirdness of this year for the Rockets and because they've been on this
06:56latest uptick that most people feel like I do,
07:00which is I'm not going to let my ego get involved in this.
07:03I think the Rockets are figuring some things out and they've looked really good,
07:06but I want them to have as much of a smooth upward ramp as possible into the level of difficulty
07:12in the playoffs.
07:13I'm a-okay with them getting a beaten down weakened Lakers team in the first round so they can just
07:20continue doing the good things they're doing well and getting better at it and more refined.
07:25I have zero shame about wanting to face a weakened opponent.
07:28I don't either.
07:29I don't either.
07:30And yet I would, if they have, if they get up to the three seed and they're facing Minnesota at
07:37home in a three versus six,
07:38which I think is a harder assignment, I'm not going to be mad about that either.
07:42It means they probably, it means they're probably still on a 10 game winning streak and they're going to the
07:45playoffs on a hot streak.
07:46Right, right.
07:47No, and I feel way better about their chances in that than I would have a couple of weeks ago,
07:51obviously.
07:51I just, but I, but I think more so than, but usually the question isn't like, yeah,
07:56I'm never going to sit here and act like, oh no, this team's won a bunch of games, but they've
08:00got no chance again.
08:01I don't, I don't, I don't want to run.
08:02I'm not going to say I want to run away from Minnesota, but I have zero shame about wanting to
08:07face a weakened team first.
08:09Yeah.
08:09Like that's where it's different than I think.
08:11No, I want to, I, yeah, no.
08:13Have you sensed any shame from people or people trying to shame us for that?
08:16No, no, no, I haven't.
08:17I haven't.
08:18Um, and I think there's people excited just to beat the snot out of the Lakers.
08:23There's the, there's the laundry aspect of it.
08:25You know what I mean?
08:25It's, it's still that purple and gold uniform on the other side.
08:30And if they're a weekend, we're just like Rocky and Rocky four.
08:33We're doing it for America.
08:34That's exactly right.
08:34Got a red blooded American who actually likes the Lakers.
08:38Yeah.
08:38You know?
08:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:40So, um, so yeah, we got three games left and we'll see what happens.
08:44All of them at home.
08:44Um, the Rockets set their fourth on the odds board for Giannis Antetokounmpo plus 600.
08:52They're high on the, Houston's high on these odds boards for these, uh, you know, Dillard
08:55Dexter Lawrence.
08:56They were second.
08:57We got Giannis fourth on the board.
09:00Yeah.
09:00It doesn't, um, uh, the, the, it, they've been tied to him in headlines for so, so long.
09:06Yeah.
09:07Um, I don't like, like usually with the future stuff like this, I don't think there's any kind
09:11of inside information or anything that's fueling it at this point.
09:13It's one of those ones that just makes sense.
09:15Plus when you've shown that you're hot to trot, you know, it's kind of like Diana Rossini
09:19is like all these other GMs out there right now are probably like, I wonder if I could
09:22leak her some information.
09:24Like I got some, Hey, Hey, what can we conjure up here?
09:28What kind of move can we, I know where there's a resort with private bungalows.
09:31Yeah.
09:31Yeah.
09:32So the Rockets are kind of like that.
09:33Maybe looking at him thinking like, yeah, they're, they're a little bit loops plus 600.
09:37I, this, uh, you know, reading that article, like the, about Giannis that Shams had the
09:41other day, uh, on ESPN.com about how bad it's gotten with him.
09:45As I'm reading that, I'm like, they can definitely put a trade together.
09:48Like if the Rockets want to trade for Giannis, they've got assets to make a trade for Giannis.
09:53It's just a question of, do they want to do it?
09:55I think this is yet another thing that as the Rockets have found religion and started
10:01operating like a genuine basketball team, like a genuine NBA offense over the last few
10:07weeks, you feel that much better about the young core too.
10:10And your mind didn't remember.
10:11Oh yeah.
10:11Okay.
10:12Wait a second.
10:12That was a last year.
10:14Wasn't a fever dream.
10:15There is a reason that you want to hold onto this young core.
10:17Speaking of which, this was some fun audio from the other night.
10:20Um, after the game, uh, Amin Thompson talking to media in the locker room with Alperen
10:27Shengun standing like five feet away from him talking about defending teams, trying to
10:33defend Alperen Shengun.
10:35And this is going to be Amin and Shengun.
10:37Yeah.
10:37Shengun chimes in here.
10:39Uh, so here it is.
10:40You've seen from Alpy since he's come back from that, uh, back injury.
10:43It looks like he's playing more of a bully ball style and inside of the paint.
10:47But I mean, yeah, I don't feel like, I feel like Alpy's been great.
10:51I feel like nobody can guard him and I just don't want him to settle.
10:57Yo.
11:00There's a truth.
11:01He told me another day, it's crazy.
11:04When he's in the dunk and I play post-up, he's telling his man, go help him.
11:09Go help.
11:10This is crazy.
11:11I literally told him, I'm like, go help, go help.
11:13You're going to score, go help.
11:14He's going to score and you go help.
11:17Does anyone listen?
11:18Huh?
11:18Yeah, they listen.
11:19He scores once, they listen.
11:20Then he goes, the next time I get a free dunk.
11:23That's hilarious.
11:24So, Amit Thompson's telling his guy to go help out on Alper and Shengun.
11:28You're screwing him over.
11:30Yeah.
11:30That's funny.
11:31That's the kind of laughter that you like hearing.
11:33It's nice to see them happy.
11:35Yeah.
11:36Yeah.
11:36It's nice to see them happy again.
11:37The clip was from Sarge's ex-account.
11:40Yep.
11:40Big Sarge.
11:41That was the voice you heard asking that question too.
11:43So, credit him on that.
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