00:00Rockets finish 52 and 30. Same as last year. It just goes to show you how different seasons can be
00:07last year, 52 and 30 good enough for the two seed. So this time last year, Seth, we had no
00:13idea who the Rockets are going to be playing because we were waiting for the play in to sort itself
00:17out this year, 52 and 30. You're not even on your home court to start the playoffs because teams just
00:25got better this first significantly better this year.
00:28And then obviously Denver and the Lakers both better than you and OKC is the best team in basketball. So
00:33the Rockets will play the Los Angeles Lakers starting on Saturday. The Rockets are heavy favorites in this series. They
00:40are every outlet I've looked at, Seth, and I've looked at three or four of them this morning. The Rockets
00:45are anywhere. I've seen minus 700 up to minus 800, which for those who don't know that lingo, that means
00:51you've got to risk seven or eight hundred dollars just to profit a hundred dollars.
00:56So you're risking a ton of money to just win a hundred bucks, which is unheard of for a team
01:02that's starting the playoffs on the road in Los Angeles against the Lakers. But this is what happens when the
01:08Lakers are going to be missing one of the five best players in basketball.
01:11Yeah, it turns out Donchich is pretty well thought of.
01:13He's the election in the betting community.
01:15And not to mention Reeves as well. You add to that. And I mean, just on on paper or by
01:21the eyeball test, because this will be another one of those one of those matchups where you just look out
01:26on the court and say, wow, is that a is that a high school team versus a college team?
01:30Because the Rockets are just bigger than these dudes that they've got all of the advantages that the Rockets really
01:38I hate to overly simplify it like this, but they can only lose this series by their own mistakes.
01:45Or if somehow, some way they regress to their previously sloppy style of basketball, that style of basketball where there's
01:52no, no ball movement and it's all ISO.
01:56Like that's the only thing that barring injuries, obviously they could make them lose this series.
02:01So they've, they've got every right to be confident going to this series.
02:05The biggest thing I'd love to see is as I'm assuming a win here is just that they play really
02:12clean throughout, especially by the young guys, you know, that we don't have these fourth quarter turnovers.
02:17They don't make a bunch of these games more interesting than they need to be.
02:20Yeah. The, um, I guess the question would be a 52 and 30, same exact record.
02:24Do you feel like this is a better team than the one that was going into the playoffs last year
02:28with, you know, Jalen green?
02:30I mean, you, it was basically this team with Jalen green, Dylan Brooks, Fred Van Vliet and Steven Adams.
02:35Boy. Okay. So we got great. We got, I mean, we got some good performances out of Jalen green last
02:40year.
02:40It was just, um, the, we've got some horrendous performances out of them too.
02:44He had one good game against golden state and every other game, he was damn near single digits.
02:48It's a great question because we'd have to say going into this series, do we worry that somebody is going
02:56to kind of disappear in games?
02:58The way Jalen green did. Do we worry that Shane goon would be the culprit this year?
03:03I suppose they're most likely suspect based on the year's play, not, not the way he's played, you know, for
03:08the past month, but I don't, I don't worry about that.
03:13Um, it's they're facing a, a weaker opponent though. That's the part that in golden state last year.
03:19Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No question. My, I guess my, my biggest concern, I say my biggest concern is they're
03:25just not as good a team defensively.
03:27They're a top 10 team offensively and defensively this year in the NBA. It just doesn't feel that way.
03:33Well, a lot of that's residual from the first part of the season. Sure. Sure.
03:36You know, like they, that, that sustained them. They were playing like an average offense and an average defense for
03:41the bulk of the season, um, up until a few weeks ago.
03:45No, I know. And yet I, but if you had told me what is the Rockets defensive rating this year
03:50for the entire season and I, and, and I, and you told me seventh, that they're seventh in defensive rating
03:56and eighth in offensive rating in the league.
03:59Yeah. It's just, it doesn't even, even amidst the, I remember the, the fast start. You're right about that. And
04:06they've had a nice stretch here at the end of the season where they won nine of their last 10
04:09games.
04:10They were just so, so bad by their standards in the middle of the season. I just, I would have
04:17guessed, I would have guessed maybe a top 10 offensive team just because you've got Kevin Durant on there and
04:21you've got Alper and Shangoon and they, you know, they've had some good offensive outputs, but the defense has been
04:26such a big complaint.
04:27And email Doka has just been, it feels like he's been so upset all year long. I just would have
04:31never guessed that they finished the season as a top 10 defensive team. And so I say, that's a concern
04:37just because I don't think they're as good defensively as last year. I think some of that's focus and being
04:42dialed in and whatnot. So I think there'll be focused. Um, my, my biggest concern is how overly reliant they
04:52get at times at the end of games on Kevin Durant to do something.
04:55And teams throwing multiple bodies at Kevin Durant. And then it's going to be incumbent upon somebody else to knock
05:01down the shot or go create the shot. Kevin Durant's usage is very, very high. So I, that's, that would
05:08be my big, and they've, they've not been good in close games this year.
05:11They're five and 90 games decided by three points or less. So, so that's, I think that's probably my biggest
05:16concern is them closing out games, the other teams throwing resources at Durant, you know, because I want to feel
05:23like Seth, that this is why this year's team is better because they have Kevin Durant on the team.
05:29Cause that was a big complaint last year is they didn't have any go-to guy that could go get
05:33him a bucket. Jalen green was trying to be that guy and he was atrocious against the golden state warriors.
05:39Kevin Durant has been that guy for two decades. Now. I just, when you get into a seven game series
05:44and even against a team like the Lakers that, that are going to be at a severe talent deficit with
05:50no Luca, no Austin Reeves, you get into a seven game series and it turns into a chess match.
05:55And if JJ Redick has some things to throw at Kevin Durant and Alper and Schengen and Reed Shepard and
06:00I'm in Thompson, these other guys are going to need to make something happen in the, in the final moments.
06:04Yeah. And I think that's where the, the style of play has just been so much better specifically with the
06:09first thing you talked about. Okay. What does Kevin Durant do when he gets bracketed and he's just been making
06:16better decisions and there's better movement away from the ball.
06:19Now that they have answers and they, they can create a flow. I just, I'd be really surprised if all
06:26of a sudden they regressed. Now, if they regressed versus one of the better teams in the league that didn't
06:31have two of their best players out, that would make more sense.
06:34It wouldn't be as much of a surprise. It's just that they're facing an opponent that they've, they've, they've played
06:39a better version of basketball against teams like, you know, over these past three weeks.
06:44And I think that's, it'll be a huge surprise to me if all of a sudden, like, is Durant going
06:48to be the guy that stops, you know, the, the change that he made in this game a few weeks
06:54ago where he starts just, he's, yeah.
06:56Like, I don't like, he's not the guy I worry about.
06:58No, no. I, I, I'm worried about what other teams do to him in the final moments of games where
07:03they, you know, you got to get a bucket.
07:04Yeah. Kevin Durant's got a couple, I'm, I'm sure he'll make the right decision. I'm more worried about the guy,
07:09whoever he's getting the ball to knocking down those shots.
07:13Yeah. Well, and a lot of that too, is just with Tari Eason playing everything, everything, when Tari, like this,
07:18this series will go as Tari Eason goes.
07:20And as long as Tari Eason continues to be more of the guy he's been in the last few weeks,
07:25then the spacing is good.
07:27They can, they can run their offense. It's man, when he's off and everything is all stilted, then every, the
07:33spacing gets all screwed up.
07:34And then, yeah, you get a bunch of ISO ball, you get a bunch of bad decisions.
07:37And I don't, I don't mean to put it on him. Like he's the, the most important player on the
07:42team, but like, he's been the most glaring example of, wow.
07:45When, when he's, when he's operating the way that we know he's capable of operating, you're seeing a better version
07:51of Shane Goon.
07:51You're seeing a better version of Amon Thompson.
07:53There was, I mean, he, his, his bad play definitely coincided with their worst stretch of basketball this season.
07:59There's no question about that.
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