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00:00Basketball is here.
00:01Got a gift, too?
00:02Got a gift?
00:02Got a gift with no Luka?
00:04Got a gift with no Ulster Reeves?
00:05I thought you got a care package or something.
00:07Like some kind of bag.
00:08The Rockets got a gift, man.
00:10The Rockets, yeah.
00:10Because they were on their way to one and done.
00:13Well, speaking of that.
00:14And now they got a gift.
00:14Well, speaking of that, are you one that looks at this, I mean,
00:19from a gambling perspective, they are minus 750 to win the series.
00:24Do you look at this as many others do, that this is one that the Rockets
00:32should absolutely dominate and that not really major concerns about them
00:40moving on past this Lakers?
00:41No, I think it's one that they should dominate.
00:44But you have concerns?
00:45Are you nervous?
00:46No, I'm not nervous about them losing the series.
00:48But domination, I wouldn't go that far because we've seen how the Rockets
00:52kind of flounder at the end of games, how things look clunky.
00:56Their process is not always consistent.
00:58Now, it's been better as of late.
00:59I've got to give them credit for that.
01:00And so I feel better about it now than I did before.
01:03But we watched this Rockets team all season and how things go at the end
01:07of games when you double-team Kevin Durant.
01:09They don't always have the answers.
01:11If they put an athletic big on a men-Thompson,
01:14sometimes they don't always have the answers.
01:15Now, again, they've done better with that.
01:17But they've got issues closing games.
01:19They've got issues in close games.
01:21And they've got issues playing down to competition if we're just being real
01:25about it.
01:25So, no, I expect the Rockets, fully expect the Rockets to win this series.
01:29But domination, I think, is a little bit of a stretch.
01:32I'd like to see them do it now.
01:33At least domination in terms of how the series goes.
01:36Like it's four or five games.
01:37I think that they are, without Luka and without Austin Reeves,
01:42they are good enough to win this series in five games
01:46and should win this series in five games.
01:48With the Rockets that I've watched all season,
01:51not surprise me if they stretch this thing out to six or seven
01:54and make it a little bit more stressful than it's supposed to be.
01:57Maybe even stretch it out long enough to where Luka can come back
02:00and muck this series up.
02:01Yeah, I could totally see that.
02:03Even though I'm picking the Rockets to win it.
02:05What percentage, if you will, would you give kind of things improving
02:11late season for the Rockets?
02:12How much of that is just that?
02:15It's late season.
02:16It's time to really lock in on what you want to do, how you want to do it,
02:20what positions are these guys going to play,
02:22what's going to be asked of each player, starters and bench players,
02:27what are their roles?
02:28How much do you think is, you know,
02:32it's just that time of year where things get a little bit more
02:36or a lot more serious down the stretch for guys like M.A. Doka,
02:40guys like Kevin Durant, and it changes the game.
02:43Yeah, I think with the Rockets,
02:44the main point is that they have been so easy to defend at times.
02:49Like their issues are transparent, they're obvious,
02:53they're not really all that complex,
02:55and so they've had enough time to work on it.
02:57The things that I was just talking about earlier about blitzing Kevin Durant
03:00and not necessarily knowing what to do out of that,
03:02all of the turnovers, right?
03:03And we've seen that come up again a time or two toward the end of the season.
03:07But when they have that in check, for the most part,
03:11they're able to kind of get through this, through Kevin Durant
03:13and the maturation of Amin Thompson, Alpern Shingun,
03:17for the most part, playing back to an all-NBA level.
03:20He's not necessarily doing that every night like you want him to,
03:22but he's coming up big for you late in games,
03:25did so against Phoenix not too long ago.
03:27So I think the main point is they have had enough practice
03:32at figuring out how to mitigate their own weaknesses, right?
03:38Like they've had enough practice at that.
03:39And then you've seen some development from guys like Amin Thompson,
03:43Alpern Shingun playing back again, but playing back to his level.
03:46And then now I think you've got Jabari Smith Jr.
03:49and Tari Eason back together playing at their best
03:53or close enough to their best at the same time, right?
03:56You had a stretch there where Tari had fallen off the map.
03:59You had a stretch there before that where Jabari had fallen off the map.
04:03Now both of them are back to playing closer to their level,
04:06and they're going to need every single one of them,
04:08but they're going to make this happen.
04:09B-Scout with us as he's doing his Rockets report every single Wednesday.
04:13The play-in has started, well, the play-in has started,
04:16but the playoffs for the Rockets get started Saturday in L.A.
04:20And one player that you didn't really mention there was Reed Shepard.
04:23What do you get the sense his role is?
04:25It seems like it's dropped a bit now.
04:28Oh, Josh didn't slip himself into this starting spot.
04:31I don't know if this is a matchup thing anymore, but I don't think so.
04:35What do you get the sense the role is for Reed?
04:38I'm glad you asked because this is the thing I'm most worried about.
04:41The thing I'm most concerned about is,
04:43so I think what the matchup should be,
04:44given that you don't have Luka and Austin Reeves out there,
04:48so especially early in the series, they need to start Reed Shepard.
04:52Like, I think they need to start Reed Shepard
04:54because now you don't have as many guys that are going to be hunting Reed Shepard
04:58on switches, right?
04:59You're going to have Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard out there
05:02and Bronny James getting minutes.
05:04Like, I don't know what the Lakers are going to be throwing out there
05:06in terms of guard play,
05:07but it shouldn't be guys that Reed Shepard can't handle,
05:11that type of thing.
05:12So now you need to go ahead and to fully take advantage of those guys' absence,
05:16you need to bring Reed Shepard in there and get that offense going,
05:18and I hope that that's what they do.
05:21I fear that the Josh Okoge thing and them liking that defensive matchup,
05:27and to Josh Okoge's credit, he comes in there and he plays well
05:30and he does exactly the thing that they want him to do,
05:33bring him energy, play defense, get offensive rebounds.
05:35That turns Udoka on, doesn't he?
05:36Yeah, I mean, he loves it.
05:37And look, I like him as being a part of the rotation,
05:40but in terms of how you want your first punch to land in the game
05:45and certainly how you want to finish the game,
05:47you want to have your strongest offensive players out there,
05:51especially if they're not going to be the same type of liability on defense
05:54as they would be, say, if an MVP candidate was out there hunting switches
05:58like Luka Doncic, like we saw him do at Toyota Center earlier in the season.
06:01How, and this is honest, not a smart-ass question, but it may come,
06:06like, are we, are the Rockets good enough defensively
06:14to believe and play towards it?
06:19I mean, you know what I mean?
06:20Like, I don't watch the – and it's not because the KD's there
06:23and so-and-so's not.
06:24I don't watch the Rockets and, like, boy, you got a dude over there
06:29that's locking somebody down.
06:30Like, I mean, you got some – I mean, look, I'm in –
06:32A man in Thompson would be the closest thing to that.
06:34Yeah, like, I'm in probably the closest, but I still don't watch I'm in
06:36and go, boy, this guy's just, I mean, wrecking shop, you know, defense.
06:40Like, I don't – defensively, it seems like I hear a lot of conversation
06:44about Emei Doka likes his defense.
06:45He likes to lean defense.
06:47Are we that good defensively?
06:48They had a stretch, Clint, during this season, I want to say,
06:52from late February into March, where the defense had really fallen off a cliff.
06:58For the most – the answer to your question, for the most part,
07:00the short answer is, yeah, they are really good defensively.
07:03But they had stretches this year, and this is one of the things
07:06that people talk about, about them lacking something that they had last year,
07:09where the focus and the intensity on the defensive end
07:13that they are known for was just not there.
07:16It has been better as of late.
07:18I talk about Tari Eason as being a guy that's key – a part of that.
07:22Josh Akogi is key, a part of that.
07:24And obviously, with a men, Thompson, they have an all-NBA –
07:27an all-defensive team type of guy in him.
07:30So, between those three guys, you got really good point-of-attack defense,
07:34and Kevin Durant is one of the better help defenders in basketball,
07:38quiet as kept.
07:39Nobody talks about that, but just being willing as a 6'11", agile 6'11 guy,
07:45like I saw it manifest itself against the – who was it that they were playing
07:51the Philadelphia 76ers the other night, where you got Tyrese Maxey
07:55and VJ Ed come out there.
07:57They are blurs with the basketball, and they're beating guys off the dribble,
08:00but there's Kevin Durant's gangly arms out there ready to contest the shot.
08:04So, they got some attributes between their length and their athleticism
08:07that is really, really good.
08:09The thing that does them in is when they can't make shots, you know,
08:12when the three ball is not there, they don't take enough of them,
08:15and then sometimes they won't take enough of them
08:17and then won't even hit the ones that they're taking, right?
08:19So, that's an issue.
08:20The turnovers at the end of the game.
08:22These are the things that they got to really focus on
08:24if they're going to be serious in the playoffs.
08:25Well, I guess it's just like it was easy.
08:27Last year when you turned – as a casual fan, you turn it on,
08:30and it's easy to see, like, Dylan Brooks is in somebody's grill.
08:34It's hard to not see because they're so physical.
08:36Clearly their identity.
08:37Yeah, but they're so physical, you could see even the good teams,
08:40they could get in their head.
08:43That doesn't seem to be what I've seen most of the time this year.
08:46So, I was just wondering, do we still have that ability
08:48or is it just not as much in your face?
08:50I think it's a fair observation, though, because it's so hit or miss, right?
08:53Like I said, they had a stretch there almost a month
08:56where they were slightly below average in defensive rating.
09:00They were, like, 17th or something like that for a nice little stretch.
09:04They've picked it up since then, but that has been an issue,
09:07like where last year it was just obvious that, like you said,
09:10Ron, it's part of their identity.
09:12It hasn't necessarily been that, but you've seen stretches of it.
09:14Like, earlier in the season they had a game against Denver,
09:17the best offensive team in basketball,
09:19where they held them to their worst offensive performance of the season
09:23up until that point.
09:24So, they've had stretches of it and glimpses of it
09:27when you see elite defense, but it's certainly something
09:29that's going to have to be a much more consistent thing in the playoffs.
09:32Outside of KD, who do you expect to really have a big series for the Rockets?
09:37Who are you looking at matchup-wise,
09:38everything that you think will step in and have a big-time series?
09:42Well, we mentioned Reed Shepard earlier, and a man Thompson,
09:45I think he's really found something despite how he's been sort of misused
09:51or miscast in some cases.
09:53Like, he's still kind of figured it out.
09:55So, like, I'm going to be really paying attention to those two guys,
09:58but to your question, I think this has got to be about Alper and Shingun.
10:02Like, for me, DeAndre Ayton cannot be guarding Alper and Shingun
10:06over the course of a seven-game series,
10:08and Alper and Shingun not get the better end of that.
10:11I think the key part of this, you know, with Luka being out,
10:15is that both of the old stars are going to have to carry the team, right?
10:20Well, Kevin Durant is more suited to do so, both through his performance
10:24and the fact that he's been asked to do that over the course of,
10:26hell, he played 78 games this year of all-NBA-level basketball.
10:29And then his next best player is Alper and Shingun.
10:33LeBron James' next best player is who?
10:36DeAndre Ayton, Marcus Smart.
10:39You know, Rui.
10:40Rui, like, it's – so, and Alper and Shingun is just objectively better
10:45than all of those Lakers that we just mentioned.
10:46So, he has to go out there and dominate what you were talking about earlier,
10:49opening up this segment about domination.
10:51If domination is going to happen, that's where it needs to happen,
10:54with Alper and Shingun against, you know, against DeAndre Ayton
10:57and Jackson Hayes and whatever type of combination they try to throw at him.
11:00All right.
11:01They should take care of business in this series.
11:04It is – I have done – I've mapped out my top eight players in this series
11:12from just randomly the top eight.
11:15LeBron should be the only one squeezing in there.
11:17I got six.
11:19I got six with the Rockets.
11:20I gave them LeBron, and then I put Ayton at, like, seven or eight.
11:24Yeah, okay.
11:24That's fair.
11:24Yeah.
11:25That's fair.
11:25I put him at, like, seven or eight.
11:27But, I mean, they should – I think it would be a different story, obviously,
11:31if Reeves and Luka were available.
11:35But this is – this is –
11:36Without them, the Rockets, to me, win the superstar matchup
11:40because LeBron just hasn't been asked to carry a team
11:42for as long as Kevin Durant has throughout the season.
11:44I think they win the center matchup with Alper and Shingun
11:47versus DeAndre Ayton and Jackson Hayes.
11:49And I think they win the guard matchup if they play to Reed Shepard
11:52and the men Thompson strength with those guys.
11:54And they're clearly the better defensive team.
11:56Like, even those injuries don't make – oddly enough,
11:59don't make them a better defensive team.
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