- 2 days ago
ITL debates whether Game 1 reveals more about Houston’s future than this matchup.
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00:00Rockets, unfortunately, lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in game one of their first round series this weekend.
00:07It was Saturday, and the final that I've already tried to put out of my mind, 107-98.
00:13Just no offense there, and obviously there was a good reason.
00:16Kevin Durant did not play in this game.
00:18Ended up with a knee contusion after bumping knees with a teammate in practice on Wednesday.
00:23When we first heard about it, we didn't get all that information.
00:26All we knew was that Kevin Durant had a knee contusion or had a knee injury that made him questionable
00:31for game one on Friday.
00:33Well, it was on Saturday, but we learned about this on Friday.
00:36I had a friend who was like, why are they practicing on Friday?
00:39And I was like, I feel like it didn't happen Friday, but I also understand why you're yelling right now.
00:45But yes, it was on Wednesday, and then he went out.
00:48He was going through his paces as he was questionable before the game, knocking down shots.
00:54But you could see some grimaces if you saw some of the video.
00:56Ultimately, they decide to not give it a go.
00:58So you're dealing with a starting lineup of a man, Thompson, Josh Akogi, Reed Shepard, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperin Shangoon,
01:05and Buddy.
01:05The offense was not there.
01:07You end up looking just flaccid offensively in that game.
01:11And as I said, you didn't get to score 100 points.
01:13You shot like 38% from the field compared to L.A., who shot like 60% from the field.
01:18I can get into more numbers.
01:19Good offense for the Lakers, bad offense for the Rockets, ultimately, in the way that that went.
01:25But interestingly enough, watching through that game, I did not feel like that game was indicative of how the series
01:30will go.
01:31First and foremost, I think, especially seeing Kevin Durant go through his paces and look close,
01:35I was like, there's no way three days later he's not playing in game two, and we're not back on
01:39track from what we need to do.
01:40Plus, it's a contusion as opposed to something more significant.
01:43I was like, this is one of those.
01:44This is a bruise that over a couple of days he'll find a way to manage, and maybe we'll just
01:48be gone.
01:49And boom, we're back to what this Rockets team should be, which, again, gave me optimism enough to call this
01:53series for the Rockets.
01:54I do think, however, the way that this game showed up says a lot about the Rockets offseason coming up.
02:01And that is maybe the more uncomfortable part, because your young core, who would you consider in your young core,
02:06John Lopez?
02:07Well, obviously, Jabari, a man, Shangoon is still in that mix, Reed Shepard.
02:14Am I missing anybody?
02:15I think that those are, I mean, Tari Eason.
02:17Maybe, yeah.
02:18Right?
02:19Those were the guys who you go, all right, this is who we're turning the basketball over to in this
02:24game one.
02:24Yes, the max that you have is, what, seven games of experience.
02:27I think Josh Akogi, he paced your team when it came to playoff experience heading into this game with 15
02:32games of playoff experience.
02:34But, yeah, I understand there's not a lot of experience, but this is the young core that you're hopefully building
02:38as a foundation of your team.
02:39Buddy, they look like they were entirely lost without the context of Kevin Durant there.
02:44Now, of course, we can get into Eme Adoka, and we will here, but I think that that's the thing
02:48that was more scary,
02:49is that you take out what was supposed to be an accelerating agent of Kevin Durant, and you look up
02:54and you go,
02:54oh, there's just not much here at all.
02:56And that is really, really dire when you talk about how you continue to try and build this team going
03:02forward in the offseason.
03:03Those four guys that we just mentioned, three of them are top four picks in the entire NBA.
03:09Two of them are top three picks.
03:11And not only have they not accelerated, Reggie, they've taken a step back.
03:16They've regressed.
03:18And that, to me, you're right.
03:21We can talk about Kevin Durant.
03:22You know, I think he's going to play as well.
03:23We'll see.
03:25All that.
03:26But I think it just amplified what the bigger problem is.
03:28And the bigger problem is Eme Adoka and his staff just got undressed offensively.
03:32Correct.
03:32I mean, just completely fleeced, like exposed.
03:36You know, they cannot coach offense.
03:38And that speaks to your point about moving forward.
03:41I don't feel good about this team at all.
03:44I still think they're going to win this series.
03:46Do you?
03:47Yeah.
03:47In fact, I'm not even changing my call.
03:49I said Rockets in six.
03:50I'm sticking with Rockets at six for the time being.
03:53How about you?
03:53I'm a little nervous, man.
03:54No, no.
03:55I am absolutely nervous.
03:56Yeah, it's hard for me to say, after watching that, that the Rockets, they're going to win
04:02this series.
04:02It's hard for me to say that right now.
04:04And that's why I said I think they can win this series.
04:06I do think they can win this series.
04:08I do think they should win this series.
04:10Now, everything changes with Austin Reeves and Luka, depending on what happens there.
04:14But the bigger question is, win the series or not, they have a severe problem.
04:19Like, we can't downplay this.
04:21No, not at all, right?
04:23And obviously, there's more time to have the conversation.
04:25But right in this moment, I think the easy one to start with here is Alpern Shangoon,
04:30right?
04:30You came into the series thinking there's two stars on this team.
04:33One of them is not playing in this game in Kevin Durant.
04:36All right, Alpern Shangoon, it's time for you to have your star moment.
04:38That is not what it was in that game.
04:41And I think that there are two portions of this.
04:43One of them is his fault, and one of them is not his fault, right?
04:46I will begin with the his fault.
04:47Six of 19, 19 points on 19 shots is just never going to get it done, no matter what the
04:53context.
04:53Especially when we're talking about an Alpern Shangoon that is getting in deep sometimes
04:57and missing good shots at the rim.
05:00This has been a thing that we've talked about as an issue, but you go, all right,
05:03maybe there's some level of growth.
05:04There hasn't been.
05:04Like, he still can be finicky around the rim where, hey, man, once you get a good look at the
05:09rim,
05:09I'm counting that those are two points.
05:11And that wasn't always the case in this game, right?
05:14I think that those are the things that you need to see.
05:16You need to be able to see, hopefully, I would hope, that you can have an offense,
05:20especially in playoff circumstance, where you go, all right, we need to go through you
05:23for even a period of time, Alpern Shangoon, can you organize this?
05:26And that was not what I saw on the floor on Saturday.
05:29Well, Jabari, Reed Shepard, Aman Thompson, and Shangoon went a combined 24 for 71 from the field,
05:36like 33.8%.
05:37This is what Charles Barkley had to say afterward.
05:40That's where they play offense.
05:41They just play one-on-one basketball.
05:43It's better when it's Kevin Durant and Shangoon, but they don't run plays.
05:49It's like everybody goes one-on-one.
05:51You look at that game, you're like, what are they doing?
05:52They just, whoever gets it, shoots it.
05:54But if you look at them through the entire regular season, we said they don't have a point guard,
06:00but they didn't have Kevin Durant to cover up all their flaws.
06:04And, like, I have no idea what kind of offense they're running.
06:07Whoever gets it just jacks it up anywhere, anytime.
06:10Everybody's got a green light.
06:12And Shaq and Kenny know everybody on the team don't have no damn green light.
06:16I mean, there's one, maybe two guys on the NBA team, like, you shoot it whenever you want to.
06:21The rest of the guys are like, okay, you can have some shots.
06:24But, like, there's no reason what they were doing out there tonight was awful to watch offensively.
06:29It was awful to watch.
06:31And that's the other part of it.
06:32Awful.
06:32And it's the part you talked about, is that what you have offensively is, well, you don't have an offense,
06:38right?
06:38It is, we've heard it described as read and react.
06:41And that's cool when you have talent.
06:42That requires you to lean on the talent that can create things for them.
06:47It was very evident that what you needed, especially when you talk about what has been a disservice to your
06:52role players,
06:52is they need something that creates for them.
06:55And if it's not going to be a Kevin Durant-like player, if it's not going to be a point
06:58guard,
06:58and we can talk about the circumstances that get you to that place, it needs to be your offense.
07:02And there was none of that, right?
07:04It was dead on the vine, dead on arrival there.
07:06And I think that both of those things go to the offseason in so much as,
07:09are you certain that Alper and Shangoon is on this team next year?
07:12Right?
07:13If you're talking about, you're sitting as Raphael Stone, right?
07:16And you're going, how do we continue to make this team better?
07:20Are you certain that Alper and Shangoon is completely like, no,
07:23trades for him are off the table if we're trying to make ourselves better?
07:26No, I'm not.
07:28Right now, I'm not even sure Ime Adolka's coaching this team.
07:30I get it.
07:31Oh, they vote of confidence.
07:32You know, they love him, et cetera.
07:34I don't know.
07:35Here's the thing.
07:36In a weird way, and you might disagree with this,
07:39I tweeted this and people were like, did you watch the game?
07:43In a weird way, I thought their defense was more than good enough to win this game.
07:46Like, the Lakers made a ton of shots.
07:50Good enough to win this game, sure.
07:51Let me explain.
07:52Because they made a ton of shots.
07:54And sometimes there's nothing you can do about that.
07:56You know, I often ask why.
07:57It's because you're giving them open shots.
07:59A man fell on the sword, you know, about how he didn't play good defense.
08:02But, Reggie, when you force 20 turnovers.
08:05Correct.
08:05And you limit the Lakers in this case.
08:07You limit the other team to just three offensive rebounds.
08:11When you put up 27 more shots than the opponent, that defense,
08:17maybe they knocked down a bunch of shots, you should still win that game.
08:19You force 20 turnovers, limit the offensive rebounds to three,
08:23and take 27 more shots than they did, you should win that game.
08:27Yeah, but they had nothing on offense.
08:28Yeah, right.
08:29Again, because there's no offensive system.
08:31And going back to, like, the idea of what happens in the offseason,
08:35if you do not find an overhaul in your coaching staff,
08:38I don't know, what are the organizational moves that you can make
08:41that can actually get you to that place, right?
08:44Even adding a Giannis, right, there's still conversations and questions
08:47that have to be had about how do you actually take this talent
08:50and get it in the right direction.
08:52Because, again, even if you find a way to add a Giannis
08:54and you don't change anything, if somehow the CBA
08:57and the National Basketball Association changes
08:59and you could just add Giannis to this team
09:01and you have Giannis and KD and Alperin and Amin and Jabari and Reed
09:06and yada, yada, yada, right?
09:08Are you capable of competing against the Oklahoma Cities of the world?
09:11Are you capable of competing against the Boston Celtics of the world
09:13because, you know, with an organization of putting those players
09:17in their best circumstance?
09:18And what we saw from this coaching staff in game one
09:20says absolutely not.
09:22And so, like, these are the offseason things
09:24that I think are impacted by game one.
09:25It's a question about EME.
09:26Yes.
09:26It should be a question about EME.
09:28All these people say, oh, no, untouchable, blah, blah, blah.
09:31No, man, you've got to change.
09:32You've got to change the way you look at this thing.
09:34Right.
09:35And so, I thought that this said more about what this offseason
09:37and what this offseason will be, what this offseason needs to be,
09:41and what can't happen this offseason.
09:42I still think they can win this series.
09:44I do, too.
09:45100%.
09:45I do, too.
09:45But it feels like, and it's the scarier thing,
09:48is organizationally, big, big conversations need to be had
09:52because even winning this series,
09:54it's not going to fix these things that we're seeing, evidently.
09:58All right, you're in the loop right here on Sports Radio 610.
10:00I wouldn't go so far as saying the Rockets franchise is broken,
10:02but it's on the brink.
10:04There's real existential conversations need to be had.
10:06If you want to be a team that can actually reach the mountain,
10:10as I think is any organization's goal.
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