00:00But as the Texans were drafted and the Rockets were playing basketball
00:02in the playoffs versus the Los Angeles Lakers,
00:05bringing the series back to Houston for games three and four.
00:09And in these games, game three, they have a six-point lead
00:13with one minute to go.
00:14How'd that end up?
00:15They lost.
00:17Was it with one minute or about 30 seconds?
00:19Less than a minute to go is a great thing.
00:21It had to be about 30 seconds.
00:2234 seconds.
00:23Because I thought it was over.
00:24Yes.
00:25Dude, it was kind of like the exact opposite, you know, of the,
00:32did you ever see Tracy McGrady score 13 points in 30 seconds?
00:35Well, 35 seconds.
00:36I would have been head for the exits if I was there, man.
00:39Oh, they were.
00:40Really?
00:41They were.
00:41Right.
00:41And so you had, mind you, this is a game in which Kevin Durant,
00:44both these games, Kevin Durant does not play with the ankle injury.
00:47Remember he came up as questionable with that ankle?
00:49Yeah, it was enough to keep him out.
00:51In fact, I think Emi Odoka before Game 4 said that it was like 50% mobility.
00:56I was like, oh, that doesn't sound good.
00:57Yeah, that means no.
00:58But the Rockets played a much better game in Game 3,
01:01even sans Kevin Durant.
01:02They looked like a serious operation, and they had a lead at the end.
01:06They gave that thing away, though.
01:08Reed Shepard with the turnover, and then just, actually,
01:12Jabari Smith Jr. also had a turnover in there,
01:14and ultimately allowed the Lakers to come back.
01:16That was a bad turnover, too.
01:17Really, man.
01:18A pointless pass.
01:19Awful, awful.
01:20He kind of got baited, too.
01:21Yeah.
01:21Without question.
01:22No, absolutely.
01:23It felt like an inexperienced move.
01:25They respond to that after being down 3-0 with a resounding victory
01:30over the Lakers, 115-96, where they dominated this thing
01:33for a large part of it, and it felt like they found some answers,
01:36including Reed Shepard playing more and knocking down shots.
01:39And so the series now swings back to L.A., Game 5, on Wednesday.
01:44And the question I have for you is, I get it.
01:46They went down 3-0.
01:48Teams don't come back from being down 3-0.
01:50It's incredibly, incredibly rare in this league to make that happen.
01:55But would you feel different about this Rockets team had they finished out
02:00that game in Game 3 where they played really well?
02:02They played really well in Game 4.
02:04Would that have changed anything about the way that you felt about this Rockets
02:07after the first two games of the series?
02:08I don't think so.
02:10And there's a number of reasons for that.
02:12I get it.
02:132-2 is an all-new series, et cetera.
02:16But, I mean, is Emei Adoka still the coach?
02:19You know, have they closed out any close game of note?
02:24You know, because there's going to be some more close games down the stretch.
02:27This was clearly one of those nights where the Rockets did everything right.
02:30Lakers missed a lot of shots.
02:32You know, they pulled their starters with seven and a half minutes left.
02:36And so, you know, good win.
02:38Glad they could save face a little bit here.
02:42You know, is this offense still reliable?
02:45You know, just in terms of creating shots consistently.
02:49Is Kevin Durant still questionable?
02:52And, by the way, I don't know what to make of this.
02:56I really don't.
02:57Do we have any idea if there's a rift in the locker room
03:00or if there's any, you know, sort of drama or anything else?
03:04Is that still there?
03:05Is it non-existent?
03:06Is it just made up?
03:07It depends if you're looking at the local media or ESPN.
03:11Yes, exactly.
03:12So, that's a lot of questions I have, even if it were 2-2.
03:16Adoka is still the coach.
03:18The Rockets still haven't closed out a close game of note.
03:21Again, you know, the offense still is unreliable, you know,
03:23in terms of consistency offensively.
03:27I thought that they played a significantly better brand of offense even.
03:32Like, I know that some of this was they shot better from knocking down shots.
03:35Yeah.
03:35The ball bounced around a lot better.
03:37And they had a lot more movement in a way that was encouraging.
03:41If they play like this a game one, I would be a little more confident.
03:44But that's kind of where I'm going with this.
03:46You are 100% right.
03:48That offense, look, it was clicking.
03:49You talked about the shot making, all that stuff.
03:52Have we seen that before?
03:53Yes.
03:54Yeah.
03:55No, they have ebbed and flowed at times this season.
03:58Is Kevin Durant still questionable?
04:00There's another question.
04:00Certainly is.
04:01Honestly, it's getting to a point where you kind of ask yourself,
04:05and it's an insane question because we know what the answer is,
04:07but you ask yourself, is this team playing better because they're without Kevin Durant?
04:12Oh, boy.
04:13And I think that before we even get into the nitty-gritty of this,
04:16I think the answer is no, right?
04:18But there is questions that asked about, like, hey,
04:21they're forcing themselves to play better.
04:23They went small in game four.
04:25That was one of the decisions that Emil Odoka made.
04:27And it seemed to benefit them, switching everything on defense,
04:30but more importantly on offense, there was a lot more movement.
04:32They had a lot less of those moments where you just have one person operating
04:36and everybody looking because you don't have that type of team
04:39to be putting out there in this moment.
04:41And, yeah, yeah, it looked better, but I think I would feel differently,
04:45but I would not feel so different that I think this is an entirely different series.
04:50Sure, sure.
04:51And we talked about this going into the weekend.
04:53Is that they'll play better at home because teams tend to play better at home.
04:57The shot-making was there.
04:58I thought that the defensive uptick was really interesting to me.
05:01And the idea that, honestly, the young guys banded together to play serious-looking basketball
05:07meant something to me because I was starting to look at this young core and go,
05:11okay, do we need to throw the whole thing away?
05:13Metaphorically, obviously, it's not just getting rid of these guys,
05:16but do you need to change the expectations of the young core in general?
05:20Like, did you get this all wrong was a question that I think we were asking early on.
05:24And it felt like they battled in such a way where you go, okay, no.
05:27There are some certain things in here that were not gone.
05:30They just, unfortunately, at the biggest time of the season, they slipped back.
05:35It felt good to see them put together a couple of games where,
05:38even without Kevin Durant, who seemed like he was a crutch for this team at times,
05:43you could get Reed Shepard out here looking better.
05:46You could get Amin Thompson playing to the heights that you expect.
05:49You could get Alperin Shangoon looking like he's supposed to in the post,
05:53dominating the game.
05:54Like, I felt like those were good signs to that end.
05:56I still don't think they can go on the road and win in the way that they need to.
05:59So you're kind of there with me.
06:00Maybe not as harshly because I'm like, yeah, this doesn't mean a damn thing.
06:04Yeah, I think the Lakers just got the coaching advantage, man.
06:08Coaching advantage.
06:09Now they're going home.
06:11They truly had – if I'm a Lakers fan, I'd be like, okay, one of those nights.
06:16You know, it was one of those nights.
06:17It was one of those nights.
06:18Yeah.
06:19And so I'm not exactly, you know, hey, you know,
06:23now maybe there's something, you know, long-term that they can build off of all this.
06:27But I still go back to – this is probably going to be a relatively close game.
06:32The Rockets have not been able to finish close games, you know,
06:35especially big close games.
06:36Right.
06:36I mean, even last night they blew it out to the point where they did not have to
06:40finish that thing out.
06:41Yeah, we go back to one of the questions that led you to bring in Kevin Durant.
06:45How do you close games?
06:46Yeah.
06:47And they haven't done that yet.
06:48So that's a fair point.
06:49And you brought up something in there that I think is interesting,
06:53which is, is there a rift in this team?
06:56And that was a conversation that started happening with Kevin Durant being out
07:01because I believe someone asked Amen Thompson if he knew what the vibe was
07:07with Kevin Durant.
07:08And he said, honestly, I don't know.
07:10I have to talk to him.
07:11And he said it with a smile, like kind of a smirk.
07:13And it did not read to me like he was, like, trying to point to a rift.
07:18However, that began the conversation of is there a rift?
07:22Obviously, you go back to the supposed burner accounts and all of those things.
07:26Not being on the bench in Game 3.
07:28Right.
07:29Did you buy into the idea that, like, maybe Kevin Durant had some level of quit on this
07:34team?
07:34He was back on the bench in Game 4.
07:35And I know in Game 3 he was in the building rehabilitating.
07:38Well, they said he was rehabbing.
07:39Yes.
07:39We don't know.
07:41I mean, that's where all the team staff is.
07:44No, but we don't know if there was something else at work here.
07:46We don't know.
07:47So, when I said, you know, is there a rift?
07:50Is there some sort of drama?
07:52I truly, I don't know.
07:54I mean, because you're hearing McManaman on one thing and then, you know, the local reporters
07:59figure was pointing out, you know, saying something else.
08:01And yet, you know, it just seems like there is, I mean, again, you know, maybe it was just
08:07as simple as he's getting treatment during the game.
08:09I mean, I would suspect, you know, there are 23 other hours, 20 hours, other hours in
08:15the day.
08:15Maybe he could have done it at some point in those other 20 hours and watched the game.
08:19He was doing it all the way through.
08:21But I hear what you're saying about him.
08:22They said 24-7.
08:23Nothing is 24-7.
08:24No, I hear you.
08:24Like, a large percentage of it.
08:28Dave McManaman, who you're mentioning of ESPN, he said that Kevin Durant's teammates
08:32have no idea what's going on with him.
08:34And all of this is based off of that one of men quote talking about how, yeah, I don't
08:38quite know what the vibe is, haven't really talked to him.
08:42And I think that that's a stretch.
08:43I would more lean towards the circumstances that we saw.
08:46And what you saw on the bench during Game 4, when dudes were getting ejected and Kevin
08:50Durant's there talking bleep for his team.
08:55Waving DeAndre Ayton off the floor because he got ejected from the game.
08:58That was a little bow, right?
08:58Unless it was some other back and forth talking that we don't know about.
09:02Oh, there probably was.
09:03Yeah.
09:04I'm like, damn, that was a little bow right there.
09:06Yeah.
09:06It's a lot more salacious to be like, well, Kevin Durant has quit on the team and that
09:09there's a rift then.
09:10Yeah.
09:10Hey, they're not meeting expectation.
09:12And I think that those are the harder questions.
09:14Those are the more difficult ones.
09:15And I think that those are probably the more, like, those are the more apt ones in this.
09:19Sure.
09:19I don't think that he just got to this place where if he wanted to be mad and quit on
09:23his
09:23team, there were other instances.
09:25There were other opportunities.
09:26Why'd he wait so long?
09:27He waited to the middle of the playoffs to do this?
09:31He's like, you know what?
09:32I'm going to miss some games right now.
09:33Just quit.
09:34I'm cool.
09:35When dudes was throwing the ball into the third row and stuff and he was playing that,
09:39now he decided to get upset.
09:41Yeah.
09:41Yeah.
09:42I have a hard time getting to that place.
09:44But yeah, the Rockets managed to put up a couple of good games.
09:46Unfortunately, they blew game three.
09:48So this is a series that still feels like a foregone conclusion as opposed to being one
09:52that is open.
09:53And Austin Reeves is on the brink of coming back.
09:56So it doesn't look great for their prospects of winning the series.
09:59But one at a time is kind of the mantra.
10:01And they did that last night.
10:02So we'll see if they can keep doing that come one.
Comments