00:00The Rockets keep their season alive last night, so I want to give them credit for that.
00:04This thing had all the makings of them just rolling over and doing the Cancun on three thing that Charles
00:11Barkley likes to talk about.
00:12Charles Barkley's prediction last night before the game was that, no, this is over.
00:16This is a sweep.
00:17They're going home.
00:18So I'll credit them for showing the fight to keep this series alive.
00:22I will not credit them for being put in a situation where this was an elimination game last night because
00:27it didn't have to be this way.
00:29It did not have to be this way.
00:31People are listening right now like, why are you dredging this up?
00:33They just won last night.
00:34It happened on Friday.
00:35We haven't had a chance to dig into it.
00:36It was one of the all-time choke jobs that I've ever seen in the history of Houston sports, and
00:41I blame Stan Van Gundy.
00:44This was Stan Van Gundy on the broadcast on Friday.
00:48The Rockets are up by six.
00:50The Lakers are coming down with about 40 seconds to go in the game.
00:53So if you just get a stop and just get the rebound and dribble the ball around, make them foul
00:59you, you've got a chance to go up three possessions just by making a free throw.
01:03So you're going to listen here.
01:04LeBron shoots a three.
01:06The Lakers try to tip it in.
01:07Jay Sean Tate secures the rebound, gets it to Jabari Smith, who just has to dribble around and let someone
01:12maul him.
01:13And you can hear Stan Van Gundy, when they secure the rebound, essentially put this game to bed.
01:19Take a listen.
01:20The Rockets lead by four.
01:23James way outside.
01:25Step in the ocean, good.
01:27A steal and slam.
01:30Alvarez and good.
01:32Oh, it's the night.
01:33You won't see that often.
01:35LeBron James did two huge turnovers down the stretch.
01:40And the Rockets are going to be able to close this one out.
01:44Or maybe not.
01:45The Rockets steps in front.
01:47Smith just had to get it to his teammate.
01:48And a foul is called.
01:51Wow.
01:5225.4 on the clock.
01:54Jay Sean Tate called on the personal.
01:57And Yadoka can't believe it.
01:59Yeah, it was bad.
02:00So I know it's a little frenetic on the play-by-play.
02:03But Alpy gets the steal in the dunk to go up six.
02:06You're up six with 30 seconds to go.
02:08Just get a stop and the game's over.
02:09They get a stop.
02:11And Stan Van Gundy, the Rockets are going to...
02:13Literally, Seth, as he's saying the words, the Rockets are going to close this one out, is when Jabari Smith
02:18chooses to float a pass to Ahmed Thompson for no reason at all.
02:23Like, you just dribble around and get fouled.
02:26Make off-free throw and the game is over.
02:28You're up by three scores at that point.
02:30And it was...
02:32I mean, you could not have given a blueprint for a bigger choke between Jabari Smith's turnover, Jay Sean Tate,
02:40as you heard, fouling Marcus Smart on a three-point shot.
02:44Marcus Smart makes all three free throws.
02:46Not easy to do in that situation.
02:48And then they just need to inbound the ball and, again, dribble around and get fouled.
02:53And Reed Shepard, this might be the worst turnover Reed Shepard's had all year, which is saying something, because he's
02:59had some bad ones.
03:00LeBron James did that thing that stopped working in, like, ninth grade, where you let the guy dribble by you,
03:05but then you just reach around and poke it from behind the ball.
03:09And Reed got got by that.
03:11And then LeBron hits a three.
03:13We all know how it ended.
03:15But, yeah, this was just a horrible, horrible sequence.
03:21And normally, one, I would say, teams don't come back from that when you're down 3-0, even though you're
03:25at home in game four.
03:26So I feel okay about the team that they were able to come back.
03:29I still don't think...
03:31I mean, they're up against it to win this series.
03:33Obviously, nobody's ever come back from down 3-0 in a playoff series.
03:36And who knows if the Lakers get Luka or Austin Reese.
03:39There's been a couple times this century where teams pushed it to a game seven.
03:43Yeah.
03:43So we'll see.
03:44The one thing about last night was that LeBron James, for the first time, I think, looked tired.
03:48But don't worry.
03:49They've got two days rest.
03:51The NBA made sure that LeBron wouldn't have to...
03:53Were they not playing until Wednesday?
03:54I don't...
03:54I believe...
03:55I believe that's...
03:56I know there's two...
03:57I know there's some games...
03:58I know there's some where there's only one in between.
04:00I think this is one of the two games...
04:00This is one of the two...
04:01Is it?
04:01...two-night rest.
04:02I believe, yeah.
04:03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:04So, and we'll see who...
04:06You know, if...
04:07It sounds like Austin Reeves is the one that's closer to coming back than Luka right now.
04:11Yeah.
04:12For them.
04:13Like, he was actually on the injury.
04:14Whereas Luka's just out.
04:15So, Austin Reeves has been listed as questionable the last couple of months.
04:19I can wipe away some of the issues right this moment, including on Friday night, by just
04:25saying, oh, look at how young they are.
04:27You know, they average 22 years of age where the Lakers, everybody's 27 or older.
04:33I mean, it doesn't...
04:34I mean, a junior high coach would be upset about the way that regulation ended the other night.
04:40It's just, okay, Javari Smith Jr. is 22.
04:44Sure, but I don't expect a seventh grader to make a mistake in that moment.
04:47Dude...
04:48If the coaching is right.
04:49That's...
04:50I cannot excuse that with youth.
04:52Okay, I want to play Emei here for a second, but you just touched on something.
04:54That's a pet peeve of mine.
04:56That should be on my list of things that annoy me, that I keep on my phone, and my note
05:00that I have a list of things that annoy me, is when announcers attribute completely
05:06boneheaded plays in any sport to just, well, he's a young player.
05:10Like, Bryce Matthews gets picked off first base, and I'm not saying...
05:14I'm using this as an example of a bad play.
05:15I don't know that Callis or Blum said this, because I was at the game last week, but when
05:19he came in as a pinch runner and got picked off first base there, there would be announcers
05:24that would go, well, he's a young player, you know?
05:26And it's like, no, you can't do that in Little League.
05:29Get picked off first base.
05:30At one point, there was a time where people were saying that about Altuve and his base running
05:34errors, and no, it turns out that's just who he is.
05:38After over a decade of watching the same stuff, that's who he is.
05:42Okay, I want to play this audio here, because I want to get your take on this.
05:45This was Ime Udoka.
05:48People widely saying that he buried his team on Friday after the game.
05:51When they asked him, well, you'll hear the question here.
05:53They basically just asked him, what the hell happened?
05:55Yeah.
05:56Horrendous mistakes.
05:58I don't know if you want to say youth or, you know, scared of the moment or whatever
06:01the case, but, yeah, you have a six-point lead with 20 or 30 seconds to go.
06:07Get a rebound and just have to hold the ball and get fouled or, you know, it's basically
06:12a one-on-four and throw it away to combat it and make it worse.
06:17Foul, a terrible foul on Marcus Smart to give him three free throws.
06:21Next play, backcourt, you got it.
06:24Doubles coming.
06:24You try to split it instead of throwing it to Alpy wide open.
06:27Another turnover, and then James makes a tough shot.
06:30In the final play, for the last shot, we don't run what was drawn up.
06:34All of the above.
06:35Okay.
06:37He's right on all those things.
06:38I mean, we just spent the last 10 minutes talking about how horrible the last 30 seconds
06:43of that game were.
06:43This has been a theme with Ime Udoka all year long.
06:46He never takes any blame for any of this stuff, ever.
06:49And it's one of those things, though, too.
06:50It's the culmination of an entire year of wondering, can we run some plays?
06:55Can we draw something up?
06:56Can we look like there's any kind of an actual structure to this offense?
07:00So that, yeah, when guys play stupidly at the end of a basketball game, the head coach
07:10isn't automatically excused from being a part of all of that.
07:14That's where I mean, the young core, the more we talk about the young core, and if you try
07:18to excuse it away with youth or what have you, that it focuses right back towards Udoka
07:23more than anything else.
07:24I still believe in the young guys.
07:26I just want them to have a better platform and a better structure to learn and grow offensively.
07:33Yeah, dude, take some of it yourself, too, man.
07:36Like, make it a group thing.
07:39Yeah, most coaches, you get sick of them how often they blame themselves.
07:43Which is, yeah, which is why?
07:45Because it starts to feel like, all right, you're just going to blame yourself.
07:47I get it, whatever.
07:49He's the opposite.
07:50It's just pointing the finger every single time.
07:55Yeah, I mean, I get it.
07:56There's such a thing as tough love, but man, when you do it for 82 games and then three
08:00games in the playoffs, and it's just, it's always their fault.
08:03It's just, it's infuriating.
08:05Shane Goon with a big pep talk last night.
08:06Oh, I heard about that before the game.
08:08Yeah, that was good.
08:10Hey, man, I'm glad they won.
08:12Let's go get it.
08:12You're right, Wednesday, 9 o'clock start time.
08:149 o'clock.
08:16Oh, God.
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