00:00Shepard, wheeling, taking, big bucket, Reed Shepard pushes it back to two possessions.
00:07What a gutsy basket by Reed Shepard, mishandled the ball out top but didn't panic.
00:14James, has it ripped away, Shepard on the steal, and the flush!
00:19I thought that was a really cool sequence, not just because it kind of sewed up the game for the
00:25Rockets,
00:25it held the Lakers at bay, it was a tough environment at that point,
00:28the Laker fans are all standing, and there's Reed Shepard with a dagger on one end and a dagger at
00:33the other end.
00:33The coolest thing about that, Seth, is that the two biggest things I feel like Reed Shepard gets criticized for
00:38are defense and maybe the ability to create his own shot, doing things off the dribble.
00:44You even heard in that cut right there, the play-by-play guy was saying at the beginning of that
00:51play,
00:51he lost the handle on the ball.
00:53Yeah, yeah, and so I just thought the symbolism of the whole thing,
00:59that it was the two things that have really been an issue for Reed Shepard this year,
01:04were things that within that 20-second span, he not only overcame,
01:08but helped sew up a season-saving win for the Rockets last night.
01:12And I think last night, one of the encouraging things was also that, hey, look,
01:16Reed Shepard's going to have his issues defensively.
01:19How do you manage that?
01:21One of the things you can do is switch him more often, and they were able to do that.
01:26It's something he had requested of Udoka.
01:28It also becomes more feasible when Durant's not out there,
01:31because Durant, at his age and his current status, he just doesn't switch all that well.
01:35So they're able to limit his exposure on defense,
01:40but then those things that he does to make up for his defense, like the steals,
01:45that ends up being a critical part.
01:47Like, okay, hey, Reed, if you're not great defensively, but you're good at getting steals,
01:52yeah, why don't you go ahead and strip the ball away from LeBron James
01:55and turn it into an uncontested dunk at the end of the game?
01:58That's really, really good.
01:59Absolutely.
02:00And Reed, I think he gets a bad rap defensively as just being labeled this blanket poor defender,
02:07because I do think there's things he does well.
02:09He's got good hands.
02:11He's got good quick hands, like you said, steals.
02:13That he can do.
02:15It's just when he's got a – he can get out physical sometimes.
02:18He's just not very big.
02:20That's the problem.
02:21Well, and that's where some of the randomness you throw into the mix
02:26when Durant's not out there is that just teams know where to attack
02:32and focus their energy when Durant's on the floor,
02:34because the Rockets are not good at creating much variety or variation in their offense.
02:40So now, without Durant out there, they're kind of having to learn on the fly exactly,
02:45okay, how are we going to defend this team tonight?
02:47Yeah.
02:47And the Rockets have taken advantage of it.
02:50I mean, it's not like they're just the greatest show on earth or anything.
02:55But when you hold a team to 93 points,
02:57you don't have to be the highest score in deep offense in the league.
03:01Yeah, no, this team is not going to get out of this series
03:03because all of a sudden they turned into this offensive juggernaut.
03:06They're just not.
03:06They're going to have to keep playing good defense.
03:08But I think even within this series, the fact that Durant hasn't been there,
03:13I think you've seen Aman Thompson take a little step.
03:17I think you've seen Reed Shepard take a little step just in terms of orchestrating,
03:21getting the ball up the floor, making decisions.
03:23I thought Aman Thompson, especially in the second half of that game last night,
03:27I thought did as the primary ball handler for them, I thought did a pretty good job.
03:31You know, he's not going to be mistaken for Magic Johnson or anything like that anytime soon.
03:35But it's so much better than it was.
03:37And sometimes that's out of necessity.
03:39You know, hey, daddy's not there to bring the ball up the floor and ISO
03:43and go get a bucket every time you need it anymore.
03:45You know, daddy being Kevin Durant, obviously.
03:47So I thought that was pretty cool.
03:51Let's skip down to Shams, Ben.
03:53Here with Shams Sharanya of ESPN.
03:55This is an hour ago, thereabouts, on ESPN with the update for Game 6 on Kevin Durant.
04:01Sources tell me Kevin Durant will be out for Game 6.
04:05He's not going to be playing.
04:07So he will have missed five of six games so far in this series.
04:10He's dealing with a bone bruise in his left ankle.
04:13We know he dealt with a tendon bruise that sidelined him for Game 1.
04:17But this bone bruise is a two-week minimum injury.
04:20He's just over one week right now.
04:22So Houston is going to rely on that young core that they have.
04:25They've had pretty much full control of the last three games.
04:28They could have easily won Game 3, obviously.
04:30And you think about it.
04:31Amen Thompson, Reed Shepard, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperin Sangoon.
04:35I have a stat for you.
04:36They're the youngest starting five to win a game in NBA playoff history.
04:41And the quartet of Thompson, Reed Shepard, Sangoon, and Jabari Smith, they're plus 29 in this series.
04:48And so I think the onus for the Rockets has been a lot about that young core.
04:52How do they mesh with Kevin Durant?
04:53But now with no Kevin Durant, you're leaning on especially those three guys, Jabari Smith Jr.
04:59and a man Thompson and Alperin Sangoon.
05:01And last night, you know what caught my eye?
05:03Jabari Smith leading huddles down the stretch of the game.
05:05Every single time on defense, he was bringing the guys together.
05:08And those three guys have been leading dinners, team camaraderie, down the stretch of this playoff run that obviously has
05:14had its ups and downs.
05:15Okay.
05:16I mean, this has been a good last couple of games for the young core.
05:20Well, yeah.
05:21You know what it is, as far as what Shams is saying there, where I think it feels like the
05:26barometer,
05:27there's a nightly barometer on team chemistry based on body language.
05:31Or, hey, did this guy high-five enough people after he made a shot or whatever?
05:37If anything, look, I hate reading too much into that because generally, hey, when things aren't going well, body language
05:43is bad.
05:43When things are going well, body language is good.
05:45That's just the way human beings operate.
05:48But I do think that there has been a concerted effort by the team, just by things they've told us
05:54about speeches that Shane Goon has given
05:57or the meeting that they had to basically try to bolster Tari Eason's confidence.
06:03I mean, some of the ugliness of the season and even the trials and tribulations of this playoff series,
06:08I think there has been a positive benefit to some of that,
06:11that they maybe have more of a more deliberate effort at just being sure guys are on the same page.
06:16Well, both the things you just brought up both worked.
06:19I mean, Tari has been a much better player since that intervention.
06:22And since Alper and Shingun's pregame speech, the Rockets are 2-0.
06:26So maybe they need to do more of this stuff.
06:28Maybe they need to have more team meetings, players only.
06:31Yeah, Javari Smith Jr. just being the best version of himself or the better version of himself
06:37is just obviously a huge part of whether or not they can close out these last two games.
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