Rockets Haven't Showed Up Without Durant

I asked you at the top about the Nuggets and we talked about their chances of coming back from a 3-1 deficit.

The Houston Rockets are now down 3 games to 1.

They salvaged their season, uh, by pulling out that game 4, still without Kevin Durant dealing with a whole bunch of issues with his knee.

But I mean, you can kind of see, like, look, they should have won game 3.

They gagged that game away.

I mean, Jabari Smith, what are you doing?

You're dribbling the ball up the court, 6, uh, 30 seconds left, up by 6, and you're just lobbing a pass up there.

Then you're fouling the guy on the other end.

Reed Shepherd gets back tapped like he used to do in high school, like that kind of stuff.

I mean, they gagged away that game.

Good on them for rallying to win game 4, push the.

Series back to Los Angeles.

Can the Rockets probably sends Kevin Durant.

Can the Rockets beat the Lakers in 3 straight?

I mean, I, I can't imagine.

There's no, there's nothing on earth that is indicating that Kevin Durant will play in this game.

By the way, I, I'm sorry, I just have to address the Game 3 thing because if you were like me watching it on television, it was Iron Eagle and Stan Van Gundy on the call, and Ian is like, hey, they're up 6, 33 seconds left.

You know, obviously he basically said there's no way the Rockets can lose this one now.

You know, the game's done.

We've had the dagger, that sort of thing.

And Stan says, I don't know.

I've lost to LeBron James in every way imaginable, so I'm not putting this one to bed yet.

And sure enough, I mean, it is almost impossible to lose the game up 6 with 30 seconds to go.

You get the 24 seconds just holding on to it.

I mean, it's just, it's absolutely insane.

And I think their lead disappeared in 20 seconds.

It didn't even take the 33 seconds, so.

I don't know.

Look, can they win?

Sure, but I do think that having, what is it, the last game was on Sunday.

So then they've got Monday, Tuesday, and all day Wednesday of rest.

I think that favors the Lakers and LeBron James, who looked pretty gassed, um, you know, in that game, and I actually would have pulled him earlier to just be like, great, we don't, we don't have to play you.

Let's not put these miles on you right now.

Um, but I, I, I don't believe it.

I don't believe they can, but I don't believe they're going to win this series.

I think the Lakers will win this series, and I don't think it's going to take Austin Reeves coming back, which is the rumbling that we're hearing.

But there is just no trust or cohesiveness on this Rockets team.

They just look disorganized in every way.

And when I watched them play, yes, it is not really having a point guard in there, but it's more than that.

They, they just don't look like they believe in each other as a team, and I don't know if that's after what happened at the All-Star break.

I, I, I don't know what it is, but they don't look, I talked about the Cavs not looking like they can step on someone's throat yet.

This team doesn't even look like they're that interested in winning a playoff series at times, I mean, Kevin Durant being hurt doesn't help.

And I do want to just say one thing.

I will say that having Kevin Durant, Steven Adams, and Fred VanVleet out for this majority of this playoff series, we do have to recognize that too.

That's all, unquestionably , um.

If they had won game 3, I would have favored them to win the series, um, because I think they would have done the same thing in game 4.

like game 4, what I saw was Reed Shepherd finally showing up, making shots.

Uh, Aman Thompson made shots.

These are guys that have been inconsistent for them offensively.

Like the Rockets are gonna win a lot of games they score 115 points in because their defense is really good.

Even without some of the guys that, that we talked about, you know, I thought game, game 3.

Should have been, the story should have been coming out of game 3, Alpern Shenun in the 4th quarter because he was outstanding in the 4th quarter of that game.

Uh, in game 4, 19 points, 6 of 12 from the floor, 6 rebounds.

Fine, good game.

Uh.

If they'd just been able to not choke away that game, I would have favored them to win the series, even going back to LA without home court advantage.

But the fact they're down 3-1, I just can't, I can't count on the guys I just mentioned.

Like, I can't count on Reed Shepherd to being efficient.

I can't count on Jabari, well Jabari Smith only 4:15 from the field in that game.

Tar Easton 7 of 10, Shengoon 6 of 12, Thompson, I mentioned, 10 of 16.

Um.

Really nothing of consequence off the bench.

Aaron Holliday, Josh Okogi, um, Whatever.

Like they, they, I, I can't count on them offensively.

I, I don't, what we saw in the first two games in Los Angeles, where they just couldn't get into any kind of offensive rhythm when Kevin Durant was not playing, uh, I think that's destined to repeat itself in one of these next couple of games.

Maybe they can find a way to squeeze out a win in LA in game 5.

Desperate teams, you know, and again, the Lakers.

They're not good without these guys.

Like, no, without the guys on the bench, they're not, there's a lot of, a lot of flaws on that team.

And those flaws were, were, were borne out.

I mean, LeBron was really bad, 2 of 9, gets his 10 points.

Uh, Ayan was good, but Marcus Smart, who's been great this series, 3 of 8.

Luke Kinnard, a couple of games now where he's struggled with the shot, 3 of 8.

Yeah, Vanderbilt was fine off the bench.

Jake Laraia getting thrown out also didn't help, that was a bad call.

Well, it's funny when you have the other team saying throwing him out was a bad call.

I mean, you had, right?

Both Shengoon and Udoka were like, I didn't, that was, that was a soft flagrant too.

Like neither one of them thought that he should have been thrown out.

I mean, usually it's the other way around, so that was, that was a rough call, and he was having a great game.

I'm not, they, I'm not saying they would have won the game, but.

It was, it was another thing there.

I, I never expected this to be a sweep even after the game 3 collapse.

It's very hard to sweep in the NBA.

To beat a playoff-worthy team 4 times in a row is very difficult, no matter who you are.

So I didn't expect a sweep.

It could go more than 5, but I, I don't know.

It feels like a Laker series to me.

Does this, does the outcome of this series, um, and you mentioned all the guys that are missing from Houston, Steven Adams, Kevin Durant, Fred Van Vleet.

Big-time players, 3 starters that are down from the Houston Rockets right now.

Um, Kevin Durant, even though he's not playing, is taking a lot of heat externally.

Uh, I think a lot of people were annoyed he wasn't on the bench for game 3.

I, I don't really care about that.

I'm assuming he wasn't .

I'm assuming he was getting treatment somewhere in the back doing stuff that he should have been doing.

Um, uh, so it doesn't really bother me all that much that he wasn't on the bench.

But this is, you know, there's a lot that goes into this Rockets team right now .

You go back to the whole burner gate that never was really addressed, you know, after, uh, the All-Star break.

Uh, you, you talked about how like they don't look connected out there.

Like, do you feel like this, The outcome of this series, if it doesn't go the Rockets' way, could become a referendum on Kevin Durant because Durant just signed a two-year contract extension.

He's under contract through 2028 with Houston.

Uh, they gave up some real assets for him.

Like, it, I mean, do you think this, this comes down, this becomes a conversation about Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets?

But you mean a referendum on sort of what the public thinks about him?

No, about like whether they, they can continue to, you know, build this team out around him or they look to trade him, you know, I mean.

I think they need to make another move.

I, I don't speculate that Kevin Durant's going to be in that move though.

I, I think he's gonna still be in Houston.

And look, played 78 games for them this year.

I know he hasn't been available for most of this first round, but it's a lot of bad luck.

I mean, people are like, oh, where'd this ankle come from?

If you go back to the tape, he really rolled the ankle.

Like you see it, and he is 37.

years old and the knee thing is, you know, a two-way player in practice bumped him in the wrong spot on the knee and like, look, this happens.

So I, I don't think that they should abandon the Kevin Durant plan, but I do think that they need to make it more of a right.

They're in the Western Conference.

This team isn't going to be good enough, even with all those guys back, and they're all going to be a year older.

I, I just, you need to make a trade.

Yeah, I've said a couple of times, I think they are in the position.

Where they have to be aggressive on Giannis Dedeopo, um, because they have kind of cast their lot with Kevin Durant, who is 37 years old, who is still playing at an all NBA level.

Um, but he's got a window now, 2 years, next 2 years on his contract.

And if you're the Rockets, even getting Fred VanVleet back, even getting Steven Adams back, it's probably not enough.

It's probably not enough.

So if you're Houston, You gotta really look at pushing your chips in using that Van Vleet contract.

Maybe it means, means using Adams' contract, giving up one of your young pieces, giving up some of your draft picks, and going to get Giannis and saying, let's hope that Giannis and Kevin Durant in the playoffs is enough to get us through 3 series in the Western Conference.

I don't know if it is.

I, I haven't really thought too much about how those two would mix , but I mean, I, I, if, if they come back in recent history.

I think the hope would be that they would both be on the floor of 3 rounds of the playoffs.

Well, that's part of it too.

That is also putting those two together could also, I'd be more nervous about Giannis.

The Durant stuff is so weird.

I mean, like you said, 78 games.

The guy was a workhorse for him.

He's playing like 36 minutes per game.

He is the ultimate hooper.

I agree.

Uh, it's, uh, I'm not in on the Kevin Durant slander, you know that.

I'm not either.

I'm, I'm, you know, I, I just think.

When, because of the external criticism that he's been taking, I wonder if that seeps internal, if it becomes like a blame game for all this.

I mean, you can't blame the guy for being injured.

He got hurt in practice, and he has been reliable for you all season long.

And if you didn't have these other injuries, you're probably a top 3 seed in the Western Conference.

Fred Van Vleet played all season, you probably, you don't have to.

Play Aman Thompson that much at the point.

Steven Adams, I thought that was a really underappreciated injury.

Like he was playing great for them up until mid-January when he goes out, and he was part of that identity.

Like they wanted to beat the crap out of you.

They were a physical team.

That's why you play Adams with Shengoon.

You could do that.

You could play, I think they opening night, they had the biggest lineup in NBA history or something like that.

So, yeah, so it's that, that took a piece of their identity.

Um, no, I , I think it's a big deal, and I think that even though we're seeing this team that is not.

Cohesive that doesn't really seem to trust each other.

All of that changes with winning, right ?

You start winning, you paper over all that stuff.

We say it every year, and you do get culture setters back like Steven Adams, and that is a big deal.

And Fred VanVleet in his own way, obviously doesn't have the Steve Steven Adams, uh, toughness, uh, quotient, but he has a lot of bravado, and that, you know, helps too, especially with the younger team.

So I just don't think they have it right now, and I think they need to bolster the roster, and I don't think we're going to see them after this round of playoffs.