Kevin Durant CALLS GAME As Rockets RALLY Late Vs Pelicans, Amen Thompson & Reed Sheppard STEPPING UP

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The Rockets rally late against the Pelicans and Kevin Durant hits the go-ahead game-winning

shot to give them the win.

Jabari's Jr. with a clutch three pointer as part of that comeback.

Some big games from Min Thompson to Reed Shepard, it's all coming up right here at Lockdown

Rockets.

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locked on Rockets.

On today's show, we're talking about the Rockets 107-105 win against the Pelicans.

They rallied late, big shot from Bari, game winner, go-ahead bucket from Kevin Durant

to seal the deal, how they managed to rally late.

Why they were in the hole to begin with, some big games from Mentoms and a Reed Shepherd,

no Alpour and Shingoon in this one, which led to some really funky lineup choices from

Eme Odoca.

We'll talk about that a little bit later on as well.

A lot to get to from this one, first of all, let you know that today's episode is brought

to you by Fandall.

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And as always, thanks so much for making Lockdown Rockets part of your day, every single

day, whether it's on your way to work on your lunch break in the gym, thank you so much

for being and every day or 107-105 Final Score and honestly, this was not a fun game just

because the ending is cool.

I'm like, yeah, go ahead, bucket, game winner, awesome.

The vibes feel good after the game, but when you're in the game, it feels miserable to

be in a rock fight with the Pelicans who are one of the worst teams in the NBA.

Now granted, they are seven, they were coming into this game, like seven and three in their

last 10.

So they're not quite the easy out that they appear to be when you look at just like the

standings, getting Jean-Tayn Murray back has changed a lot for this team.

Also, obviously, the Rockets not being full strength, not having Alper and Shingoo and

certainly hurts in that regard, but at the same time, this, it feels like this Rockets

team shouldn't probably ever be in a rock fight to the Pelicans and yet they were.

And the ending of this game, it kind of, it felt like there was a stretch where it felt

like the Pelicans were getting ready to run away with this thing.

Rockets actually led 100 to 98 with just like two and a half minutes to play somewhere

there abouts.

Actually with 90 seconds left to play, they let 198, and there was a sequence, a 6-0 run

by the Pelicans basically.

It was a Zion dunk, the Jamal Murray, not Jamal Murray, the Jean-Tayn Murray transition,

like goal-tended layup that Jabari tried to block.

And then Zion got some free throws off of a miscommunication between Reed Shepherd and

I think it was Jabari trying to guard that like little pick and roll in Zion was feasting

all night.

Like the Rockets really couldn't find an answer for him despite the different defenders

that they tried and whatnot.

So the Pell's pulled ahead 104 to 100 with, you know, not a ton of time left in the game,

just a little more than 30 seconds left of action when the Pell's pulled ahead by four.

And it kind of felt like, okay, like four point lead, 30 seconds left, like the Rockets

might be kind of cooked here.

Rockets get a huge, huge three pointer from Jabari's magina, Kevin Durant drives the

lane.

He's got two defenders chasing him.

He flips the pass to a men Thompson who's, you know, sitting in the dunker spot baseline.

And then a men rifles the pass out to Jabari in the opposite corner.

And Jabari cans a huge three pointer big shot barry, man.

He really does have that clutch gene late in games.

It feels like and he's done it multiple times against the Pelicans in his career.

So maybe there's something there hits that big three pointer, Rockets are within one.

And then they needed a stop.

They needed a stop.

Really, they needed a turnover.

And that's exactly what they got, 104, 103 is the score and Rockets are dean up.

And Dejante Murray turns the ball over due to pressure from a men Thompson.

He steps out of bounds and it gives the Rockets a gift now down only one point.

They get the ball back 15 seconds or so on the clock, 14 seconds.

And they've got a chance.

And man, living through these moments is miserable because of these like egregious five second

violations that this rocket team has has become prone to dealing with in particular this season,

but just kind of through the Emeu Doka era and credit to DFS for calling the time out

because he didn't like the look.

But man, it was we're talking like fractions of like tenths of a second away from the

breath blowing the whistle and calling it a five second violation.

It was very nerve wracking on that first drawn up out of bounds play.

Rockets call the time out.

They come back.

They run the playback.

And thankfully, they were able to get the in bounds on this one and this is just added

to the laundry list of not being able to get Kevin during the basketball on that first

possession.

And there were a few of those down the stretch to look really ugly and egregious where

the Rockets were trying to get the ball to Katie and just couldn't and they kept coming

up dry on some of those possessions late, which is what allowed the pelicans little six

over on there.

But man, Barry gets the inbound and then immediately Barry lofts it over to Katie and Katie

just doesn't waste any time doesn't let the clock drain down none of that.

He drives immediately gets to his spot knocks down the shot.

Rockets pull ahead by one and it looks like it's a miracle, right?

The three from Jabari, the go ahead bucket from Katie, but because Katie didn't drain

like let the clock run out a little bit pelicans still had some life.

They still had an opportunity to come back down and put a dagger in all of Rockets fans

hearts everywhere in the stadium watching on TV all of it.

And as the pedals were drawing up there out of bounds play, Rockets defensive pressure

and credit to Dorian Finney Smith who was tying up Jones and the pedals tried to inbound

the ball and just DFS did a great job tying up his man and Zion inbound the ball and it

just bounces it just like rolls to the opposite of the floor out of bounds.

I don't know that I've ever seen a more poorly executed out of bounds play at the end

of a game in a way with an opportunity to potentially win the game on the line.

I watch a lot of Rockets basketball and I don't think we've ever seen something that

egregious.

So credit to DFS for the defense on that final possession credit to all five dudes

on the floor for the defense on that final possession and then it just became the free

throw battle, right?

They get the inbound to Katie.

He knocks down a couple of free throws, pedals get sent to the free throw line.

They're trying to, you know, at that point, they've got to intentionally miss one.

Dijonti Murray did intentionally miss it.

They got the tap out to somebody to take a three.

It was a in move, you know, on the move, one leg it running three pointer, very low

likelihood of it going in and the Rockets survive.

They managed to survive and look, it wasn't pretty, but they needed this game.

Just like they need these next two games that they want to be able to stay in the three

seed in the Western Conference, they're going to need to take care of business against

Lakers.

At this point, they need to take care of business against everybody down the stretch

this season and to have lost a game like that against a bad penalty would have been a

really disappointing outcome.

But it was great to finally see Kevin Durant be able to do what Kevin Durant was brought

to Houston to do, which is hit those big time late in games, go ahead buckets, game winning

shots, and maybe this is a step in the right direction for the Rockets to understand,

hey, like, all right, we just got to get the ball to Katie.

And even though it wasn't super pretty, it wasn't some flawlessly executed, perfectly

drawn up, you know, ATO from email, Doka, they made it work, right?

They got the ball into Jabari, then they got the ball to Katie, and that might be, that

just might have to be the recipe, right?

Hey, we can't get the ball to Katie straight off the imbalance because defenses are hounding

him, right?

They're grabbing them.

They're holding them.

So get the ball to another guy and then have that guy get the ball to Kevin Durant,

right?

It doesn't have to be needlessly complicated, and they executed it.

They got the ball to their star, and he got to his spot and knocked down a shot.

And I'm disappointed that we haven't seen that done more this season or be more effective

this season, but it was encouraging to see them finally do it, right?

To have that moment, hey, Katie, go get us a bucket, go save us.

He did just that he had some pretty rough moments before the game winning bucket.

And it took a near 40 piece, sorry, well, a slight, no, north of 30, I thought he finished

with closer to 40 actually, but 32 points on 13 of 24 shooting from Katie, 40 minutes

played.

Maybe I was looking at the, anyways, whatever, a win is a win, and an ugly win is still

a win, and credit to the rockets for being able to, after going down, after it looking

like they could have just rolled over, right, taking the L, they rallied, they were able

to come back and they were able to secure the win, and pick up another W in what is currently

a very tightly packed Western conference playoff race.

So credit to them, credit for Kevin Durant for showing up big all throughout the night

and hitting that big shot at the end, Jabari Smith Jr as well with that huge three pointer,

couldn't have come at a better time, honest, I mean, it could have come a couple of possessions

before that, so it didn't need to be so clutch, but it was a perfect three pointer, a huge

shot from Jabari, and overall, a win that they can go home, at least feeling a little

good about that they were able to gut check and come out on top in this game.

Coming up, do you want to talk about some of the struggles from this game, the rocket struggling

to contain Gisante Murray and Zion Williamson, as well as the big games from Men Thompson

and Reed Shepard.

We'll also talk about some of the lineups and missing out for inch and goon and a lot

of different stuff from this one.

We'll get there in just one moment.

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All right, let's talk a little bit about some of the struggles from this game first just

containing Dejante Murray.

I mean, this is where this is one of those games where the Rockets distinct lack of perimeter

defense was fully on display with Dejante Murray able to just get wherever he wanted on

the floor.

Frankly, getting downhill, finishing at the rim, he was also online from three and that's

when Dejante's at his deadliest is, you know, he has some he's streaky from the perimeter

as a shooter.

He's not and he hasn't been, you know, consistently a good perimeter shooter in his career.

But when he's on from three, it feels like he doesn't miss and then he becomes incredibly

difficult to guard 35 points 14 of 18 shooting only missed four shots of the whole game.

And it was, it was really tough for the Rockets, different stretches out there, you know,

trying to guard him at times with different guys, the switchiness of their defense.

But this is just one of those games where it was really on display how porous at times

the Rockets perimeter defense can be.

And then in the lineups that they were running that didn't feature any big whatsoever,

right?

Because they were trying to match the small ball, the death ball lineup of the Pelicans.

They didn't have any rim deterrent, right?

No rim, no rim protection.

Now having click a pillow out there for the minutes he was out there did help a little

bit, but not like a ton.

This was just a tough game for the Rockets dealing with Gisante Murray being on one and not

really having an answer for him.

Credit to a Min Thompson for stepping up at the very end and forcing that turnover late

to be able to give the Rockets a chance to win the game.

You know, those were the kind of plays that you really missed from a Min Thompson, right?

Those kind of game deciding defensive plays at the end, whether it's getting a big time

stop they needed forcing a turnover they needed, igniting a fast break to get an easy opportunity

on the other end.

Like it feels like those moments have been fewer and further between for a Min Thompson

this season compared to last year.

Couldn't have come at a better moment for Gisante, or you know, to stop Gisante Murray

because the way that he had been playing this game feel like Gisante Murray had he not

turned the ball over would have come back down and either sliced through the Rockets

defense or hit a really tough contested midi pull up or a three or something nutty to just

destroy the hearts of all Rockets fans everywhere.

But struggling to really contain him and that there's just an again, another element of

Rockets perimeter defense needs to be better.

And some of that just has to do with lack of personnel on the perimeter.

But some of it's also just right guys not fighting hard over screens, not paying attention

to detail about loading up on guys like maybe at some point they could have bit a bit

more aggressive with Dejante Murray like they showed him some double teams occasionally

but not nearly as much as they probably should have based on how he was lighting them up.

And then Zion man, you know, he's a handful whenever he plays and I'm really surprised

they didn't go to him more than they did just because Rockets really didn't have an

answer for Zion either 21 points, but on seven of 10 shooting like 70% from the floor,

seven of nine at the free throw line just he's he's a lot to handle and I'm honestly

surprised that we didn't see more Jeff Green potentially down the stretch of this game

because Jeff Green's actually done a good job in the past guarding Zion and like really

walling up against him.

So that one was a bit surprising to me that we didn't see a little bit more Jeff Green

action late in this game.

But you know credit to he may he pushed the right buttons when he did right there wasn't

you know he didn't go with Tari to close out this game.

He also ran with Reed Shepherd and he mixed in some clink of pillow minutes as well

as some DFS minutes at the end of the game, you know, and well I disagree with the idea

of starting DFS and we'll talk about that in a minute.

It was encouraging to see, you know, the right lineup be out there when it needed to be

out there for the Rockets to come back to rally to finish this game off ultimately.

It was a pair of really strong games to for a men Thompson and Reed Shepherd in this

one 23 points on seven of 15 for men Thompson seven of eight at the free throw line 12 rebounds

eight assists one steel did have four turnovers, but in the absence of Alper and Shingoon,

I thought a men Thompson did a good job at times, you know, operating out of the short

role being the facilitating hub sometimes for the Rockets trying to get other guys involved

being that connective tissue passer that we know that he's capable of being.

And it just again, him forcing the issue so many times throughout this game.

Some of it wasn't pretty a lot of the time again, this Rockets offense is rarely if ever

pretty, but him forcing the issue, getting downhill, drawing fouls, getting into the free

throw and he's getting that he's back to shooting incredibly well at the free throw line,

which is an encouraging sign seven of eight there for him is big.

And then the biggest surprise in this game, two of three from downtown for men Thompson,

like, and both corner threes, right?

So it's, this is the development, like this is what we thought was going to continue

from last season right because he showed some really encouraging signs pardon me.

He showed some really encouraging signs as a corner three point shooter last year.

And we hope that he'd be able to build on that coming into this year, but then him being

on ball so much and being like having to take so many above the break three pointers

this season, like, he hasn't really had the opportunity to just focus on those corner

threes.

So seeing him knock them down consistently, that'll be the thing is like between him and

Alper and Shingu and one of not even one of they both to really be respected as all

offensive players need to they're talented enough as is, but to really be respected by

opposing defense is they need to develop consistent three pointer shots.

They they do.

It's just that's today's NBA game and it's just it's such a weakness for them in it.

And it hamstrings the rockets and so many different ways that they can't shoot the ball.

So seeing a men knock down a couple threes corner threes wide open ones at that, like really

encouraging stuff from him.

And then for Reed Shepard, 18 points, six of 14 shooting, five of 11 from downtown had

five rebounds, three assists, a steal a block, only a couple turnovers, big time bench scoring

for Reed Shepard, close the game out, played 32 minutes, played starters, level minutes,

you know, coming off the bench and it's, you know, while I still disagree with the notion

that he's not starting these games, at least like he's finishing them, I guess, and at least

he's still getting north of 30 minutes a night, which is encouraging, you know, my one

criticism from Reed for this game is I would say that there are a cup, there are times

when he and it's tough because with a shooter like Reed, right, you kind of have to, you

kind of have to live with the good and the bad and you don't want to like box him into

a corner and not let him play his game.

But some of the deeper three pointers that he likes to take, like super early in the

shot clock, I'm like, all right, you could have worked for a little bit of a better shot

there, but you also can't hate it because he hits him sometimes, like, and so as a shooter,

right, like sometimes Steph takes those, you know, shots from two, three, four, five steps

beyond the three point line and they go in and you're like, oh crap, here comes the Curry

Flurry, right? Sometimes Reed can hit those shots and then it's like, all right, here's

the Reed Stampede. And he had that, he had that one sequence earlier in the game where

he hit the, he hit the no dip corner three off the kick out from, I believe it was Jabari

under the basket, maybe hit the no dip corner three. And then it like the very next play

he walked it up and he bombed a three from like, not quite like the logo, but maybe like

right about the low, it was a deep three. And he like, you could tell he was itching to

fire another three after that. And that was his third three of the game if not mistaken.

So there's like moments where when Reed hits a shot, he's got like that shooter's mentality

of like, oh, the basket's like as wide as the ocean now, like just throw it up and it'll

go in. And in those moments, it is important to try to capitalize on them, but overall decent

game for Reed offensively, defensively, especially with Dejante Murray, there's, there's

stuff that needs to be worked on there, but that's just going to be, that's, that's one

of those things where I think, you know, the rockets as a team with the personnel that

they have would like to, would ideally work a little bit harder to make sure there's

moments where he's not matched up against, you know, guys who are going to completely cook

him or leave him on, you know, leaving him on an island against a Murray or a Zion, that

kind of thing. And it just takes a little bit of extra scheming, extra help, a concerted

effort to protect Reed defensively, while also still expecting him to hold his own

in certain matchups. And so that's going to be a continuing like ongoing process for

Reed as he continues to grow and develop as a player. Coming up, do you want to talk

about the absence of Al Princhangoon, the rockets electing to start Dorian Finney Smith

and some funky lineups throughout this game as a result? We're going to get there in

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and

And he may still miss, he may miss the next game against the Lakers, which is a pretty

important game to be able to win as far as the Western conference standings race is concerned.

And the Lakers are playing some really good basketball as, as of late as well.

So it's not looking like it's going to be a advantageous opportunity for the Rockets

to keep stacking wins in the standings.

But you know, we'll see what they put out on Monday night against that against the Lakers.

They got a Lakers back to back Monday and Wednesday.

So it should be a fun pair matchups against them.

But with no Alpour and Shingoon in this game, you felt the absence of Alpour and Shingoon

and you also felt, you know, watching this team kind of hack away offensively at just,

I really need, I really don't, it can't even think of like a proper analogy for watching

this team play offensive basketball because it really does.

It really tests the limits of your fandom watching this team play basketball on a night's

night basis.

It does.

Like, it's kind of exhausting at times.

And there are obviously like watching KDB KDB is awesome.

Like he's he's Kevin Durant for a reason, right?

But then outside of that, like an outside of like when Reed Shepard gets hot and he's

like, you know, going off or whatever, you know, there's intermittent plays from

a man that look really nice.

But nothing, none of it looks clean, right?

Like, like, this is the biggest thing that I have.

And, you know, I felt this watching throughout this game, but I feel like watching other

teams as well, just watching other games, like other high level teams, just, you know,

they, they have go to sets and actions and they have reliability in their, their ability

to execute offensively, right?

If they can reliably execute consistently high level plays, high level reads, they have

sets they go to, they have a clearly defined hierarchy of what they're trying to do each

possession.

Whereas the rocket's just kind of do whatever and it seems like they just kind of do whatever

a lot and whatever oftentimes boils down to just get Kevin the ball and get out of the

way, you know, maybe set him one quick screen and then he goes to work offensively.

But it felt even worse not having the ability to diversify that, albeit kind of lazy offensive

approach by having your second star and Alper and Shingun who you can in the minutes

without Kevin or in the minutes, you know, if the defense is really locking in or loading

up on Kevin, being able to defer to LP, right, to get a quick post up or a face up opportunity

or what have you.

And I know that Alpe hasn't quite been himself as of late.

He's clearly not not healthy.

He's been struggling, he was struggling with the back stuff last year and that impacted

his play as well.

But at the same time, like seeing the rockets off and throughout this game without Alper

and Shingun, it is hard to watch this team offensively, man.

And I think that again, you had some stronger games from Mentoms and a reach effort to make

up for it.

And I also wonder, I do wonder, like this is my like 10 foil hat kind of theory is, I'm

curious depending on how long Shingun is out for this stretch dealing with the back stuff,

you know, what I hope beyond all hope is that the rockets don't look at this stretch and

and somehow convince themselves, oh, see, like Shingun was the problem.

Like look at him in Thompson, he's, you know, 2312 and 8 and like, you know, he can be the

better, the best version of himself without Alper and Shingun out there clogging things

up.

Or if we play five out basketball, like we can, we can gut out these wins or we're better

off defensively because we held the pelicans to 105 even though Dejante Murray lit us

up for 35 points.

Like I don't want, I would hate for the rockets to draw any sweeping conclusions from this

game or from any subsequent games without Alper and Shingun out there simply because like,

again, I'm just concerned that this season and that the coaching staff and that the

upper management front office are going to look at the seam and then start making like sweeping

drastic changes this off season changes that don't necessarily need to be made.

Because at this point, I very much in the camp of just honestly, just run the thing back next

year with a healthy Fred and a healthy Stephen Adams and, you know, see how things play out

because otherwise the other options are trying to blow it up by going all in on a two or three

year window with Kevin Durant like trading Shingun and Oramin Thompson to go get like a Yannis

or somebody which I don't like that idea, but I also don't like the idea of like completely

tearing it down and trading Kevin Durant and Shingun and like trying to hit a soft reset moving

forward either like that sounds miserable as well.

So I think the happy medium is just all right, beat, wait, don't make any crazy moves and run it

back next year. Maybe a minor trade somewhere, but nothing like nothing crazy where you're going to

like overhaul the roster. And I know that there were a lot of fans, a lot of rocket fans who were like

waiting for a moment to just continue dumping on Shingun. And this is not this game in particular

is not the victory lap that it that you want it to be if you're looking for some anti-Shingun

agenda pushing like this is not the one because clearly they missed his offensive production.

Clearly they missed his ability to facilitate and get guys involved and having him as a go-to

offensive threat was sorely missed in this game. Now defensively did it give them a little bit

more flexibility to do certain things sure, but I also wonder like how Shingun would have held up

physically like physically against Zion potentially in this game just because

if that didn't do a whole lot against Zion man like I know that that was like the goal,

but the rockets collectively as a team did a poor job guarding Zion. They did not build the wall,

they did not slow him down in any like realistic capacity. So I don't know. The defensive

game plan against the Pell's could have been better, but at the end of the day they held him to 105

points, which is a 107 105 game feels very much out of the email Doca playbook, right?

I will say though seeing the starting lineup announced for this game knowing that there was no

Alpour and Shingun, none of us asked about it in the media like usually somebody gets to the

question and like that what I asked something else about like the physicality aspect of like when

e-mail talks about the physicality being off like what does he do differently? That was my pre-game

question. Nobody thought to ask about the starting lineup with no Alpour and Shingun and so when we

saw DFS announced 30 minutes before tip off I all I could do was kind of chuckle to myself because

like that in and of itself is is almost the perfect like encapsulation of

e-mail Doca and his coaching this season, right? He's got a read shepherd ballin out

been playing such an important role for this team easily. This team's third best offensive player

behind Durant and Shingun and in a lot of cases he's been some nights their first best,

their number one offensive option or their number two at worst,

depending on how the other stars are looking has single handedly won them some games and yet

was just like nah DFS is the answer DFS who has been who has not been himself who continues to

not be able to hit outside shots to save his life and who didn't really you know he had the

couple plays there at the end right and like I'll give him credit for the five for not getting

the five second violation and for D and up on Jones at the end forcing the turn like sure

give him credit for some of that but like the DFS stuff has been so rough and for e-mail to go

that direction not even like oh let's let me just be traditional and start clink appellate

a replace Shingun's minutes right or oh like the answer was DFS an e-mails mind the rockets

quite literally started five small forwards five wings is what the rocket started in this game

as kind of nuts I can't be mowing them too much because they did get the win even though it was

an ugly win and it wasn't a pretty game whatsoever they scraped out with a win so it worked to a

degree but my goodness the decision to like I don't I don't know what it's gonna take maybe read has

to have a growth spurt for e-mail to want to start him maybe read is just it's like it's like one

of those like you have to be you must be this tall to ride this ride in e-mails eyes it's like you

must be this tall to be in the starting lineup but if you're not sorry bucko like stay on the bench

it's just it's just gotten ridiculous at this point and it's gonna be a drum that I'm not

gonna stop beating for the rest of the season even though I'll probably turn blue in the face before

it ever actually happens but feels like a red shepherd should be starting it's all I'm saying

it did lead to some funky lineups and I get it the rockets are trying to match the

uh small ball lineups of the pelicans uh but I certainly felt like there were stretches where

either Clint probably could have or should have played more and been out there more now maybe

it's a conditioning thing maybe Clint just isn't ready to jump up from his 20 some odd minutes

tonight 15 20 minutes tonight to playing 30 plus randomly but there's plenty of games where they

did with Stephen Adams so I don't know why Clint couldn't have started and couldn't have played

regular starters level minutes in this one um and he felt like he was impactful in there you know

9.5 rebounds to assist the steel four blocks like he did a good job guarding the rim when he was

in the game uh so for what it's worth that's I don't know the lineups were weird with that

that's all I've got from this rocket pelicans game I'm curious your thoughts what does

you like about the rally at the end the big shots from Jabari and KD how did you feel about a

min and reads games and their performances in this one the defensive struggles containing Dejante

Murray and Zion Williamson let me know your thoughts in the YouTube comments but as always thank

you so much for watching thank you so much for listening and we look forward to having you

back right here at Lockdown Rockets your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets Fast

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