Reed Sheppard ELEVATES Rockets Offense As Durant & Sengun COMBINE For 62 Points Vs Wizards

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On today's show, The Rockets beat the wizards behind 62 combined points from Kevin Durant

and Alper and Shingoon, as well as a near triple double from Reed Shepherd, including

some career highs.

That'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 123, 118 win against the wizards, a game in which Reed

Shepherd had his fingerprints all over the game on both sides of the ball, arguably

the Rockets best two way force in this game, a near triple double, including a career

high in assists and steals Kevin Durant and Alperin, she knew and combining for 62 points.

They also combined for 14 turnovers.

We'll talk about that.

Talk about the men Thompson's injury and what it means for the rotation moving forward.

Tari, Ethan getting ejected a lot happened in this game.

I'm going to get to all of it on today's show.

Of course, I want to thank you 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 first things first.

The final score of this game does not do the game justice.

The Rockets were in firm control of this game for pretty much the most basically from

about, I don't know, early second quarter when they kind of took off or midway through

the second quarter, they lost the first quarter 30 to 26 because Washington just could

not miss from downtown.

That trend kind of continued throughout the whole game.

Washington wound up shooting a blistering 19 of 35 from downtown 54%.

And they still managed to lose because they shot so much worse from two than they did

from three.

And yeah, I mean, it was it was a weird game because Washington was so elite at shooting

the basketball.

And some of these shots were contested.

Some of them were just falling out.

Some of them were wide open early like it was kind of a mess there in the first quarter.

But Rockets were able to pull out the win.

They were able to be the more effective team over the course of four quarters.

And overall win and it was like 123 110 with like 70 seconds left.

And then Washington reeled off like eight straight points in a row to make the final

score seem a lot closer than it actually was.

But this thing was more or less after the first quarter, a, you know, wired a wire blowout

for the Rockets, comfortable leads all the way throughout playing from ahead, all that

good stuff.

Reed Shepard was nothing shorter sensational in this game 19 points, seven rebounds tennis

is six steals two blocks career high and assist career high and steals for read just seven

of 18 overall shooting another four of 11 game from downtown, which is a really respectable

mark from three only three of seven inside the arc and you'd like that number to be a

little bit better, but starting to put some things together.

And when you factor in the just the sheer stack counts elsewhere across the board, right?

The rebounds the assist the stocks six steel or six deals and two blocks and only three

turnovers to go along with the tennisists.

There's a solid argument that Reed Shepherd was the best player on the floor for the Rockets

in this game.

And the argument that I've maintained for why Reed Shepard should start and the argument

for when you when you look at just the overall success of the Rockets team when Reed Shepard

starts, I mean, I think the proof is just in the putting everybody else clicks back into

their roles so seamlessly when Reed Shepard is in the Rockets starting lineup, everything

feels like it just comes easier to the rest of the guys on the floor.

And now seven and two with Reed Shepard in the starting lineup and the number one thing

that matters the most right is just how much easier life looks for Alper and Shingoon

when they actually play through Reed Shepard, you know, it's funny.

This game started with like the first handful of possessions, right?

First two or three possessions were just bad off into possessions like the very first

one was, I think in a Min Thompson midi and then a Shingoon midi or vice versa, like

they was just bad offense, right?

Settling for mid-range jumpers from either of those two guys is just it's a net win for

the defense and it's bad offense for the Rockets and then they put the ball in Reed's hands

and let him run some offense and holy crap, all of the sudden things started looking good.

He was running two-man game with Alper and Shingoon and suddenly Shingoon went from having,

you know, what was a really rough start to this game, he had a like two or three early turnovers,

he had some mishots, some bunnies at the rim, that kind of stuff and then suddenly they were

running the two-man game between Shingoon and Reed Shepard and Reed was hit and Shingoon on the

role, he was getting them, you know, passes over the top, he was finding him when he sealed his

man down low, making this extra swing pass, looking for him early in transition, like all these

different things that Reed Shepard brings to the table. And ultimately it's because Alper and

Shingoon, it's like having a dance partner, right? Alper and Shingoon has been expected to do,

you know, a couple's dance by himself all season basically because a big man without a legitimate

pick and roll partner or a pick and roll threat to pair with is going to ultimately be pretty,

I don't want to say one dimensional, but just it's going, there's going to be some inherent

limitations on how good a big can be without a guard to be able to help set him up. And so so

much of this season Alper and Shingoon has needed to, you know, face up from the perimeter and drive

an attack and get to his little like patented spin moves or or post up and and you really, you know,

dribble the dribble the air out of the ball and and eat up, you know, eight, 10, 15 seconds of

the shot clock to try and get to his spots because he doesn't have anybody outside of realistically

Kevin Durant to be able to set him up consistently, at least not until recently, until we started

seeing more of the Alper and Shingoon Reed Shepard two-man game. Because when you run Alper and

a min Thompson pick and roll, it just doesn't work because nobody cares about a min Thompson, they

give him tons of space and they go under on every single screen and it doesn't provide the same

level of rolling downhill threat from from Shingoon because the secondary defender in the pick and

roll doesn't care. Meanwhile with Reed Shepard, you see the attention to detail, you see how defenses

are treating him as a legitimate threat from the perimeter, that shooting gravity, that passing

gravity, it's on display every single time they run a pick and roll and Reed has gotten better

and better. And this is one of my biggest gripes for this rocket season is the rocket should have

been spamming Alper and Shingoon Reed Shepard pick and roll 40 games ago. So I guess it's better late

than never to see it start taking off now, but it's also wildly disappointing because Emeo Doca said

before the game before tip off even happened. He'd already made up his mind that next game against

the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night, the rockets are going back to the quote-unquote

original lineup, which that's probably just code for, that's probably just code for

Jabari's Majunior replaces Reed Shepard and they go back to that version of the starting lineup.

It could also maybe mean Joshua Kogi gets reinserted into the starting lineup in place of Tari

Eason and he moves back to the bench and then Reed Shepard is also back to the bench. Who knows,

but I still to this point cannot fathom how the coaching staff looks at what Reed Shepard brings

to the table as a starter and thinks, nah, we'll move him back to the bench. He unlocks

everybody else, even Kevin Durant in this game looked like he had a much easier time not having

to orchestrate nearly as much of the rocket's offense. And then when it was time for KD to just

step up and BKD and start taking over the game and knocking down shots in the third quarter,

he had plenty of juice, he had plenty of gas in the tank to do so. And honestly, this game could have,

we'll talk about the turnovers of Kevin Durant and Alper and Jumin here in a moment. It could have

cleaned that up as well. It could have ran even more offense through Reed Shepard who does a good

job taking care of the basketball, a low turnover percentage, a good assist to turnover rate for

Reed Shepard and maybe cut down on some of those 14 turnovers that KD and LP committed throughout

this game as well. So Reed Shepard continues to impress. He continues to shine when given opportunity.

And it's so important for the rockets to continue to give him as many minutes as possible. He actually

led the team with 42 minutes played in this one. And, you know, Emeh was letting him out there.

Emeh kept him out there gave him a chance to maybe rack up the triple double. He was only three

rebounds away. Ultimately couldn't get it done. He was also three blocks away from a five by five,

which is kind of nuts to think about. And then you factor in like the actual stat line,

rockets players in the entire history of the rockets organization, rockets players with 15 plus

points, seven plus for you down 10 plus assists, five plus deals in a single game. James Harden has

done it eight times. John Lucas has done it twice. Hakeem's done it. Stevie franchise did it.

Scotty Pippen did it. And now Reed Shepard's done it. It's a very short list of some absolutely

incredibly elite players down that list. Every single one of them, you know, Hall of Famers,

except for, I guess, Stevie franchise. His weight is John Lucas Hall of Famer. Now blanket on that.

I should know this off the top of my head. And I don't. That is very embarrassing.

I'll be it still incredibly elite company to be a part of for Reed Shepard.

And yeah, it's against the wizard. So you take it with a grain of salt, but reps are reps.

And getting these good quality reps, getting good reps and even against bad teams are ultimately

going to pay dividends and help out long term as Reed and Al P continue to build and establish

their chemistry in the two-man game. And as Reed continues to build and establish his chemistry

with everybody else. And it's just a shame that Eme Udoca has already unfortunately stubbornly

made up his mind that Reed Shepard is going back to the bench when it's just clear as day to

everybody except for him apparently that he that Reed Shepard is the answer to so many of the

rockets weaknesses that they've displayed this season, especially on the offensive end. And they

are a better defensive team with Reed Shepard out there. He is no longer a defensive liability.

Will he get picked on occasionally? Will bigger guys would be trying to take advantage of him? Yes.

But he has gotten so much better on that side of the floor that I'm tired of hearing that as

any kind of an excuse for Reed Shepard at this point, not playing games. His offense is too

important. The team needs his production on that end. They need to just lean into it.

And it's it's growing even more frustrating every passing day that they don't just embrace it.

Coming up, I do want to talk about the performances from Kevin Durant and Al Pringian

Goon combining for 62 points, but also 14 turnovers. We'll also talk about a Mend Thompson's injury,

Tari Esen's ejection and all the other elements from this game. We're going to get there in just

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Kevin Durant and Alperin Shingoon against this injury plagued wizards squad 30 points for Kevin

Durant on 8 of 15 shooting a relatively quiet night. All things considered for KD 8 of 15 shooting

three of six from downtown 11 of 11 at the free throw line of perfect 11 of 11 there.

Seven rebounds one assist one block. The six turnovers was the really was just kind of the really

egregious part of his game and then for Alperin Shingoon 32 points 12 of 20 shooting oh one from

three eight of 11 at the free throw line 13 total rebounds two assists one steal one block and

then the eight turnovers the turnovers continue to be such a major dilemma for this rocket team and

and I get it like this is one of those kind of you know okay they played down to the level of

their opponent sort of and yada yada like but you know you just you just expect more from your

star players you expect them to be more careful with the basketball you expect them not to have

some of these really sloppy lazy turnovers like I mean it's it's it's stuff like dribbling

into a double team and then picking up your dribble or premeditating a pass that you think is

going to be there and then a defender jumps the gap and it's not even like first off it's not like

the wizards are a good defensive team no no disrespect to the wizards like they're not they're

one of the worst teams in the NBA they're tanking like and aggressively so and so it's not like

they're doing anything crazy or running any like super hardcore aggressive defensive schemes to

try and turn the rockets over hell they were guarding KD and shingoon in single coverage most of

the night like it's not even like the the wizards were actively double teaming these guys and

Alper and shingoon was getting shown up by what's his name

juju Reese julian Reese angel Reese's brother like way he had a couple strips on Alper and shingoon

on like post ups just because he timed it right and he predicted when you know when shingoon would

hit his little spin move and turned towards the basket that kind of thing or just you know

shingoon start back and down a defender and then suddenly you know a guy would try to run over

and swarm him really quick and I guess that's technically a double team but like I don't know it was

just one of those where both KD and shingoon were so sloppy with their like with taking care of

the basketball in this game and you chalk it up you're just like ah it's the wizards who cares

like whatever the good teams don't do this like like like champ like legitimate championship

caliber teams don't mess around and not take care of the basketball like they they legitimately

value these possessions and yeah they might not have their foot on the gas pedal you know go in 100

miles an hour against a bad team like Washington but at the same time they don't just

they don't just phone it in I think sometimes the way that the rockets do when they play down to

their level of the comp to down to their level of competition and it really does start with KD

and shingoon like if those two guys aren't taking care of the basketball right if they're committing

a ton of turnovers then that's one turnovers are infectious right suddenly the rest of the team

is committing turnovers and this this continues to be the Achilles heel of this rocket team the

turnovers for KD the turnovers for shingoon are a big problem and the fact that they were it's

such a problem against the wizards you can't just look at it and be like ah it's the wizards

we're just goofing off and we'll be serious like when we play against you know the thunder or the

spurs no they need actual practice reps against every team they can get their hands on not turning

the ball over like this needs to become like point number one on like rockets like like game plan

can't call it not gonna call it scouting report but basically just like take care of the basketball

right like keys to the game take care of the ball there is absolutely no reason that the

rocket shouldn't have just blown out the wizards by 30 plus points and been able to rest their

starters the entire fourth quarter like that's what should have happened against Washington that's

what should happen against every bad team for this rockets for this rocket squad instead they turn

the ball over 14 times between shingoon and KD giving the wizards tons of life giving them extra

opportunities giving giving them chances to score off of those rockets turnovers they turn it over

21 times as a team to the tune of 39 wizards points like again that that we saw that we saw them

do this recently against who was the kings maybe um and or oh no it was a king it was a king's

or jazz one one of them right and it's like okay cool like you beat them but against literally any

other halfway decent team even like a middling like playing team you know whatever like an eighth

ninth seed whatever if you turn the ball over 20 plus times and give up 39 points on turnovers

like you're probably losing that game and so there needs to be a level of urgency from the coaching

staff and from the plan and like top down from coaching staff to the players all the way from

player one through player 15 on the roster to take better care of the basketball and it's really

funny that in a game where read shepherd was as effective as he was facilitating Kate taking

care of the ball setting up teammates having some really impressive passes um that they didn't

just lean further into it I mean they did like they they embraced read shepherd but there's also

possessions where you know Kevin Durant just decides I'm Katie I want the ball there's also

possessions where Alper and Shingoon is calling for the ball in a post up and read shepherd

because he's the young kid on the block right he acquiesces and he's just like all right fine you

know Alp you want the ball I'll defer to Alp you right he's my star I'll I'll do what he says

and frankly that's that's the failing of the coaching staff because like especially once you see

Alp he continued to turn it over turn it over turn it over in the ways that he was turning it over

then try something different right just run the offense through the guy that knows how to take

better care of the basketball and that's not that that's not to say you can't ever you don't it's

not to say you don't ever want the hand or the ball in the hands of Katie or Shingoon obviously

they're your stars they're gonna have they're gonna handle the rock a bit but through a combination of

those guys being more intentional about taking care of the ball but also being smarter about

how they attack and how they initiate their offense in the first place could lead to cutting down

on these turnovers considerably and yeah it maybe doesn't matter against the wizards or the jazz

or the kings whatever you can get away with it against the bad teams you cannot get away with

this against good teams and the rockets to this point in the season have not shown the ability to

just flip the switch and be like oh okay we'll take care of the basketball against good teams

who cares no there's susceptible to turn it over against all 29 of the teams in the association

and that is debilitating knowing that on any given night the rockets struggle that badly to take care

of the basketball coming up I do want to share final thoughts on this game talk about a min Thompson's

injury Tari eason and Trey Young's ejections from this one and any final thoughts that I got

on this one we're gonna get there in just one moment first today's episode was brought to you by

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fandall.com fandall play your game and final segment here at locked on rockets your daily

podcast home for everything Houston rockets basket ball all right let's talk a little bit about

first off amin Thompson the injury that it looked like a tweaked ankle and left the game early

unfortunately uh sprawl because he had a really stellar game 22 points 10 to 15 shooting 12

rebounds for assists two steals only two turnovers and he did a lot he did a substantial amount

of his damage playing off ball in this one because it's again it's fantastic just how everybody else

slots back into their roles out branch and go and gets to become the big man screener and the short

roll threat and read shepherd feeds him in pick and roll and then min Thompson goes back to playing

out of the corners or in the dunker spot and cutting Kevin Durant gets to be the ultimate release

valve and he got some wide open shots as a result of it um but you know it's disappointing that

a min Thompson gets hurt and hopefully it's nothing serious and they've got a couple days off before

their next game against the warriors but this could also just be another silver lining where

all right Jabari smudginger supposed to be back for the warriors game but if amin Thompson's

about to miss some time then congratulations read shepherd i guess you get to stay in the starting

lineup even though email doca wants to move you back to the bench like that's just the reality of it

is you know unfortunately like it's it's almost like the basketball gods are taunting email doca

saying we're going to keep injuring your players until you keep read shepherd in the starting

lineup like that's just that's just what it feels like at this point so hopefully it's nothing

serious for a min Thompson and hopefully he's you know got a fast recovery and he'll be back

hopefully it doesn't miss any time and he just gets to be back for the warriors game

but also i wouldn't be upset with him in Thompson missing one more game and giving read shepherd

one more chance to start and show just how much better the rockets look with him in the starting

lineup so we'll see how that ultimately plays out uh no medical update for for a min after the

game release not one that i saw from anybody on the ground in uh in dc tarry eason also is so

weird like tarry eason got into it with uh jameer Watkins and we didn't actually i even like

brewound like a couple minutes and didn't see anything that like stood out so i think jameer Watkins

was just talking trash to tarry eason and then there was a play where tarry walks up and

as the rockets are initiating their half-court offense tarry just shoves him just knocks him straight

down and air and holiday with had the basketball on his hands when it happened and everybody kind of

froze expecting the whistle to blow and then like it didn't and so air and holiday to drove the ball in

and like did it like a little kind of like scoop lay up right at the cup because he didn't have

anybody holding him uh and then it led to kind of like this little like you know hullabaloo you

know scuffle whatever at mid-court because they came back and they were starting to play defense

and then they kind of got separated by another wizards player and then you know a scrum happened

in the middle of the floor the west the refs went and reviewed everything and ultimately

tarry eason was charged double technical because he shoved Watkins for the first time which was

should have just been ruled like a offense foul foul on the floor whatever but it was ruled no call

and so they ruled it a technical upon review and then they gave tarry another technical for

shoving Watkins again later in the skirmish Watkins received a technical so those were offsetting

but tarry unfortunately receiving the two gets ejected and it first off it really makes you wonder

what the hell did Watkins say to tarry to get him so incensed because tarry was like legitimately

pissed like tarry was angry and for the most part tarry is like a sweet guy like he's you know on the

court he's kind he's a demon right he's locked in and he's a different player on the court but

like he is one of the nicest guys on the rockets roster and so for him to be like that heated

in a game Watkins must have said something to him that pissed him off like something that stepped

over the line honestly no idea what it was haven't seen any commentary on either side about what

happened afterwards but the funniest thing in that entire exchange is the fact that

Tray Young who is not suited up for the wizards once yet this season since the trade

was ejected because he stepped off the bench and walked on the court during the exchange

and that's an automatic technical and an injection and so Tray Young's first ever statistic for

the Washington wizards is a technical foul and being ejected from a game that he wasn't even playing

in which is Loki hilarious like that's kind of funny to think about and that'll be a fun little

a fun piece of wizards and or Tray Young trivia down the line for fans to enjoy for years to come

but it was just such a weird kind of bizarre like sequence um and again you know rockets were

coasting in this game so it's not like they like sorely missed Tari or anything and also unfortunately

Tari has not been playing his best basketball as of late like the the hot three point shooting has

like seemingly completely cooled off some of that might be because he's not getting as many corner

threes as he was getting earlier in the season um it seems like he's taking more of his threes now

from you know kind of from the slot or just you know above the break essentially and you know Tari

hasn't been nearly as efficient from those spots on the three point line as he has been the actual

corners and so I do think there needs to be uh there needs to be a focus on getting Tari back

to being in the corners and getting more of those three point corner shots generating corner threes

is that is one of the best shots in all of basketball and so if the rockets are able to find ways

to engineer more of those shots for Tari Eason uh you've got Tari taking corner threes Kevin

Durant the threat from anywhere around the art because he's Kevin of Rick and Durant and then you

have Reid Shepherd spacing the floor you know elsewhere on the three point line those were three very

reliable three point shooters or at least on paper they are even if Tari hasn't been quite as

reliable as of late and then when you're playing through Alp Orange and Goon down low or you're

running the pick a roll like it just it spaces things out it works well um so hopefully Tari is able

to kind of shake off that shooting rust and get back to how he was shooting earlier in the season um

but at the same time you know weirdly enough every time like every time Tari has like a

down stretch or whatever if he gets if he has an injury whatever i'm in the back of my head i'm

thinking man this could save the rocket some dollars like if you're not having to give Tari Eason

25 or 30 million dollar per year contract at the end of the season there will probably still be

some team out there that comes along and and offers him the bag because of how he played this year

even with the injury concerns even if he doesn't end the season shooting as hot as he did to start

the year um clearly he's put in a lot of work on that three ball and and he's legitimately one of

the better three and the wings in the entire association at this point in his career um but he's

also kind of a wildcard at times right with like the crash out over whatever happened and he has

moments where he you know the the the chaos that he brings to the court oftentimes for the better

but sometimes for the worse can can maybe derail some possessions or you know destabilize a game

if you just need him to be straight up for a little bit um but anyways just I thought the Tari

thing was weird I'm curious I'm if you saw what happened because like I rewound a few to like a

few plays back and I didn't see anything between Watkins and Tari that like would have like

warranted this type of reaction at least nothing like a shove or a trip or a cheap shot or any crap

like that um let me know if you saw something in the game like let me know in the YouTube comments

because I'm very curious because I didn't I didn't notice anything um and then the last like

couple things here just one thing that does stand out and you know just funny enough there are

still like some like uh read shepherd detractors who don't believe in his ability to play point guard

and like I understand that he's like you know even at Kentucky right he's basically a shooting guard

right but like the one thing that I would point to when highlighting like just like the key differences

how the offense looks when a min Thompson is initiating offense versus how the offense looked when

read shepherd is initiating offense first off you don't see a min Thompson make half the pass that

read shepherd does offensively like read shepherd will hit the cross you know the cross court corner

skip pass out of the picking roll read shepherd had one pass where he caught the ball Kevin Durant

overshot him on a pass and read shepherd had to jump to catch it to keep it from going out of bounds

and he threw the ball while mid air down to Alper and Chingoon who had the seal on his man who's

able to get you know able to score immediately off the pass and like obviously a min Thompson does

some crazy stuff with the ball and has some some high level passes of his own right absolutely

but it's more just like a natural feel for the point guard position and facilitating and getting

other guys involved and the number one thing that I would actually point to is read shepherd is

constantly surveying the floor to the point where I mean at every single game read shepherd has

sometimes two three four five kick ahead passes where the moment he gets the ball whether it's he

rebounds the ball and then he looks up in transition or somebody passes the ball ahead to him

after they get the rebound the first thing he does is surveys the floor to see who is down court

and do I have a touchdown pass to make to get us an easy bucket in transition if the defense is

asleep I don't remember the last time a min Thompson rifle to pass down the floor because he was

aware that there was a man down there like that he had a teammate that was you know cherry picking

snow birding whatever you want to call it and that speaks volumes about like reads ability to like

his court awareness his court vision all of that and again like I'm not actually let me brief

I am out on the a men Thompson full-time point guard experiment at least under this team's current

construction like it just doesn't make sense and and the the more that the rockets can you continue

to commit to it the more that they smash their head against the walls and and hope that it just

works out I think it's just ultimately for the words it's a disservice to a men Thompson it's a

disservice to everybody else on the team and when you see these games and he and men's had plenty of

these right where he's you know had games the season where he's been more like the old men's

right the men Thompson from last season when he stepped into the starting lineup and was playing

that off-ball elite cutter Swiss Army knife roll whatever that's when he's at his deadliest it

allows him to be that insane defensive force it allows him to be an elite offensive force it allows

him to tap into his offensive rebound it allows him to be a dynamic secondary creator all these net

positive benefits from a men Thompson playing off the ball and then you don't really gain much

if it eating in fact you lose a lot by putting him on the ball and so I'm going to keep talking

about it until I'm blue in the face I'm going to keep talking about it until you're sick of hearing

me talk about it because that continues to be one of the biggest most frustrating storylines

of this rocket season is that we are now 60 games into the calendar year and

they are still trying to plug away with the men Thompson point guard experiment when it's clearly

not working out to the level at which everybody would have hoped that would have by now and they

have another prospect another young player another hydra pick another top four pick number three overall

obviously in Reed Shepherd that they have at this to this point refused to truly empower and embrace

pardon me despite all the evidence that shows that he is more or less the missing piece for this

rocket's team this season obviously a much lower floor than Fred van Blee because Fred is a

veteran he's steady he's been there he's done that he knows how to take care of the basketball he

doesn't get scared in the big moments he's had plenty of experience going through almost every

version of basketball that you can think of the highs the lows all of it but Reed Shepherd needs

those reps and in a season that is you know more or less lost at this point per the words of

general manager of fellstone why isn't he getting those reps so I'm curious your thoughts give me your

thoughts on this rockets win against the wizards what do you think about Reed Shepherd's performance what

do you think about the 62 points from Katie and Alper and Shingoon as well as the turnovers from those

two about Tari Easton's crash out all that good stuff give me 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

basketball

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