Rockets Close STRONG Vs Raptors As Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr. & Amen Thompson DELIVER Big Games

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The Rockets manage to take care of the basketball down the stretch and execute to close out the

raptors and they get big performances from Kevin Durant, Jabari's Majunor and a minute

Thompson.

It's all coming up right here at locked on Rockets.

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locked on Rockets on today's show.

We're getting into the Rockets 11399 win against the Toronto Raptors.

A near perfect close to this game, something that the Rockets have struggled with this

season, right?

It's a great game.

It's strong.

So an encouraging sign there, big nights from Kevin Durant, Jabari's Majunor and a minute

Thompson.

Talk about them limiting turnovers late, Shingoon's activity level in this game.

A lot of different things to cover from this one.

Of course, I want to thank you so much for making locked on Rockets.

Part of your day, every single day, whether it's on your way to work, on your lunch break

in the gym.

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And look, this game was a very much a back and forth affair, right?

Every time the Rockets felt like they were pulling away, the Raptors had an answer.

This was only a three point game going into the fourth quarter, 86, 83, eight, three point

lead for the Rockets.

And the key to winning this game was finally the Rockets actually taking care of the basketball

to close out this game in the fourth quarter after multiple turnover laden quarters in

the first three quarters of this game because it felt like every time the Rockets started

to pull away from this one, every single time that they made a big run, they had a big

run in the second quarter.

They had, you know, some smaller runs here and there elsewhere in the game.

Every time they made a big run in the first three quarters, the Raptors were able to respond

because the Rockets started to unravel and started to cough up the ball or they would

hit a bit of a low and miss some shots offensively and sometimes missing a shot or poorly executed

offense, even if it doesn't result in a turnover, if it's a bad shot, whatever, those can

ignite a fast break just as easily as a turnover can.

The Rockets only committed one turnover in the fourth quarter of this game against the

Raptors.

That's how they won this game quite legitimately.

That is the key to them winning this game.

The actual turnover battle between these two teams, Rockets coughed it up 18 times.

They only turned it over 13 times and the benefit here for the Rockets is despite their

18 turnovers, they only gave up 17 points off of those 18 turnovers and on the other side,

they actually scored 20 points off of the Raptors 13 turnovers.

So not only did they limit their points scored off of turnovers when they coughed up the

basketball, but they also actually outscored Toronto when Toronto turned over the ball despite

them doing it fewer times than the Rockets did.

Despite that, right, despite the 18 turnovers, the Rockets were able to still be ahead.

They were still the offensive execution was actually pretty solid this game.

They had big performances from Durant, from Jabari, from a men, but the story of this game

is them actually being able to close out this game strong in the fourth quarter, limiting

it to just one turnover.

And there was a sequence in the fourth quarter where the Rockets actually went on a 12 to

four run near the top of the fourth quarter.

This was their second 12 to four run in the game.

They had another 12 to four run back in the second quarter where they won that one,

but they had a 12 to four run.

And then there was this possession.

It was super Helter Skelter.

Reed brings the ball up the floor and the Raptors, he doesn't see the Jamal shed.

I think it was behind him, you know, traps him at the half court line and Reed is able

to barely get off the basketball, kind of throws it throws a hail Mary across the court.

Jabari catches it and it's a totally broken, scattered Helter Skelter possession.

But it turns into, at the end of the possession, it turns into a Jabari smudger and one at

the rim.

He drives it in absorbed contact, scores at the rim, gets sent to the free throw line.

And the Raptors were also whistled for a technical, I think it was RJ Barrett who threw the ball

at the stanchion.

Maybe it was manual quickly, somebody threw the ball, basketball at the stanchion.

And that was whistled for a technical.

So it wound up being a four point play for Jabari smudger, he hits the technical, so he

hits the bucket, the an1 bucket, hits the technical free throw, goes back to the free

throw line and hits that free throw, the an1 free throw.

And it caps off what was a 16 to 4 run, giving the rockets a 102 to 87 lead at that point

in the game, a 15 point lead, not their biggest lead of the game.

They led by as many as 20 at one point in this one.

But that sequence was more like that was not quite the dagger sequence of the game, but just

for them to be able to withstand the Raptors aggressive defense and to actually take care

of the basketball in that quarter.

Some of the possessions weren't pretty, some of them weren't, none of them going to be

hung up in the Louvre per se, but this has been an issue all year for the rockets, closing

out games strong, right?

Having a lead and watching it dwindle away or just not being able to execute down the

stretch against opposing teams.

And so seeing them be able to find consistent sources of offense down the stretch of this

one, not seeing them get bogged down by turnovers at the end of a game, not seeing them get

discouraged by the occasional missed shot or poor opportunity at the end of it because

it wasn't, it wasn't a flawless quarter in the sense of, oh, they were, they were executing

and their offense couldn't be stopped, they only shot 45% in the fourth quarter, nine

of 20.

That's not great.

Some of seven from downtown, but they also got to the free throw line nine times where

they were eight of nine there.

And again, the key factor here is just the rockets offense, we almost, we have to accept

it for what it is this season, right?

It's probably never going to be great.

It's probably not even going to be mediocre if we're being completely honest.

But the one thing that the rockets can do every single night to give themselves a significantly

better chance is to just take care of the basketball.

And despite only shooting 45% from the floor and only 14% from three in the fourth quarter,

one of seven again, because they only had the one turnover and because they defended at

such a high level, they were able to shut out the Raptors.

It was a 25 to 10 fourth quarter run.

If you want to call out that, they outscored the Raptors 25 to 10 before garbage time started.

That's a plus 15 in that quarter.

And you look on the other other end of the aisle, they held the Raptors to just 30% shooting

from the floor, 29.4 really, five of 17 shooting in the fourth quarter, only one of 11 for

three from the Raptors, which side note the Raptors started this game three of four from

downtown.

They looked like they were about to be on a heater in this game.

And then they just completely bottomed out with their three point shooting the rest of the

night.

I mean, it was pretty brutal for the Raptors.

They wound up only connecting, they wound up only connecting on a nine of 36 from downtown

25% for Toronto compared to 10 of 24 for the Rockets, 42%, still not great volume for Houston,

but significantly better percentage wise as far as just maximizing their overall opportunities

from three.

And so it's just one of those games where it came down to the possession battle, ultimately,

right?

You know, the Rockets were the more efficient team in this game by far.

But even in that fourth quarter, it wasn't a miraculous fourth quarter.

It wasn't some crazy high octane fourth quarter.

It was literally just the Rockets taking care of the basketball, giving them more bites

at the apple, more opportunities to run some offense.

And despite some of the offensive possessions than the fourth, not being the best, not

being able to finish it off and make a shot, again, only nine of 20 from the floor didn't

matter because they didn't give the Raptors extra possessions in that quarter.

They didn't fork the ball over and give all these to all these extra opportunities to

Toronto to try and claw themselves back into the game.

So Rockets win this game because they finally started taking care of the basketball in the

fourth quarter.

And they were able to lock in defensively, really limiting the Raptors opportunities in

that final frame.

Coming up, do you want to talk about some of the key contributors in this game?

Big nights for Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, Jr. and Amin Thompson.

We'll also talk about Shingoon's activity level in this one and more.

We're going to get there in just one moment.

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And you know what?

Well, we're here.

Let's go ahead and really stones.

Why not?

It's been a minute.

And this Raptors team is a good team.

They're a playoff team in the Eastern Conference.

This is a quality win for this rocket squad.

So going swing by locked on Raptors, tell Sean Woodley, I said, what's up in his comment

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Love Sean.

He's a great dude.

But please go talk a lot of smack to him in the comments.

All right.

The key contributors for this game, it was a big night for Kevin Durant in this one.

Big night on just ridiculous Kevin Durant efficiency as per usual 29 points, 12 of 16 shooting

four or five from downtown.

Only one of two at the free throw line only made it there one time.

All right.

I got was it two separate trips for and ones, whatever it was, two trips to the two attempts

of the free throw line.

You eight rebounds, two assists, couple steals, couple blocks, great two way performance from

Kevin Durant in this one had most of his damage done in the first half of this game.

22 of his 29 points in the first half only one shot attempt and one made shot in the fourth

quarter of this one.

And this is kind of one of those where Katie did his heavy lifting in the first half of

this game.

You know, the 22 points and the Raptors were predominantly guarding him in single coverage

in the first half.

Kind of getting more or less whatever he wanted against whichever defender was, you know,

he was mashed up against.

And then things kind of shifted in the second half where the Raptors defense really started

trying to key in on Kevin Durant.

They were really loading up on Katie every time the Rockets wanted to try to get in the

ball or every time he did get his hands on the basketball.

And that created some extra opportunities for other guys to really step up and start

making an impact on this game.

Only it would have been it was Jabari's Majunior and a men Thompson, a men Thompson did

some of his damage in the third quarter with seven points there.

And then Jabari's Majunior had eight of his points in the fourth quarter again, talked

about that sequence where Jabari had that that four point play on that kind of broken

Helter Skelter possession as part of that big 16 to four Rockets run in the fourth quarter.

But for Katie, right, you know, it's interesting because every game Katie has to approach it

so differently.

Sometimes he has to approach it as a playmaker, some games he has to approach it as the go-to-score,

some games he has to let the offense come to him, other games he has to kind of force

the issue and be the tip of the spear and really initiate and try to finish a lot of possession

strong for the Rockets.

And Kevin, generally, I feel like does a pretty good job of reading and reacting appropriately,

right?

If teams are loading up on him from the start, he doesn't usually try to force it and go

up against, you know, one V three defenders, that kind of that he will share the basketball,

make the right play, all that kind of stuff.

And in this one, right, the right play was him just being Kevin Durant and scoring the

hell out of the basketball for 22 points in the first half.

And then once the Raptors attempted to adjust, then that's when the Rockets credit to Jabari,

credit to a men, you know, they woke up and not woke up, but they filled those offensive

holes in the second half and were able to capitalize off of the opportunities that were

somewhat generated by the attention being dedicated towards Kevin Durant defensively loved

what we saw to Jabari in this game.

And this was, this was very much a, a twin Reaper game for Jabari's, you know, 23 points,

eight of 14 shooting, three of seven from downtown, a perfect four, four at the free

through line, four rebounds, couple of cysts, couple of steals.

And you know, for Jabari still kind of shaking off the rust a little bit right after coming

back from the injury, he came back from in that first game back from the injury and did

not look right whatsoever went over, couldn't hit a shot.

And so this is Jabari getting back to the level of play, the standard of play that he

was at pre injury, which is incredibly encouraging because when Jabari again, when Jabari scores

well, when he scores 15 or more points, right, this rocket team is really, really hard

to beat.

He's very much their swing factor, their X factor in this, or it, not even in this game,

but just in every game that they play, right, if they get good production from Jabari's

mid junior, it's really hard to beat this rocket team.

And for a men Thompson, man, a men after that really rough like month long stretch that

he had where he was just really struggling, he was really good for a long period.

And then he had that really terrible stretch where he just, you know, his numbers all took

a significant hit, his finishing was down, his free throw attempts were down, everything

was down across the board.

He's back to playing at the level that he needs to be able to consistently play at 23.6

with 10 shooting, ridiculous efficiency for a men Thompson, because he got to the free

throw line 14 times in this game, 14 times for men Thompson, 10 of 14 at the charity

strike to go along with four boards, six assists, one block, did have three turnovers, you

know, the turnovers again, as a team affair, we're kind of an issue for the rockets in this

one.

But a men's a bill and look, this is the thing with the men Thompson, you know, we've

talked about this a little bit throughout the season, his handle isn't quite where

it needs to be, right, to be a primary ball handler to be somebody who's handling the basketball

as much as he does for this rocket team, his handle isn't as good as you would like it

to be.

And I made this call like in the off season, right, is that if I could choose between

a men Thompson, suddenly, you know, if you could take like a two case slider and increase

a men Thompson's handle or increase his three ball, I think that given the rest of his

skill set, right, well, it's kind of because, yeah, if you, if you could give a men Thompson

a 40% three ball, then you absolutely would do that.

Maybe I'm a, I'm going to, I'm going to walk back this point a little bit.

I think my point originally was that it's more realistic for him to develop a better

quality handle than for him to suddenly become an elite shooter overnight.

And while we still haven't seen him develop an elite handle, he does, he throughout the

season, he's continued to look more and more comfortable trying to get down hill, trying

to attack.

And I think there's going to be a balance.

A men is never going to be Kyrie Irving, right, he's never going to be slicing and

it's never going to be this like insane highlight, real level, you know, has the ball

on a string and can manipulate defenders and send him wherever he wants.

Like he's never going to be that with the ball.

But the, the beauty of it is he doesn't need to be that this game can showed you exactly

how a men Thompson can be an elite downhill force despite not having a phenomenal handle.

He's just faster and bigger and stronger than so many other players that sometimes it's

just bully ball with a men Thompson.

I think, I think there are a lot of times where he is working so hard to like actually

quote unquote beat his defender and he doesn't even need to do that.

He just needs to be more physical and get past them.

Once he gets his shoulders past the defender, it's really hard for them to catch back

up to him.

And it's really hard for them to contain him or stop him or contest the shot once he does

get by them.

But he doesn't have to rely on it being like a beautiful left right crossover or like

a hazy tween or something like he still has to use those.

He starts to try and manipulate the defender, freeze the defense, that kind of thing.

But he's also just so big and strong that if he like kind of trucks past you, if he's

ball, it's not quite like it's like some of the men Thompson's drives.

They're not, they're not quite post ups.

But like it feels kind of like a post up sometimes when he's like trying to bully himself

past a defender.

I don't even, does what I'm saying makes sense.

Like I'm trying to describe it and at least there were so many possessions in this game

where a man just forced himself into the teeth of the Raptors defense and was able to

draw fouls.

And when he's doing that at that elite level and then converting on those attempts at

the free throw line, that makes him a lot to handle, right?

So you couple that with his ability to play off the ball.

You know, a lot of possessions where a man walks the ball up and then he immediately

calls for Jabari or Tari to swap out to the three point line, take his spot, you know,

on the perimeter and then he kind of floats down towards the baseline.

If it's, you know, Katie initiating offense or read initiating offense or shingoon initiating

offense.

And that's that, that, you know, it works more or less.

Also shout out to a man.

He had a three pointer in this one.

It was kind of a broken possession, you know, ball wound up in his hands and shot clock

was winding down.

He needed to put a three up and he knocked it down.

Unfortunately, we've seen that that that has been one area of kind of regression for

a mint Thompson is those spot up threes after some encouraging signs last season about

him hitting spot up threes, didn't quite work as well this season hasn't quite worked

as well this season.

So hopefully that's something that he can get back to as well.

And just the overall like defensive approach to this game, the activity level from everybody

specifically Kevin Durant Kevin Durant.

It felt like a great two way performance from Katie again, the blocks, the steels, Katie

very underrated shot blocker using his size and his length a lot of times against defenders.

But you know, it felt like a rockets team that got disrespected by the San Antonio Spurs

and they came out with, you know, they wanted to make a point, hey, that's not who we are.

We don't we're not going to come out here and get pumped to games in a row.

You know, we got blown out by the Spurs.

This is a team that had, you know, showed a lot of pride by coming out and taking care

of business against the Raptors after coming off the heels of a fairly disappointing blow

out loss against the Spurs.

So a nice bounce back performance from more or less all parties involved in this one coming

up.

Do you want to talk about Alper and Shingoon, his efficiency in this game, but also his

activity level and encouraging sign and final thoughts from this one.

We're going to get there in just one moment.

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And final segment here at locked on rockets or daily podcast home for everything Houston

rockets basketball talked about the turnovers being a key element in this game for the

rockets limiting those turnovers in the fourth quarter.

The other area that the rockets actually got back to got back to their identity a little

bit here in this one was the second chance points battle 22 to five.

The chance points in favor of the rocket.

So plus 17 in the second chance points department in this game.

The rockets finish this one with 16 offensive rebound shout out to CC himself Clint Capella

who had 10 rebounds off the bench in 13 minutes six of them coming on the offensive glass.

And again, Clint Capella isn't Stephen Adams.

Nobody is Stephen Adams, but CC does a pretty good job of coming close to what Stephen

Adams can give you production wise with those second chance opportunities with his size.

And with the Raptor team that has no size, right?

Like, you know, Scotty Barnes, Sondro, Mama, Kelles, Veeley, that's their starting front

court.

No, y'all can portal for this Raptor team.

They just do not have a lot of size to be able to deal with the rocket size.

And so it's no surprise that they completely crushed them on the glass 53 to 30 rebound

advantage plus 23 on the glass in this game.

And those second chance opportunities absolutely help the rockets in this one.

Because again, not not a incredible game from an efficiency standpoint for the rocket.

They did manage to shoot a pretty impressive 42% from downtown 10 of 24 there.

And that also happened with their best three point shoot or read shepherd actually struggling

in this game.

Just one for five from deep for read.

Those second chance opportunities are they're like the lifeline for this rockets team,

right?

You know, you have a busted possession or you have a so so whatever possession, but when

you can guarantee almost guarantee that you're going to get a second look at things even

on a busted possession or a poor offensive shot, whatever, getting those second and third

chance opportunities, it's what the rockets had built their entire identity on for most

of the season.

And they lose Stephen Adams and they lose a chunk of that identity, which is why at times

this rocket team has felt kind of rudderless on offense in particular, because they didn't

really have like that was their one piece of identity that they had offensively that they

could reliably bank on every single game.

And then they lost that.

So when they have games like this where everybody's kind of attacking the glass where you get

three offensive rebounds from a men, three from shingoon, two from tarry, got one from

Katie, six from clink appellate, like it helps a lot, right?

And it, you know, Rafale Stone did mention it, you know, in his post trade deadline press

conference at the rockets can get back to that identity without Stephen Adams that they

were one of the best rebounding, offensive rebounding teams without Steve O in the lineup.

It just kind of requires a mental shift from everybody.

I'm still, I'm not fully bought in on that being the right identity and the right approach

for the rest of the season.

I still think that I'd rather the coaching staff like actually pivot and try to find some

other semblance of an offensive identity since it's a lot harder to maintain that level

of dominance on the offensive glass without Steve O, but at least it worked in this game,

right?

Also, I will say as effective as Clint is on the offensive glass, I don't like seeing

Clint try to go back up for offensive putbacks.

Like at this point in Clint's career, he doesn't have the bounce or the touch around

the rim to really justify trying to go back up with it.

Like unless he's wide open wide open, sure big guy like go dunk at home, but generally

it's a much better offensive opportunity if Clint gets three bound and then looks for

the kick out to a three pointer because that is the best three pointer you're ever going

to get is a kick out off of a miss because chances are it's going to be a wide open attempt

from three and the rockets have plenty of elite three point shooters, plenty of high quality

three point shooters.

Maybe I shouldn't say a lead.

Well, the rockets have plenty of decent shooters to be able to kick it out to and they were

at least two or three of Clint's offensive rebounds that wound up being secondary attempts

at the rim by him that he wound up missing and that could have instead been kicked out

for an attempt at a three instead.

Speaking of the raptors lack of size, let's talk about Alper and Shingoon's play in this

one.

14 points, 12 rebounds, very active on the glass.

Like to see that from Shingoon for assist did have three turnovers, just six of 16 shooting

from the floor, a little bit of a mixed bag for Alpie.

I'll start with the good, right?

The activity level from Alpie looked a lot better in this game.

He was moving his feet better defensively.

He was more active on the glass in this game looked like he was more energetic and locked

in when it came to like coming out, setting screens for his teammates, being a little

bit more engaged throughout this game compared to the Spurs game.

However, the efficiency is still problematic, right?

There were multiple stretches in this game.

One stretch in the third quarter where Alpie missed multiple shots in a row and then another

stretch in the fourth quarter where he was just, I mean, two of six shooting in the third,

one of five shooting in the fourth, three of 11 shooting overall in the second half,

like that's, it's frankly, it's just not good enough for a star player.

Again, like this is, you know, I'm not, this is not going to be quite the same as the

segment that I had in the, in the Spurs recap where I just spent an entire segment talking

about Alper and Shingoon and the fact that he's just hasn't been good enough as of late.

But it's little things like missing, gimme shots, missing what are effectively open looks

for Alpie, right?

Where he does the hard work, he, he battles in the post and he gets the defender off him,

he hits, you know, gets to his little, you know, right shoulder, left shoulder, spin,

baby hook, whatever.

And then just completely misses these shots.

He missed a dunk.

He had a wide open dunk and he missed it and it was a five point swing, missed the dunk

and then the rappers come down on the other end and he had to transition three pointer.

Like things like that just can't happen.

And I don't know what the issue necessarily is, but Shingoon's touch around the basket

needs to get better.

Like, and again, I don't know if it's just, if it's mental, if it's, I don't know if it's

just, if it's mental, if it's, I don't know what the issue is, but having a big who

shoots a majority of his shots inside the paint, go six of 16, just cannot happen consistently,

right?

The Rockets were able to get by with the poor efficiency in this game because they had

uber efficient nights from Katie and from Jabari and from Amin Thompson.

But the efficiency from Shingoon needs to improve.

Like he does the hard work.

He beats his man.

And I will say that in a game that the Raptors literally didn't have a legitimate big man.

Sandra Mamoukeligvili is a strong dude and he did a decent job guarding Shingoon, one

on one at times being physical, you know, holding his ground.

But Shingoon should be, it should, Mamoukeligvili should be food every time Shingoon comes

down the floor.

Literally every single player on the Raptors roster except for maybe Scotty Barnes.

Should have been absolutely cooked by Alpore and Shingoon anytime that they were guarding

him.

Download.

He is too talented of a player to not take extreme advantage of a Raptor scene that

did not have a legitimate serviceable big to try to slow him down.

And yet only a six of 16 performance, like that just needs to be better.

And that's, that's frankly it.

Like he had opportunities.

He had stretches.

And again, there was that stretch on the third quarter.

He missed like two or three straight shots.

He had a turnover mixed in there somewhere, I think, and it was just like a really kind

of rough stretch for Shingoon.

It was like, I think right before he made came back with Clint Capella in the third quarter,

as part of just the usual substitution patterns or whatever.

And so, and this wasn't anything, it wasn't anything special that the Raptors were doing,

right?

Raptors weren't, they were letting Shingoon play one on one for the most part.

Like, it wasn't like they were sending doubles and triple teams at him.

It's not like they were crazy aggressive and collapsing the paint and trying to force

the ball at his hands.

It was just Shingoon missing shots, you know, doing the work, doing the dirty work early,

getting to his spot, and then not being able to finish around the room.

Needs to clean that part of his game up to be, to get back to being the best version

of himself.

But the activity level, the rebounding, the defense in this game, a lot more encouraging

than what we've seen recently from Shingoon.

So hopefully he can keep that part of those parts of his game up and then clean up the

offensive side of things.

This was also a really rough read shepherd game.

Seven points on just two of 10 shooting, did have seven rebounds, weirdly enough, but

only a couple of the system four turnovers.

And this is where, you know, I know there's going to be some detractors who are like, this

is why you can't play read shepherd big minutes.

And there were also stretches, right, where like the defense was getting kind of bullied

when read shepherd and Al P were out there at the same time, yet again, specifically,

like the perimeter defense, really lacking.

And then, you know, when the perimeter defense is lacking and then when Shingoon is your

backline defender, like it puts a lot of pressure on him and it's just kind of an unfair

equation to try and expect Shingoon to be able to contain everything at the rim if you're

not getting any perimeter defense or if the perimeter defense is less than stellar, I

should say, but these types of games and specifically against teams like the Raptors that like

to try and, you know, be aggressive defensively and force you into turnovers and stuff like

that.

It's these reps are important for read.

And he needs to get these bad games out of the way.

That's kind of the thing, right?

He's still an incredibly young player, right?

Keep in mind, read shepherd, year two of his career, year two of Jailin Irene's career

when he was the primary ball, one of the primary ball handers for the Rockets and dealing

with learning defenses and learning how to run pick and roll and learning how to play

it be a quality ball handler at the NBA level.

The Rockets were losing 60 plus games a season when that was happening.

Read shepherd is being tasked with being part of a winning culture, a team that is a top

four seed in the Western conference that is currently 40 and 24 and he's having to learn

through some of these mistakes while playing next to stars like Kevin Durant and Shingoon

and playing on a team with winning expectations.

It's a lot harder than just rolling the ball out there and be like, all right, go, you know,

go figure it out.

And that's why the reps are so important for read.

Even when he has these rough games, even when he has these bad moments, it's important

to be able to get these issues, these mistakes on film so that then the Rockets can go back

in and in film study, look over this stuff with reading that, hey, so here, this is where

you picked up your dribble and you shouldn't have picked up your dribble here.

You picked it up and you expected Katie to be open and then you couldn't get a pass,

right?

Or you tried to throw the entry pass into the post and the defender was fronting your

may, you know, whatever your target, you know, you need to give an extra half second

for them to get better.

A style is positioning like different little things like that.

These are all learning opportunities for read Shepard and the reason I'm softer on read

Shepard than I am on any other player on this Rockets team is because he is still in

year two, right?

If you, if read Shepard was in year four or year five and still making mistakes like

this, still having high turnover games or wildly inefficient games where he goes from

looking like a star player, one game to looking, you know, not quite unplayable, but just,

you know, really struggling in the next couple of games or whatever, then yeah, it would

be an issue because by year four, by year five, you expect players to have the consistency

part of their game kind of ironed out to where they don't have these incredibly streaky

highs and lows and peaks and values and whatever in their game.

But that's not a fair expectation of a year two point guard in read Shepard who is adjusting

to the role of point guard, arguably just as much as a Mintamson is adjusting to the role

of point guard based on the fact that he didn't play a ton of point guard in college.

And also the fact that when he does play point guard, things do look generally better,

right?

Like there were multiple plays in this game that read Shepard won't be credited for

the assist on the play, but initiating offense, getting downhill, running pick and roll,

spraying it out and then getting the defense in rotation are all things that read Shepard

is capable of and had on display in this game, despite it not being a fantastic overall

performance from an efficiency standpoint, from a production standpoint, still some good

moments from read in this one.

And hell, Rockets also were plus 11 in his minutes.

So they still won the minutes that read Shepard was ultimately out there on the floor.

So hopefully some stuff to build on from him, looking at those mistakes, ironing those

out in his game, moving forward.

I do want your thoughts on this Rockets game.

How did you feel about their fourth quarter performance limiting the turnovers?

How did you feel about the trio of big time performers in this game with Katie, Jabari

and Amin Thompson stepping up against the Raptors?

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 Locked On Rockets, your daily podcast

home for everything.

Houston Rockets basketball.

What's up everybody, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Locked On Podcasts

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