Rockets OUTCLASSED By Spurs As Houston Looks LOST And Alperen Sengun Faces New DOUBTS

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On today's show, the rockets get completely outclassed by the spurs.

And while he's not, they're only problem.

Outdoor inching in has been one of the bigger problems for the rockets as of late.

It's all coming up right here at Lockdown.

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search locked on rockets.

On today's show, we're talking about the rockets brutal 145, 120 below out against the San

Antonio spurs.

We'll talk about how the spurs completely outclassed the rockets in this game, torched

their defense, put clamps on their key contributors, their key offensive players.

This was just an ugly, ugly loss for the rockets.

We'll talk about a lot of the problems from this game problems that we've talked about

before for this rocket scene, but one of the bigger problems as of late, unfortunately,

for the rockets, not the only problem, but one of the biggest problems has been the

play of Alpore and Shingoon.

We'll talk about him as well.

Get into the conversation around Kevin Durant and how the spurs regarding him and the struggles

for Reed Shepherd and Tari Eson.

A couple of the few bright spots from this game being Clint Capella and Jabari Smith,

Junior.

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

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Final score, 145, 120, and look, this was a game where the rockets biggest lead was one

point as it I'm pretty sure I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that that lead happened

at the end of the first quarter when they led by one 33 to 32.

There might have been another one point lead at some point before that in the first quarter,

but that was the rockets biggest lead in this game and they pretty much gave it up almost

immediately at the top of the second quarter and then never led again.

The spurs flat out dominated this game more or less start to finish.

And I mean, I guess not surprising.

The spurs have been super dominant this season.

Rockets have had problems with them.

Mitch Johnson didn't even have to go to his secret formula of parking Wimbee on a men

Thompson to blow up the rockets offense.

Didn't even need to do that this game.

The rockets offense just wasn't a good in this game.

Spurs were on fire, couldn't miss from three 52% from downtown.

How many of those threes were just absolutely wide open though, based on the rocket's

poor defensive rotations and miscommunications and their ability, San Antonio's ability that

is to get downhill attack, get a paint touch and get a kick out with the rockets defense

just totally scrambling, just struggling to get any kind of a stop at any point in this

game.

Spurs shot 58% from the floor, 52% from downtown, 21 of 40 from long range, 22 of 27 at the

free throw line for 81% rockets, meanwhile, 48% shooting from the floor, 29% from downtown

just eight of 28.

So attempted 12 less threes and made 13 less threes.

The spurs made more threes than the rockets had attempts in like the delta between these

two teams.

Spurs were plus 13 and made threes, meaning they were plus 39 at the three point line,

plus 39.

That's absurd.

And across the board, I mean, the spurs got kind of whatever they wanted.

It started with Victor Wimanyama, who reeled off the first eight points for San Antonio.

Had a three, had an and one bucket on a put back, like just Wimby was ridiculous, he was

a plus 27 in this game, 29 points, eight rebounds, had an assist, had a steal, had four blocks,

nine of 13 shooting, rockets had no answer for him.

They didn't have much answer for anybody on the spurs, unfortunately, in this game, 29

for Wimby, 20 for Fox, 23 for Steph Castle off the bench, 20 for Kelden Johnson, 19 for

Dylan Harper, basically five 20 point scores for San Antonio, meanwhile on the rockets

and had two guys actually break 20 with Katie at 23 and a men Thompson at 23, Shingoon

would just 16 Jabari 17 on a rather efficient eight shots and then read shepherd 17 points

off the bench on 15 shots, a really rough night for read shepherd as well.

You know, there isn't a ton about this game other than, you know, the rockets were just

completely outclassed by San Antonio, like that's the big story here is that there is a massive

gap in talent between where the rockets are at and where San Antonio's at and of course,

you factor in, you know, the rockets are missing Fred, they're missing atoms, DFS is not

DFS currently, like there's a lot of that right to consider, but at the same time, it's

frustrating because you look around and you see teams like San Antonio, like the pistons who

have just completely lapped the rockets in terms of the rebuilding timeline and that is major

cause for concern, right? You know, the rockets went through a really rough three year rebuilding

process and they didn't come out of it on the other side with a Victor women Yama or a Cooper flag

or a Cade Cunningham and the one player that the rockets thought that could be even remotely close

to that level of star was Alpour and Shingun and there have been stretches where Alpour and Shingun

has played out of his mind has played at an all NBA caliber level has played like a future superstar.

He has not played like a star recently. He hasn't played like a star consistently for a while now

while there are a lot of different problems that you can pick and choose from with this rocket

team. There's a lot of different things that you can try to highlight and identify. One of the

bigger issues over the past really two, three months of this season has been that Alpour and Shingun

after that very, very strong start to this year has not been consistently good enough as this

teams second star player behind Kevin Durant. Cade is Cade and for the most part, Cade is

Cade every single night. There are a few, you know, a few off nights here there for Cade. He's pretty

damn consistent as a star. We will talk about how the Spurs defended him and kept him to only 12

shots and we'll get into that a little bit later. But one of the bigger issues facing this rocket

team right now is the lack of star production from Alpour and Shingun and even more troubling than

his offensive production is the overall defensive regression by not just him, but by the rockets as

an entire team this season. We're going to talk about that here coming up in just one moment.

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Also, I apologize for no recap from the Blazers game this past Friday night. I moved this past

weekend and dealing with Xfinity and trying to get my internet started up was miserable.

Surprisingly, no, no issues watching peacock though. I was so I don't know if it,

I'm going to take small credit for this after just completely I would crash down the last time

the Rockets had a game on peacock and I like I went on social media and complained about it and it,

you know, I don't know, it got it got a decent bit of run on social media. Maybe somebody over at

peacock saw it and they fixed it because I did not get bludgeoned with ads on this game. I started

the game like midway through the first quarter and thought, all right, I'm going to get hit with a

bunch of ads and this is going to be awful. I'm not going to skip around and no issues with the

streaming quality of peacock this go around. So maybe just maybe somebody back at peacock HQ decided

to fix up the quality of their streaming service. Also for where everybody watching on YouTube,

here's a fun little Easter egg. The magic of green screens, it's awesome. All right. Let's have

a difficult conversation here. I'm over here like procrastinating putting it off because I really,

this is one of the bummers about like, you know, this season in particular is after those first

20 games or so, man, I thought that out branching was ready to level up once again. I thought he

was ready to put himself in all NBA conversations. And that's what it certainly looked like after

those first, you know, 20 games for the rockets where they look dominant where we were all thinking,

wow, even without Fred Van Ville, like this team is still going to be a serious contender. They

look awesome. They're crushing teams left and right. They look like they belong in the contention

conversation. And then it's just been downhill ever since. And, you know, and not just for

Alper and Shingyun as an individual, right. This whole team has struggled. And you can

pick and choose. And there are no shortage of different issues with this team that you can highlight

over the course of this entire season. And yet somehow, despite all these issues,

they are still a top four seed and a pretty stacked Western conference. And that speaks volumes

about just how, you know, how much they've had to overcome, how much adversity they've dealt with

and how much better they could be if they weren't dealing with so many issues, right. If they had a

healthy Fred, if they had a healthy Stephen Adams, a DFS wasn't such a bust of assigning like

all this stuff. And another big part of it is also how much better would they be if Alper and

Shingyun continued on that path that he was on after those first 20 games. If Alper and Shingyun looked

like Eurobasket, Alpe, on a nightly basis instead of whatever it is we're currently witnessing.

And if you just, if all you did was look at the box war from this game, you'd be like, yeah,

you know, 16.7 of 12 shooting, two or three at the free throw line, six rebounds, three assists,

five turnovers isn't great. You'd be like, all right, it was, you know, so so game, not terrible.

I'll just start with the offense really quick because I don't want to spend as much time on that.

Offensively, you know, in this game in particular, right, the box score doesn't really quite

do it justice, I guess, just because this was a game in which at least in the first half of

this one, right, Alper and Shingyun, you know, he had a few buckets here and there he had some,

he made some moves, he scored a little bit, nothing crazy. But the ways in which, and this is

where I struggle because this is, I don't know how much of this is because of the coaching staff.

I don't know how much of it is because of Alper and Shingyun. I don't know how much of it is because

of his teammates, Kevin Durant, other guys on the four, the lineups that he's playing alongside.

It's not like you can point to any one singular thing and say this is what's going on and this

is what's wrong. But as of late, right, Alper and Shingyun just hasn't been at the same level that

he was at earlier in the season. He hasn't consistently produced like a star player, like a top 15,

top 20 guy in the NBA. And that's one of the reasons that the Rockets have looked kind of mid as

of late because you've got essentially one star in Kevin Durant. You've got your co star and

Alper and Shingyun who has some games where he looks like a star in the other games where he just

looks like an okay as role player. And that's problematic. That is not a star player. You cannot be,

you know, you cannot have this kind of production one game and then go off the next game. And

especially as of late, it feels like the only time Shingyun really goes off are against bad teams

as of late, right? Wizards, Pacers game, like there's a lot of games where it feels like he just

beats up on bad teams. Offensively, I missed the Alper and Shingyun that made quick decisions.

The Alper and Shingyun that would be decisive and explosive with the ball, he would get it and

he would immediately attack, make a move, make decisions, wasn't holding onto the ball for, you know,

eight to 10 seconds at a time, pounding the air out of it, trying to do these super, you know,

delayed postups that take forever and eats up all the shot clock defensively or for the defense,

like just, I don't know. Offensively, there's a lot that's left to be desired and his touch around

the basket hasn't been phenomenal. His outside shot has completely disappeared. And these aren't like

new, these aren't like brand new things. These are just kind of issues that have been plaguing the

team issues that have been that Alper himself has been dealing with for most of the season.

And while I don't think the offense was as much of an issue in this game, although the turnovers

were pretty brutal, five turnovers and a lot of them coming off of offensive fouls.

Don't know what the deal is there, but suddenly Alper and Shingyun's getting whistled for offensive

fouls left and right. It seems like whether it's setting moving screens, whether it's off-arm shoves,

whether it's hooking a defender, like he's getting whistled for a lot of offensive fouls. And those

turnovers, those turnovers as well as the stagnation on offense, right, the amount of time that he eats

up holding the ball instead of just getting into actions quickly and making things happening or

making things happen is debilitating it. It slows down the offense. It disrupts rhythm. It prevents

other guys from getting in rhythm. And it feels like I'm just dogging on LP, but this is also

it. That's also coaching. That's also like, like, why can't the rocket's offense just be better?

I don't know. Why can't they do different things? Why does it have to just be? Why does it have

to boil down constantly to just Kevin Durant and Alper and Shingyun and being ISO gods, right?

Sure, KD can do that. But that's not really a strength of Alper and Shingyun. There are some

games and some matchups where he can feast, right? But I said it before, and I'll say it again,

Alper and Shingyun is much more effective when he's being utilized as a passing hub when other

guys are playing off of him when he's able to create offense for the team as a whole. And he's not

your secondary or even tertiary primary scoring option, right? When he's at his best is when he's

facilitating at a high level. And he hasn't been consistently facilitating at a high level in a very,

very, very, very long time. Some of that has to do with drop off from his teammates, right? Tari

Easton's been struggling. Reed Shepard was struggling in this game. So it's not all on Alper and

Shingyun. It's not. There are a lot of overlapping issues with this team. And the spotlight is

brightest on Alper and Shingyun because he's supposed to be a star. And because he's being held to

a higher standard than Jabari Smith Jr or Tari Easton or second year Reed Shepard, the audacity

of holding a year five player who's been a two time all star to that level, right? Because I know

my my Turkish brothers and sisters, I know you guys are going to be upset hearing this. Alper

and Shingyun has not been good enough as of late. He hasn't been. And he himself has said that

said it multiple times, different post game interviews, different games, different times where he's

like, I need to be better. I'm in my head. I don't know what's going on. He is aware that he needs

to be better. I just don't know where the better comes from, right? I don't know if it's a Shingyun

thing. I don't know if it's a Nudoka thing. I don't know if it's a teammate thing Kevin Durant,

lineups, whatever. But this is not the same Alper and Shingyun that we witnessed earlier this

season. It's not even the same Alper and Shingyun that we saw last season. And where I think the

biggest issue has been for LP individually and for the team as a whole has been the overall regression

defensively that this team has faced. A lot of the same problems for this team offensively

still exists. They're exacerbated and they look worse with no Fred Van Fleet out there as kind of

the Band-Aid fix and to control possessions. And now there's no Steve and Adams either to Min Max

and to get those second and third possessions and to crush the offensive glass. And so obviously

missing those two guys hurts. But this team has completely lost its identity. The one identity

that the team had the first two years under Emeodoka, which was being an absolute monster defensively.

Right? Like this rocket team could simply win games because they did not get punk defensively.

That was the entire MO from Emeodoka and his coaching staff was they were going to be one of the

best defenses in the NBA. They were going to be physical. They were going to tough every night.

They were going to play basically prison basketball, right? Every single game. And some games that

the Rockets won these past two years were ugly as all hell and the offense was miserable and it felt

like pulling teeth, but they gutted out a lot of wins by just being the tougher, better defensive team.

They don't have that anymore. They don't have that switch they can flip to just lock in defensively

and put clamps on the team. And they routinely get cooked by good teams. Case in point, the Spurs.

Obviously the Spurs had a fantastic shooting night. They did. But a lot of that was just

poor defensive effort from the Rockets. Poor closeouts getting blown by on the perimeter.

And this is not a shingoon exclusive thing. This was the team as a whole, right? The Rockets

entire defense was Swiss cheese in this game. But here's the rub is when you're five, when you're

big man is not a defensive minded big man. When you do not have that extra rim deterrent, that

shot blocking presence behind you, a guy who can be that last line of defense when you don't have

that consistently on the floor, it puts that much it puts even more of an onus on all all the other

guys on the floor to keep their man in front of them to work hard on defense to fight hard over screens

to do all this stuff. And when you're not doing all that stuff and you also don't have a big who

is capable of cleaning everything up behind you, you get this kind of a performance, right? And

there were a lot of individual moments where Alper and Shingoon got royally cooked in this game.

And it's no surprise that as unfortunate as it as it is, he was a team worst minus 28 in this

game. Rockets led by one point after the first quarter, 33 to 32. And

that top of the second quarter, which is the minutes where Alper and that's that's how and

you can take exception to how the rotations are broken up, how e-mail does the substitution patterns,

all that. Generally Katie plays the whole first quarter Alper and Shingoon usually checks back

in at the end of the first quarter. Well, it kind of depends on whatever Katie sits. Katie plays

the whole first quarter. Then Alpe comes back in at the top of the second. Sometimes a little bit

more at the end of the first quarter, whatever. It varies game by game. But basically those non-keven

derand minutes at the top of the second quarter and top of the fourth quarter, that's where Alper

and Shingoon is supposed to carry the game. That's where J. Delben-Chet Holmgren carried the game

for the O.K.C. Thunder. That's where the non-Wimby minutes happen for the Spurs generally,

because Wimby plays for a bit and he rests and he plays for a short stint and he rests.

Substitution patterns are different for every team, every star player would have you.

But the Rockets got worked over in those minutes and then Kevin Derand checks back into the game

and there's already a big deficit and then the Spurs were rolling, playing solid basketball

and they extended that deficit going into halftime. Minus 28 for Alper and Shingoon plus 10

for Clint Capella in his 14 minutes. The Rockets in a game that they lost by 25 points

managed to win the 14 minutes that Clint Capella was on the floor by 10 points.

And look, plus minus at times can be misleading, especially as an individual one game sample size,

but to me matches the I test, the Rockets have struggled when Alper and Shingoon has been on the floor.

They're struggling a lot defensively and he's not making enough of an impact on offense

to offset how frustrating the defense has been this season and especially as of late

on that side of the floor. And it's disappointing because he's capable of so much more.

Right, the defensive falloff as a team, but also individually for Alper and Shingoon from last season

to this season is alarming because he was the anchor of a top five defense last year.

He was an important part of that defense last year. He was one of the sole reasons that the

Bizarro zone that they ran with the double big lineup with Adams worked, especially in the playoffs

against a good Warriors team and Steph frickin Curry. It worked because Alper and Shingoon moved so

well because he busted his ass defensively every possession wasn't lazy about it.

Worked hard on the perimeter, didn't get beat, moved his feet well, closed out hard,

smart closeouts, right? Not lazy closeouts. All these different things. And a lot of that's gone by

the wayside. And again, I don't know if it's because he doesn't have the right motivation because

Fred and Dylan are gone or not playing alongside him every second. I don't know if it's a coaching

issue. I don't know if he's, if it was burner gate with Katie, who knows what the

the root of the problem is, but the problem exists. And if the rockets don't get the good

version of Alper and Shingoon back, if they don't get the star version of Alper and Shingoon back

to close out this season, it's going to be really, really tough for them against any

of the upper echelon opponents with just Katie and a bunch of dudes, right? They need Kevin

Duran and Alper and Shingoon to play like stars. And then they also need some decent production

from all the other supporting cast members, but it starts with those two guys. It starts with

the star players. They need to individually be better, right? Katie needs to be better with

this turnovers. That's been an issue all season long. We've harped out into a lot, right? That's his

Achilles heel. Shingoon's Achilles heel has been his defense, but he also has not been good enough

offensively. And so he's not even overcoming his weakness at this point by producing, you know,

by being a triple double monster on offense or anything like that, right? He's not even giving

the team that. And it's no surprise as of late last month or so, there have been certain games

and certain matchups where Clint Capella has looked better than Alper and Shingoon on the floor

for the rockets. And that should never happen. There should never be a single moment where the backup

big looks better than your starting two time all star. So I'm curious your thoughts on Alper and

Shingoon, his play as of late, his drop off from how he played earlier this season. Let me know

your thoughts in the YouTube comments coming up. Final thoughts on this rockets spurs game. How

the spurs defended Kevin Durant, the struggles for Reed Shepherd and Tari Eason. And more, we're

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and final segment here at locked on rockets or daily podcast home for everything houston rockets

basketball final thoughts from this rocket spurs and you know I will say like I didn't even get

to I'll wrap this up on LP. I feel like I'm harsh on him because I expect more out of him

right because we've seen we've seen how good he can be we've seen how dominant he can be

and I truly believe like like you know I I during my commentary during the game right because you

know I don't I haven't been live tweeting as many games the season as I have in the past but

you know I chose to because it was peacock and I felt like I needed to watch it live.

I was sharing my thoughts on what was happening what I was seeing and you know seeing the pushback

from a lot of the Turkish community of rockets fans and LP stands and all that

saying I'll just trade him get him out of houston and you know this franchise doesn't deserve him

you'll be better off with y'allness you know trade him to the bucks whatever I don't want that

I just want shingoon to be shingoon I want him to be the best version of himself right

and I still maintain I'm very I'd be very intrigued to see how good Alper and shingoon could be

with a different head coach because I do think that there's a lot of meat left on the bone

offensively for this talented group of rockets players I do think there's a lot of fit issues

across the board right do do Alper and shingoon and amin Thompson fit can Alper and shingoon

and read shepherd fit together when they've both been significant defensive liabilities for this

rocket team like there's a lot of question marks right about how the roster all fits together how

Alper and shingoon fits with certain guys but beyond everything else right shingoon of all the

young core members has shown the most promise has established himself as a two time all star and

what he's capable of and I'd rather him just get back to playing like that than entertaining any

idea of like oh go trade for y'allness or get rid of it no I'd rather him just get back to playing

Alper and shingoon basketball because he just hasn't been doing that consistently

anyways moving on from that discussion Kevin Durant 23 points on seven of 12 shooting was one

of three from downtown and then eight of nine at the free throw line five boards forces two blocks

one turn over 33 minutes there is no world in which Katie shouldn't lead the rockets and field

goal attempts every single night that he plays and yet it happens a lot where he doesn't and hat tip

to the spurs because their defense is truly next level like there are so many possessions in this

game where Kevin Durant was just swarmed with two or three different bodies and you've got Wimby

lurking and all this mess right it's really hard to score on spurs I also also Kevin Durant gets

mold off the ball man like like it is absurd the level the level of physicality that Kelden Johnson

is allowed to play with against Kevin Durant if Kelden Johnson guarded SGA the way that he guarded

Durant in this spurs game SGA would have shot a hundred plus free throws I'm talking every single

possession you know that the rocket started to initiate with Katie starting off ball

Kelden Johnson is grabbing and holding and shoving and pushing and doing everything in

can to get Katie you know off of his spots and then you factor in you know the double teams the

triple teams the length of Victor Wimanyama coming over to contest and make life difficult

the the initial ball denial from the spurs on Katie was truly next level in this game now again

I feel like they got away with a ton of fouling but tough you got to play through it right you

have to find ways to play through it I don't know maybe go set Katie a screen to get Kelden Johnson

off of him right instead of just trying to battle through the contact I don't know that comes

back down to coaching right finding creative ways to get your star players the basketball but

again the fact that Katie only took 12 shots now you factor in the free throws a little bit right

and say all right well you know let's say that let's say that you know a chunk of those free throws

were him being fouled on a shot opportunities right we'll bump that number up to 15 let's just

say he took 15 shots instead of 12 because he got fouled on a chunk of them right that's still

not good enough there's no reason why Katie and I know Katie's never been like a truly volume guy

but on this particular rockets team he should be taking 25 shots a night and the fact that he's not

is a damning indictment on how they approach the game Kevin Durant is bar by far the best offensive

option that they have every single possession down the floor when he's in the game and they have far

too many possessions we've been saying this all season where sometimes they just forget that Katie's

in the game sometimes they just can't even get Katie the basketball and then when they can get Katie

the basketball once teams start doubling a tripling the rockets look like they're deer and headlights

they don't know how to cut or move without the basketball or do anything to make the defense pay

how many times and and from various people you know on the spurs right it could be it could be

Steph Castle driving could be Devam Selle it could be Deer and Fox it could be Victor women Yama

it could be Dylan Harper off the bench how many different spurs players were able to initiate

offense for San Antonio get a paint touch get a kick out get the ball swinging get good ball movement

going and then generate a wide open shot for somebody else later in the possession all because

they have different ways to attack the rockets have three ways to attack a defense they've got Kevin

Durant they've got Al Princhangoon and they've got Reed Shepherd and each of those guys can attack

a defense in slightly different ways but the other four guys on the floor are basically just

standing there waiting for something to happen and the other four guys on the floor also aren't

aren't they're not massive threats to really do anything once the something happens actually happens

like Tara Easton isn't really creating for others off the bounce Jabari sma junior isn't

creating for others off the bounce men Thompson does a little bit but he's also ignored largely

by the defense so it kind of doesn't matter when the ball swings to him and then he's like all right

well I guess I'll just shoot an open three because they don't care about me hiding in the corner

over here it's just exhausting man the fact that we are over 60 games into the year and the

rockets still haven't figured out how to use Kevin Durant properly like I'm sorry that's on coaching

right if the if the if the guys that you have on the floor can't figure out how to get Katie on

the ball put it or get Katie the basketball put other guys on the floor run the third

stringers run the glee guys who cares fine guys that can get Kevin Durant the basketball so you

can actually give yourself a chance to win some basketball games inexcusable that he only gets 12

shot attempts and that Alper and Shingoon shot as many times as he did a men Thompson shot more

times than Katie did and reach shepherd shot more times than Katie did in this game that doesn't

or shouldn't ever happen realistically for this rockets team and speaking of reach shepherd

it was a rough night at the office for reach shepherd he had a pretty pretty rough game all

things considered 17.6 of 15 shooting pretty pretty rough there just three of 10 from downtown three

rebounds three assists steal a block four turnovers the turnovers were really loud he had a stretch

with like two three straight turnovers in a row and it felt really rough around the edges

some of the decision making on when to pull for the threes in this game felt a little rushed

and he was just off his game in this one and that's going to happen he's a young player he's

inconsistent right I'm not holding a read shepherd of the same standard of consistency as I am

year five Alper and Shingoon or year four Jabari and Tari like you know read again for all

intents and purposes he's basically almost still a rookie he's he's played enough games finally

this year where he's like I think officially crossed like the sophomore threshold as far as total

games played but you look at total minutes and then the fact that his role is still inconsistent

I'm not making excuses for really needs to be better all right like the four turnovers were rough

he got sped up a lot the spurs defenders were in his chest and really pressuring him on his

added in my notes here written in all caps sick and tired of guys picking up their dreams

because it got it happens constantly with the same guys pick up their dribble and then they have

no idea where they're going to go with the ball and then and then it takes five seconds for anybody

to like cut towards the basketball and like alleviate the situation read picks up his dribble all the

time a men picks up his dribble all the time is ridiculous so it was just a rough night for read

right and this is why I've largely been championing like if this season is a wash anyways if there's

not a realistic shot of the rockets making a deep playoff push winning the title whatever

then why aren't you just letting read eat up all these minutes and and play

alongside the starters at least I mean he got 35 minutes up sure

but again 35 minutes when you're coming off the bench and granted this was a weird one because

he may started doing some weird substitution patterns in this one he actually started bringing

read shepherd in significantly earlier than he usually would have in place of a min Thompson

and then bringing him in Thompson back in after he was getting a quick rest so I will give

you may a little credit that he is being somewhat more creative with the substitution patterns

in order to bring read in a little earlier and then be able to get him a rest somewhere so he's not

playing 16 17 straight minutes to close a half so I will give some credit there

but just you know rough night for read it's been a rough stretch for a while now for Tari

Eason Tari has not been the Tari that was absolutely on fire earlier this season two points one

of six shooting poor decisions offensively silly fouls you know low IQ plays tunnel vision it's

just kind of been the story as of late with Tari we know what he's capable of but there's also

potentially a reason here why Tari makes more sense coming off the bench right his energy the chaos

that he brings the destruction that he brings both for good and for bad might be better served as a

weapon coming off the rocket bench kind of a change up pitch if you will for this team as opposed

to him starting things out in the starting lineup so Tari's but Tari struggled in this one

significantly read was not his usual efficient self and he struggled to connect from long distance

also Tari got swatted not once but twice by Wimby in this game like you would have thought after

the first one you'd be like all right let's be a little bit more careful on the next drive

I did already mentioned him earlier but Clint Capella was very solid in his minutes if you

just looked across his box score sheet you'd be like all right well he didn't do too much but he

gave the rockets a defensive presence when they basically felt like they had no defensive presence

in this game so Clint was solid in his minutes Jabari actually was quietly solid in his minute

17 points on eight shots only one of two from beyond the arc but got to the free throw in seven times

hit six of them five rebounds three assists no turnovers like kind of a quietly solid night for

Jabari's Virginia after the complete stinker that he put up in his last game his first game

back from injury mind you so good to see Jabari trying to pick back up where he left off and then

a men Thompson a men had a solid enough game 23 points eight of 15 shooting seven rebounds six assists

one steel no turnovers seven of eight at the free throw line like kind of a solid game but

the issue with the men is is like it's still frustrating because you look at how

mucked up the spacing gets out there and like when they run Alport and Shingun and men Thompson

picking a role like how easy it is for other teams to defend that action and there was I had

it in my notes here they ran a specific action that was that I thought was really nice a men

went around a Katie screen at the top of the key he got a complete open downhill drive because

neither defender wanted to give up a wide open shot to Katie and then Wimby had to commit over to

a men Thompson and a men was able to elevate like he was going to try and finish over Wimby at the

basket and he whipped a pass around Wimby to the cutting Clint Kapella who kind of you know cut in

from the the dunker spot Clint couldn't finish because he bobbled the pass and then Wimby was

able to recover but like those kinds of plays like where's that run more of that that was

fantastic that was a great little sequence great little action for the rockets and it was actually

you know it was great seeing a men use his speed and that let us to put pressure on the defense

and get downhill and create something for a teammate it didn't wind up converting on that specific

play but like run more of those actions right use Kevin Durant as more of a decoy to really open

things up for the defense if the spurs are going to sell out that hard to try and stop Katie which

they clearly did in this game then use him as a decoy and help set up your teammates it felt like

the rocket didn't do that nearly enough instead of just trying to ham fish the ham fits the ball

and get the ball to KD throughout this game so that's all I've got for this one it was rockets just

got outclassed and clearly the spurs are in a tier of their own and the rockets are at least

a tier behind them if not a couple tiers behind them as far as where this team is at I'm curious

your thoughts on the spurs leapfrogging the rockets and their rebuilding timelines on Alper and

Shingoon struggles as of late on this loss as a whole giving 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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