Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00It is Rockets reported. I mean, fresh off the shower somewhere. I mean, there is, I mean, you can smell that.
00:07Oh, yeah.
00:08I thought I smelled a nice aroma.
00:09Maybe the air freshener.
00:10Maybe the air freshener.
00:11No, is that Irish spring?
00:13No, I keep the car fresh. I forget the exact mountain breeze.
00:19Mountain breeze, okay.
00:21Something to that effect. I think it's got mountain and breeze in it.
00:23You had a hell of a shower in there, boy.
00:25Shower, too, though.
00:26I don't believe in just covering up funk with sprays and smells.
00:33I feel like you need to be clean, and if you want to add a little extra, or if you need to add a little extra, go ahead and do that.
00:38Shout out to Axe, who used to just cover up people's funk.
00:41But we know the opponent now for the Rockets in the first round is going to be Golden State.
00:49And right now, early, kind of a two-part here, what part of this do you feel most confident about going into this series for the Rockets,
01:01and what is the thing that is concerning for you in this year?
01:05So most confident, I would say, the defense translating, and that's something that we talked about week in and week out.
01:11I feel like they play their own identity, and they don't get away from that, and they have had some instances, some stretches throughout the season where they have gotten away from that.
01:23But for the most part, when they play to their identity, I feel like they have both the defensive strategy and ability that will translate from the regular season to the playoffs.
01:32So I feel most confident that the defense that we've seen from them, the top five defense that we've seen from them throughout the year, is not a fluke.
01:41It's not a flash in the pan.
01:43It's not something that's just isolated to the regular season.
01:45It's something that they can do against the Warriors, and if they make it past the Warriors, against whatever team they face after that, I believe in that.
01:52What I'm concerned about when it comes to this series against the Warriors, a couple of things.
01:58If you look at that game, okay, I went into that game, the play-in game between the Warriors and the Grizzlies.
02:03Feeling really confident and somewhat arrogant about the Rockets' chances against either one of those teams.
02:08And I know y'all have done those segments, right, of who would you rather the last couple of days going into that game.
02:13Like, who would you rather Memphis or the Warriors?
02:17And a lot of people for, I think, emotional reasons were saying the Warriors, and I think you guys for logical reasons were saying the Grizzlies.
02:23And I agreed with actually both.
02:25You know, like I could identify with both.
02:27But, man, I came away from that game between how Jimmy Butler played and how Steph Curry woke up in the fourth quarter
02:34and how their role players starred in their roles last night.
02:38Feeling a lot differently about Golden State than I did going into that game last night.
02:42So there's one part of it.
02:44And then the other one is the stars for the Rockets have not played like stars against the Warriors,
02:52save for some moments of a game they played about 10 days ago or so, something like that, at Golden State.
03:00I thought he had a pretty strong game with Draymond Green doing some Draymond Green things
03:04and Shingun kind of rising to the moment.
03:06But if you look overall, they've played this team five times already this season.
03:11The Warriors have won three of the games.
03:13But in the majority of the games, those guys, and I'm talking specifically about Alperen Shingun
03:17and Jalen Green really have not played up to standard against the Warriors.
03:23So, obviously, we talked about how you need them to raise their game to another level.
03:28We need them to arrive as stars if the Rockets are to be taken seriously.
03:31And I think they should be taken seriously, but they haven't exactly done it against the Warriors throughout the season.
03:36How confident are you?
03:37And you may have just answered this question with that answer.
03:41But how confident are you in Jalen Green being the guy that can manage the game,
03:47have the ball in his hands in critical moments, and be the guy that can win a series?
03:52Man, it's the ultimate question.
03:53When you ask about my confidence, like, it's up and down.
03:56I'm not going to lie to you.
03:57It's up and down.
03:57Sometimes I feel really good about it.
03:58Sometimes I don't feel great about it.
04:00I've felt better about it over the last couple of years with the infrastructure around him.
04:04Like, one of the things I've been saying about the Rockets is, and I think is impressive about them,
04:08is how they're able to overcome some of these moments that we're talking about, right?
04:13Like, they still won two of those games that I'm talking about against the Warriors when their stars haven't shown up.
04:18They've done this before.
04:20Or, like, on a given night, Dylan Brooks or Fred Van Bleed or Jabari Smith or somebody else might carry them throughout the night,
04:27or a man Thompson can have one of those games.
04:29And they don't necessarily always need those guys to be brilliant or at least haven't seen them.
04:35I do feel like that changes to a degree in the playoffs.
04:38Maybe they can even survive at a night or two or a game or two against the Warriors in this series.
04:43Maybe they can even make it through this series.
04:46But if we're talking about the length of a playoff run, like past the first round, getting past the Warriors,
04:51and after that, they're going to need those guys to step up in ways that they have not specifically against the Warriors so far this season.
04:58You talked about, and Brandon Scott with his Rockets report, is they get going Sunday, Sunday night, game one,
05:06between the Warriors and the Rockets.
05:08And it's really, it's almost weird.
05:11Obviously, the Warriors are a great team.
05:14It's almost weird to think that Jalen Green and Shingun, the two top players for, you know, the scoring threats.
05:21Obviously, a man Thompson's there as well.
05:23But those two guys have struggled because I look at them in matchups, and I feel like they should have, you know, really good matchups, right?
05:34Like, I think Draymond is obviously a great defender, but he clearly has an advantage in size on him.
05:41And we've looked at it.
05:42The Warriors have been giving up big numbers to centers here of late that aren't anywhere close to the level of Shingun.
05:48And then, obviously, Jalen Green as well.
05:50I really look at Shingun.
05:52And I know Clint is big on Jalen Green, but this should be a dominant series to me for Alfred Shingun.
05:58Yeah, I think so as well, especially coming off of, like, if you want to have some type of recency bias
06:03or look at it as, what have you done for me lately?
06:08Shingun, a couple of things with Shingun.
06:10I think he himself has kind of emerged as a more official.
06:15And he's still clunky and awkward out there.
06:18But, man, he's really stepped up from a physicality standpoint.
06:21And one of the things that I think has helped that has also been the presence of Steven Adams, right?
06:26When they're able to go out there with that double big lineup and really just his presence overall has kind of helped up the toughness.
06:33I don't think that was a problem with the team overall.
06:35But for Shingun specifically, having Steven Adams around as an enforcer and finding out that that lineup, that double big lineup is viable.
06:45Like, it's not just when they first did it a couple of months ago, it was like an experiment.
06:50It was like, hey, let's see how this looks, how it works.
06:53Now it's something that you know that you can really go to.
06:55And in some cases, and I think the Warriors are one of these teams, you match up well specifically against these teams when you're able to sort of body up, be physical, and really play that brand of basketball.
07:07I think they can do that against the Warriors.
07:08If they make it this far, I think they can do that against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
07:12So that's one of the things that they can really hang their hats on as a team.
07:15What is the game plan?
07:18What's the path to beating Golden State?
07:21The double bigs worked.
07:23I know the game I watched late against Golden State where you mentioned Shingun did some work.
07:27I mean, if I remember correctly, they ran a lot.
07:30They ran quite a bit of that double big, and it was effective.
07:33But what do you think is the path to getting through Golden State if they are able?
07:38Yeah, so I think it goes without saying that they've got to knock their shots down.
07:41Like, they just had this issue at times, man.
07:44They just go cold, or they're just not good enough offensively, and that's a real issue for them.
07:49No way to really sugarcoat that.
07:51But I do think when you ask about a path, the most favorable matchup, and Cho asked about this earlier,
07:58like what do you feel most confident in or comfortable with going into the series?
08:04And I mentioned defense.
08:06I think it's the fact that you can guard.
08:08This is the thing about the Rockets going against the Warriors.
08:10They can guard Stephen Curry with a men Thompson and Jimmy Butler with any mix of Dylan Brooks and Tari Eason.
08:20And I don't know how many teams have that great of a mix of not just two but three players,
08:25and not to mention whatever Jabari Smith can give you.
08:27I know that Jalen Green is not known as a defensive player, but he is athletic, and I think tries more now under M.A. Udoka.
08:37So they've got all these options that they can throw at a perimeter player.
08:40And, of course, the Warriors have two of them that are great,
08:44and the Rockets have at minimum three great to really good defenders that they can throw at a guy.
08:51So I think they can make things disruptive.
08:53I think they can make things really hard on the Warriors, who, by the way, have been known lately to make things hard on themselves.
08:59As good as they've been since they traded for Jimmy Butler, the way that they ended the season,
09:04they've made things hard on themselves.
09:05The Rockets make things hard on other teams.
09:08So I think it's a hell of a matchup.
09:09I think a low-key thing is there's a lot to talk about, and we will over the next couple of days.
09:18But the Jonathan Kaminga situation is really, really strange for Golden State.
09:23And it's really strange that he's not playing.
09:25And really, I think something, as you watch all these games with the Rockets,
09:31and you know they played five times.
09:34Their best player in the games against the Rockets.
09:37And he's got multiple 20-point games.
09:39He had 33 at 23 in 26 minutes.
09:42Yep.
09:43And it doesn't look like he is going to play.
09:45And he is their best athlete, another guy that you might have to deal with.
09:49That, I wonder, I wonder if Steve Kerr maybe changes things and plays Jonathan Kaminga,
09:55because that could be a huge, huge help to me, to the Rockets,
09:59if that guy who has lit him up this year isn't going to play.
10:02And all this damage that you're talking about that Jonathan Kaminga has done,
10:05and he's done it off the bench.
10:06Like, it's not like it's one of those, hey, you know, like Reed Shepard and Cam Whitmore,
10:11you know, thrust it into the starting lineup because they're not playing their guys,
10:15or guys are hurt.
10:16Like, it's Kaminga coming in there and giving you, like, some type of microwave situation
10:20where he's able to come off the bench and give you 23 or more.
10:24Like, three in a game?
10:25Yeah.
10:25Like, he is one of their more capable guys, and it is a wonder that they've been able
10:31to kind of get through this without him playing.
10:33It's actually interesting you bring that up because they lost that game against the Clippers,
10:37which was a hell of a game, right?
10:39Like, that was just a hell of a game overall.
10:40Lost that game against the Clippers at the end of the season.
10:43In overtime, Kaminga didn't play.
10:45They win the game against Memphis.
10:47Kaminga also didn't play.
10:49That obviously was a back-and-forth game, a game that Memphis obviously could have won.
10:54If they don't win that game, there's a lot of side-eyeing of, hey,
10:57how did you have this player off to the side that you didn't play?
11:01I don't think that's going to be an issue with the Rockets for them,
11:04for the reasons that you mentioned, because of a lot of the conversation
11:07that's been around Kaminga and because you have –
11:10There's no way he doesn't play in this series.
11:11You've got imperial evidence that he is a –
11:15where you need athletes.
11:17You need guys that can wreak havoc and muck up a game the way that the Rockets do.
11:23So, you're going to have to fight fire with fire if you're Golden State,
11:26and I imagine that Kaminga's going to be in the mix.
11:28Yeah, the athletes that the Rockets throw out there,
11:30they've got to have him out there.
11:31And, I mean, maybe he looks over there and thinks that's Jason Tatum down here
11:34with Team USA on his jersey, and he just – and he's like,
11:37I complain.
11:38I complain.
11:39But think about all of the guys that I just mentioned, man,
11:41the athletes that they're throwing out there between Jalen Green,
11:43Amin Thompson, Tari Eason, you know, Cam Whitmore's probably not going to be
11:48in the rotation.
11:49But, like, you're talking about the Rockets with guys that are good
11:52that don't get in the mix.
11:54And so, I don't think that they're going to be able to afford to not fight fire
11:58with fire here.
11:58I don't know.
11:59Their last two – the two most important games of the season.
12:01Yeah.
12:02Yeah.
12:02Even Brian Whitmore said he didn't even have a jersey on under his warm-up.
12:05He didn't seem like – he didn't seem like he needed to.
12:07He didn't.
12:08And then they had that video of him out there getting shots after the Clippers
12:11game, like saying, hey, I'm here.
12:13Didn't play a dime when I got shots after the game.
12:15Get him up, baby.
12:15Yeah, man.
12:16Get him up when you're knocking him down and you're playing,
12:18and get him up when you're not playing.
12:20Yeah.
12:20He is basically their Cam Whitmore, but he's been around longer
12:23and is probably a lot more important to their actual team than Whitmore is.
12:28Oh, yeah.
12:29No, 100%.
12:29All right.
12:30Coming up, a little 5 o'clock fire.
12:32That's B. Scott every single Wednesday, 440.
12:35Be listening to him as he is all over the station and on sportsradio610.com.