Ben DuBose

And Paolo, I'll bring you in here.

I don't want to overreact to one regular season game.

Because look, if the Rockets somehow salvage this, there's still 19 games left in the regular season and then the playoffs.

At the end of the day, every team is going to have bad days.

And this is potentially just a bad day.

With that said, combining this game with what we saw in January...

If this turns out to be the ominous sign for the playoffs that a lot of us fear and the Rockets either go out to a team like, I don't know, the Lakers, the Timberwolves in the first round, or maybe they make it to the second round and then get destroyed by the Spurs, the Thunder, the Nuggets, one of the true big boys.

By the way, the Rockets and the Nuggets play their fourth and final game on Wednesday night in Denver.

That'll be a big one in terms of potential playoff implications and certainly seeding implications down the home stretch of the year.

But sticking with the Spurs, if this does turn out to be an ominous sign and this team does have a gap of that significance between itself and the top tier, what does that mean for the Rockets heading into the 2026 offseason?

Because for a lot of this year, we've talked about how, you know, next year sets up better than this year.

We said that after the trade deadline in early February, when you'll get Fred back, you'll get Steven back.

DFS should be healthy.

He'll still be under contract.

And if not, well, he'll be an expiring salary you can use in trades this offseason.

You won't be hard capped at the first apron.

So on paper, there are reasons to believe that next year's team will be better.

But if the gap is anywhere close to what we saw on Sunday night,

I do get concerns from some in the fan base.

I've seen it on social media that perhaps the Rockets are more than just a Fred and Steven away.