Ben DuBose

And so E-May postgame in New Orleans, Kevin to an extent postgame and early on tonight,

You could see that that there was an edge.

There was something extra.

This was not a game that the Rockets wanted to lose.

And so how did they respond collectively?

I think it's just really important to start there because we mentioned the other night they entered three and four in December.

It wasn't just the last couple of games.

They hadn't really been themselves.

It felt like since the calendar turned to December.

Today, they were.

This was a game they led for, I'd say, 75, 80% of it, largely by 10 plus points.

And so to see them respond to that level of adversity, getting called out by Ime Udoka and to an extent by Kevin Durant and respond the way they did, like...

You know, first and foremost, kudos to Katie and Reed Shepard and Jabari Smith Jr.

for hitting a lot of tough shots tonight.

But I think it starts just culturally.

And so seeing how they responded up and down that roster, you know, Alper and Shungun didn't have a big statistical game, but I thought his defense was much improved tonight, Dave.

Much improved.

And I think a lot of that just comes down to seeing how your team responds to those call outs.

Dave, they responded tonight.

In the short term, I think that's the most important thing.