Ben DuBose

And you've got a really tough schedule next week with three games and four nights, all against teams that are 10 or more games above 500, the Spurs, the Raptors, the Nuggets.

The Spurs and Nuggets, those games are on the road, and that's the two teams right around you in the Western Conference standings.

Spurs at two.

Well, Nuggets are at five, but they're hot on your heels just a game or so back.

And so these are games that, you know, the Rockets are 38-22 now, number three in the West, but their margin of error is...

is still pretty small if they want to have home court advantage in the first round and avoid being on the same side of the bracket as the Thunder.

And so they've sort of got a balance like, yeah, you want to have a big picture and let these guys heal up, yet these are important games in the interim.

And so how do you potentially do that?

You know, maybe play Amin and Jabari as much as you can, but not go all out with their usage?

Well, I think it's dialing up the usage for Reed Shepard.

I think that's how over the next week you can sort of, you know, try and walk.

It's a very fine line for Imei Ujoka, but

to give yourself the best chance to win in the short term in games that are pretty big while still keeping the big picture in mind.

And not to look ahead, let me ask you this, Dave, because I've been thinking this today.

With the success the Knicks had against the Spurs on Sunday, it's not identical personnel, but there are some similarities between Josh Hart and Amin Thompson.

Of course, we think Amin is a lot better, but you can potentially use Amin as a screener in much the same way the Knicks did.

And they found a lot of success with that.

And so if you use Amin

more as a screener, assuming the Spurs turn back to Wemby as the primary defender, the way they did in the second half of that game, the second game in Houston that they came from behind to win, you're going to need someone else to handle the ball.

And that someone could be Reed Shepard.