Ben DuBose

So not looking ahead to Sunday, like,

The Warriors are a couple of games above 500, although they won't have Steph Curry.

The Trailblazers are slightly below 500, but they're competitive.

They're 50.

These games on Thursday and Friday are not a given, but Sunday is definitely the big one that I suspect the Rockets internally have circled as well.

Maybe you need to dial down immense usage anyway, and with Reed playing well, maybe this is the game to sort of turn him loose, right?

And hopefully Shingun can build on what he did tonight.

I know it was a bad opponent, but he's been in a stretch lately where he just needs to see the ball go through the bucket.

And hopefully he can at least offensively get some continuity there, because I do think it's a it's a delicate balancing act for Emei, because I think one of the reasons they like bringing Reid off the bench is as a stimulus in those minutes without KD.

because we saw in Miami when it was minutes when Shingun was out there and no KD, that's when the Rockets absolutely got crushed.

And so being able to bring Reid off the bench as something of an offensive anchor for those units late first, especially early in the second and early in the fourth quarters,

There's a lot of value there.

And yes, you can stagger your lineups a little bit, but if you start someone but then change your lineup very quickly, it's almost like, well, why don't you just start who you want to play for the first six, nine minutes of the first and third quarter?

So that brings its own issues.

And so I think

If Shingun gets going offensively to where he's comfortable as a hob, as a scorer, then that will also give them more freedom for how they can use Reed without feeling they need Reed as something of a stimulus for those minutes without KD early in the second and early in the fourth quarters.

And so I think that plays into it as well.

Yeah, I'm looking at the postgame updates.

Amin looks like rolled his ankle.

It's not a re-aggravation of the quad, which is what initially they suspected on the broadcast until we saw him grab at the ankle on the bench.