Dave Hardisty

in this game.

And by the way, I'll try and kick this to Adam more quickly because, again, I'm not with my usual setup.

So if my mic or my connection isn't as solid as it normally is, my apologies.

But to hit home the highlights for Reed Shepard, I think the fact that he's able to deliver against the better teams in the West, look, the Thunder are their own tier.

The Rockets haven't beaten them yet.

And until they do, it's fair to have concerns.

They're the gold standard, not just for the Rockets, but the entire NBA.

So we can put that aside for now.

We can worry about that in April, May, and June.

Hopefully, Fred Benfleet comes back at some point, or maybe Rafael Stone has a deal that he makes by the trade deadline.

I don't know.

We can worry about that for another day.

What I do think is worth celebrating right now is that against the Spurs and the Nuggets, the two teams that have been

most frequently linked to the two and three seeds in the West the last couple of months, Reed Shepard has played really well against those teams.

So it's not just like Reed Shepard's taking advantage of the bottom feeders.

The fact that he's able to get you these wins against upper echelon teams, not the Thunder, not just yet, but the fact that he's doing it against maybe the second and third best teams in the NBA, you can certainly make the argument based on the standings to date and the strength of the Western Conference.

There's something to celebrate there.

I think it's safe to say that Reed Shepard

And to a lesser extent, Jabari Smith Jr., those are your ceiling guys.

You know, losing Steven Adams really hurts because we've talked about, and Steven, we knew the other night, that was not going to be a grade one ankle sprain like we had seen recently with Tari Eason, all per inch and goon, seven to 10 days.