Paulo Alves

Looking at the bench, Aaron Holiday is playing in place of Josh Akogi.

Jay Shuntate is playing in place of Dorian Finney-Smith.

But then the big change, Tari Eason now coming off the bench, Reed Shepard starting.

That was a change that it felt like all of Rockets Twitter had wanted for a few weeks.

But then most notably, Tari Eason, at least over the past week, his last three games, is actually playing well again.

So you're getting a better version of Tari Eason.

Now, it should be noted over that same stretch, Reed Shepard has not played that well.

And we've seen quick hooks because defensively, when Reed and Shingun are together, that's problematic.

So even though Reed is starting, he gets a relatively quick hook.

And lately in the closing lineups, it's been Tari in place of Reed.

So in terms of whether the current starting five is going to be the starting five in the playoffs, that's still very much an open-ended question.

Emi Udoka said when they made the change before the Miami game, or before the Atlanta game, excuse me, that it would be a trial run for probably eight games or so, and then...

the final five games before the playoffs that make a determination to try and get in some sort of rhythm with the starting lineup and rotations.

And that five-game mark is going to come this weekend, one week before the playoffs start on the 18th.

Well, no, one week before the end of the regular season.

Then there's a week gap between the regular season and the playoffs.

So I think it's interesting that,

It's not that Reid deserves to be demoted.

However, when you look at the firepower between the entrenched four of Kevin Durant, Alperin Shingun, Amin Thompson, and Jabari Smith Jr., by the way, Rockets are a ridiculous 22.5 points better in net offensive rating this month when Amin plays.

His growth has sort of flown under the radar, but he's been really good in recent weeks, so we should give him his flowers as well.