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Chapter 1: What recent changes have contributed to the Rockets' success?
Rockets fans, welcome to the Rockets LaunchPod, an exclusive podcast from the home of the Rockets. Sports Talk 790. Red Nation, get ready. The Rockets LaunchPod starts now. Welcome aboard. Welcome back to another new episode of the Rockets LaunchPod presented by Clutch Fans and with support from Sports Talk 790, the official flagship radio station of your Houston Rockets.
As always, we're your host. I'm Ben DuBose. He's Paolo Alves. It's our first episode in a couple of weeks. So as far as the full show goes, there's a lot to catch up on. We do repurpose the Clutch Fans Live post games that I do with Dave Hardesty and some special guests on this podcast channel. So... Our listeners have heard from me.
Chapter 2: How has Alperen Sengun's defensive performance affected the team?
They have not heard from Paolo since the Rockets have at least to an extent turned their season around. When we last recorded, Paolo and I, that is, back during the road trip when the Rockets went 0-3 in Portland and Sacramento, it felt like that was them bottoming out. And at one point, they were 10-10 in their last 20 games. Well, now the Rockets are at the halfway point of the year.
They're 26-15. They're back on that 52-win pace that they finished at a year ago. And so I'm sure we'll talk about whether that's a good thing as the episode progresses. But certainly the level of play since the road trip has been much better. The Rockets just completed a five-game homestand. They went 4-1.
And now, starting tonight, we're recording on Thursday, the 22nd of January, the Rockets have a challenging back-to-back in Philadelphia and Detroit, made even more difficult by the fact that you won't have Steven Adams for either of those games against fairly physical and imposing frontcourts.
Chapter 3: What impact does Steven Adams' injury have on the Rockets?
Steven is out indefinitely with a severe sprain of his left ankle, which we'll definitely talk about today as well. But because it's been a couple of weeks since Paolo and I have recorded, and I've been doing the Clutch Fans post-game shows, you guys have heard from me. You haven't heard from Paolo. So I'm going to kick it to him for the opening monologue, if you will.
Paolo, how differently are you feeling about this team now, coming off that 4-1 homestand, where you did have a loss to the Thunder, in which you had a terrible fourth quarter. But other than that, I mean, you win 80% of your games. It's hard to complain about it. The most recent one was nationally televised Tuesday night. Reed Shepard looked fantastic.
You came back from 16 down to beat a very good Spurs team that... At the moment is number two in the West, but is only one game ahead of the Rockets in the loss column.
Chapter 4: How are Reed Sheppard and Jabari Smith Jr. developing as players?
Rockets back in the four seed. So as things stand, they would have home court advantage in at least one round of the Western Conference playoffs. I guess, Paolo, my question for you, how differently do you feel about this team after the 4-1 homestand? Do you have a sense of relief relative to when we last recorded on that 0-3 road trip?
Well, actually, the timelines for me work a little bit differently. And what do I mean by this? We recorded prior to the Kings game, and you can go and check last fall, and I was pretty chill about it. I thought as long as we're within striking distance of the three seed, we'll be fine, right? I had the whole thing about how what really matters is docking the Thunder in round two.
And then we lost to the Kings. And all of my optimism just went away. We lost to the Kings and I was like, well, we might just not be that great or not be good at all. Because, I mean, that's just how the NBA works.
Chapter 5: What do the Rockets' home versus road performance splits indicate?
If there is one thing that you can, I guess, fall back on. Not really followed by how much you can... Something that you can apply to basically any time in NBA history is that if you're losing to the Kings, you might be duped. And so when we lost to the Kings, I was like, well... This doesn't look good at all. And it's not like it was close.
Like they pulled away middle of the fourth quarter and just never looked back. It just seemed to be another one of those games where the Rockets seem to hang in there and then don't close it out in the end. And so at that point, I was questioning things. But then we won against the Bulls, which is to be expected. Then we, you know, we kept it close for a little bit against the Thunder.
And then we lost. And then we beat the Timberwolves without end. So take what you will from that. And then beating the Pelicans is expected.
Chapter 6: Are the Rockets legitimate contenders in the Western Conference?
But, well, the expected... Well, up to that point, what wasn't, you know, what was happening. So, you know, always great to get a win. And then that Spurs game happens. And the Spurs are a pretty good team, right? They have the 2C when he was healthy. So that's a good win. So, you know, from an overall, like, 10,000 FTU perspective, I think it's fine.
I think the same logic applies that I had on the previous wallet, things were going poorly. I'm not too high, I'm not too low either. It's just, well, we're... A game back, I guess, on the loss column from the two seed, we have the same losses as the Nuggets. They are the three seed.
Granted, the Nuggets are playing without Jokic, but still, that won't grant them extra wins when we get to the side of the seeding for the playoffs. So we're fine from an overall perspective.
Chapter 7: What strategies should the Rockets consider for the playoffs?
But getting into a little bit of specific players and specific things about the team, I was not impressed about that Spurs game. I know it's a win. I know it's a great team. But I saw confirmation of some stuff that I had been talking about, that I had been thinking about, particularly about Alper and Shingo. I had touched on it a little bit in previous spots.
And in the Spurs game, it was especially glaring, especially in the second half. The effort from Chengdu just doesn't seem to be there nearly to the level that it was last season, on defense especially. And so, just remembering from last night, right? You know, you come out, the Rockets are down 16, halfway through the third quarter.
There's a play where Shingun, well, where Castel's on the ground grabbing the ball, and Shingun just kind of haphazardly puts a hand on it and looks to the ref to try and throw it to say, hey, call a jump ball, right? And I'm like, really, that's kind of the bare minimum. He could have tried to take the ball away from him rather than just clearly look for the jump ball.
Chapter 8: How important is home-court advantage for the Rockets' playoff success?
And I'm sorry if this is going to be very specific, a very specific rant. And then you look at... Or, well, then the jump ball happens, and he loses the jump ball to 6'6 Stephon Castle, which, you know, well, you kind of half-assed your way into a jump ball where you probably could have taken the ball away from him, or at least tried to.
could have been a little Jay Sean Tate with it, and then, you know, tried to just take the ball away, wrestled with the ball out of his arms. He didn't, so you settled for the jump ball, didn't try to get better than that, and then you lost the jump ball. And on the same possession that you lost the jump ball, you lost the jump ball, stood there ball-watching as they scored the two.
And I'm like, come on, man. That perfectly exemplifies what I'm talking about.
And I do want to jump in real quick and address the elephant in the room, which is that he came back early from a sprained ankle, and that might be contributing. However, I do agree with you. There's some stuff, just the awareness plays, where he doesn't even notice or care about a cutter, someone going back door, reminiscent of the days when James Harden would get this Vine compilation package.
just clipped of his low lights, that I don't think you can attribute to the ankle. If he's not quite as springy on the jump balls, maybe, but the stuff that's awareness when he's moving just fine otherwise, that I think does speak to the middle side.
Just wanted to jump in quickly and address the ankle component, because I do think that there are small parts you can attribute to that, but by and large, I think your points are valid.
Yeah, and 100%. You can blame some of it on the ankle, but you put it perfectly. It really reminds me of James Harden. When he's engaged, and James, I guess, had his lowlights as well, even when engaged. But it really seemed like he just doesn't care when, well, when not defending on ball or just, you know, can't be bothered to put up a contest.
And then he's challenged at the rim and he does nothing. Like literally, you know, guy is driving, got to defend it on his hip or a little auto step behind. And Chengun, you know, shows help and then doesn't jump to try and block it. And he's giving up both the layup and the dump off to his man behind him. Like, Cornette was feasting on that, on Alperen Sengun, I guess, mispositionings.
And then you look at when the Rockets came back, it's a six-minute stretch where the Spurs didn't score a single basket. You know, partly due to just missing jump shots, partly due to the Rockets playing better defense. You know, they got some open jump shots that they did. I'm not saying going six minutes without scoring was justified.
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