Rockets LaunchPod
Rockets 115, Nuggets 101: Kevin Durant, Reed Sheppard lead statement win
21 Dec 2025
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Rockets' victory over the Nuggets?
Welcome into the show, guys. We are ecstatic to say Rockets get a huge win in Denver, 115 to 101. This was round two, really round three for the season, but round two in Denver. Rockets had just played there on Monday and lost a tough one in overtime. This was a completely different Rockets team than what we saw in that Monday game. And it was a completely different shift in a variety of ways.
Kind of fascinating. I'm here with Ben Dubose of Rockets Wire on USA Today and Clutch fans. And Ben, I mean, there's a lot to digest here. You know, obviously, we're going to talk a lot about Reed Shepard, Kevin Durant and Jabari Smith Jr. that really had terrific games tonight.
Yeah, and I want to start with Kevin Durant. Well, Kevin Durant and Ime Udoka, but I think inherently the player is a little more important because, look, there's some potentially bigger-picture takeaways with regards to how the Rockets should run their offense and their defense, and this was their first big-boy win against a true top-tier team this season.
There had been a lot made of the fact that they were 0-5 against the Thunder, the Nuggets, the Spurs, the Pistons, so... Yeah, it could have some implications for down the road when we talk about playoff basketball. But before we talk about April, we've got to talk about December. We've got to talk about where we are right now.
And this was the first patch of adversity that the Rockets had really hit this season. These last two games were the first time the Rockets had lost consecutive games since their 0-2 start to the year. And the way they lost in New Orleans, as frustrating as it was to blow a 25-point lead in the second half, They were upset postgame.
You could look at Kevin Durant's postgame interview, and the tension was palpable. He was angry. And I don't think it's all necessarily his teammates. Some of it he's angry at himself. He's frustrated by the situation. But the question is always, how do you respond when you get punched in the mouth, when you hit that level of adversity?
We heard Ime called him out in New Orleans, called a defensive effort embarrassing.
Hmm.
And boy, did they respond tonight, Dave. So the Nuggets average 126 points per game. This was their lowest scoring game of the year. But I think you can almost throw out the fourth quarter because over half of it was garbage time with the Rockets up 20 plus points midway through. Like the first three quarters, they held the Nuggets to 66 points per
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Chapter 2: How did Kevin Durant's leadership impact the Rockets' performance?
And so E-May postgame in New Orleans, Kevin to an extent postgame and early on tonight, You could see that that there was an edge. There was something extra. This was not a game that the Rockets wanted to lose. And so how did they respond collectively? I think it's just really important to start there because we mentioned the other night they entered three and four in December.
It wasn't just the last couple of games. They hadn't really been themselves. It felt like since the calendar turned to December. Today, they were. This was a game they led for, I'd say, 75, 80% of it, largely by 10 plus points. And so to see them respond to that level of adversity, getting called out by Ime Udoka and to an extent by Kevin Durant and respond the way they did, like...
You know, first and foremost, kudos to Katie and Reed Shepard and Jabari Smith Jr. for hitting a lot of tough shots tonight. But I think it starts just culturally. And so seeing how they responded up and down that roster, you know, Alper and Shungun didn't have a big statistical game, but I thought his defense was much improved tonight, Dave. Much improved.
And I think a lot of that just comes down to seeing how your team responds to those call outs. Dave, they responded tonight. In the short term, I think that's the most important thing.
Yeah, I mean, it's – I totally agree. It was so fun. I tweeted this. It's just so fun to watch this team be kind of that Ime Udoka identity where it's strong defense and then to be an efficient three-point shooting team, which has escaped them before this season. But now, tonight, they had increased volume. But, you know, it really – I mean, as far as Shingun, I agree with you.
I thought really less is more. He took 27 shots in the last game, and, you know, it was close. Today, he just took a step back as far as the offense and let these guys go to work on the outside. And I mean, it's a little bit of an outlier performance. Obviously, the Rockets were 19 of 35 from three point range, which is scorching. KD was five of six.
We're going to talk about Reed Shepard, who was definitely the story of the game. And Jabari was five of 11. I think those guys combined for 16 triples. But at the same time, it's just nice to see Shingun play that kind of a game where he's just willing to distribute or kind of take a step back. People criticized him after the Pelicans game, and I think this was good to see.
But what's amazing, like you said, is the defense. They held the Nuggets today to 27% three-point shooting.
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Chapter 3: How did the recent losses affect the Rockets' mentality?
This is the second best, from efficiency standpoint, three-point shooting team in the league.
And only 29 attempts. Let's emphasize that. And 22 in the first three quarters. So it's not just that the Nuggets missed those shots. The Rockets aggressively defended and closed out and made it difficult for them to get off shots, period.
Yeah, that was huge. And I think, you know, 125 points they averaged per game. Rockets held them like, you know, as you mentioned, 101 today. I mean, it's just terrific to see because we were watching, at least I was watching this in the first quarter thinking the Rockets just aren't as good as the Nuggets, period.
But it, you know, obviously shifted on a dime and the Rockets, it's going to, let's start with Reed Shepard. Kevin Durant was amazing. We're going to talk about Kevin Durant for sure. We'll talk as well about Jabari, the kind of game he had. But Reed Shepard now is just shifting the dialogue. It's to the point now where you can't really worry about the defense.
You can't really worry about these other things. He's looking like a potential engine. I don't say that lightly. At the same time, I don't want to say that that's for sure. But he's made some great passes. But today he was just launching. This was Reed Shepard against the Golden State Warriors.
The cocaine Curry Reed Shepard just going nuts, pulling up from five to 10 feet behind three point line and just made some amazing shots. The kind that your jaws on the floor. I think you got to play him now. You know, I don't know if I don't know if it's start, but at a minimum, you got to you got to crank up the minutes every single game.
Yeah, and I think if it's late and close the way it was the other night in New Orleans, it's getting to where it's very difficult to justify leaving him on the sidelines. And I think for all the talk that's been out there the last few days, and I thought it was somewhat overcooked after that Monday loss because obviously there's an asterisk you put on that with the officiating.
Overall, the Rockets actually, at least in the fourth quarter, executed really well offensively down the stretch in that game. But it was Reed Shepard that sparked them. He was the guy that hit a couple of big threes, that was running the offense for stretches.
And when you look at these big games that they've had against the top tier, excluding the first two when I think he clearly wasn't ready, needed – a little bit of seasoning. Ever since that Spurs Cup game, start with the San Antonio one, and then you look at these three against Denver. So two of them, he was lights out.
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Chapter 4: What defensive strategies did the Rockets implement against the Nuggets?
Reed Shepard is tied going into today for the second best defensive rating on the team or second lowest.
Yeah.
So. That can certainly be misleading, but what I do think it speaks to is that the Rockets are not getting torched defensively when he's on the court. It's not like every time he goes on there that the Rockets are just getting run out of the gym and that it's just a layup line. That's not happening. Now, am I saying Reed Shepard is the second best defensive player? Absolutely not.
But what I'm saying is that when the overall performance is still passable, it shows you that the Rockets are able to scheme around it. It shows you that... that reads turnovers are able to make an impact and sort of offset some of those low lights. Emei Udoka is a really creative coach, and you're sort of letting him shine.
It's not easy asking an undersized 21-year-old to play high-leverage minutes and stop guys like Jamal Murray, but maybe Emei Udoka is the perfect coach for this. And when you look at the balance of the season, the defense is really not slipping in those Reed Shepard minutes to the extent that you would think if you just look at him and you look at the scouting reports. So with that said...
If Reed's not getting torched defensively and we can clearly see what he does offensively and disproportionately against the better teams, look what he's done these three games against the Nuggets, the Spurs Cup game. If the defense is passable, and it has been, I don't know what the justification is for leaving him on the sidelines late in a close game.
To me, it's not even so much about the point guard thing anymore. It's just about the The shot making and the shot creation, it's so valuable. And we talked about the math, you know, the Rockets got up 35 threes tonight to 29 for the Nuggets. That was a weakness for this team earlier in the year, losing the math advantage.
Well, it's sort of tough to lose the math advantage where you can turn Reed loose and, you know, he goes six of nine from three.
Yeah. We've talked about this before, Ben. I don't want to speak for you. I'm just going to keep it real. I look at San Antonio and OKC, and I've mentioned a little bit of this on the show before, but I'm just being honest here. I worry a little bit about that core the Rockets have. They're very good. I think they're very close. But I look at San Antonio. It looks really good. I look at OKC.
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Chapter 5: What role did Reed Sheppard play in the Rockets' success?
That hasn't really been the case, but I definitely saw that after the last game. I saw a lot of trade Jabari, a lot of stuff like that. I totally agree with what Matt's saying.
I think a rocket's Twitter, unfortunately, a lot of it, and I know there's a lot of great fans there too, but a lot of it is, is what they're now calling PRA, which is just points, rebounds, assists is, did you fill up the box score as opposed to, are you impacting winning? And I think what's amazing, I don't think I can say this as much about Jabari in previous years.
It was starting to show up last year, but I think it's really showing up this year. He's impacting winning significantly. I think he's having a, I, I think he's got elite role player potential. I don't know if people are excited about that. I am.
Especially on the contract. Yeah.
Yeah. And I look at somebody like Draymond Green as an elite role player. And in another context, you could call that a superstar. He's not. You're not going to hand him the ball and he's going to go to work and do a bunch of juke moves and get you 20 and 10 and 10 or something every night. But Jabari fills the cracks around superstars in a big way, and he's got great size.
He's got the ability to shoot from outside. I thought it was a great showing from him tonight. I was happy to see it because he's been struggling a little bit from three-point range the last little while. For him to break out from three tonight was great.
And Steven Adams, I mentioned earlier, he didn't have zero rebounds tonight like he did the other night. He had 12. So what a huge swing to go from zero rebounds against the same team on Monday to 12 tonight. And Kevin, you know, we talked about the shot making and, you know, for all the trash talk, which is great. It's not that the Rockets didn't have it in the past.
You know, Dylan Brooks in particular would talk trash, but the The trash talk, the vocal leadership hits a little bit different when you can back it up by scoring 30, which KD is much more capable of doing than Dylan Brooks. So I think just the intangibles stand out, but also the willingness to throw their body into harm's way.
KD mentioned his postgame quote when it stands out, extra juice, extra energy. KD with six rebounds, Stephen Adams with 12. That's your two vets who have a ton of mileage on their bodies, and Stephen's probably going to rest tomorrow in Sacramento because he's not playing both ends of back-to-backs at this point, so he left it all on the court tonight.
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