Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
All right. Welcome, everybody. The Rockets get a big win in Oklahoma City. 112-106, a game that was televised nationally on ABC.
Chapter 2: What were the key moments from the Rockets' victory over the Thunder?
And yes, Oklahoma City was missing their MVP, Shea Gildas Alexander. They were missing a former All-Star, Jalen Williams. And they were missing their underrated third best on ball guard with A.J. Mitchell. At the same time, there's still a good defense, still a good team, and it's a very tough place to play. I've been in Oklahoma City for a Rockets game, and that place is insane.
Rockets get a huge win. Tari and Bari were absolutely excellent this whole game.
Chapter 3: How did injuries impact the Thunder's performance against the Rockets?
Shangoon rebounds after this really rough week with a triple-double and created a man Thompson out in this game. Kevin Durant, they completely loaded up on him defensively. So this is a really good win, 112-106. I'm here with Ben Dubose. You can follow him on Twitter at Ben Dubose and read him on RocketsWire and on ClutchFans, as well as Paolo Alves.
Paolo, you can follow Paolo on Twitter at PaoloAlvesNBA. You can see the handles underneath them. Guys, this was, you know, yes, they needed to win because a loss would have reflected poorly, but they got a good win and a tough place to play.
And I know the spreadsheet doesn't account for injuries, but this was a spreadsheet loss, right?
Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent.
Yes. And of course the Rockets aren't going to feel sorry for who the Thunder are missing when Houston's without a men Thompson and obviously Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams as well. So I think first off,
With everything the Rockets absorbed this week, the back-to-back blowout losses at home to the Celtics and the Hornets, all the bad PR after the trade deadline, and then going down 15 early today, they needed this win. This was a team that it felt like was teetering.
And if they had lost this game, especially if it was a blowout to the shorthanded Thunder, the way it looked early, that's the kind of thing that can linger. as opposed to you get the win, now you have a couple of days off, you have a back-to-back Tuesday and Wednesday before the All-Star break, this assures that you're not going to go in the All-Star break on some sort of awful losing streak.
Like, this doesn't, you know, fix everything, but it does give you a chance to catch your breath. I do think some of what's happened, it's an older team, there's a lot of injuries, so the Rockets are running on fumes a little bit, especially with the back-to-backs increasing. And so they just needed... to get a win to stabilize.
And the fact that it came against the defending champs on national TV, that only helps. But I think the real story today, you know, defensively, the challenge would be a billion times more and will be when the Thunder have SGA and J-Dub. Let's be honest about that.
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Chapter 4: What improvements did Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr. showcase in this game?
But on the other end of the floor, for the Rockets offensively, I don't think the... I don't think the formula is all that different, regardless of who the Thunder have out there, because defensively, they still have their marquee pieces. And they're going to do what they do when it comes to, you know, physically defending Kevin Durant, the intense ball pressure, overplaying the passing lanes.
Chapter 5: What role did Alperen Sengun play in the Rockets' success?
And I do think that relative to that opening night loss in Oklahoma City, the Rockets did some things better today on the offensive end of the court. Most notably, Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr., And it makes sense because when a team defends how the Thunder did today and really how they do all the time, they are conceding driving lanes to guys who normally aren't great drivers and creators.
And so Tari and Jabari, you don't think of them as, you know, off the bounce, off the dribble, creative types. But if the defense is overplaying the passing lanes, trying to get those steals, then guys that... You know, you wouldn't think of them as shot creators offensively are going to have opportunities, especially when they're loading up against Kevin Durant.
They're loading up against Alperen Shingun, who was in double digits in assists. So credit to him. He used his gravity effectively. I think, you know, this was a good counter from the Rockets. And I'm not going to say that you should assume that they figured it out against the Thunder because defensively, the challenge is going to go way up when they have SGA and J-Dub.
But offensively, it was really ugly in that opening game at the start of the year. It was better tonight primarily because they could trust Tari and Jabari to make plays off the dribble. I think that's essential against a defense like the Thunder and how aggressively they play on the perimeter.
So I think this was a huge game for the Rockets confidence-wise, both short-term, just getting the stench off of the past few days, and then against the Thunder. I do think at least on the offensive end of the court, it gives the Rockets something that they can build upon moving forward.
Yeah, 100%. But as Dave said, you do have to take into consideration, and it's a massive factor that they don't have their two lead ball and their two all-stars. One guy that's in contention for being the best player in the league, even though I don't really believe that, but he's a top-five guy, no doubt about it.
And you also got to take into consideration that the way that Thunder were defending, completely taking away Kingun in whichever ways they could, After that, they were also still getting more attention from Tariq and Tabari than they were getting from Dorian, Kenny, Chris, and Josh Akogi, right? They weren't daring those guys to shoot, and those guys shocked, and those guys missed a lot, right?
Obviously, that's a strategy that they go to, knowing that they need a little bit of an outlier performance-wise from somewhere. They need to add variants to this game because they're playing so short-handed. And it kind of went as good as it possibly could offensively as far as those guys missing shots. Those guys could not hit the broadside of a barn.
And to be honest, I think there will be a discussion at some point if playing Dorian Phoenix-Smith is still the go-to. You know, moving on from that more negative part, I do think that this game is, you know, the latest in a series of games in which Jabari Smith Jr. has played a lot better than people have been giving him credits for the entire season.
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Chapter 6: What considerations did the Rockets' management have at the trade deadline?
I think he nailed it, Paolo. He's been good. He had a really horrible stretch where he couldn't make shots and it was in his head. That's hopefully passed. He is going to have a bad game at some point. He's going to go three for 13 in some game, and we're going to have this get turned back on again. But I'm glad you said that because I do think he deserves a lot of compliments.
Tonight was one of his best games. What I loved about Jabari, and Jabari's not the lead story of this game, I want to be clear. We just started talking about Jabari. But 9 of 11, he took 11 free throws. He was physical, and he was forcing the issue at times, and he got to the line. That's not something we see very often from Jabari.
Also, Tari, this was a game where Tari was incredibly aggressive as far as seeking his shot. Yeah, 26 points on 22 shots is not like the greatest efficiency, but he was really good. Hit five of 13 from three. Tari took 13 three-point shots today.
Um, so I thought those guys, you know, in the fact that a man is out and a man in this particular game with none of those lead ball handlers being here, maybe you don't need a man quite as much. You're going to need them against SGA. You're going to need them against Jalen Williams and AJ Mitchell and those guys. Yeah.
But tonight, I thought with him out and KD, them really loading up on KD, Jabari and Tari really stepped up. And Shengun was terrific too. We're going to talk about him and his triple-double, but I was really impressed with how those guys did in a time that they needed more volume from them.
And then a very odd game from Reed Shepard. Early in the game, defensively, he was terrible. That was a big part of how the Rockets dug that 15-point hole. And he had four turnovers that were just killers, including one with like three minutes left when Rockets had a chance to put the game away. Instead, next thing you know, the Thunder get a transition layup and it's back down to four.
I think they end up cutting it to two. But Reed was seven of 12, 16 points, six assists, and he only made one three. So he was six of eight from inside the arc. And so Tari and Jabari were the lead story offensively in terms of how they, you know, punish the Thunder for overplaying on the perimeter. Dave, I love that you mentioned how aggressive Jabari was at getting to the line.
When he was able to get the Thunder in a tough spot, he leaned into the contact. He showed some craft that we haven't always seen in the past.
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Chapter 7: What are the potential buyout options for the Rockets moving forward?
But Reed as well, six of eight, not a perfect game from Reed. The first half, he was terrible defensively. Throughout, he had issues with turnovers. But in terms of getting to the bucket, he had two or three layups and a couple of mid-range shots as well. I think that's what you have to do against this Thunder defense. And I really think
You know, the Thunder were missing their guys offensively, but defensively, they had the pieces they need. And so what Reid, Tari, and Jabari did offensively, to me, that's the key to eventually having a chance to beat the Thunder. I'm not saying that's going to happen this season. You know, the Rockets have their issues right now.
So no, let's not act like the Rockets are ready to go toe-to-toe with the Thunder in a playoff series. But eventually, whenever that time comes, when you want to really challenge them, like I think on offense, at least, this is at least the initial blueprint.
Now, maybe if Reed and Tari and Jabari do it enough, then they've relaxed their defense against the likes of KD and Shingun and the Stars can get going a little bit more. But for right now, I think the formula from not just Tari and Jabari, but Reed as well, that's exactly how you have to attack this Oklahoma City defense.
So, Paolo, I'm curious what you think about Reed, because it was just to be a fascinating game. Some of the issues with defense and especially turnovers were terrible. But offensively, I mean, he helped them out in the half court.
Yeah, 100%. And they especially needed him to because the man was not there. We saw a lot of minutes from J.D.
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Chapter 8: How did the Rockets' defensive strategies evolve in this game?
Davis and your guy, that patented Ben DeBose guy. And he did play well, had some boneheaded decisions that are expected from a player that doesn't play with an 18-4 team. for that many, or doesn't have that many opportunities. But touching on Reid, it's as you said, during that first half, it was actually kind of appalling the way he was playing defense.
And, you know, to shift the conversation a little bit to the defensive side, because you guys have heard me the entire season. To me, the offense is, you know, good enough as long as defense steps up to something close to the caliber that it was last season, right?
And Reid was a big part of why the defense is for, but the defense with this team is for not just because of Reid, but because it seems like the main, like Reid, KD, and Shingun, and I'm not excluding KD from this conversation, he has some responsibility on this one. well, take turns just falling asleep defensively.
And the way the Rockets try to defend and the way the Rockets try to emulate the kill switch system that they were running last season, it requires everybody to be locked in and everybody to be high effort running, closing out and compensating for when those guys switch. And it just seems like guys are taking turns having breakdowns defensively.
And it feels like when you watch it play by play, you could kind of point your finger at anybody because at any given time, I'm one of those guys having those troubles. And it really goes to show why this team seems to be able to get themselves in a hole against anything like this.
OKC team should not have any business being competitive with the Rockets, even with the defense being as good as it is. Offensively, the Rockets should not be giving up 106, I believe, 106 points to this team that has basically nobody that can create their own shot at this moment, right? And the Rockets from last season will not have done that.
And so, given, you know, that being said, I do want to give credit to Shingun for the second half. A lot of the issues that Rockets have had, other than way of spalling a sleep, has been effort-wise. Like, I cannot, you know, I cannot count the amount of times that a guy is, you know, Shingun is in a position to help on a drive, right?
And he just doesn't contest a shot at the rim that's happening right in front of him, as you would expect any other student in the league to do. And this game, especially in the second half earlier on, it was a little bit rougher. I don't know if somebody challenged them personally at pass time or whatever it may have been.
Yeah, there were jumper cables used, I think, yeah. And someone pointed out in the comments that Shingun's energy really picked up after the three he made and then the Flamingo shot. I noticed that too. Like when it started going better for Shingun offensively, the energy for defense picked up too.
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