Payne and Pendergast discuss the Rockets' surprise season as they sit in the Western Conference's No. 2 spot just a little more than halfway through the season.
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00:00the Rockets were one of six teams on ESPN.com's midseason report card to garner an A. An A.
00:11Our basketball team is up to an A grade at midseason, and they graded the teams not so
00:18much based on how good they are, period. They based them on how good they are versus what
00:24the expectations were at the beginning of the year. For example, the Detroit Pistons,
00:28who did beat the Rockets the other night, but are hovering around 500, much better than
00:32everybody thought they would be. They were projected to have 20-something wins. They're
00:36on pace to be over 500 this year. They're on pace for 45 wins. They got an A, because
00:41they're way better than people thought they would be. The six teams that got an A were
00:47the Houston Rockets, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were the best team in basketball when
00:52the Rockets beat them the other night, the Detroit Pistons, the Clippers, who the Rockets
00:57have had good success against this year, the Memphis Grizzlies, who the Rockets have
01:01had good success against this year, and the Oklahoma City Thunder, who the Rockets have
01:05beaten one time, and they got blown out by OKC as well. But that's lofty company, man.
01:10It's nice. This is going to be nice, Seth, after the Super Bowl is over. There'd always
01:14been that gap right there from the beginning of February until the Astros got going, where
01:20I probably got more into March Madness in some years than I have recently, because there
01:24was really nothing to speak of about our pro basketball team. This is fun.
01:28Well, no, but even when the Rockets were at their peak of the last decade, it was still,
01:35we got to that point where, okay, yes, they're going to win a bunch of games in the regular
01:39season, but we'll wait and see what happens in the playoffs and everything else. It was,
01:44yeah, it was a waiting game. Whereas with this year, the entire season will be an examination
01:52of just how good they are. Can they keep this up? Are they going to improve? Is Jalen
01:57Green going to continue on this trajectory? It's a lot more intriguing than when you could
02:01almost just pencil them in as one of the top three teams in the West, and it was just a
02:05matter of how they'll perform in the playoffs. And this is a different, because this is a
02:09different style of team too, than those James Harden led teams were. I think it makes it
02:14a lot more fun. There's a novelty and an intrigue to this team this year that we didn't have
02:18even in the Rockets best.
02:20Yeah. Well, they're there. I mean, they're top 10 offensively and defensively inefficiency
02:24right now. They're not a good shooting team, but they're incredible on the glass. Like
02:28they get a ton of opportunities. They're scrappy. I think is, you know, the, the Rockets actually
02:32were a good defensive team in a couple of those Harden years where the team was really
02:35like that year, they won 65 games. You don't win 65 games without being a good defensive
02:40team. You've got to be a good defensive team, but it's the way this team plays even like
02:43Trevor Ariza would have fit in perfect on this team. You know, he was like, he was a
02:47dog, you know, like Trevor Ariza was, they were more, you know, that team was good defensively.
02:53You know, they were more about defensive efficiency than just like the physicality, the scrappiness.
02:59It's a young team too. Like they fight, it's a style of basketball. It's really easy to
03:03get behind.
03:04I was watching a high school basketball game last night, Sean, and I was, I was going to
03:08text you, but I was too wrapped up in the action because I wanted you to understand
03:13why I might be emotionally drained this morning. The score two minutes into the second quarter
03:19was true to nothing. And it was not because of blisteringly vicious defense. It was a
03:32rough watch man. And I, as I got to thinking about many, many other things while watching
03:38this game, I was like, man, it's nice watching. It's nice to watch the Rockets where it's
03:42genuinely good defense that's causing now. Yes, the shooting could be better, but there,
03:48it's a fun team to watch. It's not, it's not general incompetence. It's keeping the game
03:52going.
03:53Is there a rule in your district that requires the players to play blindfolded for the first
03:57quarter of the game?
03:58It wasn't my idea. I was watching a relative on a stream, but I was trying to pay attention,
04:03you know, and it was my, my relative was not productive. It is because they were packing
04:07the paint against her. It's like, she was just, she, she had three, none, nobody else
04:12could shoot. So yeah, there's, there's a, there's her. And then there's a point guard
04:16that can shoot, but was not shooting well at all. Just missing wide open threes all
04:20the time. She's the best player on the team. It sounds like she's the head of the snake.
04:25It's not a very good team. I mean, it may be a janky snake. She's more of a volleyball
04:29player and she plays basketball for the hell of it. Right. But yeah, so she's not good
04:34enough to overcome. Yeah. It wasn't like she was going to overpower the defenders. Yeah.
04:39It was, it was tough, man. It was tough. It was tough. Think about the age we live in.
04:43They won though. They won. They got down to a, well, the end of the, by the end of the
04:47first half, they were down 12 to four and they came back and won. They started, the
04:53point guard started hitting three.
04:54Honestly, like proportionally, like if it were a regular scoring basketball game, it's
04:59like being down like, like 40 to 14 at the house. No dude. In the second quarter, I was
05:04just emotionally, I was just cheering for both teams. Yeah. I just, anybody, please
05:09entertain me. I have attentional difficulties picturing one of the kids, picturing one of
05:17the kids scoring a bucket and turning to the camera. Are you not entertained? And Seth
05:21going, no, I am not entertained in the slightest. Even, even the team, our team, they were trying
05:29to do a good job. They were, they were moving the ball around the perimeter, but they were
05:32doing it very methodically. So it wasn't even having an effect, which I was happy about
05:36because I'm like, okay, at least they're using the whole shot clock. Fine. Yes, please just
05:40keep it. Anything to keep that ball in bounds. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. Hey, real
05:45quick, the Rockets, Texans parallel that it's coming into this segment and we brought this
05:49up before. There's so many parallels with those two teams going back the last four years
05:54from the arc of the rebuild to, I think the vibe of the head coaches they hired D'Amico
05:59and email joke, I think are cut from similar cloths. I think there's differences between
06:03the two, but I think definitely how they skewed defensively, the two of them, how good they
06:08are at coaching it. All of those things. I also think one of the parallels is they're
06:11going to lead both of these teams to great success the next several years. The same similar
06:16to the, to the Texans though. One of the themes of the Texans is boy, they've really restored
06:19that home field advantage at NRG stadium. Maybe it wasn't reflected in the record. They
06:24were five and three at home, but boy, you watch them and the defense at home, even in
06:28a couple of the losses, really, really good. The Rockets are nine and one at home. I'll
06:32credit Ben DuBose with this stat on Twitter. The Rockets are nine and one at home against
06:38top 10 teams in the NBA by record. They, the only loss they lost to the Celtics. Other
06:44than that one and O against the Thunder two and O against the Grizzlies and the Clippers
06:48and then one and O against the Lakers, Cavs, Knicks and Pacers. This is not a phony two
06:54seed that they are midway through the season. You know, whereas last year when Jalen green
06:58and the team had that big March where they were able to kind of climb back towards finishing
07:03500, but it was against the dregs of the league. Now seven game series is going to be different,
07:09you know, as opposed to one game in January in the regular season, but nine and one at
07:14home against top 10 teams is a big enough sample for me within a season where I go,
07:19I'll be disappointed if this team doesn't have home court advantage in the first round of the
07:23playoffs. If they're not, they're not a top four seed. Yeah. Big difference. Right. Yep. Well,
07:28they got off to that ridiculous stretch early in the season at home too. They were really good at
07:33home early on that, that stacked the deck immediately. Yep. Yep. So that's good, man.
07:37I love, I love that parallel with the, with the Texans. All right.