It was like a roller coaster ride watching them rally from down 25 points to beat the Philadelphia 76ers in overtime Monday night. The 144-137 win over Philly matched the largest comeback win in Rockets franchise history, and they seemed to do it in the most unlikely fashion.
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00:00overtime victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. I mean, it was a wild comeback victory. In fact,
00:07the ties for the largest comeback in franchise history, down 25 points at one point in this.
00:14To the Sixers.
00:16To the Sixers. That's right. 144.
00:17And B was playing though, right?
00:19He was not. He was not.
00:20What about Paul George?
00:21No, no. He's actually out for the season now. Yeah. So, he could go back to his podcast.
00:25Podcast P coming back.
00:28Was Maxie playing?
00:29No, Tyrese Maxie was not playing either. I don't know what he's up to.
00:33Man.
00:33Yeah.
00:34Houston legend.
00:35Yeah.
00:35Quentin Rhimes.
00:36Dude.
00:37Decided to get out here and solidify his next paycheck with 46 points in this thing.
00:42Yeah.
00:43I mean, look, like I said, you were down 25 points at one point. This is the largest
00:49kind of largest comeback from a deficit in the second half in franchise history, being down 25.
00:55There was various other instances in which this was like a special comeback
00:59for the Houston Rockets. But here, I would like to ask this question and pose it as this.
01:05Was that a scrappy victory or was it an unflattering struggle?
01:10It seems like a lot of people are here for the scrappy victory on the YouTube again.
01:14Scrappy victory, huh?
01:15Somebody said, let's talk Rockets. What a hell of a game.
01:18Of course, Sean's gonna say.
01:18Most exciting of the year.
01:20Of course, Sean's gonna raise his hand.
01:21Yeah. Sean is here for scrappy.
01:23Like the grit they show.
01:24Grit.
01:25They show grit.
01:25Grit.
01:27Yeah.
01:27What kind of metal they showed?
01:29I mean, they had to find a way to get themselves over time and then they went and they won.
01:35It just a real scrappy, unflattering struggle for me.
01:40I'll put it this way. Let's have a better day than I had a time going to sleep last night after
01:45watching that thing. I don't know what to think. Like, seriously, I was infuriated.
01:51It was, I felt like they got lucky.
01:54It was, I was a little bit inspired by the way they played with the small lineup and came back.
02:00I was exhausted.
02:03It was awful.
02:04When was the moment where you just got upset with this game?
02:07Don't ask me.
02:08About five minutes in.
02:08I was like, don't ask me. Y'all see the text.
02:11I was mad at the start.
02:12About five minutes in.
02:14And to be fair, there was reason to be mad. They lost the first quarter 44 to 28.
02:18Yeah.
02:19They gave up 78 points in the first half.
02:23They choked out defensively.
02:25And see, that was all bad.
02:26I think I got, I was fine once they, you know, tied the game, took the lead and all that stuff.
02:32I got upset once.
02:34I think it was Tari Eason who just got thrown.
02:36I think he got fouled out and then got a technical foul on the way out.
02:40That's right.
02:41That's, that's what set me over.
02:43Take that with you.
02:45I'm just like, bro, you out the game, man.
02:48You caused your team points.
02:50Because he wanted to talk at Quentin Grimes, who was talking at him.
02:52Yeah.
02:53Um, that was one of the frustrating things for me.
02:55Like, and I mentioned this in our text, which was very, very, uh, hopping, uh, last night.
03:01And I, I'll take responsibility because y'all was just chilling.
03:04And I was just sitting there throwing up text story.
03:06Y'all felt like y'all had to respond back.
03:07I appreciate you doing that.
03:08It was infuriating.
03:09By the time I got to the game, I'm like, all right, I see what you, I see what's going on here.
03:13Them boys lost their heads.
03:15Like, and that's one of the frustrating for me is just the idea that they could
03:21lose their head in a situation where they absolutely should be a lot better.
03:25Um, but I mean, the first and foremost is just,
03:29they did not look like they wanted to play in the first.
03:31That's it.
03:32That's, that was the, that was the infuriating thing.
03:34Uh, I, I just, uh, they, they checked out, they, they weren't into the game.
03:39Uh, and then people were like, oh, and in fact, we just got a text along these same lines.
03:44Wow.
03:44The Sixers couldn't miss dude.
03:46They shot 63% at one point in the first half.
03:50That's not, that's not, they can't miss that.
03:52Basketball Lopez coming through.
03:53Come on coach.
03:54What you got for me?
03:54That's horrible defense.
03:56You can't give up six, 63% should be what your center makes, you know, uh, around the rim.
04:01That might be, which, which if I want to be a real jerk, I'll be, be having trouble making
04:0660% from around the room, but that's neither here nor there.
04:09You can say, oh, they just couldn't miss.
04:10Why were they not missing anything?
04:12Wide open shots, lazy defense, not getting around screens, going over a screen when they
04:19should go under, going under a screen when they should go over, not closing in the corners,
04:24not closing at all in the lane.
04:25See, here's the thing you talk about coaching.
04:27All right.
04:27So I'm not, I'm not a great coach, but I, I play one.
04:30No, no, how many times did you see the Sixers get to the lane and, and the, the, the Rockets
04:37defender was closing closer to the rim, then closer to the player.
04:41Like when you close in the lane, you're supposed to go to the player, you know, not let the
04:45player come to you.
04:46Otherwise it's an easier shot.
04:47I mean, it was just, it was just so infuriating, but they won.
04:52So that's what I'm saying.
04:53Like I was just going back and forth.
04:54I don't know what to think of it.
04:55I thought it was a good making the game and all that stuff.
05:00I just got a little frustrated with it.
05:02Seemed like people was losing their minds a little bit where I'm like, man, y'all gotta
05:05focus, man.
05:06Because once you get in the playoffs, you can't do that type of stuff.
05:10Otherwise the series is over.
05:12Right.
05:13I mean, it's interesting to see kind of the gamut of folks here on the text line.
05:17I mean, early on, we're like, Hey, you know, they're looking at the idea of 8-3-2, don't
05:21blame the Rockets, the NBA.
05:22They were hitting every shot, right?
05:24They're going to the make or miss league level of this.
05:26And from the 8-3-2, Lopez, they hit 15 threes in the first half.
05:30Basically as a, but yes, I don't think that's, I don't think that's one of those things where
05:34you go, well, make or miss league, because what Lopez is talking about there, I completely
05:38agree is you were allowing them to have all those shots.
05:41Now, of course, like again, 78 points doesn't happen by accident in this league.
05:44And I don't think you can just write that off.
05:46Like, yes, they were shooting at an above average rate for themselves and for pretty
05:51much any team in the league, but that does not happen in a vacuum.
05:55And one of the things, and I will actually put this man out by name because I also have
05:59a lot of praise for him over the last couple of weeks, over the last month or so.
06:04Jalen Green really frustrated me in this game.
06:06And it's because he's been so much better as a player.
06:09Now, I will start this by mentioning he tweaked his ankle early in this game and you could
06:13see him grimacing.
06:13And I can tell that that was something that was stopping him.
06:15But I don't know if this was the reason why he shut off a lot of times.
06:20Like I'm talking about not keeping assignment, blowbys consistently straight by him and,
06:26you know, not closing out well.
06:29I thought that that was for him in particular, especially as a dude who had to be a leader
06:34in this game and, you know, being a lot of a lot of a creator at points in this game,
06:40which he did fairly well, 13 assists in this one.
06:44Like, I think that with all of that, the thing that frustrated me the most is like, it's
06:48the effort.
06:49It's the attention to detail.
06:50It's the focus that this team loses at times.
06:52And that's been the frustration for me because that has been the calling card for the team.
06:56That is what Imei Odoka has set as the standard and set as the identity for this team is,
07:02look, we may not be the best shooters on volume or on on efficiency.
07:06We may not even like we may not necessarily be the tallest in all these aspects.
07:13And, you know, we may not have the best player necessarily.
07:16But one thing we're going to do, we're going to outwork you when it comes to rebounds.
07:19We're going to we're going to defend our keysters.
07:21Well, that's that's those are things that they did not do all that well.
07:26Now they did rebound.
07:26Don't get me wrong.
07:27They did rebound in this game.
07:28But the defense was not and it wasn't just we're getting beat.
07:33And even if it was like if you're getting beat by and again, all credit to Quentin Marshall
07:38Grimes, like you should he shouldn't be straight line driving past you guys.
07:42Exactly.
07:42Like you should not they should not be swinging the ball better than you swing the ball on
07:47offense.
07:47They should not look like the better offense when they're starting.
07:50Are you familiar with the Justin Edwards?
07:52Yeah, exactly.
07:53Do you know what a Jared Butler is?
07:55Have you heard of Ricky Council the fourth?
07:59These are the starters for the third or fourth.
08:02Look, there are there are games where, you know, wild things happen.
08:06And I understand that this was one of those wild things games, but you aided and abetted
08:09it at every turn for at least the first half of basketball.
08:12And that was a deeply frustrating thing for me, especially for a team that currently sit.
08:17To second pushing to the off and really this is this is part of who you are.
08:22And those are the things that you need to make sure that you have right, especially
08:25going and playing against better teams who will make to take advantage of that and not
08:29allow you to come back and beat them.
08:31And you mentioned playoffs, and that's why I'm so conflicted about this squad.
08:34Now, you know, just over the last three games, I said it yesterday.
08:37We talked about it.
08:38You know, I was feeling pretty good about how they were kind of finding themselves a
08:41template, a path to how they can win games.
08:45But it still hinges on what they can do defensively.
08:48And then the other thing is the rotation got a little interesting last night.
08:53And how does that play out now?
08:55You know, what are other teams going to do to you when when you try to go small?
08:59You know, other teams are going to be deeper and better around the rim with some bigger
09:03guys that can run and pass than the Sixers were last night.
09:07And that's how you got back in the game with the small lineup.
09:10And so and Shingun, your best player sitting all this time.
09:14You know, Shingun goes out about midway through the third quarter and does not play again
09:19until the very last play in in regulation.
09:24In fact, that play, which I want to talk about that here because we've been hard.
09:29We've been very hard.
09:30I haven't I won't go this far, though, from the 2-8-1 where they say Rockets are frauds.
09:33Yeah, I'm not doing all of that.
09:35But I will bring this up when it came time after you have Jabari Smith Jr.
09:41deciding to be like an aggressor and a really good player that I need to remember to come
09:45back to because I got to give Bari his praise.
09:48I thought he was incredible.
09:49And we'll circle back around to that.
09:50You get to a point where you are down three points at the free throw line.
09:55You make the first.
09:58And I like you to miss the second because you're down.
10:01I mean, you're down to there's not enough time seconds, three seconds on the clock.
10:05Jabari Smith Jr. at the free throw line.
10:07This happens.
10:25The only time in this game, mind you, where you had the double big lineup was you brought
10:29in Alperin and and your guy.
10:32Let me tell you something.
10:34Steven Adams.
10:35Steven Adams to get rebounds.
10:36Really made that play.
10:38If you go back and look at the replay, I would encourage people to do it.
10:41He grabbed.
10:42He hooked one dude that was closer to the rim under his arm and pushed the other guy.
10:47He took two players.
10:48Are you accusing him?
10:50No.
10:50Of holding?
10:51No, it was perfect.
10:51It was beautiful.
10:53Like he is fast becoming just like I love that guy.
10:57I mean, he took two players out, created the space for Shingun to just to tap it back in
11:03with both hands.
11:04Both those guys were huge.
11:06That was an enormous, enormous play by both of them.
11:08Yeah.
11:08Let's hear Jabari Smith Jr. talking about how just how that play came together.
11:13So take a whisper to me.
11:15Miss it.
11:15I look at the e-mail to make sure I'm not what you told me to miss it.
11:19Perfect.
11:20Miss in my opinion.
11:20Hit the back around.
11:22Came right to Alby.
11:23He came in ready to play.
11:24Didn't play much in the regulation, but came in right now.
11:27Overtime and won us the game.
11:29And of course, I was Space City.
11:30Vanessa Richardson asking that.
11:32But it was it was beautiful to watch.
11:35One of my all time five key, rarely seen type plays.
11:40That'll come back up.
11:44But I'm still kind of I went to bed like last night and kind of like thinking like,
11:48how do I feel about that?
11:50It was just so back and forth.
11:52That was another.
11:52That was another thing to feel kind of conflicted on.
11:54When you have Alpern Shingun come in at the very end, very quickly established the size
11:59disparity that he was able to provide, considering that.
12:02I mean, the Sixers were really small in all of that game.
12:06You bring in Alpern and he boxes out cleanly his guy and gets an easy rebound like that
12:11one was one of the easier rebounds I've seen Alpern have to bring down.
12:14Absolutely.
12:15Puts it back up.
12:15And then an overtime proceeds to just put dudes into the basket with his size, which
12:20did raise the question.
12:22Why did Alpern Shingun not make his way back into that game for a quarter and a half of
12:27basketball towards the end?
12:28Now, I think that some of the answer was they were they were leaning on the hot hand.
12:33That was Jabari Smith, Jr.
12:34For a period of time because he created a run.
12:36He was incredibly aggressive in a way that I love.
12:38Like there's there's a night.
12:40There's a very clear night and day effect when Jabari Smith, Jr.
12:43Is aggressive with the basketball.
12:45Yeah.
12:46And sometimes where he's like he's he's prioritized with the basketball than where he's
12:50passive and maybe kind of asked to just kind of play the background.
12:54But I thought there was a point where that slowed down where I was like, okay, you can
12:57get Alpern back in now that you're not getting the full effect of just Jabari going mayhem
13:02and you can get that size advantage.
13:03But I do wonder how much how much of that is a concern about his ability to like defend
13:08on the perimeter and those types of things.
13:10Yeah, no, it was a thought that I had as well.
13:12Jabari Smith, Jr., you know, the talent we know.
13:15I went back.
13:18Speaking to and looked at plus minus.
13:20It's a yo-yo, man.
13:21I mean, it's just just this month.
13:24He's gone minus 17 minus 7 plus 21 minus 9 plus 22.
13:30I mean, it's wild.
13:31And that speaks to what you're talking about on the text line from the 832 dog and Jalen
13:36Brent Green.
13:36But he's the one that got the steal to help go to overtime.
13:39He sure did.
13:40And that's the thing is, I don't I don't think that we have to make this flat.
13:44Jalen Green in that game had some really phenomenal things.
13:47I think one of the things that I've really enjoyed about watching Jalen over the last
13:50few weeks, at least, and maybe dating it back a little further, you're seeing his blinders
13:55come off as a guard.
13:56He came to his league as a scorer.
13:58And I mean, you can still see it within him.
14:00His ability to get to the rack is kind of incredible.
14:02His ability to kind of knock down tough shots is continuing to grow even.
14:07And you're seeing him find a little bit more of that peripheral vision when he gets downhill,
14:12knowing I am collapsing the defense.
14:14I can kick this out.
14:15And you saw that in this game.
14:16There was, again, evidenced by 13 assists.
14:19You don't have to go very far to see that.
14:21But at the same time, I can talk about the fact that he was not giving good effort defensively
14:26to start in the first half.
14:27Absolutely.
14:28He came back around.
14:28And of course, I also mentioned he did tweak his ankle.
14:31It's very evident.
14:31So I'm sure that that factored into some degree.
14:34But that's that's going to be hoop, especially if you're going to be one of the best players
14:37on this team.
14:39I don't I don't I'm not going to knock him for some of the natural things that he's going
14:43to have a little bit of a tough time with.
14:45But controlling your temperament, controlling the way that you try and go about this, I
14:49think that matters.
14:50And I was I was disappointed is probably more the way to say.
14:52And it wasn't just him.
14:53He was just he typified that because he was not alone out there.
14:56They didn't score 78.
14:59That was the thing that was disappointing.
15:01I feel like the good things in this game, which I want to continue talking about, because
15:04the Rockets get a win.
15:05They go to 7 and 0 on this stretch of games that they needed to win without a man Thompson,
15:10who a lot of people are looking at as one of, if not the best player on this team.
15:14Like they did some really good things in this stretch.
15:17But I feel like the good things are things that the grittiness, the scrappiness, the
15:21things that we've started to already establish for this team.
15:24The downsides here.
15:26Those are the ones that I'm like, you can't you can't carry those for like those can't
15:29stick with you.
15:30And those are the those are more concerning.
15:32Those way a little heavier with me than a grittiness that we already knew of this team
15:36that they had established over months on this season thus far.
15:40All right.
15:40You're in the loop right here on Sports Radio 16.
15:42They said Reggie.
15:42He's also getting double-team most games when you're talking about Jabari.
15:46Or not Jabari rather.
15:47Are we talking Albert in there?
15:48Jalen.
15:49Are we talking Jalen or trapped off the pick role?
15:51Is that Jalen Green?
15:52Yeah, I think that there's absolutely credit to be given there and he's finding ways to
15:55navigate those things.
15:56But I'm not going to I'm not going to pull punches here for him because I think that
16:00these are places where we're like and I don't even know if that's a growth proposition that
16:04that's just one of those.
16:05You got to remain locked in, man.
16:06Like if you want to win games, these are the things that really great players do.
16:10And if you have he has the capability of being a great player.
16:12Those are the things you have to lock in on, especially against a team that had no business
16:16being in the game.
16:17But at the very least, you could say got the dub, right?
16:19You got the dub, right?
16:20You the negative things showed and those are things that they still need to address.
16:23But I'd rather you have to address those with the W in this instance than with the now.
16:27All right.
16:28You're in the loop right here on Sports Radio 16.