Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast react to and assess Brian Windhorst saying the Warriors are the REAL 2 seed in the West. Yet the Rockets beat the Warriors, so how does that make sense?
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00:00It was a really good weekend for basketball in the city of Houston.
00:04Cougs will be playing in the finals tonight.
00:06You're going to hear that game right here on Sports Radio 610, by the way.
00:09We will be carrying the game tonight between the Cougs and the Florida Gators.
00:137.50 p.m. tip, which I'm sure people on the East Coast are thrilled about.
00:17Game starts at about 9 o'clock at night for people on the East Coast.
00:20That's typical, though.
00:21That's a complaint every year that they have.
00:23I would say it's dumb.
00:24Sorry, you'll be a little bit sleep-deprived before you get up and do all your cocaine
00:28and go help tank the markets.
00:30That's right.
00:31Sorry.
00:32Sorry.
00:33Wall Street type.
00:34That's true.
00:35I should be bitter at the East Coast right now.
00:36Yeah, I would say it's stupid, except they do it every year.
00:38I'm sure there's market research that says that's the right time to start the game.
00:42So that'll be tonight.
00:43We'll have that for you here on Sports Radio 610.
00:46Okay, so the big complaint with the Rockets amidst a streak in which they've now won 15
00:51of 17.
00:53The big complaint that people had about this streak, maybe outside the Houston fan base,
00:57maybe even some within the Rockets, skeptics within the Rockets fan base, Seth, would say,
01:02we'll beat somebody good and then we'll be impressed by this.
01:07Ignoring the fact that they beat a lot of good teams earlier this year.
01:09They beat Cleveland twice in like a three-day span.
01:12They beat the Celtics in Boston.
01:16They beat several other good teams during the season.
01:18They had a record at one point this season where against the top teams in the NBA record-wise,
01:24their record was like 12-4.
01:26They'd beaten good teams, but they had a stretch where they weren't beating good teams
01:29or anybody.
01:30They had a six-game losing streak.
01:32And then the schedule maker, Rockets can't control this, they had a stretch where they
01:34played a bunch of sad sack teams and they took care of their business.
01:39So now if you're one of those people that is complaining that the Rockets haven't beaten
01:43good teams, can I interest you in a 125-111 victory over the Thunder on Friday in which
01:49they led throughout most of that game?
01:53And then last night, a victory in San Francisco over a Warriors team that had their full complement
01:59of guys.
02:00Their big three are Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green.
02:04And they all played like crap.
02:05I mean, Steph Curry really played like crap.
02:08He scored three points in the entire game.
02:10The only bucket he scored was some circus shot with like two seconds left in the half.
02:15That was it for the night.
02:16And Steph Curry has been on a heater lately.
02:19He scored 52 points a few days ago.
02:21He's been on one right now.
02:23He scored over 30 points in like the last four or five games.
02:25They went through the stats on the broadcast.
02:27So are we convinced now?
02:30Is this good enough for those of you out there who say, I need to see them beat good teams?
02:34This is two dominating wins, one over the best team in the Western Conference, a team
02:39that was still mathematically in the mix to win 70 games this year.
02:44And then the Warriors who, I don't know, according to Brian Windhorst, he says on Friday this
02:48week that they're basically, hey, I know they're the six seed, but they're basically the number
02:53two seed.
02:54I have been arguing, Pelton, and you feel free to disagree with me, that the Warriors
02:58are truly the number two seed.
03:00Now the Rockets fans would have to rock, have been great over the last month.
03:04But if you look at the Rockets schedule, it hasn't, it diminishes a little bit for me,
03:09but I certainly respect the Rockets.
03:11But the truth is, is that there's not that much of a difference between teams that are
03:14second and teams that are eighth.
03:16Oh, okay.
03:17All right.
03:18So that was, that was recorded before the Rockets beat the Warriors 106 to 90 last night
03:23and held Steph Curry to one for 10 from the field, Draymond Green, one for five from the
03:28field and losing his mind, by the way, in the process, Draymond, Draymond was absurd
03:32last night.
03:33Draymond was just doing that classic thing you do where you, you almost wonder how is
03:37this guy still in the league even because he just gets away with this.
03:42He's set the bar so low for expectations, for his stance, for, for his behavior that
03:47almost like Draymond has to go above and beyond what would normally get a guy ejected
03:52or suspended because they, they just allow it.
03:55They've just allowed this to continue and fester.
03:57It was unbelievable.
03:58They've had this boil on their butt from, for years and they haven't gotten it checked
04:02out.
04:03I am watching his act last night.
04:04Like he's burying, he's, he's planting a forearm in Alperin Shengoon's chest on an inbounds
04:09play.
04:10And yet basically yelling at the referees, daring him, daring them to give him a technical.
04:15And then finally he just flat out shoves Shengoon with a forearm, they tee him up.
04:19He goes running over to the ref and starts clapping right in his face.
04:22Right.
04:23I'm going, if anybody, if anybody else did this, that's a second technical and you're
04:27gone and they're letting him run around like a four year old.
04:30Like it just did, like it, it's, it's really incredible.
04:33The sliding skill that Draymond has for what he's allowed to get away with.
04:36It's incredible.
04:37Um, but it was good to see the, the Rockets take that, uh, punch in the woodshed.
04:44I mean for the, for the vast duration of the time they've been the number two seed, people
04:49have just put an asterisk there and they've said, well, this, well that, and what it really
04:53all boils down to is they don't look like I like my NBA teams to look, I just, uh, sorry
04:59about it.
05:00I need to have a two stars that I can point to and they, I, I don't care about your rebounding.
05:08I don't care about your defense.
05:10The Rockets were number three defense in the league in the month of March, by the way.
05:13Um, and they, it's a, it's an aesthetic thing as much as it is anything else.
05:18And then also the fact that the Rockets just, they still have to prove it.
05:22Yes.
05:23Yeah.
05:24They're, they're a little like the Cougs in that way.
05:25Calvin Sampson said that after the game, I think he may have even said it in the cut
05:28that we played, like, but they don't, they don't, the Cougs don't do it in a way that
05:32is aesthetically pleasing to people.
05:34It's maybe not the style of basketball that the casual fan sits down and wants to watch
05:38because they do it with grit.
05:40They do it with crashing the boards.
05:41They're not, they're not a great offensive team, although the Cougs probably shoot it
05:45better than the Rockets too.
05:46They've got guys that can knock it down from three, but they're very similar in there.
05:51They're very similar culturally.
05:52I think they're very similar in that they, that their, their superpower is just grit
05:58and getting it done at the defensive end and on the glass and, and yeah.
06:02And so I think the question with the Rockets is, does that hold up when it becomes much
06:07more of a half court game in the post-season?
06:09Cause the Rockets are not a good half court with Fred Van Vliet or no Fred Van Vliet.
06:13This is not a good half court offensive team.
06:15A lot of ISO, a lot of jump, you know, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of low percentage shots,
06:20but they make up for it and they make for it at the other end of the floor.
06:24Is that a formula that's going to beat good team?
06:26It was a formula to beat good teams this weekend.
06:28Like a drum.
06:29They beat both of these teams very soundly over the weekend.
06:31And I think the question is, okay, how does it fare over a seven game series or a five
06:36game series?
06:38And usually, okay, the better teams or the more talented teams, they step it up the proverbial
06:43notch in the post-season and they start to get a beat on what you can and can't do.
06:48But I think the thing that counteracts that is if you're a team that can genuinely sustain
06:52that kind of energy and effort over the course of five to seven games to where you just don't,
06:57you don't burst at the seams or you just, at some point you don't just fall under the
07:02weight of all your own effort.
07:03And I think the Rockets potentially might have that.
07:05The Cougs obviously certainly proved that they do have that.
07:09It's just, can you do it over the course of a series?
07:11You have to be special.
07:12It's not enough to be just really good at steals or really good at rebounding or really
07:18good at defense.
07:19You got to be able to sustain that throughout an entire series versus talented teams.
07:24And I think they've shown more and more that whatever the glitches they had with playing
07:28back-to-back games on the road, the youth that they have, I think they've grown and
07:32matured in a lot of ways.
07:34And I'm, yeah, I'm feeling way more confident that this brand of basketball can sustain
07:38in the playoffs more so than I would have been, let's say, even if you get rid of the
07:44lull there in February, just even if you got rid of that, I still wouldn't have been as
07:50confident about it, let's say at the end of 2024 as I am right now.
07:54Yeah.
07:55I think the big things are, does the, does the style of play hold up?
08:00And then, you know, when you need baskets, is Jalen green going to be a guy that can
08:04go get you buckets at the end of the game?
08:06Cause that's probably going to be the guy they're leaning on to get offense.
08:09He was great last night.
08:10You know, he was a huge part of them burying the warriors in the second half of that game.
08:16Text message, Jim Adler, the Texas hammer text line, the referees treat Draymond like
08:21the town idiot that just has wacky behavior running around the middle of the town and
08:27people just ignore him.
08:29That's true.
08:30It becomes almost just a fixture to where people that are, there is a little, very much
08:34of a, of a small town vibe to that, to where there's, there's some crazy guy that everybody
08:40knows he's crazy, but by and large, he's except usually in the small town, it's not a violent
08:45person.
08:46It's just the guy that, all right, every now and then he doesn't wear his pants and that's,
08:52that's Carl.
08:53What are you going to do about Carl?
08:55He's largely harmless or he's just going to, all right, he's kind of lingering over that
09:00woman and you're like, yeah, I know, but he's, she's known him since high school and she
09:03knows he's harmless.
09:04She does.
09:05It doesn't bother her.
09:06Yeah.
09:07Except that this, in this instance, Carl will push it too far.
09:10Yes.
09:11Yeah.
09:12Yeah.
09:13Carl will, will, you know, make physical contact.
09:15Yeah.
09:16Yeah.
09:17When, when that point, Carl needs to disappear.
09:18That's right.
09:19That's the beauty of a small town.
09:20Somebody can disappear and nobody asks too many questions.
09:23The town's referee can kick Carl out of the town at some point.
09:28Yes.
09:29Yeah.
09:30Yeah.
09:31Carl's not just every 10 minutes.
09:32Bury him in a swamp is more what I was thinking.
09:33Every 10 minutes screaming the word, the government just for no reason.
09:37Yeah.
09:38Yeah.
09:39Exactly.
09:40Yeah.
09:41Um, so, um, so the Rockets get the win last night, the, uh, we're getting some texts about
09:44the Cougs too.
09:45People are fired up.
09:46Tweak my knipple champagne and ripple sales coach triple took my teenage sons.
09:52I don't even know what that means.
09:53I don't know.
09:54But took my teenage sons to the game Saturday.
09:55Wow.
09:56Just wow.
09:57Yeah.
09:58Cougs repped out, man.
09:59There were a lot of Cougs there on, uh, on Saturday.
10:00No, it was, uh, it was a great environment and, uh, Hakeem was there obviously a moment
10:06at the end where a large one wasn't allowed up onto the, I was going to say, did you see
10:09that?
10:10That was crazy.
10:11Yeah.
10:12Yeah.
10:13Yeah.
10:14Yeah.
10:15Hakeem Olajuwon, the greatest legend in the history of the program wanted to go up and
10:17celebrate with the team on the dais up there.
10:20Some security guys like, Nope, sorry, but I'm Hakeem Olajuwon.
10:24I'm sorry, sir.
10:25You're going to have to stay down here with the people.
10:28Got some little, something we call rules and regs around these parts.
10:31That was, I feel, I saw a lot of people saying, how does that guy not know who Olajuwon is?
10:36And I think, no, remember this is in San Antonio.
10:39I think they knew exactly who Olajuwon is.
10:42That's right.
10:43That's some, that's some dude that's trying to stick up for David Robinson somehow.
10:47That's it.
10:48That's a really good point.
10:50That's, that's a, that is a, that is good, man.
10:51The last time the Cougs were at this stage, Olajuwon was a college basketball player,
10:5640 years, 41 years into Georgetown and Patrick Ewing.
11:00That was, I know.
11:01And that was another part when I saw people saying, how does that guy not know who Hakeem
11:04Olajuwon was?
11:05I was, I had to be real and be like, listen, listen, fellas, we're getting up there in
11:09years.
11:10Okay.
11:11Probably a lot of people in their twenties that don't know who Hakeem Olajuwon is.
11:13I was going to say, this guy's like 33 years old or younger.
11:17And he may not fully know, he may have heard of Hakeem Olajuwon, but wouldn't know if he
11:22was on stage there.
11:23It's a good point.
11:24It's a good point.