The Rockets did not have enough offense to get past the Warriors, finishing with less than 90 points for the second game of the series.
Payne & Pendergast react to the Game 7 loss.
Payne & Pendergast react to the Game 7 loss.
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00:00That was, oh, I just, I was perfectly willing and ready to accept the loss in Game 7.
00:08I didn't expect the Rockets to be down by 10 early in the game while Steph Curry was over on the night.
00:16I somehow, like an idiot, I had let the Warriors lull me into a sense of complacency over the last couple games,
00:25over games 5 and 6, into thinking that Buddy Heald couldn't show up as Klay Thompson reincarnated.
00:35It was the catch and shoot.
00:37And also, I think I'm going to take more of a break on Udoka than some people are right now,
00:43just because clearly you've got to give credit to Kerr for making the adjustments,
00:49realizing that the Rockets and their big men were giving you this hassle,
00:53making Looney somehow an important factor in this game.
00:57But also, I'm still left wondering, okay, what exactly is Udoka supposed to do when this team has no shooters on it?
01:03The offense desperately needs more ball movement.
01:07They just, they need cutters.
01:09They need to be a better offense.
01:10But they don't, I'm sitting here saying, after the first round of the playoffs,
01:15they don't have a Buddy Heald on their team.
01:17Yeah.
01:18And I don't know what Udoka's supposed to do about it.
01:20Yeah, well, and that'll be a big theme of the show today.
01:23It'll be the offseason for sure.
01:24I mean, they've got to find some shooting.
01:27And I don't know that it exists.
01:29Well, it might exist on the roster, but Reed Shepard is rotting over there
01:32while he learns how to be a professional basketball player.
01:35You know, they've got guys that can shoot.
01:37But we're talking something more high level than, okay, maybe our third overall pick from last year
01:42evolves into something for us.
01:43Well, and Sean, you look at what could have happened last night.
01:46What did the Warriors do?
01:47They said, hey, man, Fred VanVleet's been killing us.
01:49We've got to give Fred VanVleet the treatment.
01:52We've got to just focus our energies on him.
01:54And let's see.
01:55Oh, no Gary Payton in the game.
01:56How on earth are you going to defend Jalen Green?
01:59Oh, Jalen Green will do it himself.
02:02He's just not going to show up.
02:05He's just going to.
02:07I see some people actually upset.
02:12Why on earth would you be upset with that?
02:14No.
02:14He was a big zero last night.
02:16He's a big zero for a lot of the series.
02:17No, I was more, I was the other way.
02:20Like when he would come back in in the fourth quarter, I'm like, okay, why are we doing
02:23this?
02:23I thought it was, it was really interesting.
02:25We'll have some audio from Draymond Green a little bit later on in the show.
02:28I'm just kind of pulling together some of the audio from last night after the game.
02:32But Draymond Green, very, very complimentary of the Rockets last night in his post-game availability.
02:39And it was funny.
02:40He singled out Jabari Smith Jr. as one of the players that like really impressed him.
02:45And Jabari was one of the ones where I thought like, I'd have given him more minutes in this
02:49series.
02:49I'd have given, taken some of Jalen's minutes and given, and in one game they did.
02:53You know, they took, you know, Jalen was on the bench at the end of that really close
02:56game in game four, I think it was.
02:58So I think, look, I look, as far as last night goes, they picked a really bad time to have
03:04their worst offensive game in the building where they played more comfortable offensively
03:08in this series at home.
03:10They, they looked, they looked lost out there.
03:13They, you know, I don't know if the stats back up that this was their worst offensive
03:16game.
03:17No, it wasn't their worst offensive game, but they shot 40% from the field and they were
03:20horrible in the paint.
03:21Well, I mean, the, the, the Warriors were better from three than the Rockets were in the
03:25paint.
03:25Well, this, but this is why I say it was their worst offensive game.
03:27They weren't even getting threes in the game last night.
03:29Like they weren't even, the Warriors are making, you know, seven threes in the first quarter.
03:34I think the Rockets took two.
03:36And that's what I mean.
03:37Like I know the percentages are what they are and the Rockets made a bunch of shots in garbage
03:41time that, that probably skewed things a little bit.
03:44This was a horrible game.
03:45I mean, they're still in the seventies and midway through the, through the fourth quarter of a
03:49game seven at games.
03:52Are you, it's looked like you took the life out of the Warriors in those two games.
03:56I mean, every, the same people that were completely dismissing the Rockets, both going into this
04:01series and they were down three to one, we're picking them last night.
04:03Like they were like, they were the Warriors of the 25th, you know, the, the 20 teens.
04:08And, and so that's, that's why I say it was their worst offensive game.
04:11I'm just talking aesthetics.
04:13There were, they weren't getting any good shots.
04:15The good shots they were getting, they were missing.
04:17Alper and Shang-Goon had a good series.
04:19I'm not here to these graphics where they're putting Shang-Goon's face next to Larry Bird
04:24and saying, these are the only two to ever do this, this, and this.
04:27I guess that's true.
04:29I mean, there's just counting stats that you're giving me here.
04:31Alper and Shang-Goon offensively was not a good player in this series.
04:34He was, he was good defensively.
04:36He's improved defensively.
04:37He himself, after the game said he needs to improve offensively.
04:41Right.
04:42Yeah.
04:42This is one of those days where you could actually use, if you just rephrase Shang-Goon's
04:46quotes a little bit, you're going to get 29 people from Turkey, uh, attacking you because
04:51you're criticizing Alper and Shang-Goon.
04:53He said this, not me.
04:55But, but this is where I am with Alper and Shang-Goon because I know that you've gotten very
04:58frustrated and disgusted with Shang-Goon because almost because you feel like people are giving
05:02him too much credit.
05:03I can see, I will make the 22-year-old excuse for Alper and Shang-Goon.
05:08For one, I mean, yes, he has criticized himself and he needs to make improvements offensively,
05:13but also when there's just no spacing and everything is all cluttered up and the Warriors are playing
05:18that zone and they don't have the offense where Alper and Shang-Goon can find the open
05:24shooter or what have you, they're just stagnant.
05:27There's only so much he can do at this moment.
05:32The problem with Jalen Green is that he had every opportunity and there, and even, listen,
05:38when you're paying somebody $35 million a year, it doesn't excuse, getting blitzed and getting
05:44double teamed doesn't excuse scoring in the single digits.
05:47Right.
05:48That's not, like, yeah, you know what really good players do?
05:51They still produce, they still find ways to make the offense go.
05:54So it doesn't excuse that whatsoever, but Shang-Goon has a pulse and Jalen Green in six of the
06:01games in this series just didn't have a pulse.
06:02Yeah.
06:03Yeah.
06:03Yeah.
06:03No, Shang-Goon, you're absolutely right.
06:05Like that, there's a level to where you go, well, they're just young.
06:08You know, Alper and Shang-Goon, that you're right.
06:11That he had a series where you go, okay, he, he'll be, and he's going against Draymond
06:14Green.
06:14And you and I have, you and I have, have, have taken our shots at Draymond Green in
06:18this series offensively, defensively.
06:21He's still very good.
06:22He was excellent last night.
06:23Yeah.
06:24Shang-Goon, the three guys that really matter in terms of, okay, they're young and this
06:28is going to get better or if they're going to be on this team moving forward.
06:31And that's a whole nother conversation are Jalen Green, Alper and Shang-Goon, and I'm
06:35in Thompson, I'm in Thompson.
06:37By the end of the series, look like I'm in from the regular season.
06:39He was fine.
06:40Other than the calf injury, he was fine.
06:42And Alper and Shang-Goon, yeah, did enough at both ends of the floor.
06:45I'm like, all right, he just, he needs, if Alper and Shang-Goon just made the easy shots
06:50that he's creating for himself, he would be fine.
06:53Jalen was a disaster.
06:54The whole, other than game two, he scored 38 points in game two and he scored 55 in
07:00the other six games combined.
07:02Like he was, he was a mess this whole series.
07:05I mean, you talk about the difference in how do you feel about this young player and how
07:09many excuses are you going to give him?
07:12Thompson was not himself, games one through four.
07:16And then all of a sudden, games five, six, seven.
07:18Oh, I mean, you talk about the difference in pulse.
07:21Like Jalen Green's dead on arrival.
07:24Almond Thompson is out there breaking stethoscopes with his incredibly strong pulse.
07:30Yes.
07:30The doctor's hand, he's spraying the doctor's hand as he held the stethoscope to his chest.
07:34He's got a wrap on his wrist after taking his pulse.
07:37They're out there, they're in the, they're in the, they're in the doctor's office saying,
07:40all right, who's going to go in there and take his pulse?
07:42And they're all like, they've all got that, that Jalen Green look in their eyes.
07:45Like, oh, I don't want to go in there.
07:48Yeah.
07:48It's, it's going to be, we're going to get a ton of texts today about what they need to
07:51do this off season.
07:53Hey, we're getting, I think this is just one person continually sending this text.
07:56Appreciate you being up early this morning with us, Texter.
07:59Game seven at home with momentum.
08:02Rockets are frauds.
08:03Didn't even show up for game seven.
08:05Rockets are frauds.
08:06I can't wait to see how else you, I don't think they're frauds.
08:08I just think they're a, they're a, they're a young team who, um, who has some growing to
08:13do.
08:13If this were a football team, Seth, if this were a football team, the offensive coordinator
08:17would be getting fired today.
08:19That's how I feel about this team.
08:21That's, that's how I feel about this team.
08:22They need, yes, they need shooters.
08:24There is no excuse to look as discombobulated as they do offensively.
08:29Even against a good Warriors team for throughout 48 minutes.
08:32Like there's nothing easy that they get on offense.
08:36Like their best offensive games were because Fred Van Vliet was unconscious.
08:40Games five and six were their best offensive, well, really four, five, and six were their
08:44best offensive games.
08:45Well, how did they do it?
08:46Fred Van Vliet shot like he was like, he, he showed up from another planet.
08:52The, the, the, if I could fault the Warriors for anything in games five and six, it would
08:59be that they, they probably overcorrected for Jalen Green's 38 point game because when
09:04they gave, when they gave Fred Van Vliet the treatment that they'd been given Jalen Green,
09:10Jalen Green did nothing with it in game seven.
09:13So I, yeah, I, would you fire the offensive coordinator and then what else would you do?
09:17Is your appetite for a superstar coming in here greater or less than it was before this
09:24series began?
09:24Mine's great.
09:25You know, in generalities, I'd need to know who the soup is.
09:28This is, it's a horrible answer to your question, but it's true.
09:31Right.
09:31I need to know who the superstar is.
09:32I need to know what they're giving up.
09:33I need to know all those in general.
09:35I'm not, I am open to it because there are people that are just close to it.
09:38There are people that are like one more year, run it back, let them grow and see if it looks
09:42better next year.
09:43I can't, if all, see, if all they do is run it back, I cannot envision how Jalen Green
09:50is part of that equation.
09:51If you bring in a superstar and Jalen Green's not one of the trade pieces, I'm open to Jalen Green
09:56being an overpaid guy, but who still does contribute.
09:59He just can't be the sole focus of attention in your future or one of the focuses of your
10:05attention in future.
10:07But when it comes to bringing in to get buckets for you, like that's what I'm doing.
10:11Yeah, any argument about who, any argument about who's untouchable leaves Jalen Green
10:16completely out.
10:17Right.
10:17That's the difference between Ahmed Thompson and Jalen Green is just night and day.
10:23Yep.
10:23I would say that.
10:24I think that's, I think you nailed it.
10:25All right.
10:25A lot of texts rolling in about Eme Udoka not using his bench.
10:30We'll listen to all those things.
10:31And there's a lot to dig into from both this game last night and this season for the Rockets.
10:36Overall, how are we feeling about it?
10:38That's what I'm curious about.
10:39I know that the sting, the wounds are still fresh from last night, but undoubtedly this is
10:44a team that's moving in the right direction.
10:46And the lottery is a week from today, by the way.
10:48So we'll get, which by the way, that's a huge talking point for the off season is the
10:53NBA draft lottery coming up in a week.