- 4/22/2025
The Rockets looked overwhelmed against the more experienced Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of this series. Are they in trouble?
The Drive's Clint Stoerner, Ron "The Show" Hughley and Tyler Milner discuss that here.
The Drive's Clint Stoerner, Ron "The Show" Hughley and Tyler Milner discuss that here.
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00:00The Rockets, and I think a lot of people, were really excited about their first playoff
00:07game here in a long time. And not to mention, it's been a while, because even when they were
00:12there during COVID, they were in the bubble. So none of the games were played at the Toyota
00:18Center. So it's been a while since this city has been able to experience and go to a playoff game.
00:24And last night, they lose 95-85. They lose Game 1 in struggling fashion offensively, really
00:35is where it comes down to. I do have a thought on this, but just overall, you can join this,
00:41get your thoughts in on the Jim Adler, the Texas Hammer text line, 713-572-4610, YouTube and
00:47Twitch. Just overall, before we really dive into it, Clint, you watched that game last
00:52night. People watched that game last night. What did you take away after that thing ended?
00:58Well, I got a lot here. I got a lot. Look, I mean, there's no doubt about it. I mean,
01:01the Rockets are not going to win. Hell, they may not win a damn playoff game shooting as
01:06poorly as they did.
01:08A 39%?
01:09Yeah, that ain't going to worry. And in particular, Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet, your two predominant
01:13ball handlers cannot be 7-34. That's 21% and 2-17 from the three-point line, which is 11.8%
01:21for those counts. Combine 17 points. This team, the way they're built right now, regardless
01:28of what everybody else does around them, you are, like I said last week, Shingun can have
01:34a great, great game and can be effective on both the rebound and points, whatever. It's
01:40going to be tough for the Rockets to win a series with that. To me, it's all about Jalen
01:44Green, but when you add Fred VanVleet, who's the other ball-dominant player, they're not going
01:51to win a damn game with those two shooting it as poorly as they did. So I think that is
01:55the elephant in the room. That's the problem that has to be solved. That's the one that
02:00even as bad as you were last night on the offensive end of the floor.
02:02It may just come from game to game.
02:04Yeah, yeah.
02:04It's a streakiness, yeah.
02:05And look, here's the thing. That is one that I can look up and I can chalk up to, I mean,
02:11they ain't played basketball in seven days.
02:13Oh, you think the time off is...
02:16I mean, I can see young team. What I just mentioned was obviously not Fred VanVleet being
02:22young, but Jalen Green in particular. You know, not shooting the ball really well. Really,
02:27nobody shot it well, if we're being completely honest with you. Nobody, of the exception of
02:31Shingun when he was in the paint and Jabari Smith a couple times late when he nailed a couple
02:35clutch threes. Nobody shot it well. So I think overall, yeah, I think I don't have a problem
02:40chalking up a lot of the issues too. Hey man, off night, not going to happen for seven
02:45straight games. Hey man, seven days off, shooting was a little rusty, but I wish I could stop
02:51there, Ron. I wish I could stop there. I mean, I did not think Emei Doka was good. We talked
02:57about Fred VanVleet. I don't think Fred VanVleet needs to be a predominant ball handler in any
03:03game moving forward if you think you're going to give yourself a chance to win. Jalen Green
03:09obviously was not good, but he's got the lineup at times that's on the floor when you're down
03:1516 or 18 points. I mean, I don't know where you're going to get 16 or 18 points in general,
03:22much less come from behind. The scary thing, the lineup that really worked was one of them
03:28I'm talking about was one that has less shooting on it, right? Like the Steven Adams being in
03:32there. Yeah. But like, that's, that's the other part is you, you, you know, offensively
03:37you, you, you're taking more shooting off. Right. But that's the, but I'm not, my deal
03:42Ron was, I feel strongly about like those lot, those lineups. I don't give a damn. That's
03:47when they, they came back and they, they, I don't know what the run was, but they came
03:50back and got it to within three or four points. They did it with that, with that weird lineup
03:54on the floor with a lineup that you, at one point it was Adams. It was VanVleet. It was
03:59Tari, Easton, Brooks, and Jabari. And Jabari hit a couple of big shots that got them back.
04:05The defense was absolutely tremendous, but I just don't know how, there was a time earlier
04:08in the game, the lineup was wonky. It was at the end of the first quarter and the beginning
04:12of the second quarter when Golden State went on an 18-3 run. I think that's when the game,
04:16in my opinion, that's when the game was lost. And it was another one of those weird lineups
04:19on the floor for an extended period of time. I just, I just don't. And it took forever
04:23for them to try to, and they just couldn't get over the hump. Yeah. They got back and they
04:27closed it in and they just, they just couldn't get all the way over the hump. Yeah. Ron, I just
04:32don't see, like, I tip my cap to the ability to get within three points the way they did was
04:36unbelievable. That's just a testament to the defense. That's a testament to what we've been
04:40talking about with Jalen Green. Like, if Jalen Green, if he is just a hair better than he was
04:47last night, they got a chance to win that sucker. Right? I mean, so. Or Fred. Yeah, either one.
04:53Well, I don't even, I don't expect, I'll be honest with you. I know Fred's got a history
04:56and a resume and all that and pelts on the wall, but I just, this is a Jalen Green show
04:59for me. I can't, I can't even, I sit there mad as hell. I'm fuming when Jalen Green's on
05:04the floor and I'm watching Fred VanVleet get covered by number 51, whoever, whoever that
05:09is, just getting blanketed by him. I'm like, what are we doing? I mean, he can't get around
05:13him. He can't shoot over him. He's not, even though he's told he's done. But Fred has got to be a
05:17part of the conversation, Clint. He took the most shots on the team. No, I agree with you. No, that makes it even
05:21worse. But I don't, I just, the Fred VanVleet thing, I understand. Did not have that one on
05:25my bingo, Corey Clint, that he was going to lead the team and shot a tip. Right. If you had, if you
05:30had some well-oiled machine, Ron, that was a, that was a certain offense that you're trying to run
05:34and you're trying to facilitate to certain guys. Cool. I get it, man. I get, I get the smaller point
05:39guard that, you know, the manages the game. I get it, but you don't have that. I mean, you're all over
05:44the map with what you're doing offensively for him. And it was blatantly obvious when, when they went
05:48Jalen Green and, and I'm in Thompson and really I'm in Thompson was a good, better one, started
05:52attacking with the ball, creating opportunities for everybody else. That's how they're going to
05:55win this series. Not, not, not Fred VanVleet facilitating. That ball keep, keep, keep ending
06:02in his hand. Shoot him up late. Yeah. I, well, well with that, let's, let, let's look at this
06:07then. And I, and I want people to jump in on this. I know I didn't give, I was all over the
06:11map. No, no, no, that's what it was. No, I mean, I think you gave a lot there and I think
06:16it leads me to this thought of, are the Rockets in trouble or do you just see this as one game
06:23in a long series? So seven, one, three, five, seven, two, four, six, 10. Are the Rockets
06:28in trouble right now? Do you, did you come away from game one thing? Damn, they're in trouble
06:34or this is just game, game one of the series. Cause I mean, I, I think like when you look
06:39at around the others, like the Clippers lost to the Nuggets, right? But I don't know that
06:44people think the Clippers are in trouble. I think people like, all right, this, that's
06:48going to be a long season. The, the Lakers got their asses just waxed by the, by the
06:52Timberwolves. I still don't know how many people think that the Lakers are in like in
06:56trouble. I think they're in the series. Where are you out of this? Cause Clint gave
06:59you a lot of the bad. They scored 85 points and Emma Yudoka said, you score 85 points.
07:04You're going to beat a lot of teams, especially they're going to beat Steph Curry and Jimmy
07:07Butler who have it going for a game that produced that many points, but you shoot, you score
07:1285 points, 39% from the field, six, six for 29 from three. And by the way, we talked about
07:21Fred Van Fleet. He was two for 13 himself. You miss nine free throws in the game and you
07:27couldn't contain Butler and Curry, Butler and Curry. Butler goes for 25, Curry for 31. He
07:33had three the last time you played them, but there was some good, right? You held that
07:36Warriors team to under 50% and they only made 12 threes. This is a team that could go off
07:41and get hot. And they, they were under a hundred points. You dominated on the boards, 52, 36
07:47and in, in, in, in particular, 22 to six, when it comes to offensive rebounds, one in the paint
07:53by 20. So there was some good there as well, but do you get the sense that this team is in
07:59trouble? Text line coming in, uh, trouble, not enough experienced players. Someone said
08:04they think they're in trouble. Somebody else not in trouble. It was some of what we expected
08:08in some, uh, and some not so much. Now we'll see what they look like after game two. So, uh,
08:15the Rockets will win game two, but the Warriors have too much experience. So when you came away
08:20from that, watching that, did you feel like they were in trouble or this was just one game?
08:25No, no, I thought it was just one game. Now it could end up being a costly game because
08:28you played so well on defense and you dominated the boards the way you mentioned, like it
08:33would not have taken much on the offensive end of the floor to win that game. I mean,
08:37you could have scored, I mean, it ended up, look, let's be honest. There was, there was
08:41six points scored late in that game that had you had, had it not got a little sideways
08:47right there, wouldn't have been, that'd have been even a lower score game. You could have
08:50scored mid nineties and won that game. I mean, that, that is the kind of game that
08:53you think the Rockets, if you, if you just sit back and go, Hey, Golden State, Houston
08:57winner's going to score 95, 96 points. Who gets it? You would think the Rockets, I'm
09:01giving the Rockets a real good chance in that game. So you hate that you let one slip away
09:05where you rebounded so well, where you played so good on the defensive end of the
09:07floor. Um, that, that hurts, but no, I watched that game run and without a doubt, I, I feel
09:14like the time off, I feel like the bad game, Jalen Green, uh, uh, Fred Van Vliet, uh,
09:23and again, like I said, let's not, I mean, nobody shot it particularly well with the exception
09:27of a couple of clutch ones from Jabari and some really good inside play from, from, uh,
09:32Shingun. But no, I walked away with, you figure out how to score some points. If, if those guys
09:37have just average nights and you keep playing this kind of defense and keep rebounding the
09:42way you're rebounding, then the Rockets can, can take the series. Text line coming through
09:47Karen. Uh, no, they're not in trouble. They will win the series. Trouble. Big trouble.
09:53Um, uh, we play, replayed like garbage and lost by 10. I still think we got this. Um, I'm
10:03not going to say trouble yet. Um, because Clint, this is the sixth time they've played and I will
10:10say five out of the six games they played the, the pace and how the game is played is
10:21in the way the Rockets want to play. Yeah. Like they have been all of it. They got it. This
10:25is another one. They've been under a hundred points. This is, they played a good three games
10:29where the game finished under a hundred points. I know they played one earlier, 91 90 that the
10:35Rockets won. Even, even the other one, I think there's one where they were in the one twenties.
10:40I think that, and it's the one, the Warriors won one 27, one 21, but they, they continue to make
10:46the game played in the fashion that they want to play. They were great, not great defensively.
10:52Um, now the place where I could say that they could be in trouble is I think these games are
10:58going to be rock fights. Clint, they play six times right now and they have all been this,
11:02this physical and this, and, and, and this tight, but they played like that, man. And,
11:10and they didn't slow Curry or like Curry was efficient in this game. They didn't slow Jimmy
11:16Jimmy's in like, you can, like, they got two guys that they can go to and, and get buckets from
11:23right. And, and, and that, and that's just, and then, and you know, there's going to be a game
11:28in this thing where like Buddy healed or, uh, uh, that, that he like has a night or something.
11:36That's the only thing is these games are going to be tight and they, and, and like, they just
11:42didn't 25 and 31 for those two in a game that's in the eighties and nineties. That's that's
11:47problematic.
11:47Well, I mean, Curry got hot and was just hitting absolutely everything, which he has, we know
11:51he has that one. He hit over green in a corner and Jalen can't hit anything. That had to
11:56been, that had been demoralized for him.
11:58But, but the, the, the, to me, the, the story of the Curry, the Curry part of this, besides
12:04him chewing on his mouthpiece, the way Tyler hates it, Tyler's carrying around his turd
12:08trophy in there. He can't, he can't wait to get to, what did we do that Thursday? He
12:10can't wait to give away that damn turd, a damn golden turd. Um, but again, Ron, I go back
12:17to like what you can't do against Kurt, against Golden State, but Curry, uh, what you can end
12:25up doing is when like he started, what was he, was he one for five or one for six from
12:29jump? I mean, he was, he wasn't early on in that game. I mean, he's, he's having a rough
12:34shot. The problem then is the, the, the rockets on the other end can't, can't separate at all.
12:39Yeah.
12:39You know what I mean? So he, they weathered the storm of him being cold and him being
12:43off. And then once he, uh, mid second quarter or whatever it was, once he hit one, it was
12:47like, Oh, and then it's impossible.
12:49Cause he started off slow a little bit and then, but then like, yeah, once, once that, once
12:53the top is off of that, like a man, Thompson is a great defender, but he's like, like that,
12:59that shot he hit over Jalen green. I mean, Jalen green couldn't have played better defense
13:03and he couldn't, but then it's others. I mean, he had some deep ones, some, some big
13:08ones late and it happened, right? That game got tight. The Rockets did everything. You
13:13say, you got to give them credit. We know they ain't going to walk, walk out there and hold
13:17up a tent. Like they ain't going to just, or pitch one. Well, maybe, but I just did there for
13:23you talent. Just want to make sure you're away. Uh, but, but, but we know they, that's
13:27just not how their, their makeup is and they got it back. And I don't think anyone was real
13:31surprised that they got it back, but then it got down Clint to, to what the concern is
13:36is late in games. What what's going to happen and late in games, Steph Curry's hidden, hidden
13:42threes, Jimmy's hidden shots. Steph and Jimmy are setting up Moody in the corner and the ball
13:48keeps finding Fred on the other side going up. Yeah. Somehow, some way they keep, they funnel
13:54it to Fred and it was a hell of a plan. Look, I, but I, but I, uh, I don't, I didn't walk away
14:02from that game last night. I was mad as hell, but I, I didn't catch it early. I walked away from
14:07that game feeling like we got a shot. That defense was nasty. And I don't, I don't think the rebounding
14:13was a fluke. Like, I think you're going to, I think you're going to be able to dominate
14:16the board. Hell, Steve Kerr didn't. Steve Kerr said they're going to get offensive rebounds
14:19in this series. They're going, I mean, they're going to. Yeah. All of that stuff. I don't
14:23think is a fluke, man. I, I think you get any level of scoring out of your two predominant
14:27ball, ball handlers. I think you're going to put some real pressure on, on Golden State.
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