The Josh Innes Show - Rockets Stay Alive and LeBron Goes Home

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

The Rockets came out to hoop last night. It got a little dicey in the 4th, but they throttled the Warriors. Jalen Green cost me a parlay....he is now on the no bet list. Can they go to San Fran and win game 6? Did the Warriors concede the game early? I'm beyond tired of Steve Kerr and Draymond whining. If I'm a Mavericks fan, do I take joy in watching the Lakers lose? I think the Mavericks are actually in an okay spot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, how about the Rockets beating the shit out of Golden State last night, although it got a little dicey. I say a little dicey. What did they cut it to, like 13 at one point and force the starters the starters back in, which was good for me because I had a bet or I was a simple bet. I took the over in the total points for Jalen Green, which was 15 and a half. Guys, right out of the shoot, I want it to be known that Jalen Green is on the no bet list. There are some people we just don't bet on. And Jalen Green, I have fallen for your shit now in a five game series. You've come through for me once. The rest of the time you're averaging like seven points a game. Friend, I don't care that you're in Wingstop commercials and that you're the beast, the largest.

Don't give a shit about all that. You are no longer on the bet list because I had a parlay going and part of the parlay included Jalen Green to score 16 points. That's over 15 and a half for a guy that averages 20. A guy that scored 38 points in game two at home. And Jalen Green again offensively. Although he came out more aggressive early on.

I thought I was set. Guy had like six points right out of the shoot. And then disappeared and didn't do anything. Then he was off the floor with 11 points. They're up 27. I assume it's over. Then a miracle happens, and that miracle is that Golden State's bench guys

just start mauling the Rockets' bench guys and put a little pressure on Imei to make a move and put his starters back in, and he does while the Warriors never did because the Warriors made the decision early on like, hey, fuck it, we lost. And I thought I was going to get there, and I didn't. You want to talk about another bet

before I get into that game and the other stuff. You want to talk about a dick punch. So there's a bet you can take where it's every team that's playing in the playoffs that night to score 20 points in each quarter. Right. So the Rockets game got there. It was a little bit dicey at times, but each team got to 20 points in each quarter. In the Laker game, the Lakers had 19 points with like 10 seconds to go in the first quarter. Luka gets fouled, hits his free throws, and we got it. So going into the fourth quarter,

I looked pretty good. I needed 50 points in the fourth quarter to hit an over for the game, which I had taken. I'm like, okay, they could probably get that. And I needed each team to score 20 points. And those are usually very valuable. Like that was plus 550. So I had a $50 free bet I used. That was going to win 275 bucks. Pretty sweet, right? Fourth quarter, one team's got Luka LeBron. One team has got Anthony Davis. But Anthony Edwards.

Like you got a squad. You got dudes that can score. Julius Randle, you got a squad. You know, you got dudes that can score. Julius Randle, you can score. The fucking Lakers scored 16 points in the fourth quarter of that game. That included two wide-open missed layups in the last three minutes of the game. I think they missed three free throws in that quarter as well. And that cost me $275 on a free bonus bet. Like, my whole thing had worked out well.

All I needed to have happen was the over in that game and then the 20 points. If I had the 20 points in each quarter, my day balances out with that win and I'd be fine. Instead, I lost it all. And it was an absolute tragedy. And I understand there are other tragedies in the world. Like some jamoke fell 20 feet out in Pittsburgh

and maybe dead in the ballpark. And Shadur Sanders got prank called. Like I understand tragedies happen. But my tragedy was that I didn't get that plus 550 hit that I thought I was going to get. God damn, it was a ball buster. Anyway, we'll talk more about basketball stuff after these words. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings.

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Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. See app for details The following was recorded from inside an ice plunge Okay, all right When a Coors Light is cold enough the mountains on the can turn blue So the next time you want to cold lager, cold filter, cold package, Coors Light,

just wait until those glorious mountains on the can turn blue. It's easy to say that fast when you're freezing cold. I know I've been saying this, but the basketball playoffs have been good. This is not just media propaganda. You know, they're trying to force this upon you. We have seen some really good games and some really good series, particularly the Clippers and Nuggets, which you're going to get tonight, and the Pistons-Knicks, which you're going to get tonight. Now, the basketball and the Pistons and Knicks has been sloppy and ugly and grimy, relatively low-scoring games, but the games, all of them have been down to the wire and fun, and that's good. So I'm looking forward to that. Then you've got the Clippers and Nuggets, who have had some epic games in this series.

So that should be fun. Tonight is a good night of basketball. But looking at the Rockets, the Rockets took the – it's almost like the Warriors never wanted to be there from the jump. And I think it was in the first quarter they're talking about Steve Kerr. And essentially they asked Steve Kerr if this game gets to a point where you get the vibe that it's out of hand early or are you just going to rest your dudes for game six? With that, I'm almost thinking early on they're like, yeah, we're expecting an onslaught.

But that's not to take away from the Rockets who beat the shit out of them. A team could sit there and fall off a cliff and not be interested in winning and be looking to game six. You still have to go out and hit all your shots. You're not going to do that again. What we saw out of the Rockets in the first three quarters is not going to happen again in that series because that's not who the Rockets are,

unless they decide to keep up with this up-tempo that they were running and just ran them out of the building. But the Rockets were hitting shots. Really, the true difference maker, and obviously Shingun's been playing his dick off the last couple of games, but you've been getting tons of productivity from beyond the arc from Fred Van Vliet. If Van Vliet keeps hitting five, six threes a game, which is an obvious statement, if anybody hits five or six threes a game, your team's probably in pretty good shape.

But early in the series, Van Vliet was a no-show. He was like three for his first like 17 or 18 threes or whatever it was in the series. It wasn't great. And then he started getting hot, started getting hot, started hitting more shots. And now you're getting more of that. If you're getting 22, 23 points out of Van Vliet, you should win all of these games. That's without your superstar, quote unquote, best player,unquote, Jalen Green doing dick. He has been an absolute no-show outside of one game in this series. So if Van Vliet keeps doing what he's doing

and you hit threes at the decent rate you're hitting, like, how many threes did they hit last night? Like, what they are doing, and they're not gonna do it. They're not gonna score 130 points again. That's not who they are. They are not a 130-point type of team. And Golden State're not going to score 130 points again. That's not who they are. They are not a 130-point type of team. And Golden State's not going to give up 130 points.

That's why these games, every game, the over-under is in that 202, 203 range. These are, generally speaking, going to be tighter, low-scoring games. The Rockets just blew them out of the fucking building. They just took the wind out of them early and were up 15, 20, 25 points, seemingly the whole first half. So they never had a shot to win that game. That's obviously not going to be the case in game six. You're going to get a different vibe in game six. They're back home. You can make an argument that Golden State has an advantage, not just being at home where I think they're five point favorites in the game, but also because the starters didn't have to come back into the game

in the fourth quarter. I saw somebody post that like, well, they've already got an advantage over us because they didn't have to put their starters back in. Well, you've got a relatively young team. Like Van Vliet's an older dude and Dylan Brooks is a veteran. You're not logging around or slogging around with a bunch of old dudes. It's not like watching LeBron last night.

You know, like these are young dudes. They have some of their core guys are older dudes. Steph is an older dude. So like, I think it might benefit. I don't know how much not playing the fourth quarter benefits anyone. Like, I think that's a completely overrated thing. Like, how old is Jalen Green? Young dude.

How old is Shingun? Super young dude. How old is Amin Thompsonalen Green young dude how old is Shingun super young dude how old is Amin Thompson super young dude if you just rolled a basketball out and had those dudes play pickup ball against guys they could play all fucking afternoon man like so the idea that oh boy we had to bring our starters back in that's not gonna help you want me to believe that not playing you know an extra eight minutes at the end of a game is truly make or break for anybody in a fucking playoff series, I do not buy it. So that doesn't really mean anything to me. You've obviously got the thumb issue with Steph and they're bitching about it. I don't know that there's a successful team in sports that bitches more about somehow being mistreated and a team

that's dirty and a team that's notorious for being dirty, or at least has a player that's notorious for being dirty, like Draymond Green, that bitches more about calls and other teams doing dirty shit than Golden State. They are an unlikable bunch of CNX Tuesdays led by the king of these people, which is Steve Kerr, who is nonstop bitching. And I get that all coaches bitch. All of them. Watch tonight. JB Bickerstaff is going to be bitching. And I get that all coaches bitch. All of them. Watch tonight. JB Bickerstaff is going to be bitching right from the jump tonight for Detroit. That's the way these guys are. They bitch and they work the refs and I get it.

Steve Kerr has won how many titles? How many have they won? Three, four? What is the number of titles they've won now? These guys talk every game like they're like the fucking Pistons who haven't won shit, who are going up against teams that have won shit and they're not getting any calls. It's bogus. It's bullshit. We all know it's bogus and bullshit. They whine incessantly. And now the latest thing they're whining about is that they're going after the injured thumb of Steph Curry. You know what? Good. That's what

you're supposed to do. If you see that someone has something that's nagging them and bothering them, you try to exploit that. It's part of the game. Guess what? Draymond Green does it all the time. I saw a video. I forgot who posted it. Might have been Clutch fans, actually. Posted a video of a game in 2017. The Rockets are playing the Warriors, and they know that James Harden has a wrist injury, and Draymond's over there swiping at the dude's wrist all the time don't live in glass houses and throw stones bro I get it you're gonna do that that's what you do that's your act you're an extremely dirty player you are a whiny dirty player and now because your star player has a thumb injury and the Rockets are trying to take advantage of that good they should

that's the way the game works do you want them to sit back and go oh poor Steph Curry the greatest three-point shooter of all time his thumb hurts let's give him a little oxygen here let's give him a little breathing room so he can go out and uh and knock down jumpers it would be unfair of us and not kind of us to try to exploit the fact that he's got a thumb issue. Up your nose with a rubber hose, Kerr. Up your nose with a rubber hose, Draymond. Screw off. I don't buy that the Rockets are going to go on the road and win. I don't think they're going to get to a point where they're up 20 points in the first quarter.

I don't think that Golden State is going to shoot as terribly as they did at home. That's not going to happen. There's still a five-point dog on the road of the Rockets, but least we get another ball game and that was a fun one for the people that were there Houston's a wonderfully late arriving town boy the game was already out of hand before the crowd got there now I'll defend them on this traffic in Houston's a fucking nightmare now your argument could be well traffic's a nightmare everywhere there's a lot of factors going against going to games in downtown Houston, particularly at the Toyota Center. Most notably, most of the parking or a lot of the parking is in a fucking garage, which is a nightmare to park in a garage for a big event.

That's number one. The traffic in Houston has gotten to a point where it seems exponentially worse than it was the last time we lived there in 20 I guess 2021 is when we left I don't remember traffic being that terrible all day every day Monday through Sunday awful so I'm not gonna rip them for that like baseball's a late arriving crowd and I get New York's got traffic and LA's got traffic. Well, guess what? LA's a late arriving crowd too. Have you ever tried to get into Dodger Stadium for a big event? It's virtually impossible. It sucks getting in and out of that place for a sold out game. We went to game six of the World Series there in 2017. It took us an hour plus just to get out of the parking lot in this bus.

So I'm not going to rip them for that. I don't believe that Houston's got a great basketball environment or anything like that. And I don't like Toyota center, but yeah, I was watching that. And I was, my first inclination was just to make fun of all the empty seats. And I'm like, no, they'll fill in. If they don't fill in, that's an issue. If they eventually fill in people are just having a hard time getting downtown. It is a pain in the ass and that is a spread out city. So, I mean, say you're coming from the Woodlands or you're coming from Sugarland or you're coming from Katy and the traffic you have to sit in, or if it's the other way, if you're coming from, you know, Galveston

or wherever, that's a pain in the dick. That is a tough place to navigate. It's an overcrowded town and it sucks for that. Now, LeBron game. LeBron looked old last night and they quit at the end of the game. I get they were down seven points, but they gave up another offensive rebound and just sunk their shoulders and it was over. I enjoyed that because the whole world, myself included, said Lakers were going to win the series. I feel stupid. I was wrong, as were most people. But here's what's interesting. And I know that Luka got hurt during the game, hurt his back. Luka looked slow before then. And I'm not saying that they made the right decision to trade him.

I won't say that because I don't believe that. You've got a top five talent in the league. You don't make that trade. You find a way to make it work for as long as you can. But he looked old and slow. I get that he put up 20-something points. That's what he does. I get that.

LeBron looked real old last night. That's the oldest I've seen that dude look late. He looked just beat, tired, done with. I guess what happens when you finally realize you're 40 years old. Maybe so. Guy can still hoop, but from the jump last night, didn't look like LeBron and Luka can still ball can't play a lick of fucking defense lazy on defense a lot of the

stuff that guys like Nico felt about him are true but if I'm a Mavericks fan today first of all you take some solace in that unless you're someone who really hates Nico and you don't want Nico to have any sort of pop or any sort of you know stroke so then you still don't like it but if you look at where both of these franchises are right now and again no matter what I still wouldn't have made the trade but let's say you go into next season with old ass LeBron you got Luka who looked old and slow get that he hurt his back during the game but even before then just looked kind of off, kind of old. Not old. He is an old 26, though.

Like when you watch Luka, like they said, he's only 26 years old. Like it's shocking that he's only 26 years old because he's an old 26. But if you're a Mavericks fan today, you're watching that going, if Kyrie isn't hurt, they certainly don't get blown out against the Grizzlies in the play-in game, and maybe they beat them. If you're Dallas today, and you've got Kyrie, obviously coming off a serious injury, so take that for what it is,

but you've got Kyrie, and you've got AD, and you've got a bunch of glue guys. That team is just loaded with grinders. You know, you got guys like Gafford, a rebounding type of machine, and you got guys like Lively, guys that'll screen hard, guys that'll loose ball, you guys that get 10 rebounds a game,

guys that catch alley-oops. You got those guys. What they're missing, if they add another wing player on the Dallas team, I'm talking about a legit wing scorer. Like that's what that team're missing. If they add another wing player on the Dallas team, I'm talking about a legit wing scorer. Like, that's what that team is missing. They are missing, like, a true perimeter threat. They got guys that can hit shots.

But I'm talking, like, a true, legit perimeter threat. If you get healthy Kyrie, healthy AD. Now, healthy AD is always a tough one because the dude's always hurt. So, again. But if I'm Dallas today, I realized that the Lakers with the greatest player ever and Luca won one more playoff game than you did. And I get that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I get that one year isn't going to determine what this trade was, but if I'm a Dallas fan today and I watched Luca suffering another injury and I watch Luka moving slow even before that

I'm kind of like I can live with this a little bit more because if they get a legit perimeter player like Kyrie's obviously a legit perimeter player but he's a guy that's going to handle the rock a lot and you've got the big man that can shoot from 16 17 and in you've got that he's obviously a great defensive presence and you got Gafford you got lively, you've got that. He's obviously a great defensive presence. And you got Gafford, you got Lively. Like they've got good, fun, glue energy guys. What Dallas is missing to me, I mean, this is obvious, is another legit, like a small forward type

that's going to light it up. You know, a two, three type guy that's just going to light shit up. You find someone like that. And again, you're talking about building a big three now, which is tough when you got two mega dollar guys on the squad already. That team can play. You look around the West, and look, the West is obviously better than the East, but the Lakers ain't scaring anybody. After just getting stomped by a team that barely got into

the playoffs, Lakers ain't scaring nobody. Now, they're going to make moves, obviously, but they don't scare shit. You got young, fun teams like Minnesota who are going to be there. I think the Grizzlies are going to bounce back a little bit, but Ja's got to prove that he can be healthy and not be a dipshit, and the other dudes around him, his other quote-unquote superstars, have to prove they're superstars. But Memphis can play.

The Rockets, if they go out and add another piece, because Jalen ain't a superstar. So really, they need a superstar. The fact that they're taking this to game six without a true superstar is pretty fucking phenomenal. So they need another piece there. You would assume teams like San Antonio get better building around Wimby. And then there's OKC.

Like, I get they're solid teams. There are older teams that are going to age out of this shit, though, too. Like, the Clippers are going to age out of this shit. The Lakers are going to age out of this shit, right? There are teams like Portland that haven't really done much. But you start looking around the league and you go, okay, you got AD if he can stay healthy. You got Kyrie. They're both older dudes.

I get that. Add another legit perimeter player. And I think the Mavericks can play. Dude, the Mavericks should have been in the playoffs. They should have beaten Memphis, but I mean, they shouldn't have been in the spot, but Kyrie got hurt. And that's part of the game. I get it. If you're sitting there today and you're Dallas, you've got to be at least going, like, I feel a little bit better. Like, I don't like Nico and I wouldn't have trade. Like, I feel a little bit better. Like, I don't like Nico, and I wouldn't have traded. Like, I'm not trading top five talent for what I got. But moving forward, I think there's optimism that goes into that more so than pessimism.

It still sucks that you don't have Luka, but you watched Luka last night. Dude looked slow, and I get that he was hurt. But even early in that, he just looked beat. And LeBron looked beat. So, I don't,'t like Dallas is not in a bad spot now their window is going to be short because again you've got older AD older Kyrie so this is not like a young up-and-coming team like the Rockets where you're like or like Detroit where you look and you go shit I got Cade Cunningham forever now or I've got you know a Sir

Thompson forever like you're not looking at it like that, but you look at it and go, I think we can play. I think we got a shot here. So anyway, I've been enjoying watching basketball. I've been digging, watching basketball. You can email me and let you know, let me know if you've been digging it too. I'd love to hear from you. Josh in a show, gmail.com. You can tweet whatever I'd love to hear from you. I've been digging it though, man. I've enjoyed watching it. So anyway, more to come.