The Josh Innes Show - Rockets Stink In Playoff Opener

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

The NBA Playoffs have begun! First off, the USA Today has a dumb headline about the OKC Thunder. The Thunder beat the hell out of the Grizzlies...It didn't prove anything. But, don't tell that to USA Today. The Rockets lost. There are two ways you can look at that game. We discuss both angles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Alrighty, friends. What's going on? It's Josh. Welcome in. Make sure you tell your friends about the podcast. Make sure you let them know. As you know, we're going to be getting out of here, out of St. Louis here, hopefully in a month, a month and a half or so. Don't know where we're going at this point. We're see but we have to figure something out soon but once we do I can get back to kind of doing a more frequent I say frequent I'm doing a podcast doing four or five episodes for you every day but uh maybe get back to doing it like an actual show and have some elements to it not just me sitting on my ass in my bed in my underwear. Unless you like that sort of thing, you can let me know.

You can send me a message and say, hey, I really like the fact that you just sit around and riff and it's not like an actual radio show. Or you'd like it to be more like an actual radio show. I have no idea what it is you're into, what you want. But also, if you get the opportunity to, make sure you download the DraftKings Pick 6 app. The DraftKings app and play Pick 6 and use the code INNES. I-N-N-E-S. That'll make me look good.

If I can get that, then I can get more types of sponsors like that and I can actually make a couple of bucks doing this. So I appreciate you guys putting up with the commercials. I appreciate you guys putting up with the fact that there's five or six episodes. I've got to steal downloads. You understand how it works. It is fascinating how this podcast business works, though, because people talk about it like the numbers are like true numbers. They're like, well, in radio and TV, they're really just estimates. But in a podcast on the Internet, you can tell how many people are actually listening.

Not really, because you can really mess with the numbers. That's why, you know, if I were to just put up one one-hour episode every day, my number would not look as good as if I posted five 20-minute episodes, right? Because that's basically five times the number it would be if I just posted one episode. You see what I'm getting at? But people dick swing about these podcast numbers and they're like, holy shit, look at all those downloads that these shows get. I mean, they are setting the world on fire. And then you go look at their podcast and it's like, well, every day they post every segment of their radio show and

the full episode and a bonus podcast at the end, which is great because it makes everybody look great and there's money to be made and life is good, but also it's bullshit. So we can sit here and act like, oh my God, podcast numbers are the end all be all. I mean, they're just as flawed as any other metric for any other medium, but it is what it is. Anywho, lots to get into today. Let me knock out a couple commercials early and we'll talk about the little basketball. I don't know how many of you are actually into basketball, but the Rockets played last night. You got the NBA playoffs going on, so we'll talk about that.

Tons of shit to get into today. Other episodes, we'll talk about WrestleMania. We'll talk about dumb people on the internet. There's a lot we're going to do. But first, let's play a couple commercials. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you've got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition, including prize picks. It's a very simple concept.

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So Memphis, my squad, lost by 51 points yesterday. And honest to God, it wasn't even that close. At one time, they were down like 60 points in that game, and they got their dicks knocked off. But here's why I don't like this headline or why this headline is stupid. OKC is ready to win title. Thunder send message and annihilation of Grizzlies.

What message did you send? Like, hey, we can beat the shit out of a bad team. Look out. Like, I get that if you don't watch basketball or whatever, you'd look at the Grizzlies record and go, shit, they won 48 games. Couple balls bounced their way. They're like the four seed and they never had to play in the play-in. But if you don't watch the Grizzlies, you are not aware that the Grizzlies are really a mediocre

basketball team and have been for about two and a half months. That's why they fired their coach. Ja, who can be awesome at times, is also a head case and is hurt pretty often. They really have no bench of which to speak due to injuries. So if you looked at their number and go, oh, wow, they're 48 wins. They could have been the four seed. Yeah, about two months ago, they were the two seed in the West, and then they fell into the play-in. What does that tell you about them? They are not a good basketball team right

now. They are a fucking mess. So the idea that the Thunder went out and beat the shit out of them and that sends some sort of message is bogus. Now, I will say that if you beat any professional team by 50 points in the postseason, that is something. That is something that you'd look at and go, wow, that's certainly a thing. But the idea that we learned anything about Oklahoma City, like Oklahoma City is ready to win the title. Thunder send message and annihilation of Grizzlies. They didn't send a message. Go out there and annihilate somebody with a pulse. The Grizzlies were barely in this game. They had to beat Dallas to get there in the play-in after they lost the initial play-in game to the Warriors.

So look, I'm not telling you they're the worst team ever because they very well could have beaten Golden State in the first play-in game. They had a couple of close games where they could have beaten Denver and would have had a playoff spot. They could have beaten Golden State and had a playoff spot. So they had some opportunities. I'm not telling you they're the worst team ever. And it is impressive to a degree for any pro team to beat another pro team by 51 points. However, I just love how demonstrative these people are. Oklahoma City is ready to win the title. Thunder send message and annihilation of Grizzlies.

What message did they send? Actually, I'm going to click on this story, USA Today, my new For You section. Thunder send message in game one, annihilation of Grizzlies. Oklahoma City is ready to win the title now. I'm glad. Like, how is beating a shitty team, a mediocre team, you're the one seed. You're supposed to win the game. What did it prove about you?

God, like, sports people make the dumbest fucking points. And then if they lose the next two games against the Grizzlies, which they won't, but let's say they lose the next two. Uh-oh, should we worry about the Thunder? That's one of the things I hate about sports media so much is that it's just one day. Is this the greatest team ever? And tomorrow, is this the worst team ever? Should we worry about them?

Like turn on ESPN or Fox Sports or whatever and um so uh Minnesota beat the shit out of the Lakers right the whole world was saying the Lakers were going to beat Minnesota in that series and Minnesota comes out and curb stomps the Lakers in game one so every story is should we be worried about the Lakers heading into game two with the Timberwolves? Are the Timberwolves an actual contender? Did we sleep on the Timberwolves? And then tomorrow or whenever they play again, the Lakers will go out and win by 20. And it's, oh, did we prematurely write the Lakers off? And, oh, I think we were too quick to anoint the Timberwolves. And I get that it's a media world where you have to have opinions.

So just saying, hey, let's wait and see is not really an approach that you can go with. I understand that. I respect that. But like every day it's predictable. Team's going to win. Then you're going to turn on ESPN. And is this team a real contender? And the team that lost will say, are they not a contender anymore?

And that's what we're going to get. And it happens all the freaking time. Like, it's not talent. What talent is required to do that? What ability is required to do that? It's not entertaining. It's not funny. It's not compelling.

It's just yelling about fucking things and doing the same show every day. And you might as well, like, I would put a gun in my mouth if I did that every day. Anyway, let's read this story don't give the Oklahoma City Thunder the NBA's Larry O'Brien championship trophy yet it's just game one of a first round western conference series but what a game it was for the and then like you know what I love though I love that the headline doesn't even match the story like you read it don't anoint them the champions yet but then you read the headline thunder sin message in game one annihilation of grizzlies OKC is ready to win a title now don't anoint them but they're ready until they go into the second round and maybe lose a first game and then it's whoa are they ready blah blah blah god the headline didn't even

match the story it was a message the thunder needed and wanted to send if one jaylen williams wasn't enough the thunder have a jaylen williams who does damage too every thunder score had at least 12 points led by jaylen williams chet hol Holmgren, MVP candidate Shea Gildas-Alexander, and Isaiah Hartenstein. Great. So here's the stats. The Thunder trailed 9-8 with 6.55 left. Thunder went ahead 11-9. It was the beginning of the annihilation.

The Thunder led 41-22, 55-22, 78-36, 99-48, and 122-67. At one point in the third quarter, the Thunder outscored the Grizzlies 22-0 in fast break points. Okay, so you're giving me all these stats. Guess what, by the way? The Memphis Grizzlies, almost every game, allow a 22-0, 20-0 type of run. That's why this victory doesn't mean shit to me. Who cares? Who cares that the Thunder went out and out beat the shit of the grizzlies

yes it's a huge number i know nothing more about the thunder today than i did before that game happened grizzlies did some shit that they've done normally they don't lose by 51 but like the they haven't beaten these guys in like the last nine tries and they lose by an average of 17 points to them there was a game earlier this year. It was the last game their coach coached before they fired him. It's like a one point game with like 10, like seven, eight minutes to go or something. Grizzlies end up losing by like 22.

That's what they do. Now granted, I know a bunch of you don't give a shit about hot Grizzlies takes, but I offered them to you. So there you go. You look at the Rockets game. Look, the Rockets aren't gonna win that series look the Rockets aren't going to win that series because the Rockets can't hit shots from the perimeter and Golden State can I don't believe that Golden State's that good I don't care about their record since they got Jimmy Butler are they

better with Jimmy Butler yes I do not believe that they are that good of a team however they went into a Rockets Toyota Center which is one of my least favorite venues on the planet. It's just a big cavernous building with ugly, hideous, old red movie theater seats. I hate the Toyota Center. But the Rockets, now there's two ways you could look at this. You look at the Rockets on one hand and you go, well, you know, you only scored 85 points, which in the NBA is unheard of, but you only scored 85 points. And with a minute to go a minute and a half to go, you were still in it at one point, like Fred Van Vliet finally made a three and you're down by four with

a minute, something to go. So even with all that, even with the fact that you shot for shit, even with the fact that your best player was a no-show, your best young player, Jalen Green, was a no-show, even though Fred Van Vliet was a no-show, you only hit six three-pointers, yet with a minute plus to go, you're only down four, and that's in a game in which you scored 85 points. You're thinking, okay, that's workable. That's one way to look at it. the other way I'd look at it is I don't think you're going to hold Steph Curry and those guys down to to 95 points either particularly when they get into their building they've already come in and stolen home court

from you they've got a tough venue to play in where they're probably going to make 15 to 17 threes in each game are you going to be able to go out and make 15 to 17 threes to stay competitive in those games that's where I would have concern about the Rockets in this series I think they've got a great advantage to a degree in the post because I'm a big Steven Adams guy he like I like that the world is now hip to Steven Adams I'm seeing like people talking about Steven Adams he was trending last night Steven Adams is a beast I love Steven Adams. He was trending last night. Steven Adams is a beast. I love Steven Adams. He's not a great scorer.

He's a put-back and catch-lobs guy. He's not going to be a jump shooter. He's not going to create his own shot, really. But he is an outstanding offensive rebounder. Just spectacular. And he's a game-changer for them. Great pick-and-roll guy. He's outstanding. The issue you're going to run into is you made six threes and by the way

they didn't have a good three-point shooting night either generally speaking they are a 15 to 18 makes type of team from three I think they're third or fourth in the league and made threes they attempt the second or third most threes and if they're going down you do not have a chance if those guys are hitting threes you have no chance because you really don't have great guard play you did a great job of muddying up the game like if you say what kind of game would you want to play to try to beat a team like the the uh the Warriors the Warriors are not an outstanding scoring team anymore like they're not going to go out and be like a Boston or a Cleveland or an Oklahoma City that on a given night it's going to go out and like you would expect them to score 125-130 like that's like that that Thunder game that's just what they do like you say wow they scored 131 their team total over under for most games is usually in the mid

120s depending on who the competition is they just score a fuck ton and they make a ton of shots and they're great uh that's not what the Warriors really are. The Warriors play defense and their games are not like low scoring like there was last night, but they're more of that, you know, one, you know, they can play 115, 114, 115, 112 type of games. They're not always going to be out there scoring a buck 25, buck 30, but they can score enough and they will hit a bunch of threes so if they're hitting 15 to 18 threes it's lights out like last night was the kind of game the blueprint for that game is really the kind of game that you need to win other than on your end you did nothing Draymond was a non-factor scoring really the only factor they had scoring in that game the most the biggest weapon they had was Steph. Steph scores 31 points. He hits five threes. They weren't spectacular. That's a game

you should win. I don't know that you're going to hold them down to 95 points again. That's the problem you're going to run into. I don't think you can expect to hold a team like that down to 95, particularly when they can hit that many threes. They only hit 12. They're a team like that down to 95, particularly when they can hit that many threes. They only hit 12. They're a team that usually hits 15. And you're a team that on average makes 12. Now you are well below your normal average of made threes. They do a decent job of defending the three as well.

But you've got to hit those. So is the series over? No. But we knew going into that series that the Rockets would struggle because their perimeter game isn't that great like you got guys like Dylan Brooks Dylan Brooks can make threes but Dylan Brooks is not volume three-point shooter guy Dylan Brooks is shoot five make one or two he can hit a three that's not the game you want him playing so then you look around your team and you're like, who can make a jump shot for me? Who can step up and knock one down from 24 feet? You got a lot of guys that if you give it to them

under the basket, you got the Shingoons and you've got, you know, Jabari can hit threes, but he's a guy that can do well around the basket. Amin Thompson can do well around the basket. You've got guys that can do that. Really, the series is going to be won or lost on whether or not Fred Van Vliet's hitting four threes a game. If Jalen Green scores more than seven points. Like, that's how you're going to. Like, those two. Now, if those two things change.

Like, let's say in game two, you're at home. You're in a must win. If Fred Van Vliet, who's going to shoot at 11 times a game. If four of those go in and Jalen Green gets his normal 20 piece, you're talking about 21 points that you didn't have in this game. And those are doable things. Jalen Green scoring 13 more points is not impossible. I think he had seven, right? How many points, how many points did he actually have? I thought it was seven, but either way, it doesn't matter how many points he had. He had seven. So he had seven points.

So if Jalen Green gets to his normal 20 and Van Vliet hits two more threes, that's six, that's 19 more points. You're up to in the hundreds at that point and you're competitive. Possibly winning that game. That would be the expectation is that those two guys can do that for you next game. Although Van Vliet really this year has been very hit or miss it's a make or miss league which they all say which is really stupid but anyway so you got game two coming up they stole one in your place you need to even up the

series if you can get better like the game you got out of Dylan Brooks is the game you're going to get out of Dylan Brooks right maybe rebound a little bit more uh but you're going to get 11 points he's going to hit two threes for you that's the kind of game you're going to get from Dylan Brooks Shingun 26 and 9 that's the game you're going to get from Shingun uh Amin Thompson he might be able to score a little bit more but rebounding wise that's a great game rebounds and assist wise that's a great game for Amin Thompson uh he can give you a couple more baskets, but that's what you're going to get out of Amon Thompson. What you got out of Jabari Smith, that's the kind of game you're going to get out of Jabari Smith. What you got out of Steven Adams, 12 rebounds, five of them offensive, six points. That's a great day for Steven. Maybe working a steal or a block

and you got a perfect Steven game. He's also a guy that can dish the ball for a couple of assists and he did that for you last night. Basically what it comes down to is Jalen Green gets to 20, Van Vliet hits two more threes, and Amin puts in a couple of buckets and you're scoring a buck 10, buck 12, and you probably win that game. But you're going to be hard-pressed to win games like this when you're hitting six threes against a team that's going to shoot 50 of them. 50-plus, actually. How many threes did they shoot last? They shot 32.

That's a team that can, on average, shoot like 45, 46 threes in the regular season when there's more possessions. Postseason, they're going to scale back on possessions. Teams are going to go more half-court, obviously. So they're going to do a little bit more of that. But there's a formula. I don't believe Jalen Green's going to do a little bit more of that. But you got it. There's a formula. I don't believe Jalen Green's going to play that shitty again. I mean, shit, get the 13 points from Jalen Green.

You got a different ballgame because he's a guy that's going to give you 18 to 20 points a night. He's got to do that. It's pretty simple. All right. There you go. More to come.