The Josh Innes Show - Rockets Win Game 2

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

What did I tell you? I feel like virtually everything I said would happen in Game two actually happened in Game 2. Isn't it kind of amusing that it was Draymond being a toolbox is what kind of led to Jimmy Butler getting knocked out? Do the Warriors have a chance without Jimmy? The Rockets are actually still underdogs in this series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It seemed that basically everything I told you would happen last night in the NBA did happen in the NBA. Ha! Blind squirrel. Every now and then finds a nut, right? I know I rarely talk about the NBA on here, but I feel like I know it fairly well because Jilly is obsessed with betting on it and Jilly is obsessed with DraftKings-ing it and PickSix-ing it and everything else. So we watch a lot of basketball she loves the Grizzlies they play tonight they're going to lose tonight if like I will offer you some thoughts on the games tonight in a little bit but if you look back on the games yesterday almost everything I said

would happen in those games in fact happened in those games if you go back to the first game of the night it was Orlando and Boston. I said that now. I think Orlando covered. I forgot what the final line was in the game, but you never really felt like Orlando had a shot in the game, and that was without Jason Tatum. I also told you yesterday that if you wanted to parlay the Celtics Magic Series to only go four games and the Warriors Grizzlies Series to only go four games. You could have had like plus 200 or something like that. And that would have worked out well for you because that continues. And it's going to continue tonight because the Grizzlies are not going to beat Oklahoma City.

But the Celtics game worked out well. You want to talk about a dick punch. And I guess it worked out for me because I wasn't able to play it. But there are sites that allow you to take the, like they offer things like each team to score 20 points in each quarter of every game, right? That was plus 2,000 for each team to score 20 points in each quarter of each game. What does that mean? Plus 2,000.

That means if you bet $100, you win $2,000. If you bet $50, you get 1,000.. If you bet $50, you get $1,000. $25, you get $500. You get the picture, right? So the Magic and Celtics would have been the game you'd circle and go, huh, I wonder if the Magic are going to have the opportunity to get to $20 in each quarter. And I wonder if maybe there'll be a quarter that the Celtics get held in check, which is rare and it didn't really come close to happening. But the magic got there and the magic got to 100. There are usually bets available that allow you to take every team to score 100 in NBA games as well. They got to exactly 100 and they easily got 20 in each quarter. After the first quarter where they had to score late to get to 21, 26, 24, 29.

So magic, easy peasy. Then you go to the Heaton Cavaliers, and that bad boy was never in question that each team was going to get 20 points. 25, 24 after the first, 43, 27 after the second, 29, 25, third, and 32, 28 in the fourth. And what's funny is the Cavaliers hadn't gotten to 20 with like a minute something to go or something like that, then ended up with 28 so theirs was easy so if you were going into the Rockets and Warriors

game last night you're like well shit it's the Warriors it's the Rockets let's assume that each team's going to score at least 20 points in every quarter right wrong because the Warriors only scored 18 in the first quarter think about that that. Imagine if you had to worry about the Magic getting 20 in each quarter, the Heat getting 20 in each quarter, and it's the Warriors. It's Steph Curry and Jimmy Buckets, team that shoots a billion threes. That's the team that would have kept you from the 20 points in each quarter. They got 18, and they actually almost had a miracle chance to get to 20. If you recall in the game, there was a turnover on like a half-court three-pointer.

I want to say it was Jalen Green who traveled on a half-court three-pointer. So with.3 seconds to go, the Warriors get the ball back and try to heave one towards the basket and almost tip the damn thing in, and that would have been a miracle. Obviously, it didn't happen. So I was going to put that bed in. I had it in and ready to go. And then it blacked out because the game, the first game was just about to start and I missed it.

So consider that a bit of a miracle. But game last night went exactly the way we thought it would go. Let's talk about that and some other stuff after we play these commercials. All right. If you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you 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. Hit all your picks and score higher minimum payouts on Pick 6, plus even more cash if you outscore the competition. Pick 6 is available in most states, including Missouri, California, Texas, Georgia, and more. And I absolutely love it. Look, every night we're going to be having playoff basketball.

Every night. So when you're sitting around and you might not have interest in a particular game, let's say you're a fan of a particular team. They're not playing that night. Here's how you make it a little bit more fun for the other games. Build a little lineup there with pick six. It's really great. Me and my wife do it all the time. So make sure you do it.

And new players get 50 in pick six credits instantly on just a $5 entry. Download the DraftKings pick six app now and use code INNES, that's my name, I-N-N-E-S, for new customers to play. $5, get 50 in Pick 6 credits, better payouts, bigger wins, only with Pick 6 from DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Help is available for problem gambling.

Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org in Connecticut. Must be 18 plus. Age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick six not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited. One per new customer. new customer bonus awarded is non-withdrawable pick six credits that expire in 14 days limited time offer see terms at pick six dot draft kings dot com slash promos so i told you about the rockets game last night that's the game to circle here and look at like i'm not shocked the cavaliers beat the heat heat kind of made it competitive late in the game made it kind of interesting in the game. That's fun.

The Magic kind of made the Celtics game interesting. But imagine you're Orlando. You're Orlando today, and you had the opportunity to play Boston without a league MVP type guy, their best player, and they still beat you by nine points. Like, Orlando has zero shot. Not that I care what happens to the Orlando magic, but the magic at some point in their existence are going to have to find dudes that can fill it up from the perimeter. I think they only hit like

six threes last night. Whereas Boston who had an off night shooting three, they only hit 12. Generally speaking, that's a team that's going to hit 15 to 18 threes. And I know a lot of people bitch about the current state of the NBA and say it's too dependent on the three-point shot and all that. I get that. But right now, the best teams in the league, the teams that are beating people, they can fill it up from the outside. Look at Boston. Look at Cleveland. The reason why the Warriors are still a thing is because they can hit 13, 14, 15 threes a game. A lot of your best teams in the league are doing it with guard play from the perimeter. And that's why, looking at the game last night, when we went into the Rockets-Warriors game,

I said, and the reason why, by the way, I hit a bet last night on DraftKings, I took the over, I told you to play this yesterday, the over for the Rockets team total, 103 and a half was the total or 104 and a half. It was one of those. And I also said to take the over in the game, which I think missed by one singular point, which sucks. But my main thing yesterday was take the Rockets team over 103 and a half, 104 and a half, whatever it was. And either one hit because they scored 109. But I told you to take that last night. Why? The two main reasons. I said, you're going to see a little positive regression. I don't think we're going to see a scenario where the Rockets only hit six threes. I was right. They hit like fucking 15 last night. And I thought Jalen Green would come back

from a seven point game. And if Jalen Green just got to what his number was, I think his total was over 18.5 betting-wise. I said, if he gets there and the Rockets hit more than six threes, the Rockets are going to win the game or at least score 104 points. What happened last night? Jalen Green puts up a cool 38, including eight threes, and the team as a whole hits 15 threes. Now, and then they won the game by 15, and they easily went over 103.5 points.

Now, important to note, the Rockets are not going to have games where they hit 15 threes very often, mostly because you're not going to have a guy go out and drill eight threes very often for the Rockets. That's not who the Rockets are. That's not a sustainable way for them to win, counting on Jalen Green to score 38 and hit 15 threes. But I will say this. If the Rockets get into a position where Fred Van Vliet gives them anything, because homeboy is on the floor more than anybody. Played

42 minutes last night. Fine defensively, three steals in the game. He's doing other things, rebounding. If they can get anything offensively out of Van V game he's doing other things rebounding if they can get anything offensively out of van vliet but particularly the three ball he was one of seven last night he was like two of 11 in game one if van vliet gives them three threes i think it's game set match because they're going to regress like you're not going to get eight threes out of jalen green every game dylan brooks going two or five that's what you count on out of Dylan Brooks. If he goes one of four, you're happy. Two of five, you're golden, right?

Shingun's not going to shoot the three a lot. He hit one last night. Off the bench, you know, Tari Eason can knock down a couple for you, but I don't know that that's overly what you count on. They're not a team that's dependent upon the three ball going down. They need to hit 10 threes.

They need to be somewhere around there. They can live without hitting 15. They need to hit 10 threes. They need to be somewhere around there. They can live without hitting 15. They can't live with hitting six. We learned that in game one. They can live with 10, 15 is spectacular, and that's not going to happen again. But on a given night of Jalen Green's giving you four of 16 from three, and you're getting Van Vliet giving you three of seven versus one of seven. If he gives you anything from the perimeter, anything at all, I don't know that the Rockets lose another game in this series. And most notably, that's because Jimmy Butler is out,

which I don't root for injuries for people. I don't like Jimmy Butler. I think he's kind of douchey. He whines to get what he wants, gets what he wants, and all of a sudden he plays. Plays like shit, gets what he wants, starts to ball, whatever. I don't dislike Jimmy Butler, but I really fucking hate the Warriors. I really fucking hate Steve Kerr.

I'm indifferent on Steph Curry because I don't think he's the most hateable guy in the world. And then there's Draymond Green, who I hate, but I also admire because he never breaks character. That's something that people need to learn. Like yesterday, when we talked about how we look at certain people, like Shadur Sanders or Dion or Angel Reese, some of them like to play badass and play a character, a big, you know, obloviating character. And then what ends up happening with them

is whenever things go wrong, they kind of look for pity. The one thing about Draymond Green that works is that draymond green's a dickhead draymond green's a dirty player draymond green is an instigator draymond green will get your best players into foul trouble he can get into your head but after the game he's going to go up to the podium and he's not going to look for pity like an angel reese well angel reese will talk shit but then she'll run to the internet and say, why be mean to me? Draymond Green is a good chicken shit heel.

And what makes Draymond Green a great chicken shit heel is he's dirty. He's the kind of guy that's got the brass knuckle in his trunks. He's the kind of guy that's gonna throw baby powder in your eyes, right? He's the kind of guy that's got his manager that pulls you. He's pinning.

You're getting pinned and he pulls the guy off of you from under the ropes. That's Draymond Green and the best part is he'll bitch about how he didn't get what he like he didn't get the calls but he's never gonna look for your sympathy he's just gonna keep talking shit and while I hate Draymond I admire Draymond for that but what Draymond did well last night is early in the game he was able to fuck with some of the Rockets guys and get into their heads a little bit force some fouls upon them you know give Dylan Brooks credit because last night felt like the game where we would see Dylan Brooks

v Draymond Green like it's Memphis Golden State of years past like that was what that felt like that felt like that was what we were going to see. For the most part, Dylan stayed out of that. But a lot of that's because he was in foul trouble for a lot of the game. He committed that stupid foul after he thought he got fouled. He got up, bumped into Draymond. They call the foul on Dylan Brooks. Third foul.

He's out of the game for a while. But big picture, the funniest thing that happened last night is that Draymond Green, in his attempts to do Draymond Green shit, Draymond Green pushes, I think it was Amin Thompson, in the back while he's trying to get a rebound, pushes him forward, and Thompson then falls into Jimmy Butler while Jimmy's going up for a rebound, knocks him down and like cracks his pelvis and he's out for the rest of the game. I don't root for Jimmy buckets to get hurt. I

don't really root for anybody to get hurt. I'm not going to be some asshole that sits around and says we want injuries, but it feels sort of like karma, not even karma. It's just fitting. Maybe fitting is karma. I don't know. Maybe karma is the guy on the chief is karma I don't know maybe karma is the guy on the chiefs I don't know but karma maybe it's not karma it's just funny and maybe it's a ball don't lie thing that Draymond Green spends so much time playing dirty kicking dudes in the balls doing anything possible to get rebounds and grabbing shorts and pulling dudes down, whining to the refs, getting technical fouls, starting shit with guys, basically doing anything he can in a brilliant way, we're giving him credit, to make up for his lack of skill. Not

that he's an unskilled basketball player, he's fine, but he makes up for that by doing all the other grimy, dirty shit down there that pisses people off. But it's fitting. It's fitting to see a guy like Draymond push a dude in the back, do a little something dirty to try to get an edge. Even if it's not dirty, it's a little gamesmanship to try to get an edge on a rebound. And by doing so, knocks out somebody who is far more important to the big picture for his team than he is. It's very Draymond.

Very Draymond. And I'm just kind of curious, again, we don't know what's going to happen. So I'm curious to see what the health status is for Jimmy Butler. If Jimmy Butler's out, the Rockets should not lose another game in this series. Cause that was the big storyline is all the Warriors or whatever their record is since Jimmy Butler got there. And before that they were terrible. The Rockets are a very good defensive team. The Rockets held them to 94 points. That's back-to-back games now. That's the other unsung thing in all of this is yes, the Warriors won game one, but the Warriors scored 95 points in game one. The Warriors scored 94 points in game two. So you've held them to basically 95

points a game through the first two games of this series. You're holding them under 100. That's a team that can hit 18 threes, 15 to 18 threes a game. You've done a really good job. You've handled them well. Defensively, the Rockets are damn good. They get grimy. At times, they can play what you would call a coug ball or whatever. They're kind of like the Houston Cougars. They get grimy, dirty, loose balls on the floor, kind of ugly. But then they have a guy like Jalen Green who can take the shit over. And there aren't too many guys. Jalen Green's a special kind of guy.

And that's why last night I said Jalen Green's not going to be held to seven. Jalen Green is going to get 20 at least. And if he does that, they're going to score enough points and they're going to win the game, and they did. Now you travel to Golden State. Now you play in front of their people. We don't know the status of Jimmy Butler, but he was hurt enough to leave the game, so we'll see what happens. Like I saw some graphic pop up that was Stephen A. Smith explains

why the Warriors aren't dead even without Jimmy Butler. Yes, they are. They are dead. It's not going to be, essentially what you're looking at is Steph Curry and the Pips. Jimmy Butler is Batman, Robin, Robin, Batman, whatever. The rest of that squad is dudes that are fine,

and many of them are solid. Like, I think Buddy Heald's a solid player. Pazemski is a solid player. I mean, they got solid dudes. They got one superstar. And I think the Rockets and the type of game they play, which is really a team-dominated type of game, although they have a star in Jalen Green,

a budding superstar in Jalen Green, and a guy who can clearly take a game over when he needs to, there's more revolves around the concept of team, not to get all sanctimonious, but it does. They're a good inside out team. Like I think they were settling for way too many threes at one point last night as well. But part of that is Golden State was kind of packing it in. They weren't giving guys like Shingun the opportunity to catch the ball down low. So you had to kind of, or at least make a move down low. So they settled for a lot of threes. Fortunately, they hit 15 of them. You know,

I don't know that there's, I will say this. There are not going to be too many games where you want to see the Rockets attempting 43 pointers. That's not the most ideal scenario for the Rockets, but at some point, if that's what they're giving you, you've got to hit them. Like early in the first game last night with the Magic, the Celtics were just giving the Magic wide open threes because the Magic throughout the season, I don't know if they're the worst three-point shooting team in the league, but they sure shit don't hit a bunch of them. They don't take a bunch. They don't make a bunch. Early in the game, Boston was like, go ahead and shoot it. And the only way you can get them out of that mindset is to hit it when they give you open shots. So if they're going to keep giving you open threes, hit the open threes, and that'll change the way they play. It's very simple.

But I think the Rockets have this series. I thought they were going to win the series anyway. If Jimmy Butler's out, it's ball game now. I'm curious. I wonder what the series bet is now because the Rockets I want to say were like plus 200 to win the series before last night's game so I'm going to say let's take a look at this so last night they win and obviously the health of Jimmy Butler is going to play a big factor in this West playoff series. Currently, the Rockets are still plus 150 to win the series. Fuck. Dude, take the fucking Rockets. And particularly, we don't know what's going to happen with Jimmy Butler. I don't know, man. If I get the Rockets plus 150, I also think the Clippers are going to beat Denver. So you put that in. The Memphis series isn't worth a shit. And I also think the Lakers are going to beat Minnesota. So there's plus 600 there. Then you go to the East.

I don't know how to feel about the Pistons and Knicks. Although I think the Pistons are winning tonight. Like I think there are certain nights that you're just destined to win a basketball game and maybe I'm wrong here and I could be, But you haven't had a home playoff game in like a decade and a half. Damn near two decades. Haven't won a home playoff game. Haven't had a home playoff game. Basically, since the end of the second era of the great Pistons teams with Chauncey Billups and Richard Rip Hamilton and Ben Wallace

and Tayshaun Prince. Since then, they really haven't done anything. You've got the arena. I was talking to a friend of mine who's in Detroit, radio guy in Detroit. Place is going to be sold out. It's going to be loud. It's going to be raucous. Detroit basketball, it's going to be bonkers. If there's ever a time that I just think a team is supposed to win a basketball game, and by the way, they don't suck either. So it's not like this is some garbage team that's playing. Memphis isn't good. memphis plays at home tonight but i think memphis is dead team walking uh maybe they'll come out hot early and the crowd will be into it and all that shit but

i think ultimately they're still going to lose by more than 10 points because that's what the grizzlies do to the thunder they're going to lose by more than 10 points. It's just what they do. So I would take the Thunder to cover. But the Pistons, there are times, many times, they're going to have the best player on the floor, and that's Cade Cunningham. And I wonder if on the road, Jalen Brunson gets all those bullshit whistles he gets in the garden. So it's plus 198 for Detroit to win the series. I don't know that I'm willing to jump in on that yet, but I wouldn't be shocked. Pacers and Bucs. The Pacers, I still think, are going to win that series. They're minus 430.

Throw them into the play. And then, I mean, basically, if you just took those, you took the Rockets to win the series, the Clippers, the Lakers, and Indianapolis or Indy, Indiana, that'd be almost plus 800. That's not bad. Let me take a quick look at the spreads for tonight. If you guys actually listen to my betting advice, which last night you would have been somewhat beneficial. Uh, the Pistons are a point and a half underdog at, or at home. I think they're going to win. Um, Oklahoma city's a 10 point favorite at Memphis. I think Oklahoma City rolls in that one. And the Clippers are at home against the Nuggets.

I don't like these games. Jilly likes these ones. Like, these are all the games Jilly likes. She loves the Thunder Grizzlies games and the Nuggets and Clippers. I'm all about exploiting. Like, the Rockets are a three-and-a-half-point underdog on Saturday against the Warriors. Why?

Like, I get that they're on the road. And, you know, maybe Steph will drill some threes. But if they don't have Jimmy Butler, what are they going to do? Give me a break. on Saturday against the Warriors. Why? Like, I get that they're on the road, and, you know, maybe Steph will drill some threes, but if they don't have Jimmy Butler, what are they going to do? Give me a break. And Friday night, you've got the Lakers and the Timberwolves. That's fun. So there you go.

The Celtics are only a five-and-a-half point favorite on the road against Orlando, and I don't know what the status of Jason Tatum is, but some of these are decent money lines to build into a parlay. So if you just wanted to do that, you take Celtics money line, Thunder money line. I think actually the Timberwolves may win game three at home, but that'd be an opportunity though to cash in on the Lakers if you think that game two is more of what you're going to get in game three. Cavaliers on the road against the Heat and the Rockets. You can get like plus 500 out of that parlay. Not bad.

All right. Anyway, more to come.