The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Come Back To Earth, Rockets Lose Close One & Texans Training Camp

Episode Date: August 24, 2020

Astros Come Back To Earth, Rockets Lose Close One & Texans Training Camp

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Mac Thomas show. 12 o'clock at H-town. What's happening at lunchtimer? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show. As I come to you from our Rockets Radio Network Studios inside the tow at a center.

I'm Matt. Ross is back in our 790 studio. Sports RV, how was your weekend? Well, it was a pretty good weekend, but the Houston sports were a different story, Matthew. That they were. Brandon Riley is a producer of the radio show, but it was chock full of Houston sports. And it's only going to get more intense as we get game four of the Rockets and Thunder here today on 790, beginning at 3 o'clock. We have Astros baseball tonight against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. And that'll also be on 7-90 when the Rockets wrap by hosted by you is over with.

We have Texans back on the practice field today, college football getting closer. And all by way, two hurricanes. It's been a pretty eventful weekend around our parts. Double Hurricanes? Here I am. Rock you like a hurricane. Rock me like double hurricanes. What is it, Laura and Marco or whatever?

Isn't it crazy how you would think Laura would strike first, but it's Marco that's going to get here first? or not here, but along the coastline. Well, they go alphabetically. L.M. Wait, yeah, I guess you should be the other way, right? Well, obviously, Laura got her act together first in the Caribbean before Markham figured out what he wanted to do. Women typically do. They get their act together first, and then the men still jump ahead.

I don't really know how to follow that up. Maybe you want to call Mike Milbury at NBC Sports, see if you want to get a follow-up comment on that. No, I don't think so. He's not very busy, unfortunately, Ross. He's not. All right, we are with you till 3.3. 3 o'clock today. Let me tell you about what the show is all about.

Noon at Sports RV and yours truly. And then I need to step aside for a little while to go talk to Coach Dan Tony via phone and get ready for Rockets and Thunder. And then in the 1 o'clock hour, our buddy Adam Wexer is going to jump in with SportsRV for a little update from Texanville. And then Ross will have the Emmy Award-winning 2 o'clock Rockets Launchpad, which I will rejoin you for a segment to talk about tonight's game or today's game. How do we feel about these afternoon starts? I can't imagine. I wonder what the television ratings are.

My gut tells me they're not very good. Yeah, I don't think a lot of people are tuning in for 1230 Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets Basketball like they had last week. Of course, they were the late game yesterday. But I'm going to guess the afternooting ratings aren't great. Matt, but me, as a person who's not a 9-to-5 are these days, I love it. I love the afternoon basketball. Yeah, and I'll say this.

I do like the fact that the last game's, starts in and around 8 o'clock. Now, 8 o'clock usually means 8.15 or 8.20, but it does beat the 947 sometime tips you'd have in the second round of playoff series. Now, when we get to the conference finals, they'll all play at the same time, which will be about 7 o'clock or 6 o'clock our time. But, yeah, so it's been kind of nice to have these awkward times. It's good for us because it gives us fresh material right in front of us.

And you and I really haven't talked all weekend about the game itself on Saturday. In a nutshell, a winnable game. I mean, let's face it, Ross. The Rockets were up five with a minute left to go and then get outscored 22 to 5 in the final moments of regulation and in the overtime. The overtime was a hot mess. I mean, what was it?

19 to 5 or something like that. Something crazy. The point being is this, it was not a great way for the Rockets to end it. And it comes right down to this. And I know there's some people that are upset that Eric Gordon's didn't get a phone. didn't get a foul called with the contact on him, or there was the Chris Paul hitting Ben McLemore in the junk.

There was the ball. I think that ball went off of Stephen Adams' hand late there in the inbound's pass. Yeah. Here's the one thing I don't know. Maybe you do because you're a little more on the rules. The ball, when we were calling the game live, Wex and I were calling the game, it was either going to stay Houston basketball

or it was going to go to Oklahoma City because the interpretation was that no one touched it. I don't think you can go back and see a foul and see, oops, you missed that, right? For a foul? The only thing you can review is whether the ball was touched by somebody. Yeah, I don't think they can review a foul there, maybe unless there's a challenge. But, yeah, they were reviewing whether or not the ball was touched by Stephen Adams, which I submit it was because it looked like the spin of the ball changed and Stephen Adams dove after it.

and he's so big that you know because we're Houston homers and went in doubt Stephen Adams touched it right? Well if he didn't touch it well if he didn't touch it why would he go run and dive after it? Yeah that's right but I'm not going to look I don't like to use

officiating as any sort of reason why a particular team wins or loses no that's not why they lost the game they got a lot of good calls on some James Hardin got called for some fouls or drew some fouls that weren't fouls there was uh what was there was some other Oh, Eric Gordon scored a layup where he traveled and they didn't call it travel.

So if you want to break it down to one play, you really can't do that with the fish shooting. I'm not going to do that. What does concern me is Eric Gordon shooting four of 26 from three in this series. James Hardin is 11 of 37 so far in this series. Robert Covington gets himself into foul trouble and frankly gets himself out of the rotation. He only plays, what, 19 minutes in the game in game three. if not for Jeff Green, who has been the MVP of this series. I mean, if you're talking about Mr. Consistency so far, it has been him.

I don't know where this team is. And here's the bigger question. And I will certainly ask us to Coach Dan Tony when he and I visit a little bit later on, and you'll hear the talk on the pregame show. Lou Dort, Rossi, he can't shoot, and I don't need to a kid per se. I mean, he's shooting 214 from 3, which is probably, not what Billy Donovan wants, but I think you'll have to accept that because the young fellow, first of all, is being left wide open.

And so there's an intentional reason for that. But what he is doing on the defensive end to body up James Hardin, I mean, I'm hoping the Rockets have had a day to figure out what to do on that. But I respect the hell out of Lou Dorton the way he has tried to every single time make James Hardin's life a living hell no matter where he is on the floor. Yeah, I mean, we've seen this before in the playoffs. I mean, James Harden has, I mean, big physical guys with length can give James Hardin problems on the perimeter. We've seen it from Wesley Matthews back in the day when he was with the Portland Trailblazers.

We saw it, of course, in 2016 with Kauai Leonard. So James Hardin can be harassed. And sometimes I think Matt, when that happens and he knows it, he kind of takes on the challenge and wants to go after him. And I understand that mentality that he has. But I'd rather they find some kind of mismatch and screen doort off of them or something like. now. Like, just make it. You can score on Dort and James Hardin can drop 30 on just about anybody, but if we could move him off of there, if they could figure out a way to screen him off or do something else to get Dord out of there, that would be really helpful, I think.

I think that's for me tonight, Ross, that is the number one thing that has to happen. They've got to give Hardin a little bit of separation from Lou Dort. And this Canada, Arizona State, who missed the first game of the series of the knee sprain has certainly made an impact. He's got four-block shots. He will attack the basket a little bit offensively. But again, what you saw, especially in the fourth quarter in the game against the Rockets on Saturday, was they were substituting offense for defense, and that's what you have to do,

because Dort getting in James' way is hampering and making things much more difficult for James. And it's good on them, and I think the Rockets in James and the coaching staff will have to figure out a way to make him less of an issue today than he certainly was. in game two. If you'd like to join us this afternoon, and we are with you officially on the talk show side until 2 o'clock before we get to Rockets mode. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Rossi, I had this team in six originally.

I backed it down to five. I don't feel extraordinarily nervous about this game. I respect the hell out of what Chris Paul did to come back. I thought Dennis Schrooter, while not shooting great, was certainly very active. Gallinari was hitting his threes. Shea Gildes Alexander just is in the right place, right time. Dore doing his thing defensively. It's a good basketball team.

That's one of the playoffs. But the Rockets are better. The Rockets should finish off the series. Yeah, I agree with that. Whether it gets to five or six, that's, you know. You're not going to change your connection. I would say it'd be cool. No, I'm going to stay with five.

I think they're going to come back with a nice bounce-back win and then finish things off in a couple of days. I agree with that. Yeah, I think the, absolutely, the Rockets are clearly the better team here. I mean, we're talking about what happened. The Rockets should have, first of all, they blew that game with 50 seconds left or 59 seconds left or whatever it was. There was the call where, I mean, what happened with Stephen Adams, you had Daniel House missed a three. You had everybody not hitting the broad side of the barn, not named Jeff Green from three in the entire game.

You had, Shea Gilgis-Hallis-House missed a free throw. Yeah, House missed the free throw, as I said. and you had all of the three guards going for over 25, or two of them going for 25, and Shaggill just went for 23, and then you had four guys scoring 20 points for the Thunder. So that's probably not going to happen in the next game either. So I think you look at the balance of everything that happened.

The Thunder were lucky to win one, and the Rockets were comfortably winning their games. They're obviously the better team in this series, I think. I will say this. I would hate for the Rockets series to go to that 6th, game because I feel like I don't think the Lakers are going to let the Blazers slide into another

victory. I think they feel like they're the ones that should be, you know, the next couple extra days of rest would hurt them or would help them and the Rockets, you know, if the Thunderworks send us to a six or seventh game, we could definitely take advantage of that. So a really interesting weekend, I don't know how much, frankly,

our audience is watching other NBA games. The Clippers Dallas game just very quickly. Luca Donchich was what, questionable Ross to even play the game with a turned ankle, and then he puts together a 40-point triple-double, including an amazing buzzer-beater to win the game. And he is going to give me hives, I think, for the foreseeable future, because the Rockets and Mavericks obviously play each other four times a year during the regular season

and very well-coctly seeing each other in the playoffs in the future. He is something else. He's basically James Hart, but a younger version. maybe a little thicker, but that's about it, right? I mean, their games are so comparable to each other. And it's funny because we don't do that a lot in sports. We don't take black guys and white guys and say, oh, their games marry each other. I think we can do that in this particular case.

He's a scorer. He distributes. He runs point when Nessus one needs to, which is about half the time, and he has a flare for Dramatic. And he knocked it down to send the Clippers in that series with a Mavericks to at least a sixth game. Yeah, impressive performance by Louis. Luca, yeah, they are similar a little bit, just because of some things in their game, and they do the step back three and stuff like that.

But the crazy thing is that Luca's only, what, 20 years old and Luca, or 21, and his three-point shot, the percentages aren't that great right now. So the scary part is, like you said, Matt, he's going to terrorize the Rockets Division four years to come because he's only going to get better. That's what's scary about it. All right, a lot to get to today if you want to talk about the Rockets. Rockets game coming up in about two hours and 45 minutes. If you want to get into the Astros,

slam Diego. Oh, that was a sucky trip. Watching those terrible uniforms of Padres have and then watching Fernando Tatis do it with his bat and his glove, we'll get to that. Earl Thomas is available, and let's please not be irresponsible radio guys and try to sell you a story that's just not there.

Earl Thomas ain't coming to the Texans. Let's stop the stupid narrative. 713-21, 4. 5.790. That's how you reach the show today. 713-212-5-790 on Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore. The folks at bronze roofing have been in business in the Houston area for over 30 years. Roofs are their specialty, thus the name bronze roofing. And they can last up to 15 years the bronze roofing can. They come to your house and check out and make sure everything is working okay for you. If there's something wrong with your roof, the folks at

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Matt's kind of like Shasta without putting on a costume. He's a big old... The Matt Thomas Show continues on Sports Talk 790. Time is 1218. It is the Matt Thomas Show. Sports Talk 790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Is how you reach the show if you want to get in.

7-1-3-2-1-1-2-1-1-2. 2.5.7.9 as we get you ready for a busy day of sports. San Diego. Thank God the Astros are done with them. Ross. Manning Machado hits a home run yesterday. Fernando Tatis Jr. with a great catch. The other guy had never heard of before hit three home runs yesterday or on Saturday. Oh, that was a brutal, brutal weekend. Just pitching just got beat up badly. The highlight of the entire weekend was Zach Granky throwing a 54-mile-on-hour pitch. Yeah, I think that was probably it. But, you know, the Saturday game, you said, was brutal.

But at least you knew about two innings in. You didn't really have to pay much attention to the game, Matt. That's funny because as soon as the game was over, the Rockets game, I decided to go to Big City Wings and Kingwood have a little dinner, maybe a couple of pops. And I wanted to go somewhere where I could watch both the Lakers and Blazers and the Astros Padres at the same time. And they were fortunate, you know, they've got multiple televisions. And they don't need to be a client of Remote for U.Diz because they know what they're doing.

So both games were on And about a minute and a half in, I just thought to myself, well, I can just focus on the Lakers Portland game Because the Astros game was over with Yeah, the Lakers Portland game Where LeBron James dropped like 38 Yeah, almost had a triple double as well So he came back stormed back after a couple of bad games

In game one and game two Yeah, so yeah, the Astros They came down earth a little bit, right? I mean, we didn't think, we kept saying, wow, this winning streak is up to eight games. This is incredible. And then we were thought to ourselves, they have an eight-game winning streak?

And then you realize some of that's against Seattle. The games against Colorado were good wins. Colorado can hit the can bash the baseball. They're over 500. They're going to be on the cusp of making a playoff spot, I think. I think the Dodgers in San Diego will have the top two spots in the West. But they're in the mix for one of those last two spots. So those were quality wins.

But, man, the Padres just beat the hell out of them. And one good, George Berger did not have a good weekend. I feel like Rossi, his wrist is just not 100%. And not that he never say anything because he wants to keep that close to the vest, but it's just not the same. George, since he's coming off, you know, since he got hurt, and since he, you know, missed that time, he just hasn't been the same baseball player.

And that hurts because while Altube is doing his thing and getting back up to respectability into the numbers we're counting for, everybody else is kind of coming down on the pack. Michael Brantley wasn't having that great start, had that great start. It's down a little bit. Josh Redick is who Josh Redick is. It misses Breggman. The lineup does for sure. And Abraham Toro is just not going to be able to take care of that

that bit at this point of time because Breggman's loss is going to hurt a lot more than people even thought it would be originally. Yeah, the loss is going to be huge. And Altuvae, he was 0 for 4 yesterday, but he's going to be fine. If you ever, if you were betting that Jose Altovae was going to struggle all year, that was a bad bet. So he's going to turn it around. They're going to be fine.

But even with the eight game winning streak, Matt, I don't think any of us were like eight games in a row. This team is going to win the division. This team is going to the World Series. Nobody really felt like that, even though you win eight straight games in a 60 game season. Because we were worried about some of the pitching. And that came to fruition with Brandon Belak and his bad start. I mean, the guy's not just going to come out of here out of nowhere and just be a front line starter with an ERA under two the entire season.

It's probably just not likely. So the thing that we can rest our laurels on is probably the lineup whenever you do get Alex Breggman back. So this is to me, I think a decent team to solid good, whatever word you want to use. And they're not a contender. And I think that was proved right now they're not a contender. And I think that was proven over the weekend. So what do you want to do? Forgetting about what we think James Click and the Astros are going to do.

What do you want to do? Do you think in the deadline for the trades of the 31st? So we're talking about a week from today. Yikes. Is there any, and look, there are going to be names that we just frankly don't know because we don't spend a lot of time watching Kansas City or Detroit or Cincinnati or any of those other teams that don't realistically have a chance. Is there going to be a move that the Astros are going to make that's going to make, like the Zach Granky deal last year was a wow move? Not only because it was Zach Granky, but it was done at 259.51. Well, the Astros have a knack of doing these deals at the very last second.

Verlander comes in the last 10 minutes. You've got Granky comes in the last minute, maybe 45 seconds. Do we want to do this this year? Is there something out there that is so good that's going to make everybody think, all right, here we go. Astros, as expected, World Series contenders. Or do we go, you know what? It is what it is.

The model link system isn't spectacular. Don't want to give up. You're going essentially to win a gimmicky World Series. What do we want to do as compared to what we think Biasros will do? And what could they do? I mean, you have all these teams, for the most part, I mean, who are, it's a shortened season in the first place. Most of the teams at the end of the day are going to either make the playoffs or they're in the running for the playoffs. So you're not going to have some team who's thinking there within striking distance of the playoffs,

wanting to trade away some young assets or an asset that's under control for a couple of years, because that's what the Astros would probably want to trade for. And then you don't want to trade away. You don't have that, you have what, what was it, the baseball America have them at 29th or something like that? And you don't have much in stock anyways, and you don't want to give some of that away for a rental on a weird season that is just, quite frankly, feels cheapened.

So I don't want to say that the, or guarantee or anything, that the Astros are going to stay pat, but it just seems like at the end of the day, that might be the most wise move. Yeah, I mean, I don't think you and I are trying to say don't do something because I think if something is done and the bullpen and or starting rotation improves immediately, that's encouraging. We'd be fired up for it.

I'm just saying, you know, like in years past, you felt like the Aster is needed to make something happen to get over the top. And that, you know, sometimes teams that are in contention, you get resentful if your general manager doesn't do anything. You can be resentful in the clubhouse, It can be resentful with the fans. It can be resentful with the media. I think at the Astros, this is a tough thing to say, to be honest with you, gang.

If the Astros did nothing, at least this radio host is not going to go, what are you doing? Because the vibe of this year has been lousy since, what, the second day of the season? And if you go back to before that when Jose Orquit wasn't there and that you had Yoran Alvarez out and you know you had Peacock wasn't going and Davensky wasn't

going I mean there's there's just never been even in La Rossi we even did this last week when they were winning eight in a row we were like this is kind of cool but I'm not printing out world you know I'm not setting up a Zoom parties for World Series parties I was going to say print game tickets but nobody's doing that anyway but I don't know I just

I feel like this year would be the year that I think a new general manager with not a replenished minor league system probably doesn't have to face any sort of ridicule if this team doesn't make a significant move before the deadline one week from today. I think it feels like everybody's going to get a pass for this year. Managers, general managers, even players, if somehow so Jose Altuve hits under 200 for the rest of the season or something like that, it's just going to be a weird, weird season and we're not going to be. And I guess the champion is going to be the champion, but I think everybody gets a pass for

2020. And the hardest thing is for this team, it's not about what's going to happen during the season, it's about what they're going to do after the season. You take this 60-game sample size, you've got to figure out what you're going to do with Michael Brantley, Josh Redick, and George Springer, obviously. I know there's other free agents, but those are the three that I think will gather the most attention. And in Georgia's case, as we've talked about even before the start of the season, the argument always has been, we believe the Astros are only going to pay one. Who do you pay? Carlos Correa, who's having a good season, really good glove, batting 300 on the year, looks the part that we always want him to be. But remember, his sample size is very small because this is not a full 162 campaign.

So a very, very difficult offseason for the Astros. But first things first, they're going to get fat and happy this week. They've got the Angels and the Rangers. I mean, come on now. That should be in all the games. I think the next 10 games are at home. That should be just fine to cure what ailed them after that long weekend in San Diego. 713-212-5-790.

If you'd like to join us today, 7-13-212-750. We are two and a half hours away from tip time between the Rockets and the Oklahoma City. Thunder. Texans back on the practice field will get you an update on what's happening with them coming up in the next hour of the show. 713-212-5-790. Right now, I want to tell you about Shaw's Jewry at West Grey and Montrose.

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What a pass. What a finish. Listen to your home of the rockets on your smart speaker. Just fast. Hey, Google, play Sports Talk 790 on IHR radio. That is something else, folks. Daniel Howes with the throughdown. Daniel Howes here.

You got Sports Talk 790. Throw it down on the right hand. Flagship station. A viewer rocket. And we will have Rockets basketball for you here on 790 this afternoon, beginning with Ross and the launchpad at 2 o'clock. Who is your special guest during the launch pad on 790 this afternoon? Well, I wanted one of the voices of Houston sports, one of the most respected and revered radio hosts in all of the city. Craig Ackerman was busy, so we got you, Matt.

Right. Yeah, that's what I thought. So, yeah, I'll join you on the launch pad later on the day at 2 o'clock. I will say that. is, are you really, or am I looking just, you're having to kill six minutes of airtime? No, I'm looking forward to it because it's kind of a different, more formal setting, which we never do. That's true. We've done it once already so far. Yes.

This might be my last play-by-play broadcast of the year because I'm not going to work game five, but I'm going to work game six if there is one. Quite frankly, Matt, nothing against you. I hope you're done. I will say the exact same thing. Because, you know, I got to be really honest with you here, you know, I don't think these afternoon games are helping. I mean, in what way?

There is just zero buzz for a postseason. This is the postseason, right? These aren't bubble games, right? I mean, I know they're bubble games, but I mean, they're all like seating games. And I just don't know if, with them being gone, and this is just a byproduct of the virus, this is a byproduct of the bubble.

I mean, nobody could do anything. to change this. But we mentioned us a little bit on the show on Friday. You just naturally get a buzz when you are at the venue, right? And you've had dinner and you have a couple of pops. You get in the arena, you yell and scream. You know, Bun B does a video before the game. I scream as a lot as I can. I'm at the line of it. They're just, it ain't there, bro. It is not. I would say. And I don't think three. Good. Three o'clock games help either. I think that's definitely part of it. And I would say Saturday. day's game, I think. So look, judging things by phone calls and tweet interactions maybe isn't the best way, but that's one of the things that I go on. One of the things. Yeah. And so I think there

were an decent number of calls in the postgame show on Saturday. The Twitter interactions were up. So I think you're right. I think it is. I mean, a lot of people are working and doing other things and they don't have time for a three o'clock in the middle of the afternoon matinee Rockets playoff game. So it's hard for them to keep engaged. And it's hard to stay in age, when you say, oh, man, I already missed a couple of games. What's the big deal if I miss another one? So I think it's definitely one of those things that's factoring it. And I'll also say it's the first round of the playoffs.

And if I remember the memory banks in the last couple of years, first round, I think, is, it's almost like, you know, the Braves would not even sell out the first round because they'd make it every year. The Rockets fans say, you know what, we've seen the Rockets get past the first round. Who cares? We want to see the Rockets beat the Lakers, get to the conference finals, and then start making some moves. and that's when I'll start buying it. I would have to completely agree with you. I think if it's Rockets, Lakers, the series sexiness goes up 500-fold. No disrespect to Chris Paul, but people like Chris Paul here.

It's hard to hate him. Now, if he wants to keep hitting Ben McLemore and the cash use, there can be a different issue on that. By what, you see, Dan Tony, he lost his mind. He could not believe, and Mike doesn't get a lot of technical fouls. And usually the easiest way to get a technical foul is dropping a couple of swear words on the official. He was none too pleased that there was not a flagrant foul called against Chris.

Chris is just shifty. You'd say it kind of slowly in the radio. Shifty. Crafty. Veteran savvy. He would definitely be a heel as a wrestler. He's always got something in his trunks. Yes.

A foreign object, if you will. I like that. Even though I'm not a wrestling guy, that's a good analogy. Yeah. You should be. And you know what? I mean, look, at the end of the day, do I think, Chris Paul did that on purpose?

Absolutely. Do I think the referees would be able to say beyond reasonable doubt or whatever, that that was a flagrant foul? Probably not. So it is what it is. All right. So if you are just kind of in passive mode right now, like, you know what we are, the Rockets' first round playoff series? And it might be

other, this might be the same situation in other cities. I think we're all on energy saving mode on our phones. You know how it gets a 20% and it goes to that yellow where they just want to make sure you keep as much power. as you can go. That's where the rocket, I think we're rocket fans are right now. Finish the series off because they've advanced each of the last three years under Mike

Dantonian in the first round of the playoffs. And then let's go play the big boys. At least I hope. I also think Rossi's six, seven, eight o'clock games are going to help a lot compared to the really, really bizarre times we've had for these playoff games so far. Yeah, I mean, we're going to be done with 12 and 3 o'clock games once they get into the conference semifinals, right? For the most part. Yeah, because you're dropping eight teams right away. Yeah, that's great. By the way, game four is going to be at 530. So that's a little bit better in two days from now.

I don't have any of you on a game six if there is one. Real fast, before we go on to some other things. Again, I'm going to jettison for a little while at 1 o'clock. Adam Buxer is going to stop in and give you an update and what happened, but he saw at Texans today. This Earl Thomas situation, you hear that he basically punched a teammate in Baltimore, and that's the reason why I like get the hell out? Yes, he did.

Why would any team want that? I'm not a psychologist and I'm not in Earl Thomas's everyday life, but given the problems that he had with his wife earlier, what was it the whole threesome issue that he and his brother were all in a bad tag team and a bunch of IG models or whatever. Then the wife came over with a gun. And apparently in those, the thing that kind of, well, I mean, look, man, those things happen when you're in the NFL. But no, they were talking about how he had had a drinking problem and now he's getting him fights with teammates. There's obviously some things going on in Earl Thomas's life that he needs to destroy. straightened out before he's available to or even able to go out in a football field. And I'll be honest with you, I think it's just as much about the fact that maybe he can't do his job like he did when he was a Seattle Seahawk.

That father time always wins. And not only fathered time, he's had a number of devastating injuries throughout his career. So he's been hurt. Well, I remember that one time I saw, I was rehabbing my shoulders. And he was right next to me. And I said, I'm Matt, Thomas. Who are you? And he said, I'm Earl Thomas.

Oh, I said, Earl, nice to meet you. You think you're related? What do you do for a living? There's 0% chance. Okay. We got the same last name. We do. But I'm also not related to Thurmond Thomas either, just for those of you're playing at home.

But very affable guy, but man, just the story. You go look up Earl Thomas's off-field discretions, and it's a lengthy list, to be honest with you. But the Texans, I mean, look, Rossi, they've already seen. spent money on Future All-Pro Eric Murray, right? I mean, they don't need it. We have pumped the brakes on Future All-Pro. Well, I mean, future All-Texins' first team, as in he's a starter.

Well, I mean, why would you give him that much money over that length of time if you didn't think he was going to become an All-Pro for the team? That's a question for Bill O'Brien, not me. Well, yeah, Earl Thomas is not going to be Houston, Texas. I mean, there's probably ruined some other people's bits for, like, 12 hours. hours a day of nonstop, can Earl Thomas make a difference? How does the AFC South size up of Earl Thomas plays for the Texans? I mean, if he's going to go anywhere, he's going to go to Dallas, because that's what Dallas does.

That's their bit. They like to go after guys that have had multiple problems in other places and give them a puncher's chance. Yeah, I think you need minimum two misdemeanors to make the roster in Dallas, Matt. Isn't it funny how some team, I mean, the Cowboys have always been that kind of way, but they were, you know, like, remember once the Bengals had like half dozen players that had problems. And remember when the Portland Trailblazers were known as the jailblazers because they kept getting guys in trouble? I think Cal McNair wants

no part of that. And frankly, I don't blame him. Or I didn't blame Bob when he didn't go after this. I mean, I don't think you have to hire and put on 53 choir boys. But I think punching a player and having the other issues like they've had before is not a great sign to say,

you know what, we think you'd be a perfect fit for our locker room. That's why Antonio Brown's not working right now, Ross. Sometimes you just don't need that kind of headache Because let's be brutally honest It's going to be a very tumultuous year in the NFL Do you see about the massive outbreaks Around about four or five teams in the NFL over the weekend?

No, I didn't see that What happened? Yeah, a bunch of positive cases Coming out of a laboratory in New Jersey The Texans are not one of those teams And they've had minimal results So that's been good But yeah

Yeah, there's so much going on in the NFL that the last thing you want in a year where you're social distancing and double and triple cleaning everything and playing maybe in front of no fans or limited fans is to have a headache in your locker room. And Baltimore is a legitimate Super Bowl contending team. Legitimate. And they said, get the hell out.

So, you know what? I'm going to take the cue off of John Harbaugh on the Ravens and say, you know what, it'd be better serve Earl if you go somewhere else, like maybe four hours north of us on I-4. I think we could see that happening. But yeah, I'm agreeing with you. I don't think we're going to see Earl Thomas. And there's just about 0% chance he's going to be in the Texans uniform.

And again, when you have Eric Murray Ross, future all pro, there's only no spot for him. How could you bump Eric Murray off of the starting lineup? I'm with you, Matt. You can't. That's why I sign up for consideration. 1243, Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790 if you'd like to get in on the show today

7-13-212-5-7-90 I'll be here to 1. Ross takes over at 1 o'clock and then we go to Rockets Launchpad at 2 with a message here for Big City Wings. Would you like to watch the Rockets game while enjoying chicken tenders at a dollar or pop? That's going to happen today at any of the 8, soon to be 9 big city wing locations. That's right. $1 chicken tenders all day plus specials on their 34-ounce big brews. happening today whether you're dining in whether you are taking out with you

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34-ounce big brew specials today at big city wings and big citywings.com. Yo, this is Bunbee. And my wife is the biggest fan of the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas, Matt Troy. Reckless, ratchet, and don't give a fuck. Yeah, so they call me a reckless and a ratchet. I agree with that. By the way, a lot of celebratory emails and texts coming in

from my dominating a fantasy five win this past Friday. Could be very applicable this week. What, unfortunately? I don't even remember we had one. Yeah, I know. Oh, it was the, yeah, you were drinking tequila for the entire time you're locked in with a hurricane. You're having, you're having tequila loops. And you won somehow.

And you were going to eat that gross-ass chef-boy-a-rety, bravioli out of a can. You're a hater. You're a stumbling in your house and you eat that? Oh, it's not going to be bad. You're going to be on the toilet within 30 seconds. 45 maybe. Oh, well, I'm. When is Mr. Tequila diet leaving the toilet?

I'm sipping. I'm not going to be drinking it straight out. You got to hydrate at some point. I was going to go tap water if I was allowed. Although I'm not a big fan of tap water. All right, real quick, before we go to some phone call, 71321, 2, 5, 790. Do you hear the latest? I shouldn't say the latest, but there is an NBA rumor on the Twitter streets today.

Did you see what it is? I did not. that Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, too thoughtful, relaxing, even-keel guys, want Greg Popovich to be their coach in Brooklyn. Okay. What do you think? Hmm. I want Adrienne Lima to be my wife.

That's what I think. And that if Pop is not interested or wants to go to Brooklyn, that Tyron Loo would be their number one candidate. Ty Lou is going to get an NBA job. He's not going to be an assistant. What a drop off that is? Yeah. Yes. But I think the one thing about Ty Lou is that, you know, when he was in Cleveland, it was, well, he's just there for LeBron.

And LeBron's going to coach him. I think he gained a lot of respect despite the fact that LeBron was never going to really listen to what he said. I think most players in the NBA are going to like Ty Lou's a lot. their basketball coach, even though that he knew his role, that he was not to question anything. LeBron James, LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving. My guess is Kyrie went to Kevin and said, hey, I was with this guy. He'll let us do what we want, and he's perfect for us.

Yeah, Tyloo could be successful with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. I guess Craig Popovich hasn't been successful without Tim Duncan and Kauai Leonard and Tony Parker and Manu Genobli. Well, I mean, I know that Patty Mills is going to get you the hard-fought minutes, but he's just not going to bring the same zeal that the other guys did. But if pop to me, it looks like he doesn't even want to coach anymore. He's untucking his pants. I mean, not his pants, his shirt.

Just because he likes to dress comfortably on the sidelines, Matt? He doesn't want to coach. He's got a scraggly beard going. He doesn't answer media questions. I mean, he brings up social issues when people are asking about guys in a rotation. I mean. Well, you try to coach him. Yakima Pertil for 80 games, Matt.

For 60, I guess. 70. Yeah. Maybe he's tired of Lamarcus Alder shooting top of the key jumpers. I know I get hives when I see him. 713. 212.

That's true. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Are we going to Las Vegas? Why not? David and Vegas here on the phone lines. What's up, Dave? Dave, what's going on?

I was good to go to Las Vegas. Hey, how are you gentlemen doing today? Well. Hey, first of all, I am a totally engaged fan. I am watching this series with all my heart completely intact. Wonderful how well I were playing in the first two games, especially. It's just, it's great. So I'm involved.

I don't know about anybody else. I'm watching a lot of other games, too. And hold on just a second. Sorry about that. I got interrupted. Anyway, my observations, I say, I want to see if you share this with me. Let's assume we get through this series. It may take six or even seven games, I'm afraid, but I do think we're going to win.

I'm looking at these Lakers, and I'm looking at these clippers, and I'm not sure either one of those teams or who we thought they were. I'm really thinking the Lakers have got some real offensive anemia that this gets going to, it makes them pretty beatable. And as for these clippers, what business is, they have, having the game even close, let alone losing it and evening the series, when Porzingis is out completely and Lucas hobbling around on one wheel, it's incredible that the Mavericks could stay with them under this conditions.

I'm thinking that, you know, the next two opponents we might be looking at are very beatable. Do you share my opinion? Well, I was never scared. Thank you, David, for the phone call. Ross, you and I have talked about this. We were never scared to be the one of them. All I will say is this. when the clippers are all together and all healthy and all vested,

they're the deepest team in the Western Conference. When LeBron and AD want to play at their very, very best, that two-headed monster can beat anybody in the NBA, adding to any green in the mix as well, getting whatever you get out of the center spot too. But it hasn't been that case. What happened to Paul George? He just looks like just a guy out there, Ross.

Playoff P. scored nine points. Playoff P. Okay. Yeah, that's what he calls himself. Oh, I know that, but there's almost, you'd like to call him something else, but then you don't want to get that back to him and then he gets all managers. I'm sorry, it was, yeah, I think he had like 11 and 9 points in the last couple of games for the Clippers.

He's supposed to be, look, he's supposed to be one of the best two-way players in the league, and he made that comment on, what was it, Friday or whatever it was, saying, hey, I'm not going to be like James Hardin. I'm not going to go up and score the ball at will. So we understand that, but you can't be dropped. be Paul George, the guy that Kauai Leonard made the Clippers move mountains for to get

him on to be that second, that number two in one of the, what Colin Cowherd would call one of the best tandums in the NBA bubble. Yeah, that's right. And he scored 27 points in the first game. Since then, he went four of 17, 14 points, 3 of

16, 11 points, 3 of 14, 9 points. You cannot do that if the Clippers are going to be at their best. It just can't happen. No, and you know what, has he ever been good in the playoffs? I mean, they were won and done in Oklahoma City, and Indiana hasn't sniffed an Eastern Conference final since he was while he was there, right?

I think he just, yeah, didn't one of those years they won close to 60 games or something like that? I'm not worried about that. I'm talking about playoff P using your terms. No, using his terms. Yeah, it's very awkward. I don't think I ever want to call an adult man Playoff P. I don't want to know anything about anybody's playoff P.

especially if it's not streaming properly. What? Internet, of course, duh. Oh, okay. I'm going to step aside for a little bit. I will rejoin you in about an hour or so, right, give or take? I'll take your word for it. Yeah, in 14, they won 56 games, and they were really good that year,

and they lost the Eastern Conference Finals. I want to say to the heat? That sounds about right, with LeBron, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Playoff P. They're tied two apiece. you're rooting for Dallas.

And Dallas did something that they don't normally do, and that's when a game late. With Dodgers hitting that game winning shot. All right, Ross takes you the next hour. He'll be visiting with Adam Wexler, who was at Texan's practice today. I'm back in an hour in change with the Rockets launch pad with Ross. Right now, a word for Big Rivers Water Park. I surprised my daughter with some passes for her and her buddies to go to Big River's Waterpark, and they are so excited.

If you are trying to get your kids out because they've been staring at the computer all day in school or they're starting to get back into things and they want something fun to do on the weekends. Well, guess what? This month here in August, well, we still have a few days left, the folks at Big Rivers Water Park would love for you to stop by and see them. They're available just off of 59, just past Kingwood and New Caney. It's a water park that has an amazing set of water slides. It has the largest lazy river in the Houston area. They have other things besides that. Like we're talking about a petting zoo.

They have a great maze. And they have a 70 foot high free fall tower. I mean, come on now. Get your kids out there, having some fun, swimming, enjoy the experience of one of the best water parks you will find in the entire set of Texas. And it's not too far from downtown Houston, about 35 minutes. And all I ask you to do is go to their website for more details,

see what everything they can do for you. at big riverswaterpark.com. Day passes start as low as 2499. They're open weekends 1030 to 6 in the month of August. They go to 11 to 5 in September. So for more than just water parks, so much more, go to big riverswaterpark.com for all the details and get your kids out there having a great time

because they frankly deserve it. That's Big Rivers Waterpark. Is the Matt Thomas show. Chris Paul, left-hand dribble drive. Turns to the right. Baseline right. Sheailders, Alexander! Makes the shot with 13.8 seconds.

It's a three-pointer to give the fender a 104-103 lead. That is hammered. Deep to right. Forget about it. Grant Sland, Jake Croninworth, the Padres, fifth game out of their last six with a grand slam. San Diego has opened up to an 11-1 lead. Chris Paul, baseline right for Sheigielgis Alexander, cut off of the right elbow, straight away to Dort, to his right for Paul.

One second, three-pointer on the way for Chris Paul's good! It took 24 seconds for that thing to go off, it did, and it has been all thunder in the extra time. There goes to T's the 3-2 is hit in the air pretty deep to right. It sends back Reddick at the wall. He leaves and it's gone. A go-ahead two-run, home run for Bani Machado, and the Padres take a five to three. lead. Machado's eighth home run of the year. We're tied with the major league league, San Diego Padres with home runs with the Chicago White Sox. What a weekend of sports it was for Houston, Texas.

The rockets go in Saturday up to nothing on the Oklahoma City Thunder and they lose. And it's a weird game, which we can get to later. And then the Astros getting swept over the weekend. by the San Diego Padres, bringing, getting brought down to Earth after the eight game winning streak that preceded that. So a streaky up and down Astros team continues that as they won eight straight and then lost three.

All right, it's Ross Vio Real. It is the Matt Thomas show. And without Matt Thomas, coming up in a few minutes, we'll have Adam Wexler with the latest on the Houston Texans training camp and what was going on out there. But right now, we can get you guys in at 713-212-2-5-6. 797-13-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. Also coming up at 2 o'clock, we'll have the Rockets launchpad.

So these weird afternoon game starts, you'll have a 3 o'clock tip here on Sports Talk 7-90. You have a 2 o'clock, and then you'll have the Astros later on today coming up at 7 o'clock. So you'll be getting a lot of me and some Matt Thomas in the next couple of hours, who will be my guest on the launch pad. But if you've got a guy guys want to get in, that is the phone number. You can also send your tweets to at Sports RV. So the Astros getting swept. The first and the last game, closer ones.

You had a Noli Paratus giving up the two-run, home run yesterday to Manning Machado. You also had, well, on Friday, who was giving up the runs there? I can't even remember. I think it was Lance McCullors. Yeah, he was shaky there. He had given up four, and the bullpen came in and stabilized.

But Lance McCullors continued his up and down season, and that's just been a microcosm of what's going on with the Astros right now. and we talked about it with Matt in the last hour, even after the eight-game winning streak and the way that they were pitching and the starting pitching had just been spectacular. Lance McCuller's turning it around, nearly throwing a no-hitter the other week,

and then you have Zach Grinky, who is just an American treasure? I mean, who's going to be throwing 54-mile-an-hour curve balls that you signaled in yourself? Just love Zach Grinke in the way that he pitches, and he's an American treasure, and I tweeted yesterday, we don't deserve him. I don't mean, like, as the Astros,

but just we as humans. We don't deserve somebody as awesome as Zach Grinkey, but he goes six. He only gave up three runs. Leaves with the game tied at that point, 106 pitches. So he has really been a rock in the rotation for the Houston Astros.

But when all this was happening, I don't think there was anybody who was trying to convince themselves that this was a team that was just destined for World Series greatness. I think we liked the eight game winning streak, but also we know that it came on the heels of the Astros

just getting swept by the Oakland A's at that point. So it's kind of difficult, right, to buy into the Houston Astros as a World Series champion right now. So it was even before they lost over the weekend. There are just too many holes. And I think it's it's some of what of us getting used to the Astros and being contenders and knowing what that looks like, right? The last three years before 17, 18, 19, 19.

You're talking about 100-win seasons. You're talking about two teams that made it to game seven of the World Series, one that won it and one that lost it. So Houston baseball fans know what World Series championship contention looks like. And right now, the way that this team is comprised, it doesn't necessarily look like it. Now, if you can get Michael Brantley hitting, if you can get George Springer healthy,

and if you can get some of these young pitchers to start rounding in the form, you're talking about a team that can beat anybody in a three-game series, certainly or a five game series or a seven game series. So I kind of like where the Astros are at. I can see the potential there. It's just one of those things where I don't know how much the team is going to improve. I don't know how much they can improve. We're one week away from the trade deadline for the Astros. What's going to happen? Is there going to be any mountain moving and mountain shaking earth shattering moves? Probably not. Because basically everybody in the entire I mean, unless you are the Boston Red Sox, pretty much everybody, well, and the Angels, they're terrible.

I mean, there are a lot of teams there that are in playoff contention because of the expanded playoffs. So why would you sell off any sort of piece, any semblance of a piece if you're in play, you're contending for the playoffs? And oh, by the way, it's not like the Astros are fully stocked with a boatload of prospects that everybody's going to be wanting. Maybe in years past, yes, but you shipped off a lot of them. and a Zach Grinky trade, of course, the Justin Verlander trade a year's past, the Garrett Coal trade. So a lot of that stock that you had was traded for pieces in a win-now type of moves. And now you're, I don't want to say you're barren, but baseball America says they are,

if they have them 29th out of 30. All right, 7-13, 2, 1-257-9. Let's go out to the phone line. Let's go to Mark on the north side here on the Matt Thomas show. What's up, Mark? Hey, how's it going? You know, I just want to make a comment on being swept by both A's and Padres. And from what I'm seeing in those two series, their best hitters are countering on our pitcher's mistakes.

And even some of them, I mean, they're not even mistakes. They were like Machado. I mean, that pitch was high and outside. He went out there and drove out to park the other way. And a lot of our hitters, man, it's like, I mean, they're watching fastballs, trying to work the count. I mean, dude, sometimes, you know, you've got to have a lot. make something happen, you know, and Carlos, you mean, he's up and down. I mean, you know, he started off high and he was in a group for a little while, and it's like I watched him, I think, I believe it was

yesterday or day before. I mean, he's up there and just whiffing at balls right down the middle, just whiffing at them, man. And I don't know, it just seems like they're not mentally in the game right in there in the battery spots. I mean, maybe all the scandal stuff is still in their head. But, I mean, if you look at those guys from the Padres the other day, I mean, those guys were just taking pictures. I Hoffmer had a three-two count on her with McCullors, and McCullough spends a breaking ball down and in. And he just went down, got it, drove it, and drove it to the corner. Got it doubled out of him, scored a couple of runs. I mean, that's what I'm seeing the difference is, even with Oakland.

I mean, they're just taking the mistake, the few mistakes that are there, and they're making the actual pay for it. And we're not doing it. Likewise, that's what I'm seeing there, man. But I appreciate, you know, getting me on the air, man. Y'all have a good day. All right, thanks a lot. Mark, appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, I'll agree with you that Carlos is one of those hitters

that when he is dialed in, he looks like he's so in control of the strike zone and has such a great grasp. I feel like it's almost night and day with him. Like Bad Carlos and good Carlos, where he's, bad Carlos is taking pitches down the middle. He's swinging at stuff outside of the zone. He just looks like he's lacking confidence. confidence in there. And then locked in Carlos, looks like you can't get anything past him. And he's swinging and he's barreling up everything. And he looks amazing. And he looks like he was born to play baseball. But yeah, the last few games, I mean, you went over, I'm sorry, one for four in

the last game. A couple of games before that he's been going one for five. And you've seen a drop in the average and the OPS and all that type of stuff from him. So he has definitely been up and down. But we're also talking about a team that scored three games before this, 13 and 10 runs against Colorado. Yes, it was the Colorado air, but they had it as well, and the Astros won those games. So the guys can hit a little bit, and I think they'll be okay. That's what you need to be okay if the Astros are going to be good long term. All right, we're going to take a break here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas, Ross via Real with you until 2 o'clock, at which point we'll go into Rockets Launchpad mode. But coming up next, Adam Wexler, the latest on Houston, Texans

training camp here on Sports Talk 790. This is Craig Vigio. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Oh, we're having some fun. You're home of the Stroes. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. Matt is off getting ready for Rockets duties. Three o'clock tip off here on Sports Talk 790. Game number four Rockets versus the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Also talking a fair amount about the Astros and they're getting swept over the weekend. But also, it's sneaking up on us. The Texans in the training can. getting ramped up September 10th just around the corner, week number one for the Texans against the Kansas City Chiefs and a man who is on top of everything Texans for us. Adam Wexler, first of all, Adam, how are you? Doing good. Okay, well, it's great to have you here, Adam.

First of all, let's start off with the fact that Jonathan Grenard and Kiki Kuti not practicing for the Houston Texans, any sense of worry there? What's the word on how they're doing? and especially Kiki Kuti, who we know has had trouble staying on the field in his Texan's career. Yeah, definitely separate cases. For QT, this is, I think, four out of five recent practices. He has not been on the field for, and Bill O'Brien's been asked about it most days and continues to say, you know, different ramp-up plans, we're trying to do different things.

No indication from what I saw today and seeing Kiki out there. He was on the field. He was not in uniform, and was not practicing. But I couldn't tell you what, if anything, was wrong. wrong with him physically, but it's a huge issue because they have so many weapons in front of him. It's a huge issue for him trying to make himself a spot on this roster. Could he be a return man? He would have to outperform D'Andre Carter to do so.

Could he get on the field of slot receiver? You have to show he has value with Randall Cobb and with Carter and others. And, you know, they have a versatile enough receiving corps that these guys will be lined up all over the field, not to mention their backs that will be lined up in the slot also. So it's a bad spot for him to be in, even though the roster management this offseason will be a little bit different because of the conditions they're working under. But no, he absolutely needs to be on the field in order to make an impact. But I thought he had been doing a good job up until these last few practices. Granard had not been held out as far as I know prior to today.

He was out there as well, kind of going through things off to the side with the rest of the linebacker group. Don't know that it's anything significant. I may hear from O'Brien via the pool report after practice today or first thing in the morning tomorrow, but no indication of exactly what it is. He's in a similar spot. He's got a lot of guys to beat out for playing time, even as a rookie. And speaking of Kiki Kootie, Oax, what the hell happened with him? I remember his first game he had like 11 catches.

Bill O'Brien was using him in sweeps and pitches and all that type of stuff. And I really thought the speed element of his added juice to the – the Texans' offense, and he was allowing Bill O'Brien to be creative as a weapon and a tool. And then last year, he's just a healthy scratch, and then now he's just unhealthy. What do we make of Kiki Kootie? Can he provide anything for the Texans this year? I mean, to think that you have two things working against you if you're trying to become a player, well, three, no talent, no ability to stay healthy, or you can't get in line with your coach.

And two of those three things, he would fall under that category, his first two seasons. injury issues for sure. And he spent the 2019 season with a cot, a television. He had a cell phone all charged it up right there in Bill O'Brien's doghouse. He spent the whole season there and couldn't get on the field for a number of different reasons. I don't think they're like the way he practiced. I don't think they felt like he understood the offense well enough and they could see it in games where routes weren't being run accurately.

And they just decided they were better off not putting them on the field, but they can't look past the fact that there are skills there. are things he can do. And you kind of laid out, this guy just basically steps on the field the very first time. And I was there at Indianapolis when he just kept getting the ball over and over and over, 15 targets

in the first game he ever played in as a Texan. Obviously, he's never seen anything like that sense, except for ironically, again, against Indianapolis in the playoffs where he had 14 more targets. No other games in his career have been anything like that, but it shows you there's value

and what his skills are. And if they can figure out how to get him in tune with what they're doing, and I thought they were on that path this season, then there probably is a way for what should be a very creative offense, a lot of creative personnel groups for him to help this team. But he's got two weeks to show that he can be healthy and be ready to play for this team. All right, let's go on to the defensive side of the ball. You had J.J. Watt returning to practice yesterday. Apparently they're managing his workload. What do you think about J.J. Watt and his prospects for next year, of course, speaking of health being an issue with Kiki Kootie,

JJ Watt, I believe he played 32 of the last 64 games on the schedule for the Texans. So what are we expecting out of him and as they manage his workload as they go along? I think at this point, a player like that's career, it's the same thing that, you know, if I were in charge, I would do the very same thing. He was out there practice yesterday. It was out there practice today. But even saying that, he wasn't participating every single drill that other ones or other first stringers were. but there's value in having him on the field, but there's also value in limiting the amount of reps that aren't going to sack a quarterback for the opposing team or create a quarterback hurry for the other team.

He knows how to play football. His teammates know how to play off of him, and he knows how to do the same with them. I think it's probably the smart thing to do. You and I have watched them work JJ in the training camps prior to this one, and he would have days off. And then the biggest day off he would have are the days that they played games. He doesn't play in any preseason games to begin with, and obviously there aren't any this year. So I think what's happening with him now versus what will happen during the season, there's no correlation that's not seeing him on the field as much and expecting less from him. If he's on the field this year, and I fully expect he will be, he's had a long time to recover from that injury that he actually returned from in the playoffs.

I expect a season very similar to his last healthy season, which is just two years ago, where he was back among the best defensive edger. rushers in this league. And so let's keep it with the pass rush there. Then if I'm telling you, JJ Watt is going to be number one on the team in Sacks, who's going to be number two? Well, I'll just go ahead and take the guy's word for it because we just actually finished talking with Jacob Martin this afternoon. Bill O'Brien this morning had said, you're going to see a lot of football from him this year. He's going to play a lot for them. He's one of the players that they got for Jadavian Clowney, but that was right before the season. So he didn't really know what the defense was trying to do. He was learning week to week while trying to get on the field

and was just a situational pass rusher last year. But with Seattle in 2018 and then last year with the Texans, he's been one of the better graded pass rushers, edge rushers each year, even in limited duty. So what he told us, when asked about some of his goals for this year, he said, I don't really want to get into what my personal goals are, but double digit sacks is what I'm chasing. And if he's on the field, I think he's their most talented, skilled, on this roster outside of JJ Watt. He's about 25 pounds bigger. Actually, let me be right, 21 points heavier, pounds heavier.

That's what he told us today. And I think he needs to be bigger so he can play on more than just pass rushing down. So my answer is Jacob Martin. Okay, I'll take that. Let's go to the secondary. First of all, we heard, of course, Earl Thomas getting released by the Ravens. I'm going to guess you're going to put that as a 0% chance. He's a Houston Texan, and we can move on from there?

Do you know what DTS stands for? DTF? Yeah, I've heard that a number of times. DTS as it goes for the Texans stands for dependable, tough, smart. He gets an F on the first one. He's not dependable. He got eliminated from a roster

because things just mentally weren't working out between himself, his teammates, and the coaching staff. He's not going to be a Houston Texan. Oh, well, that's disappointing. No, it's fine. Yeah. Well, Eric Murray should be just fine. And Justin Reed looks like he's growing into his role as well as a leader.

But let's just talk before we get you out here, Wex, the obligatory coronavirus, zero positive tests. You have had some positive tests and some outbreaks there across the NFL over the weekend. But it seems like the Texans are dotting all their eyes and crossing their T's on that front. They absolutely are. And it's been pointed out a couple of times and probably will continue to be a neat to be. the bio reference lab that this team uses is less than two miles away from their facility. They're not mailing tests off elsewhere. They're not waiting on waiting for results when they need to get other tests taken should that arise quicker

and find the results out and work through their contact tracing when and if those things arise. They don't have an issue with that or certainly haven't had. And so when asked about all the issues in other places, that's one thing that sets them apart. I mean, I would hate to think of that as a significant, you know, on-field advantage for them, but it absolutely could play out that way over the course of the season. If there's another team on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, getting false positives or unsure of where their testing stands, the Texans aren't likely to face that. And again, they use this lab here.

I believe the Saints use it as well. And they continue to have a roster full of players and a staff full of coaches and personnel people that are being very, you know, self-aware and very strict about what they do, away from this facility. So they started with zero, and they have remained that way, and we're about 16 days from football. All right, that's Adam Wexler. Well, no A team today, so, Wexie,

what are you going to do with your time off? I'm going to watch the Rockets take a three games to one series week. Probably listen to it, better said, wouldn't you say? Yeah, you're probably going to watch it. It's okay. I know we're on radio. I'm not going to tell anybody, Wex. All right, well, then since you said that, it was final score

prediction. Oh, my God. How about 119 to 114? All right. For those playing at home, that is an over and a cover for the Houston Rockets. Thanks, Lex. What's the over under? I think it's 220 something? I'll have to look it up again, but I believe that's comfortably an over. Yeah, that's probably a reach on my part, a comfortable over the way the series is going, but we'll find out. Yes, we will. And the total 224. There you go.

Okay, that's a little closer. I had it at 232. That's not too bad. All right, Wex. Talk to you later. Thanks, Matt. Adam Wexler of the A-Team. No 18 today, because we'll have some Rockets coverage coming up at 3 o'clock. Launchpad coming up 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. So how are you feeling? How are you doing? Is everything okay with you? Are you feeling sluggish? Is your stamina a little bit down? Well, let me tell you something that's going to help you out.

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Hey, it's awesome rivers. You've got Sports Talk 790. They need it. They get it. Flagship station of your rockets. 134. And the PM here on Sports Talk 7 and 90. Good stuff from Adam Wexer.

A lot of question marks. It's always good to get a little training camp. Everybody's in the best shape of their life. Everybody's looking good. Jacob Martin's going to get 10 sacks. We'll see on that. but some question marks for the Texans, certainly on the defensive side of the ball,

and it'll be interesting to see what happens there. So I mentioned there with Wex there, the positive tests over the weekend, apparently on the NFL, they were all negative tests. The NFL has cleared all individuals who tested positive over the weekend, saying that the testing partner

had, quote, an isolated contamination during test preparation. Now, I'm not a, I haven't worked in a laboratory before any point. How does one test get contaminated into everything else? Can someone help me explain that? 11 teams affected by the mistake. Sources saying that 77 individuals had positive tests leading to some anxious moments and altered Sunday practice schedules, ultimately no evidence of an outbreak. How do you contaminate 77 tests?

It sounds like a good way to lose, like, faith in you as a, as a laboratory. Yeah, I mean, this lab sucks. Did they go to the, like, the Costco level of lab? What is going on here, NFL? You probably have one, like, employee who made one mistake that just got magnified. Maybe they had coronavirus and they were coughing into all the samples. Didn't switch their gloves or something. I mean, this doesn't even make any sense.

Here's Bill O'Brien on talking about the false positives all around the league. This is him from today after training camp. Yeah, you know, all I can do. go by, I did read about that quite obviously read about what happened at several teams. You know, all I can do is go by what's happening here. And here, you know, with the bio reference, you know, trailer in our parking lot and the people that work for bio reference and then the lab being only a mile and a half away from our stadium, I think it's gone really well, you know, knock on, knock on wood.

You know, really, that's all I can go on. So there you go. But note to self, do not send test. results to bio reference. Bio reference said, a bio reference labatories reported an elevated number of positive COVID-19 PCR test results for NFL players and personnel at multiple clubs. The NFL immediately took a necessary action to ensure the safety of players and personnel. Our investigation indicated that there was a most likely false positive results

caused by an isolated contamination during test preparation in the New Jersey Laboratory. What are you guys doing out there? Can someone explain this to me? We need Dr. Fauci on the line, on the horn, to figure out what's going on. So apparently the Minnesota Vikings had 12 individuals produced false positive. New York Jets had 10 and the Bears had nine. And of course, there was immediate alarms for the NFL and all that type of stuff because we talked about the low infection rate.

And we talked about here at Houston how there had been zero false, I mean, zero any kind of positive tests. So I don't know what's going on there, but on the coronavirus front, sounds like the Texans are doing pretty well. And that's what the interesting thing going forward is going to be for me, because you've already had some tests positive in the NFL already throughout training camps. What is going to happen when that happens in season? Because you've had over the weekend, who was it that got positive over the weekend? It was the Mets, right?

The Mets had positives in baseball. And I think that's the most apples to apple comparison when it comes. to the NFL because NHL in a bubble, zero positive tests. NBA in a bubble, zero positive tests. What's going to happen

with an NFL team and what's going to happen in the regular season when you have, I don't know if you want to call it cross-pollination or whatever. If there's something that happens in the NFL,

are they going to pause it? Should they pause it? I don't know. But the tough part is going to be the regular season. That's what Bill O'Brien said earlier today. And we've had to this, to this point, zero positive tests. I do think, Aaron, you know, if I was going a step further, I think the regular season is going to be a true test.

You know, it's different. Training camp, you're into a routine, right? You know, whatever time you get up and you're, you know, it's just, it's like groundhog day. Every day is the same day, right? Every day is the same day. And then the regular season, a little bit different, right? You got Monday, you got Tuesday off. You got Wednesday, Thursday, you know, practice days, Friday a little bit lighter.

it's different. So that's going to be the true test. But so far for us, I think give a lot of credit to our players and staff. Everybody's done a great job. so there you go that'll be interesting to see what happens like let's say let's say on a Wednesday there's a coronavirus outbreak and the Texans

are playing a game on Sunday let's say it's week two against the the Baltimore Ravens and it doesn't even have to be the Texas but let's just say it is for argument's sake

and there's like five positive tests I guess that's the beauty of the NFL right because the reason that Major League Baseball stops all of their games for a couple of days is so they can continue

to test everybody so if If there is some kind of outbreak or something like that, they're just, is, is there a taxi squad? Do they have an alternate training site anywhere for the Texans if there's something that happens like this? I know they wanted to expand the practice squads, but is that pretty much all that we have right now? Yeah, I mean, what is the taxi squad men in baseball anyways? No, well, not a whole lot.

Well, it's been good for the Astros because they've got a lot of people that are getting hurt. Well, but when players have gotten sick, it hasn't seemed to mean much. Yeah, because they would just stop everybody from playing for a few days. And I guess the NFL, because of the nature of that, it's not a day-to-day game. It happens every, I mean, you play once a week. Or, I mean, generally, unless you're having a Thursday night game, you're going to play twice in 10 days. But for the most part, it's going to be something that you can kind of weather that storm and figure out what's going on. But, I mean, you had the, what was it, the two tests.

You started off with a couple of tests with the Cardinals, I think, and then it kept ballooning. And the same thing with the Cardinal. I mean, with the Miami Marlins. It was a couple of, not a couple. It was like a handful of positive tests. Then the number kept growing and growing and growing into staff numbers and all that type of stuff. And that's pretty much the worst one that we've seen so far as far as major league sports or professional sports here in America as far as an outbreak. And I don't know, I guess the Miami Marlins are going to get together and they're going to be fine.

But it's just a question of are there going to be games missed in the NFL in this offseason? And that is the question that I'm asking. And I'm wondering about it. And I don't know the answer to. It's just something that we're going to have to keep an eye on because we're continuing to push forward, of course, as probably should with the professional sports as far as in the midst of a global pandemic. All right, we're going to take a break here on the Matt Thomas show.

We got a couple of things to line out for you coming up here. So here on Sports Talk 790, we are your home for Houston Astros. We're your home for the Houston Rockets. The Astros have an 8-10 first pitch. That'll be a 7 o'clock on deck here on Sports Talk 790. The Rockets play at 3 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas will be on the call for that. It'll be Adam Clanton and the Rockets Radio Network at 2.30.

And it'll be me with you on the launch pad here starting up at 2 o'clock. But in the meantime, we got one segment left of the Matt Thomas show. If you want to get in, 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. You can send your tweets to at SportsRV. is the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas, and we'll be back in just a second. Hi, it's Matt Thomas for Big City Wings. Basketball time is finally here. Come out to Houston's wing joint to watch your favorite team play on their wall-to-wall TVs.

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This is Russell Westbrook. One thing is for sure, I did not get my amazing style from Matt Thomas. Oh, Hammer job. The Matt Thomas show. We're going to change over to Rockets Launchpad mode here coming up at 2 o'clock on Sports Talk 790. 3 o'clock tip off Rockets in a game number four. looking to go up 3-1, and we talked about it earlier. It was just such a weird game there on game 3,

and of course we'll break it down coming up here on the launch pad. But a lot of different angles in that game. I mean, you had Robert Covington. Robert Covington is not going to play 19. I would say, safe to say, barring injury, you're not going to see Robert Covington only play 19 minutes in a playoff game. Probably the rest of the way that the Rockets are in playoffs. It's just he got in that bad foul trouble,

and he couldn't stay on the court. and it was unfortunate and it really limited him. He only had five points in 19 minutes, one or two from the three-point line, made a couple of free throws from there. That was a weird thing that happened to the Rockets. And also you had James Harden. I mean, how many times have you ever seen him foul out of a game as a Houston Rocket? He was in foul trouble the whole time,

and that was affecting things with him. And the three-point shot, last couple of games, I think it was six at 13 in the first game of the series. Since then, he is like 2 of 11 and 3. of 13. So I think as that goal is going against the Rockets. Eric Gordon, I'm hoping, thinking, wishing, praying.

He's not going to continue to go 0 of 10 and then 2 of 10 from 3. He's got to make some at some point. So you had all of that go wrong. And then the rockets were still up 5 with about 59 seconds to go in that game. And that's with

the three-headed monster at guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder all scoring over 20 points. And then you had 20 from Danilo Golanari. I'm going to guess that you're not going to get a 20-point performance from all four of them again. Maybe it's going to happen. But it just, the game for me, it's difficult for me to take away a whole lot of that and get upset and be down in the dumps. And I talked about it in the launch pad.

I mean, I'm sorry on the, the Rockets wrap on Saturday. I'm my shaking, my belief in the Rockets has not been shaken just yet. They lose today and they look poorly or there's some kind of injury or anything like that, then I might be talking about how I'm worried about the Rockins long term. But right now, we know it's going to be a tough series. There was nobody that picked the Rockets to win the, win the series in four or sweep them out of the building or anything like that. Thunder are a good team.

They've got good young talent. They've got good young players. And they've got a veteran, a floor general in Chris Paul, who also was spectacular for them, especially there in that overtime where rockets just got boat raced in that overtime. James Harden fouled out with about one minute to go in overtime and then that's when I... You know, I actually, even that moment, I was like, well,

maybe the Rockets can hold it together. And then there's three-pointer after three-pointer by the Oklahoma City Thunder. They weren't able to hold that together. Here's James Hardin talking about the... Playing with the five fouls, because there were a couple of key defensive possessions there in the late game with Chris

Paul and the Thunder were hunting him out. Here's what James had to say about the five foul and how that changes the way that he plays? I got to be cautious, especially like, you know, both ends of the floor. Like defensively, they were trying to put me in pick and roll and get the switch. And their guards are crafty as far as, like, drawing foul. So I wasn't trying to even come close and put in contact, which, you know, I can't allow

that to happen early in the game. I can't pick up cheap fouls throughout the course of the game, and I won't be in that position later in the game. So I'll put it on myself. Yeah, I mean, a couple of times they're late. There was the, when the Rockets were up three, And with like 30 seconds to go, you're saying, are they going to go for a three or they're going to go for a quick two? The Thunder went for a quick two because they found James Harden.

You know the thing about the switching defense for the Rockets is if they feel like they want to hunt something, the opposing team, they can find that matchup. And quite frankly, more often than not, we've seen that person that they try to hunt has been James Harden because a couple of reasons. He's not the best on-ball perimeter defender. He's a pretty good post-defender. but guys can go buy him there on the perimeter and if you're going to make him engage on defense every single possession or as many possessions as possible you're going to start wearing him down hopefully

on the offensive end and try to have him tired out by the end of the game that's the point of what you're trying to do and you had to when Draymond Green was on TNT he was talking about how you what you try to do is you try to tire James harden out and make him carry too much of a load for the rockets and have him towards the end of the game where he doesn't have his legs underneath him

So, I mean, you add that in. So they were hunting James Hardin there. And quite frankly, you had, I don't remember who it was. It had to come up and rotate. I don't know if it's PJ Tucker or whoever. Chris Paul blows right by James Harden like he's a traffic cone. And then he scores the layup there. And then on the Shea Gilgis Alexander three-point shot, you had the same similar thing.

A couple of mistakes there where you had James Hardin lose Chris Paul in the perimeter. then you got the help from, I think it was Robert Covington, I think, or maybe it was Jeff Green. I think it might have been Jeff Green. And then Daniel House overhelped from the corner leaving Shea Gilgis Alexander wide open there at the end. And then even all that, you got to the other end, Daniel House Jr. It's a questionable foul call. If you want to get all upset about referees and how it goes against the rockets and all that type of stuff, questionable foul call, but you still should have won that game. You should have had that go your way.

I will go to my grave saying that Steve Adams touched that ball there with 24 seconds or whatever it was when you had the turnover from PJ Tucker and the inbound's pass. He touched that ball. You can see the spin of it change and then you can see him diving for the ball. You think if Stephen Adams didn't touch that ball, he would have dove for it? No, of course not. So Stephen Adams touched that ball. That went against you. Daniel House misses a free throw.

All these things go wrong. And you lose a close one there in overtime after James, well, it wasn't a close one at the end of it because James Hardin fouled out. So all those things that we listed go wrong, that go wrong for the Rockets and don't go their way and they shoot only 30% from three. And this and this and this and this. They barely lost the game. They should have won that game.

So I think even without Russell Westbrook, the Rockets are a step above the Oklahoma City Thunder and is the clock going to strike midnight at some point on Jeff Green? Is he probably going to score 20 points and shoot 5 of 8 from 3 in every game? Probably not. So you can't bank on that either. But you just look at the balance of it. You look at the talent.

You look at what the Rockets have done in the first couple of games. They're better than the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're just better than them. And I understand they've got some good players. And we talked about this earlier with Matt. Lou Gents Dort, the perimeter defense that he plays is pretty good. Guys who get up in James Hardin's body and his chest and they're physical and they're difficult to move and you can't really just bully them. James Hardin can bully Dennis Schroeder all day.

James Hardin can go by Chris Paul as he's flopping like a salmon and he's on the ground all day. It's just what he can do. Lou Geinz-Dort, he's a strong physical dude. He's hard to move. we've seen James Harden against strong physical dudes struggle somewhat Jimmy Butler a couple of years was it last year or the year before when he was a Minnesota

Timberwolf can body up James Hardin a little bit Wesley Matthews has done it as well and Wesley Matthews poses problems for James Hardin and now as a Milwaukee bucking games that they've played so we've seen it before Andre Roberson in years past he's not necessarily a physical guy but he's quick with length and very long hands Kauai Leonard in 2016 in that playoff series.

He wasn't on James Hardin the entire time, but there were stretches where it was the fourth quarter and Popovich would just unleash Kauai Leonard on a James Hardin. James Hardin had a difficult time scoring. That's nothing to be ashamed of. Kaui Leonard is one of the best perimeter defenders that I've ever seen. And there's a reason he won a defensive player of the year. I think he won one, or at least he's been in the conversation

Kawhi Leonard talking about. So James Harden, with really, really good perimeter defenders, he can still drop 30. I mean, he dropped 38, right? Talking about how he struggled and how terrible he was. The dude had 38 points. But he was only 3 of 13 from 3, so he needs to be a little bit better. And the Rockets need to be conscious about moving him off of Lugent's door. Finding a screener, getting some pick and roll game going. You don't have to just go at the guy. And I know James Hardin has it in his heart and his mind that I can score on anybody because. he can, but just because you can score 30 on Lugent's Dort doesn't mean that you can't score

40 on Dennis Schrooter or on a switch with Danila Ghanari or something like that, that they've been searching out as well. So it'll be something to watch the chess match that we see with a game-to-game series. What's going to happen? What are the Rockets going to do to relieve some of the pressure off James Hardin? Are we going to see more Jeff Greenpoint forward? I don't know. But I know I'm going to be watching it, and you should too. Coming up at 3 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Coming up next, we'll switch into Rockets Launchpad mode. Matt Thomas will rejoin as we talk about the Rockets.

Oklahoma City Thunder game number four coming up here on Sports Talk 790.