The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros vs Orales Tonight! Rockets Get Ready For Game 5

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Astros vs Orales Tonight! Rockets Get Ready For Game 5 

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10-01 in H-Town. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. I'm coming today for you from Hobby Airport. I'm on runway 2-9 left, Ross. It's going to go and climb to 12,500 feet for a comfortable cruising altitude of 36,000 in a couple of hours. How the hell are you?

Doing great, Matthew. Glad to hear you. Yeah, if I wasn't in the radio business, I think I'd want to be a pilot. I think it'd be fun. Crazy hours, a lot of responsibility. Well, folks, good morning. Welcome you on Rocket Ship 790. I've got a good ship to 37,000 feet today.

Hit you to Los Angeles. Nice three-hour ride. We get you to LAX. You'll get into a nice bus, and you'll find your way over here to a fancy Beverly Hills hotel where you will sit back, you relax, and all your desires will be taken care of. And then Austin Reeves is going to try to play game five tomorrow night in a game you can hear right here on sports talk. So I don't need to sit back, relax.

I'll get you a nice, smooth right up here and get you down as safely as we can. Flood attendants prepare for departure. Cross check and verify straps. Got a question free there, Ross. Why do you, pilots always talk like this, where they add extra syllables and concepts at the very end? I think you're 40,000 feet in the air and you don't want someone screaming. at you. Oh my gosh. Hey!

How about this one? Man, there's a bumpy-ass flight. I've never seen this before. Yeah. I'm trying to get some smooth air, but I got some jackasses over Phoenix that can't stay on their flight pattern. Hope you enjoy the ride, bitches, click. Yeah. You don't want that.

You want it's nice. It's almost like when you go to the doctor's office. You don't want to go on, oh, my God, your x-rays. Jesus, what the hell have you been doing with your life? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe they just teach you that in pilot school. calm, relaxing, speaking.

Yeah. Like, if you're going to divorce your wife or she's going to divorce you, you want the pilot to tell you. Probably not. Folks, a chance to look at your relationship and things aren't working out and she's going to file papers

and you'll be living in a one bedroom. She's going to take half your stuff. Good luck striking out with the young girls at work. It's not an enemy 50% here in Texas. Don't even bother the butt finding it. So sit back, relax, and write that check. I mean, I feel like we could do a two-hour A four-hour show in Mac Brown Voice.

We could do a four-hour pilot voice. We could. Yeah, I think we might put the people asleep. Sports RV, how the hell are you? I'm doing great, Matthew. Thanks for asking. Yeah. Again, we're leaving a little bit early because it's, I mean, it's L.A.

I don't like these two days off in between games. I'm ready for some NBA action. I know. It's kind of weird. Last night, I just couldn't get vested in any of the games because it involved the rockets. And then the first headline I look at ESPN when I get here to the airport today is it sources.

Lakers optimistic for Reeves to returning games. Game 5. Oh, great. Can't wait. Yeah, I mean, we mentioned it. It's been questionable for two games. Yeah, tried to go. Yeah, it makes sense that he would potentially be available for a game 5.

Especially game 4, you really want to be cautious because you're thinking you could close it out. Right. But they didn't. Yep. The reality is this. I don't, I don't know how long it's going to take for me to get over game 4 loss. Or game 3, excuse me, game 3. We should be going to L.A. 2-2.

And then, I mean, you talk about a. way more optimistic viewpoint of things like, all right, so if you go to LA and lose this game, so what, get back to Houston, you play game six, bada boom, bada bada bade, and then anything happens under game seven. Yeah.

But there's no, there's no room for error. Up six, 30 seconds left. Oh, that's going to hit hard. It's going to really hit hard. Yeah, there's an all-time collapse.

But that's what happens. When you don't make shots in game one and you don't make shots in game two, you can't afford to have a collapse in game three. If you don't want either of those two games, as you said, we're in a different, completely different scenario.

And it's funny how we always say, you said it and I said it yesterday, anything can happen in a game seven. But generally the home team wins, but generally, but you got to get there first. And so there's a lot of heavy lifting yet to be done. Think about this. If the rockets, if the rockets are going to advance, which again, the chance they're minimal since nobody's ever gone advanced beyond an 03 deficit, you're talking about playing three amazing basketball games without your number one star, at least scoring-wise,

for the next five days. Are you talking about the Lakers and Luca? Yeah, sort of. Sort of. But if Austin Reeves comes back, that helps him, now it doesn't mean, now that means if you're a Bronny James fan, which apparently there are a few in Houston, Bronny's probably not going to play.

What was that about? He was weird. I didn't know, I didn't know Bronny had fans like that. I mean, Bronny isn't, I mean, honestly, he's a swell fellow, I'm sure. Yeah. But he's not a good basketball. He's not an NBA player. He's not.

Why would you, why would you, rally and cheer louder for brawny shots than you would for anybody. If you're a Laker fan, I mean, look, I understand LeBron's a hero, but when Roravia's hitting threes or Rui Aachemur, you should be cheering because those are guys are legitimate

NBA players. Brony's not. It's weird. Well, he's out there, Matt. It's performing. That he is. He's knocking down buckets. That he is. All right. So it was kind of a weird night for us in sports-wise. There was nothing really that really tickled our fancy, so to speak. We did have some little bit of breaking news happening

within the last hour in baseball. The Phillies are making a managerial change. Now, their record is worse than the Astros, and they're also way further behind as Atlanta is cruising along the National League East. But Rob Thompson is out. Don Manningley will take over his interim manager in Philadelphia. 9 and 19 record.

When you have Joe a spot on at 12thard, I'd say, hey, do you hear about Rob Thompson? today? Your thoughts, please. I'm going to pass on that. I think you probably should pass on that. It's very wise. I mean, I like Joe. I think he should be here.

He's not holding the team back. They've had a rash of injuries. And I don't, unless he's telling every pitcher to go up there and issue four walks, every time they go out there. Yes. Then I don't have, I don't have, then I'd have beef with Joe Espada. As of right now, no beef. Yeah.

I, I, you know, look, if you want to make a change, and I would say this both of the general manager and the managerial spot. Not that I got a soft spot for either one of them, but I mean, there hasn't been criminal math practice in their jobs. Now, granted, Dana was boasting about how deep the pitching roster was, and nothing could withstand 11 starting pitchers, including tonight. I don't care how deep you got into the off season and how many guys you brought in his arms.

You just couldn't withstand it. And again, some of the guys that he's brought in just haven't paid off. I mean, Ryan Weiss has done nothing relatively. speaking. Mike Burroughs is getting a little bit better, but I would say it's been a disappointing first month. Doesn't mean that the next four months can't be fantastic. Tatsui Emai was the crown jewel

of the off season and you told Framberg-Avaldez goodbye and you bring Emi in and I was afraid of pitch in Houston or the United States. I don't know. Who the hell knows? And your clear number one ace is gone. I mean, it's something that's kind of easy to gloss over, kind of how we continue to do it with Fred

Van Valle. But it matters. It, especially in this pitching staff where you're significant drop down from number one to everyone else. Right. Yeah. That's the number one thing we have to continue to keep in mind, Rossi, is that you can bring up every lieutenant you want, but if you need your captain out there, you need your sergeant, and he ain't going, the leadership's going to struggle.

And the a Astros' top end of the rotation takes a dramatic fall, frankly, after one. Christian Javier, I mean, in theory should be your number two, but he hadn't performed that well. He has heard again. By the way, we have a Christian update at 10.50. It'll be a lot briefer than it's been in previous weeks. Okay. Now that one of them is gone, you're down to three, and one's hurt.

So. It's not great. Do what you will with that. Yeah, you had a lot of eggs in the Hunter Brown basket, and he just immediately got hurt. So it's everything. So put it this way now, Ross. Does that mean Hunter Brown has more of a pay me on a side? that he does before because we know what this team does when he's not here or do you go well I can't pay a guy super big money he's going to miss me two months here

that's a question for Jim Crane yeah my answer is pay the man yeah and pay the man soon lock him up lock him up but who knows maybe they say well it hasn't worked out obviously with throwing guys in there but I mean Peter Lambert is looking interesting I mean Smith to Erigetti's been pitching well. You mentioned Mike Burroughs turning it around. But you just don't have a star. You don't have an ace. And if you want to be a contending team, and if the window's always going to be open, as Jim Crane said,

you need ace level pitchers. And you don't have any right now. I will just say this. And not that I would ever put words or take words in and out of Jim Crane, because he's obviously been a very successful man whenever he's done. But owners have to be careful about

the window is always open because sometimes the window maybe he shouldn't have said it sometimes it's cracked or sometimes it's wide open it's been feeling it's been cracked because again you've made and he does spend money so the thought of him being miserably is just erroneous he does but he just doesn't spend it on long-term deals which yeah sometimes bite you in the ass and sometimes it what it does is even if you say goodbye to people if you say goodbye to kyle tucker and you say goodbye to alex pregman and marisa dubon it doesn't necessarily mean that those guys shouldn't have been signed

because they were asking for too much money because all the three of the guys that's brought up, maybe Dubon is a small example, is you're, you know, if you're paying big bucks for Bregman, you're not getting great value in Chicago. If you're paying big bucks for Kyle Tucker right now, you're not getting great value. But if you're going to say goodbye to those guys,

you have to be very solid and confident that the guys behind him can step right in. Now, the only case of that so far happening for the Astros, for the most part, Rossi, Correct me if I'm wrong on this is you told Carlos Craig goodbye. You said Jeremy Pena, the shortstop spot is yours and has worked out pretty well for the organization. So far, yes, that guy is sidelined right now. But also, I agree with the philosophy of not paying guys, but when you're trading for Nick Allen from Mris or Dubon to shave payroll, I take issue with that.

When you're trading Jesus Sanchez for Joey Lopofito to shave payroll, I do take issue with that. So, yeah, he could still step up. He's paid money. and he has had one of the top payrolls in baseball for many, many years, but also there's been penny pitching. There's no way around that. Those are penny pinching moves. Saving for sure.

So the question would be at that point, are you saving this? Are you pinching pennies to make a big deal? Are you setting yourself up for the future? So if that's the case, then I'm all for that. I mean, Marisa Dubon moves along. Hayes Sanchez moves along. What's the end game?

Is the end game to save $8 million in payroll per year? to make sure you're well under the luxury tax or are you doing it to say, I'm going to take that $8 million and put that towards a big kitty for a pitcher or a player that I want to keep around here for the long term. Any money I can save is going to be beneficial. He's been trying to do his best

to be allergic to the tax, especially repeater. So, I mean, I get it, I understand, but right now, Astro's 11th in payroll in baseball. But a great example would be number two team in payroll. That would be the Philadelphia, Philadelphia, And ask Rob Thompson how all that spending's helped him out.

They haven't won a World Series. Right. And they've been top five payroll feels like every year for the last, I don't know, 10 years almost. Yeah. Yeah, that's a city that has spent a lot of money and probably, you know, let's face it, probably a Philly fan is a little crankier than an Astro fan, although I don't know how poisonous Philly's Twitter is compared to Astro Twitter because that's pretty bad. Feels like they're angry. I think Philadelphia's angry with everything.

First of your city sucks. Honestly, our Twitters are bad. And the Rockets Twitter is the worst. of them all right now. It is, yeah, Rocket Sotters. It's got some serious. It's at an all-time high. Yeah.

Please, folks, there are so many people out there, and I'm not trying to be a PSA here, service announcement, but there are so many people that have so many followers that are so-called Rockets experts. They're not experts. They're just fanboys that somehow got a bunch of followers because you retweeted salacious, crazy material. And you know what? I'm going to actually say it's also somewhat not their fault because, it's, you

You fell in, I'm going to say I've fallen to this trap, man. I feel like we all have at some point. When you get a reaction on something on Twitter or Instagram or whatever, you kind of, it can shape your thinking. And when you're putting negative stuff out there and people love being negative on social media, it just becomes this vicious cycle, this self-fulfilling prophecy. You're going to be negative about everything because it gets you more likes, and then that kind of gets implanted in your subconscious.

And then you start to interact and find and follow people who are negative like you. and then it just becomes this big ball rolling downhill of negativity and toxicity. And that's just, that's our sports ecosystem in general. It's really, really gotten bad in Houston in terms of the Rockets. Yeah, what is you have people jumping on and getting involved in conversations,

getting more people involved, tagging people, tagging names. Now, there's some stuff that's pretty funny. I will enjoy the Instagram reels that are funny. Oh, well, Kevin Durant was clapping back on some guy.

That dude is hysterical. Well, Kevin Durant said he doesn't have a neck. No, and he's like living in the dude lives in his car apparently too. But it's still pretty funny. It's all right. It's all right. All right, 10.15, if you want to join us this morning, we have some open line time before we get to Joe's spot at 12.30. We have gut feelings at 1130 today.

Wex is going to come hang out for an hour as well with Ross between one and two. Rossi, I was just reading the story about Rob Thompson getting let go in Philadelphia. 9 and 19 there start. highest winning percentage in franchise history for a manager, four straight post seasons in four years, World Series after replacing Joe Girardi back in when the Astros won in 22, and he is out after 28 games. It's a cold world.

Ooh, Lordy. Now, he is going to get paid off on the rest of his contract, but I don't think Rob Thompson was ever considered a highly priced guy, so they're probably, you know, I mean, it is what it is. It's a loss, but also easier to do. I mean, Don Mattingly has been a manager multiple times. Obviously, it has a command's a lot of respect

from everyone. Right. So maybe that's one of the reasons you do it is because you have another option. It's a tough world. Kind of like when you had Phil Garner waiting in the wings. Right, right. Now, again, the great thing about these contracts

for these managers is they're getting fully paid. I mean, Alex Corr is going to manage, or going to get paid for the next year and a half not to manage a boss in Red Sox. and you're going to have Rob Thompson getting his contract finished out to not manage a Philly. So there's a little bit of, you know, that's the crazy part is that, you know, all these coaches, remember years ago when Kevin Sleman got fired and we got to Jimbo Fisher get fired?

Jimbo. There are a lot of men that have made a lot of money by not having to put a headset on. Who is Jimbo Fisher or Jimmy Sexton guy? Whoever his agent is the greatest of all time. All time. Well, that and whoever Kirk Cudson's agent is. That's true.

There's a few. There's an agent Hall of Fame. Kurt Cousins agent, Jimbo Fisher agent. Basically, Kirk Cousins has made more money than any of a human being alive for doing less money for it. He's been good. When you have thought through the last 10 years, when you run through the list of, oh, the top 10 quarterbacks, who are the top 15? It takes a while to get to Kirk Cousins. But yet he's been paid what?

I don't know, half billion dollars in his NFL career, give or take? Yeah, I'm going to go. Now I'm curious where he is like on the old time. It's mad. Yeah, Matt Stafford's number one in the all-time earning list. Uh-oh. Guess where Kurt Cousins is? All-time money list?

Third or fourth? Money list. Fourth. All-time NFL history. With how much? $321 million. All right, so I was off $150 million or whatever. It's a funny.

The top 10 list is actually kind of funny. Go for it. Stafford, Rogers, Brady. Okay. I mean, no problems any of those. Kirk Cousins. Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, Dack Prescott.

456, 7. Russell Wilson was a Super Bowl winner and had a very, very bright shining prime. Yeah, the last three years have been... Matt Ryan was an MVP. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But Kirk Cousins.

Who's 8, 9, 10? Breeze, Rothelsberger, golf. Ooh, the reality is this list is going to change in the next five years because you're going to see the next new brand of quarterbacks that are getting off of their rookie deals making anywhere between $50 and $65 million.

DeShon Watson 14th. Alan Mahomes 15 and 16. Then the first non-quarterback is 17. I'm not going to make you a guess. It's kind of tough. Trent Williams. Ooh, the offensive lineman, he's, you know what? Heath's doing well.

Laramie Townsill should be up in that list too. The money and career earnings he's picked up, especially if negotiating his own contracts. He's 50th. 52nd, I should say. I had a Brett Favre. But, you know, different errors. Guess who I was going to move up that list in a couple of years?

Number seven for the Houston Texans. He's going to move up the list, but how much is he going to move up? That's a great question. That's a great question. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90. I have to apologize. We've got a mini, I'm sorry, coming up at 1030.

I brought up a guy's name yesterday, a media personality. that I thought it was jovial and fun. I don't really take him seriously. And he was stupid today on TV. And you should have, frankly, and you tried to admonish me live on the air. I should have pushed harder. You should have pushed harder because it's acidide. People get caught up in their agendas, especially in the NBA.

It's interesting. Matter of fact, since we played yesterday's clip, and might as well play today's clip. Oh, my God. All right, well, let me know when that's happening. I'm going to walk out of here. I don't want you to leave. Fine.

Why do I do this to myself? Why do I consume sports media? I don't know. You're in sports media. You got to, I don't know, you got to keep tabs. It's like a pulse of things. A filmmaker's got to watch other films. I don't really do that.

You know what? I will say this. And there's a lot of things wrong with you. The one thing that's right with you is that you don't get suckered into stupid media. And I do. And that's a fault. I get, yeah. But, I mean, that's all that's around.

Of course, except for here on Sports Talk 790. Yes, we are logically based. All your home teams, yes. We're good between six and two. Things are a little erratic at 2 o'clock. I'm just kidding. 713-212-5-7-9. We've got gut feelings coming up in about an hour from now.

If you want to join us about anything, and we're going to play this audio from a guy that I thought was jovial, but it's just stupid. Just stupid. We'll play that for you coming back. And then at 10-50, Ross, is going to give us a Christian update. It's only three guys now, and one of them's hurt.

So it'd probably be a fairly short Christian segment. It's not like religion. We're talking about Christian. Yes. Top Christians on the Astros. One's now in Minnesota Twin. We've got to take a farewell to him. 713-212-5-79.

7-1-3-2-12. 5-7-99. I want to tell you right now about the incredible folks at Affordable Tree Service. 1033, Madden Ross with you here on 7.9. I'm here at Hobby Airport. Ross is back in our Palatial. 1233 West Loop North Studios, right? Palatial would be the term I would use? Sure, why not? Full functioning? Not really, but palatial for sure.

There's some cracks in the foundation. A little bit, a little bit. 713-212-5-7-90. So, again, I want to apologize for thinking that even though Kendrick Perkins, I don't take him seriously is when I hear him talk, I go, okay, I see what you're doing on this, and it kind of makes sense, and sometimes it doesn't make sense, and at least he's boisterous and he speaks loudly, and that's what works for network television. I want you to hold me to a higher standard sports RV, because here at 1034,

we will never play another Kendrick Perkins comment ever again after this segment. No matter how bad I want to do it. You must shoot me. I'm a hold you do that. You must. and I might yell at you and my screaming, you'll say, come on, this is good stuff. Hey, you're not going to say that. For the interest in this radio show and for your blood pressure,

which is always an issue these days, don't do it. So, ladies and gentlemen, I speak to you at 1034 on this 28th of April before the Rockets head off to Los Angeles for game five of their series with the Lakers tomorrow night. I present to you a question that was brought up on the first take show today. And again, I want to apologize over and over and over again for even seeing this. But I've been up since 5 o'clock this morning, so I want to see what was going on. And here's Kendrick Perkins asking about, do the Rockets regret making the move to get Kevin Durant away from Phoenix and moving Dylan Brooks and Jalen Green to the Valley of the Sun? But the question about Durant becomes, is he still a desirable player?

Is he still the number one, as we talked about that last block, 14. Perk, your thoughts? Hell no. Hell no, he's not. And look, I believe that Kevin Durand is the greatest score that ever touch a down basketball. I believe that Kevin Durant, because, man, fix your body language, I say, fix your body language and hear me out. Hit me out. I believe that he still puts the ball in the basket better than majority of the NBA.

But let's go facts over feelings right now, and let's keep it a buck. The Brooklyn Nets, disaster. The Phoenix Sons ran through two or three coaches. Two of them was championship caliber coaches. A disaster. What did the Phoenix Sons do this year? They made it to the postseason. They were one of the biggest surprises in the NBA.

Okay, fast forward. Let's look at the Houston Rock. The Houston Rockers last year got to the first round. I believe they pushed the Golden State Warriors as the number two seed to seven games, if I'm not mistaken, six or seven games. I believe that the Houston Rockers did give up a guy in Jalen Green that they drafted with the number two pick. They did give up a guy in Dillard Brooks, who's a culture seller, to get KD and some picks. And all of a sudden you bring to the Houston Rockets, what has been the biggest knock on the Rockets this,

year. That chemistry is so bad to the point where people were questioning or questioning is E. May Udoca still a good coach? Is he the coach for this team? Stephen A, if we took a survey last year, E. May Udoca would definitely be top 10 coaches in the NBA. We can't say that right now because this team has identity crisis. I'm not taking anything away from KD as the player and the score, but I'm saying is if you're a team that's a championship contender, would you give up a valuable piece and you've got a

culture that's set to bring in Kevin Durant, not knowing is it going to disrupt the vibe, the chemistry of the organization? I can't chance there. I'm sorry. That went way longer than I even thought. All right, so let's get... Any of you still

listening, I appreciate you. Thank you. But we're going to straighten it out right now. First of all. Did you see the box score last night's Phoenix Sun's game? Jalen Green. See if this sounds familiar. I don't like Jalen. But Jalen is. Who's Jalen is? Danilo's 10 of 25. Yeah.

One of 10 from three. Yeah. Okay? That's what he was this series. And they're out in four games. Yes. With a healthy Devin Booker, right? Yes. So, hold on.

Kevin Durant doesn't win with a healthy Devin Booker. and he leaves the team. Yes. And the Jalen Green and the culture set are Dylan Brooks are there. I mean, obviously they're going up against the thunder, but... What was the number one thing that Rocket fans were asking for? What would they have done if Kevin Durant was there? What are they?

They were asking Rossi, they needed a score. They needed a fourth quarter main go-to guy because Dylan, because unfortunately, Dylan Brooks couldn't give you that consistently. And Jalen gave you for only one game of the seven-game series against Golden State. Yeah, am I crazy? they finished ahead of the standings of the team of the players they swapped. And by the way, you gave up the number 10 pick for Malacotch. Oh, yeah.

Oh, gosh. Kalawan Malawak. And have three points a game, three rebounds this year. Nice. Project. Five minutes yesterday. And, of course, everyone conveniently forgets that Fred Van Fleet and missed the entire season. Right.

Stephen Adams is gone. And Kevin Durant is the Rocket's best best. player and it wasn't even close. Now the reality is this. Kevin Durant would probably be the first to admit it. He's not a leader. He's a leader by doing things on the floor.

He's a leader by example. Leader by example. He is not going to have the speeches. He's not going to bro hug you. He is a baller. He came out of his mother's womb shooting baskets at 6-11 or whatever he highted his base of the week.

And he's not going to scream at everyone. and put fingers in people's chess and rally the troop and stuff like that. But listen to every player on this team. If you've listened to interviews throughout the year about how much they've learned from Kevin Duran and how much they were wowed by his work ethic. I mean, I'm in Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., just up and down, Tari Eason, up and down the list,

these young players about how they were so impressed with Kevin Durant and the way he carries himself and goes about his business. He just balls. But he's not going to be the Chamber of Commerce Speaker. He's not going to do the commercials. that are going to say, go check out your rocket season tickets. He just wants to shoot and score and play. And everybody and their mother, these faux rocket reporters,

who are fanboys, are not even reporters, are saying that he's Jake and Ed, he's not want, he doesn't want to go. It's absolutely ridiculous. It just is. Now, were the optics of him not being on the bench causing a stirring game three? Yeah, they just did. That was a non-story. Stupid.

But it was well, so then he comes on the floor in game four and sits with him, and now all of a sudden the team is more energized and juiced up, okay? If that's what you're wanting to go with your narrative, I can't argue with you on that. But the reality is this team would be nowhere near as competent with the just run-it-back squad. You guys would be crushing Jalen Green. You'd be, you're still crushing for his seven-game series. And, again, I want to make sure I'm very clear on this. I like Jailene Green.

but Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, and Malawatch for Kevin Durant, I'm taking them deal. I'm just doing it, period. I am because the thought of Fred Bamblid and Kevin Durant on the floor at the same time excited everybody the moment it happened. We got a kick in the stomach when Fred got hurt. Now, I'm not ready to also say the Rockets are going to sit back and say, well, Frank comes back and make sure everything's going to be better. There needs some other adjustments to be made, for sure.

Yeah, well, everything will be better, but will, you be as good as the spurs of the thunder or, well, I don't know, I guess the nuggets were about to get eliminated by the wolves until everything happened, but where's your roster in terms of the Western Conference? Fourth or fifth best, at best. And that's where the Rockets collectively have to make a decision about do they want to run it back and take their chances that knowing that injuries are a part of the NBA, just like they were in Houston, or do you go, we're going to really shake the apple card up and try to be closer to what you were just speaking of? So, you know, I just think it's,

very interesting that Kevin Durant was 78 games into the season and was a really good 26 point score, 6 rebound, 5 assist guy. And now he is a, all people think about is turnovers, he's hurt all the

time, and he's got a burner account. He runs at a different speed. He just does. It's just the way that we talk about sports and the way that it's going to, I mean, just continue to be everybody's frauds, and then you 29 out of 30 teams every single year. You're going to be right. You're going to have a 29 out of 30 hit rate every single year, calling

everyone a fraud and a loser and not a winner. Real quick, before we get to our Christians update here on Sports Talk 790, 7-1-3-212-5-790. Let's talk to Mike on line to Mike. Thanks for winning and good morning to you. Yeah, I kind of took away my fire because, you know, ever since this trade, the Rockets are nowhere near the same team. They didn't even win as many games as last year. Yes, they did. Yes, they did. Yes, they did. Yes, they did. did. They won the exact number of games. 52. 52. No, they did. They won more games last year. Listen to me. They won 52 games last year. They won 52 games this year. Not even debated. Okay. Well, let me just put it this way. This guy is washed up. Okay. He might be the greatest scorer or whatever y'all want to call him. He finds his way out the door every team he goes to. He don't do nothing but cause problems. And every time he's on the court, he's a turnover machine,

and the Rockets just stand around and wait for him to do something. Now, the last game, the Rockets looked like they were back in the thing without him in the game, and that's the only way the Rockets are going to succeed. And number two, you don't give up that much what they gave up to go get old washed up. And he was washed up. He's not washed up. He averaged 27 points a game. How many guys in the NBA average 27 points a game?

That's not washed up. He almost shot He shot 50% for the floor 40% from 3 and 89% for the free throw line That's not washed up A place, no defense whatsoever That's not accurate at all

You don't watch the games I'm done with this actually I don't feel like Are we getting trolled or something? You don't know what you're talking about I feel like this could be a troll I don't know it has to be Yeah we got trolled

That's right our foul Our fault Our fault Yeah he's an all-star Led them in scoring plays really good defense if you pay attention to the games. He turns them all over,

like always has been. That's just part of his representation. Career average turnover is Kevin Durant 3.2. Turnovers per game this year with the Rockets 3.2. That's who he is.

It's a part of it, for sure. Not a great part of it. It's irritating. I get it. Yeah, he's 60. Hey, the ball's got to bounce really high when you're 7 foot. Okay?

So that's a margin. margin for error when you're dribbling and you dribb it off your size 16 foot and it also yeah can get ripped and you can inaccurately dribble as well. Did I run the guy's day by saying that the Rockets won the exact number of games this year than they won last year? That's when I started to get a little bit weary and then the accent was kind of on a little thick, but I don't know. And then he doesn't play defense at all. Is either an idiot or a troll.

So I have time for neither. All right. 713-212-5-7.90. A Christian update from the Asthma. Not religion, of course. I was like we're going to say that, don't you? No, it's fine. Who's Jewish?

Who's atheists? Okay. It's a Muslim update. Not what I'm doing any Muslim updates. Why not? I want to give you an update on what's going on to the Shell Federal Credit Union. We try to do this once a week, but sometimes you forget. Sister Christian, oh, the time has come.

It has come for Ross to run down Christians on the Astros roster and see how they're doing and put your Christian favorite status. Used to be one to four, Ross, but it's only one to three now. Yes, unfortunately, Matthew, we will start with the news that Christian Roa. Yeah. Was it designated for assignment? Yeah. Local legend.

Yeah. Texas A.N. Fighton Aggie. Bob Morale, Haskell, Mustang. I believe it's a Mustang or a pony or something. Claimed by the Minnesota Twins. off of waivers as of course

the Astros designated him for assignment last week Christian Roa gone but not forgotten I guess for this week we'll put you number four in the rankings seven appearances for the Astros this year

a 5.19 ERA number four Christian Roa. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Number three, we go to Christian Javier.

Who was last week transferred to the 60-day IL. Yeah, see in June. From the 15-day IL with his injured shoulder. And there is no further update on that. But that is obviously not good news

Christian Javier on the season not pitching well now hurt and now eight days ago transferred to the 60 day injured list number three these rankings are getting less fun

this is a terrible list by the way we're so far over two this is not fun Christian Vasquez in the last week played four games he got 14 played appearance Two hits and a walk for an OPS of 368. That's kind of what we thought it would be, right?

Remember, we had the... Oh, he needs to play every single day. Where's everybody that says Christian Vasquez is the guy? Do we have to fall victim to short sample sizes every single time in baseball? Hilarious. That's what we're here for. We're here for levity. Speaking of short samples.

All right. In the last week from our good friend Christian Walker, coming in at number one on the list. Yes. Six games played, 25 played appearances. All right. Ten hits,

three home runs. 1,300 OPS, 417 average. Overall in the season, hitting 293. excuse me, 291, with an OPS at 946. Seven bombs. Yes.

Christian Walker. Matt Thomas's pick for season leader in home runs. I'm not going to win that. Oh, you could. I don't want to. Alvar Yordon can get it. No, you want to. Oh, you think it's because I'm worried about the 13 number.

You're probably putting pins in a voodoo doll of Yordon Alvarez. That's ridiculous. So he doesn't play 130 games. Awful. Yordon, by the way, leading the, with the team lead with 11 home runs, but Christian Walker having a great season so far. He is number one in our Christian rankings

here on Sports Talk 790. We need to add a couple more Christians to make this a longer segment, do you not believe? No, well, I mean, they're dropping like flies, Matt. Unfortunately, we're not going to have any Christian. Christian Javier report's going to be very limited. Yeah. He's through today.

He's working in Florida. He's resuming baseball activities. We're hoping to get that in the next month or so. I would, you know, I would like one of those kind of updates. I know. Thank you very much, Ross. That is the Christian update for today.

Again, not religion. Just regular Christian. Mm-hmm. Let's go to David and humble before we get to the top of the hour. David, thanks for holding and good morning. Good morning, M.T. And good morning, Rossi. Hey, how's it going, David?

Go ahead, David. Yes, I like to say something I came on the land. some people are calling Gio Sheld saying that Kevin Durant is washed up I'm saying that Kevin Durant is not washed up this year he has passed

the great Michael Jordan in all time on end time all time NBA scores list any basketball player in the NBA that passes the great Michael Jordan and scoring

all time in the NBA is not washed up and I believe the Rockets are going to win tonight. If they lose, they lose. They play tomorrow, David. Well, they play tomorrow. That's okay. I'm excited about the rockets.

I'm excited by the Rockets. I know. I want the game to be today, too. Me too. I probably should be in L.A. at the games tonight. Thank you, David, for the phone call. Just did a line check.

That's fine. It's four and a half now. Ooh, it went up two points, huh? Yeah. Because of Austin. Is Austin Reeves? I guess so. I guess so.

Dang. This is the Mac Thomas show with Ross. Coming up in one half hour here on Sports Talk 7. I mean, Matt, and Ross with you here until 2 p.m. In fact, I will bug out at noon. Rockets are going to head off to L.A. Ross will have Joe Espotted join this radio program at 1230, and then our buddy Adam Wex is going to hang out with you between 1 and 2 p.m.

Again, gut fillings coming up in one half hour from now. 713-1-2-12-7-7-9. 97-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Well, he was expected to be the future Texas Tech quarterback. He got paid gazillions of dollars to go leave Texas Tech. Man, Cody Campbell spent a lot of cash, Rossi. He's not getting some payoffs here at this point. Ooh.

Somebody said $6 million for him? Yeah, I think so. Is that what college quarterbacks are going for these days? Gee, many Christmas. He was the, I believe, though, most highly sought after quarterback in the port. He was, too. All right.

So apparently this Yahoo Sports story that Ross Dillinger put together in the last couple of hours says that most of his bets were minimal. Most of his bets were less than a dollar. He was betting 50 cents on balls in the next pitch of an MLB game. He was betting a $3 over to hit in a college football game. Thousands and thousands of tiny wagers. But now the question is going to be, will he be able to compete in college football again?

because he did make bets on his own team as a freshman in Indiana in 2022. Now, apparently he did not play. He was a red shirt that year. But he still bet on Indiana. That to me is a no-brainer, correct? What's the biggest bet he made? Does it say? He doesn't say.

Everybody's speculating. I mean, if he's bet, I honestly, I understand the integrity and there's a threshold and a line that's been crossed. But he's betting three bucks. if he's betting 50 cents on in three bucks on stuff honestly and he wasn't on the team really well he could have played I guess he could have you could

I mean did he I don't really have a problem with him betting three bucks I don't the problem is this Rossi I understand the integrity if the rule is the bet is a bet as a bet you can't do it If you steal a stick of gum, you stole. I get it.

Yes. If you steal a, like, let's say a soda from a grocery store, you stole. That's not really the case, though. I understand. The law has been broken. But I don't know, man. My initial reaction, once you gave me the best, I was ready to be like, hey, you can't do this. It's ridiculous what this kid thinking.

He's been 50 cents. Well, you know, that really does show you that he is a true degenerate because he has to have action on everything regardless of how important it is. I mean, it's kind of fun. You're bored in college. I used to bet on a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have been on. I understand that. We all did stupid college stuff, but I think when you put the uniform on and you sign a bunch of paperwork, there's just a handful of things that you just, you give up.

And giving up on betting is one of them. And I think they're pretty crystal clear about that. Yeah. When's the last time he bet? Are all these bets from when he was a redshirt freshman? I don't have the time stand on those. I'm sure if you did a little digging, it would come into play. But, I mean, the reason why this became a story to begin with is because of the fact that he's admitting that he is in a troubled spot that he has to now go seek rehabilitation.

So maybe the dollar amounts has gone up significantly as he's made money playing golf. Or maybe this story was going to start come out. So they're getting ahead of it. So they're going to go. like if a story's about to come out that you're going to, you're an alcoholic, I'm going to rehab. Or if a story or, you know, Mike Rable, time for counseling. Yeah, none of the games that he bet on in 2022 he played it.

And, I mean, if you want to help your cause, he at least bet on his team to win as compared to bidding on his team to lose. Yeah. That doesn't, you know, that's either here nor there. This is very, I mean, they're unequivocal. I think, Jonathan, didn't, were you telling us they, they, like, they get everybody in a room or like, hey, guys, you cannot gamble. No, it's a whole, like, hour meeting you have with the PowerPoints and, you know, athletic directors there and all these different type people.

NCAA guidelines include guidance that wagers greater than $800 would lead to potential loss of the season eligibility. Cumulative waging, wagering that greatly exceeded $800 could give you a permanent ineligibility. man imagine he made 2,050 cent bets and that's how you get ineligible that's tough that's tough

well that goes to show you that he really needs help because he's going to give up a chance to play major college football over 250 cent bets well he already had a little bit of issues going in because I'm reading the same story that you're reading that the University of

and he is suing him for a million dollars for breach of contract after he left for Texas Tech. Wow. It's got lawyer fees now. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, there are not a lot of these stories

Rossi coming out. So this is not a number one motive for getting rid of paying for athletes. I get that. But you're going to get more of these coming up because you're going to have a lot more kids. They're going to have money. They're going to spend it on a variety of things, whether it's on gambling, whether it's on parties, whether

it's on lavish vacations, whether it's whatever the case may be, the gambling is one of those things that just, the sirens go off immediately when it happens. Which in itself is kind of hypocritical because if you watch any college football broadcast,

and those college football broadcasts are the ones that are paying these conferences, you've got every one of the draft pinks, draft kings, bet three, six, fives, the underdogs that are sponsored these bad boys all over the place. So it's a matter of, Mass a ball of hypocrisy.

Yeah, take the money. And then slap them down when they're betting. Yeah. It is a bombardment of gambling advertisement. As I think I was even, was it yesterday I was saying this? Like, I'm for gambling. I'm four, allowing us to put down a couple bucks on a parlay or whatever. Yeah.

But not being able to turn your head anywhere without seeing gambling stuff getting thrown at us. bombarded on us on every sports broadcast and every sports show and every sports social media outlet. It's crazy. I mean, that go for a lot of things. You have, you know,

overweight people that see commercials for Taco Bell and strawberry shakes. You have people that are alcoholics that see commercials for beer and whiskey. I mean, you have to have a level. I got an issue with that alcohol culture. Yeah. You have a level of restraint. And if you're an addict or you have problems with it or you know that you can't

do it for your own health and well-being, you have to watch those commercials and move along. Some can have greater discipline than others. Tell me why we limited a cigarette advertising, which is killing people, but we don't limit other advertising that is killing people. Right. Yeah, it is. I mean, I'm not saying limited access. You can go buy cigarettes.

You can go buy alcohol. Yep. Yeah. But I honestly, I think Sorosby's career is over with. And he's going to probably have to, Damn, 50-cent parlays. Go to CFLs. I mean, is he going to have to go to the UFL to kind of reinvigorate his career?

Has he done enough at Cincinnati to be drafted next year? I, you know. But even, this shows you how crazy it is, he's getting, he was going to get $6 million to play at Texas Tech. That's a lot of money for a guy that has not stepped on an NFL football field yet. And Texas Tech is out of quarterback now? What are they going to do? All right, so Will Hammond is coming off an ACL tear.

He will not be ready for the season opener. He'd be ready around week three best case scenario. Me as a Houston Cougar fan, not feeling too sad about this. Just saying. Cody Campbell, when's he going to get donor fatigue? I don't know. At least he gets his money back, right? I mean, well, I mean, yeah, he's now $6 million plus.

I mean, we're not, we're assuming that he's the one paying exclusive. No, he's not, of course. He may not be, but probably, probably a bit of it. Probably most of it. But if you're Cody Campbell, and I don't know him, I just know the stories I've read about him. I've seen him one time in person.

He's got so much F-U money, Ross. I don't think he particularly cares. Yeah, but I mean, if you're pumping in like $50 million dollars over a couple years. Well, it's just like the guy at Phil Knight at Oregon. I mean, all he has said over and over again is, I will give the school any amount of money. I just won a national championship before I die.

And how's that going? Not well. He's 88. Phil Knight. And Nike stock is tanking, by the way. Yeah. Apparently today's kids are not buying the shoes. Yeah.

You know why? It's for the unks. Well, let's ask Jonathan. Jonathan, what's going on? Shoes? I didn't say, I don't know what if you wears Nike's. I need his opinion. Not.

I mean, like Max said, it's too expensive. Just for your everyday casual shoe? Yeah. Like $170? Yeah. What about doing? And people like plastic wrapping their stuff.

And then they did scarcity marketing to make everything scarce. And then so people tune out. Once you try to get like 50 Nike drops and you don't get anything, like you're done with the whole company. I mean, the resell thing was huge, especially when I was in high school. Yeah. Stock X and all that. You can't even go to the store for shoes at that point. You had to spend 200 plus the retail price because everybody like sold out the stores and they're reselling for their own, you know, personal gain.

Back to Sor with me for a second. But bets that he made were at a Reds game at Great American Ballpark. So he's literally doing it at the game. A pitch by pitch at a Reds game. Our buddy Cole is telling us. He says, you know, the supplemental draft of the NFL is in July. He can get drafted there if he wants to. So there you have it.

I mean, how many supplemental guys have done anything in the NFL? I'm sure there has been some, but not many when you think about it. Only a place that people go that are, if you're in the supplemental draft, you're in for a variety of care. There is a somebody who's like the crown jewel of the supplemental draft. I can't remember who it is. I have to look it up. The crown jewel of something.

Things I would ever thought I would ever talk about on a show. Oh, but back to Cody Campbell for a second. Chris Carter. I think that's who I was thinking of. Oh, of the Philadelphia Eagles and Ohio State, Hall of Fame receiver? Yes. I don't like that. You throw on a Bernie Cozar there if you want to.

Ooh, he's a supplemental guy too. But recently, there hasn't been a supplemental picks since 2019, Jalen Thompson. It's there for a reason. For, yeah. Character flags going up all over the place. All right.

We've got gut feelings coming up at the bottom of the hour. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Matt and Ross with you here. We've got gut feelings coming up in about 15 minutes from now. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Jonathan, I just sent you some E-Mey-A-Doka audio. Our Rockets reporter, Adam Wexler, at the facility just a few minutes ago with an update from E-Mey-A-Docca on Kevin Durant, so we'll play that for you as soon as you have it, Jonathan. I learned something today. Do you know what an anti-gravity treadmill is? Yes, I got it.

Yeah, it's like when they're in water, right? Well, I think we're about to find out. Here is Eme Adoka on Kevin Durant's update from today's practice. Alter G. Alter G. What does that do and just where is he at and possibly playing tomorrow? It's a good conditioning up, you know, test your mobility without the weight bearing. So it takes a pressure off the joints.

But that's just in the process of him trying to get back. Obviously, treatment is part of it, but you have to get out there and do it a little bit and just the next step in the process. Is he a man? Just been in today's practice? No. Back to Kevin. Do you still see it as a possibility that he go play tomorrow?

We'll see. I mean, it is day-to-day game to game. But, you know, we'll have to get on court and do some things. And, you know, he didn't participate in practice today. But like I said, he's doing the conditioning and other aspects of trying to get back. I'm not a doctor Ross, but I play one on the radio. He's not playing tomorrow. No, he's not.

I guess this one is a pressurized air, not water. If he's in an alter G, it's possible that he could still be ready to go. I've done it a couple of times, actually. And? It's very helpful. It's basically just imagine you're in like a diaper almost. Someone's like holding you like a bungee. Imagine I'm in a diaper right now.

Okay. What? Sorry, go ahead. So imagine that's strapped to like a treadmill, right? And you have something encased into you. you strap it in and you close it up with like some bars and metal bars and it's pressurized air all the way through you let it heat up like a balloon and then at that point it takes away the weight that you're going to be putting onto your joints and the impact you're going to

put it on so if you have like say something's wrong with the ankle and you can't put the much pressure onto it let's put it at 50% and we'll have this treadmill go at 13 miles an hour and you go from there and see how you can how much weight you can put on and progress you can take out as much air or little air as you want it's very useful so if he's on that i mean actually he could be ready to go it just got to see how it feels hmm it feels like it's fun is it fun to get in one of those things and the workouts are hard besides the fact you're hurt yeah it's true i forgot about that part it's hard those workouts they kill you like when i had my shoulders repaired i didn't mind going to therapy because all he did was just stretch my arm out it made me feel

better. That's good. And then he made me do that pulley wait thing and I was only mad at him and he yelled at me over and over again. Why are they yelling at you? Because I wasn't doing it 100% because I was a little girl. Oh, I could see that. That's not nice. That's cool.

Yeah, I don't know. How do you not step on a court and shoot the day before a game? I wouldn't be shocked. But Austin Reeves may try to go tomorrow night, so we got that looking forward to it. God. Oh, well. Oh, that game three games just still. How much that's going to bother me, Ross?

Like, for there ever and ever amen? I don't know. Yeah, forever. Like, have I shaken the cobwebs of the terror, the move at, what's his name in Portland? Damien Lillard, that shot. We're still haunted by that. Yeah, but it hurts, but they weren't going to win the championship that year. ways. That was also

the year where Lamarcus Aldridge was making everything from like the first two games. What do you have like 40 points a piece making everything from mid-range? Right in Darryl Morey's face, the anti-analytics. I'm more haunted by the routine losses to the Golden State Warriors for about a decade.

I mean, 2018 is going to be, that's the one. That is the one. Just like, I don't know, what always haunted, I guess when we're with Astros with respect to Astros, I mean, 05, you got swept. 04 felt like you could have done it.

And the 98 to me was always the ones you remember. And we don't talk about the 98 Astros as much as we used to because they won to. Well, when I was a kid, when I was a kid, when Kevin Bass struck out against Jesse Orozco in game six of the National League Championship Series. That hard me for ever. I got a lot of problems. I got all things that haunt me.

That's maybe part of the reason why who I am. That's Houston Sports. I mean, Faisama Jamma still haunts me, and that was 40 plus years ago. The double dribble at the final four. last year haunted me. The double dribble that wasn't. Yeah, could have been.

Or maybe just the worst pass ever thrown in college basketball history to yourself. Oh, wow. I just come across my, I don't know if we want to spend time on this. USA Today has put their top 25 NBA players of all time. What? And you're arguing with it or are you like, this makes a lot of sense?

I saw number four. It's going to bother you. Let's do 10 to 1 real quick. We've got feelings coming up in a couple minutes here. Go ahead and give 10 to 1. 10 to 1. All right. 10.

Shack. Where is Elijah went on this list? Well, obviously south of 10. He's not in the top 25. Who did this poll? It just says USA Today. I'm trying to find a list of it. I'm sure this is legit because I saw this yesterday myself.

Okay. I saw it. It's on Legion Hoops. And I see it on Reddit. I'm trying to find the actual length. Link, I should say. Okay, this is best American players of all time. All right, well, then that would,

Keem would not be in that group. Okay. Yes. So now we're just putting stars and stripes list together? I guess. Whatever. All right, so with that being said, let's go 10 to 1. Now I'm good with Elijah not being on there.

Go ahead. Shaq, Wilt, Russell, Bird, Johnson, 6, Kareem 5. Go ahead and say number 4. Wardell Stephan Curry Jr. 4th. Yep. Kobe Bean Bryant

3rd. LeBron, Raymond James 2nd. Michael Jeffrey Jordan 1st. Sorry, Steph is not 4. I've always argued with you about this. And I know

that it is a really sore subject for a lot of people. Not sore, but just a huge debate at the point. Who's the greatest jump shooter in the history of the NBA? Steve Kerr. No.

The man he's coach for his career. Stephen Curry. Steve Kerr, 45% career three-point shooter. Stephen Curry 43. Okay. We're going to skip that first part of this statement. I know. It's Stephen Curry.

Yes. He is the greatest jump shooter in the history of the NBA. doesn't that now again there is defense thank you there that's there's defense no stop there it's a two-way game okay well then if that's the case was bill russell ever an accomplished score in the NBA yeah I think he averaged like 20 points a game or whatever they also he also won like 11 championships it's also a different story and it was also a different era of course and he was an he was an excellent rebound I'm not putting step curry in my top 10 but he's

in my top 15 he just is okay with that yeah okay that's what makes you're okay with that But, I mean, yeah, Michael Jordan defensive player of the year. LeBron finished second in a defensive player of the year. He had many first team all defenses. Kobe Bryant had like nine first team all defenses. LeBron's going to finish top five in his NBA career, too. Don't forget that. He's going to have the greatest basketball career of all time.

If you want to say he's not the greatest player, he's going to have the biggest basketball career of all time. Well, Kareem has argument because we talked about, what was it? High school player of the year? three-time college player of the year. Yeah, but we're not counting that for NBA. I know, but, yeah, but I mean, we're talking about basketball players. Yeah, that's right. It's not his fault.

As long as you could have got in the NBA. I'm going to go okay with you. Yeah, okay, I'm not putting him like 50th. I'm just saying. All right. He's clearly behind the top three. I put him behind Jabbar. Shack underrated defender, honestly.

Shack or Akeem? I don't go Akeem. But, I mean, I think most of people disagree with us because Shack is a multiple time scoring champion and known as the most dominant ever. I go with Akeem for versatility but Shack was unstoppable.

Shack was more unstoppable for what? Seven or eight years? Yeah, Shaq was more unstoppable. Kareem's around like a 52-ish field goal shooter. I can go look it up. Yeah, I mean, Shaq outside of feet was a mess. Yeah, but he didn't

so what? It didn't matter. Nobody could stop him from where he was. got him inside eight feet. He was scoring. Does his lack of free throw success play into to his detriment? I guess if you want to go with that, but I mean, yeah. O'Hakeem, 51.2%

career shooter. And his game was the dream shake. He was hitting top of the key jumpers. Not on the regular, but enough. Jack never did that. All time, I mean, it's a great way. All right. Let's get our gut feelings in.

I always love this segment because I never remember how we do the previous week and usually it's not particularly good usually 713-212-570 7-790 if you have any sports opinions any sports predictions we want to hear from you next

let's get those predictions in right now because if you get them right you call us back and brag and if you get them wrong as long enough preposterous we know we give you a little bit of a little bit of grace. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Gut feelings are next here on the Matt Thomas show.

Ross, 7-13-212-5-7-90. Been up girls and boys. They've got been so appealing. Because Ross and Matt Thomas. Yo, they got a gut feeling. This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you've got a gut feeling,

and let us know about. Make a sports prediction to become a star. That's what this show is about, especially every Tuesday at 1130 here on Sports Talk 790. 7.1, 3212-5-790. Ross, before we make our predictions this week, how did we do last Tuesday? Last Tuesday?

Oh, no. You said the Rockets would... This is Rockets by 6? That'll be a loss. Unless I was talking about game 4. I don't think so. Well, can I get myself partial credit? it? You said the Astros

2 and 3 start. What does that mean? 2, 3. In the next 5 games they go 2 and 3? I don't know why I wrote start. I might have missed them. I might have had a typographical Yeah, because they lost 2 or 3 in the Yankees. Yeah. They won 2 or 3 against the Guardians. That would be 3 and 3 for the week. I don't know. That's on me.

It is on you. I'll just say 2. 2.3 start. When in doubt, I get it right. Thank you. Yeah, well, sure. Why not? And then you said the Texans would trade out in the first round. Ooh. I think a lot of views on my tweet about the trading up, trading down, or staying right put where they were.

That worked out. Yeah, that's good. I said Katie would play. And that was that game two? He did play game two. Okay. I said the Rockets win by 10. Did it not?

They did not. I said light quality start for Ryan Weiss. That was not correct. It did not happen. Nope. I said the Texans would take an interior alignment with their first pick. Oh, no. Why? Oh, no.

What? Congratulations. Yeah, I was right. What's up? And I also said they would trade. Man, I wish I had to stuck with my conviction. My real gut feeling was they would trade up. But I also said or trade back.

Like, they would not pick 28. So I was right about that. And I was right about them picking an interior alignment with their first pick. Okay. Nice. So you actually did better than I did last week. Yeah. And Jonathan said if the Astros do not win both of the series, which they didn't,

there would be conversations starting about blowing up the team. There is no conversation about blowing up the team just yet. Maybe they fell in off the Phillies, yes. Yeah. Well, they've blown up the Phillies, yeah. Or the Red Sox. Oh, no, they won the Guardian series, though. The Astros won two or three against those pesky first place.

Okay, so never mind. Oh, it's a move point then. Okay. Yes. All right. I'm going to start first here. And again, if you've got a gut feeling 713, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 5, 7. Kaiwi Tang pitches at least 60 pitches today.

Okay. It's a little hanging fruit, but I'll go with it. Why not? Okay. If you're asking for a result, I'm not giving you one. Okay. That makes perfect sense. Okay.

That's my first. Gut feeling number two. Gut tells me Kevin Durant does not play tomorrow. Kevin Durant does not play. Okay. Number three. Oh, no. Here comes the Rock and Homer in me.

We're coming back for game six. Okay. Austin Reeves. I'm just going to keep rolling here. Why not? Austin Reeves less than 12 points tomorrow night. Okay. I'm, we're expecting him to return, by the way.

Sure, why not? I think I missed one. You said, Kywe-Ting 60 pitches. Yes. Then game six, they come home. I missed something else. What did I say? Oh, Kevin Durant's not going to play.

Kevin Durant is not playing. I mean, that feels some chalk. I know. I got to take some little, I got to win a couple of freebies once in a way. I get you. You know, slump busters. Okay. I wouldn't put it that way, but sure, why not?

Okay. I'll also say Kevin Durant does not play game five. Oh, steal my bit now. Oh, it's like a try. Hey, if you're going to go and break your shoulder patting yourself on the back next week, for a chalk pick, I'm going to do it too. All right, that seems fair. Kiway Ting, huh?

What are you going to do? Give us a prediction. This is what gut feelings are all about, right here. Astros win the series. Oh, in Baltimore. Against the Orioles. And they win the series against the Red Sox. What's up?

Wait a minute. They just got a new manager. Exactly. Do you understand what the Astros record is? Small victory. How many series have they won this year? Not enough. They were great after that second series, for sure.

They lost 9 out of 10. Oh, I also have a good feeling. Jonathan's bringing us news at noon when you at noon. Does he know this yet? He does now. Well, you got a 20 minute heads up. Joe Spotted, by the way, joins the show at 12.30. Yes. News at noon at noon.

Joe Spotted at 1230. Adam, somebody or other, at 1 o'clock. His name is Adam Waxler. He's our Rockets reporter. Oh, yeah, that's what I meant. Not the insider, it's a reporter. He's an inside of you. He goes.

I give him credit for that. Astros win the series versus the Orioles and the Red Sox. What's up? A winning trip. All right, I see how you're going there. I'm a little scared. That's fine. John, what do you got this week?

I feel like tomorrow it's going to be an overtime game. Oh. Overtime. We're not good in overtime. Well, they're due. It's going to be overtime game. Okay. And we're going to have a men scored the last final.

Okay. Ooh, look at how to take. A men Thompson game winner and overtime? Does that want to say? Do I want to say game winner? Game winning bucket? Let's say, imagine. Imagine I just put that in the air. Okay.

A man Thompson game winner overtime. I love that. I'm feeling that. Oh, my God. And am I going to have a good call or am I going to butcher it? Oh, you might, you might stutter a little bit. You might be shook a little bit. It'll be such a crazy play.

Thompson calls this year. Good job. Can't always bat a thousand, Rossi. You just can't. You're doing great, Matt. I got one. I got a Corpus Christi report for you. Oh, wait.

Shams just said he's not expected. Two hours ago, Shams said Kevin Durant not expected to play. Yeah. You don't know that. And you're going to mega chalk. Hey, don't tell anybody that. Yeah.

I only guess you got number one Duke over the 16 in your bracket. He said day to day. Come on now. Tatsui Imi Two winnings pitch today or less Okay That's my first Corpus Christi Hooks ever

Gut-filling prediction Okay Corpus Christi All right Sure why not All right Anything else from you boys Man you're really laying in on thick

I'm gonna go some more You know what I'm just gonna keep bringing them Because I feel like you strengthen numbers here Boston finishes the series with the 76ers tonight. They're like 12-point favorites. Oh, wow. Chuck Thomas over here.

And here's one for you, friends. Spurs beat the Blazers and finish off the series there. Oh, wow. Really? I've also got the sun rising tomorrow. You don't know if it's what if there wasn't bad by me. You're right. I got the sun rising somewhere on the planet tomorrow.

All right. I'm just trying to try. No, I've got, no, I'm just locking it in. You won't put my name on this. I put my name on it. Sun's coming up tomorrow. Put my name on it. Here we go. All right, name on it.

I'm not putting my name on the sixers, 76ers. I put my name on it. Spurries finish off the Blazers. I'll put my name on both of them. Oh, okay, there you go. The 11.5 point favorites should be fine. Hey, we've, Rossi, if we've learned anything about this Vegas thing, it had worked out for the rocket so far this series.

All right. Well, do you want my real actual true, Rockets gut feeling. Go ahead. Say it. But say it with a little bravado. Don't say it when you're mincing words. Lakers and five.

Jonathan, did you hear that? Jonathan, I don't hear anything. We lost connection from Hobby Airport. Lakers in five. It's my real gut feeling. I'm just being honest. I want to be wrong. If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Yeah Yeah All right Houston We're asking you right now What does your gut say about Rockets Lakers Come on in We don't bite here on the show Rocket Hater Ross

Thinks there's no chance Of rocket hater Ross That's funny I love the Rockets so much They have They hurt me so much I need one With all the hurt the Rockets have given me

I know And I still love them Undyingly Me too stuff about my cougars? I mean, how much love of the cougars given me in the last 40 years? I mean, I got a Peach Bowl victory over

Florida State Community College. And their third quarterback. Because the first two were scared. Yeah, it was scared and hurt. Not true. All right. I need some people to come in right now. Don't mess around.

You don't have to give me some 50-minute run down here. What does your gut tell you about Rockets? Lakers. It's gut-filling time. Let's go. 7-13-21-2-5-7-9. And I'll buy another one for you, Houston Sports.

fans. Is Kai Wei Tang going to do enough tonight against the Orioles to stay in the Astros rotation more than one turn? I'm throwing some easy guts at you. That's kind of weird to say, but I just did it. 713-212. Earlier you're talking about getting stretched out. Now you're doing this. Who doesn't mind getting a stretch out once in a while? Pause. 7-13-212-5-7-9. Ross, back to you.

11-45. Let's go. Don't, don't mind. mark that stuff down. That's nice. Ross, talk to the audience, please. I am going to talk to the audience. Not about getting stretched out. I have a gut feeling that Jonathan will lead off with track and field news during the news at nude today.

Oh, yeah, but the guys running the sub two-hour marathons? Yes. That was pretty crazy. You've got to have like a massive sprint going for like 60% of that, right? Say again? Like a 60% sprint like during that time.

Yeah, basically. He ran a 4.30 mile for 26 miles. Oh my God. Stupid. It's historic. Like no human ever in life is done. How about the guy who also went under two minutes, but he was also like the second person ever and he got second? And that was his first debut marathon run

as well. Oh my God. That's all part of the news. A dude. We've got a managerial firing before. That's a backtrack to what's going on in the world of track and field. We're just kidding. Joe's spot at 1230. Wex comes and hangs out with Ross.

1 o'clock until 2. I'm going to be heading out with the team here in about 5 minutes. Let's go to Sergio on 790, 1153. Sergio, good morning to you. Good morning, guys. Just chiming in on the Rockets, a longtime Rockets fan. I've been the fan since Ralph Sandsen hit that famous buzzer beater against the Lakers, sending them home.

And with Jim Peterson, one of the famous calls of, we're on our way. We're on our way. I remember that, guys. Well, hopefully I got some more of that in me here in the next few days, hopefully. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I'm chiming in on the rocket. It's a roller coaster of emotions with these rockets right now. You don't know what to think about KD, whether it's questionable or this or that.

But I felt these guys had heart in the last game, and I still believe it's in them. I mean, at least make a series of it, take it to six and bring it back here. And I'm still proud of them. Who knows what's going to happen with KD and offseason? What do you guys think about KD in that whole situation with him? thanks sergio for the phone call ross there's been a lot of

and again a lot of this is just opinion related here about with the rockets trade kevin durant i don't think they would but if you lose this series and again the numbers dictate that they are probably not going to win it i do think you have to do a deep dive into everything in the organization do you know i think you know yeah you got to talk to him if he's unhappy here and wants to go

somewhere else. I get that. If the Rockets aren't happy with him, you do give a chance to train him. He's going to be making less than he would would. For a guy of his value, I mean, still makes a lot of money. Was it $45 million a year the next two years, I think? Something like that? Yeah, I think he has next year, and then I think it's a player option,

I think. So, I think everything, and honestly, even if the team was to go to the Western finals, I think you have a closed door shut meeting. I'm just talking about it in general. I'm not talking about it. This year?

you know, I mean, I think you deep dive into every part of the organization in terms of player construction. Yeah, you have to figure out where you don't want to be, and it's where it feels like the rockets have been quite often to where you're not the top of the top. You're not in, you're basically in your, you're like top five in the West. You're not really a championship threat right now. If you run it back with the team that you have, I mean, maybe, maybe things will just gel and run together. they're so great in a way that we haven't seen this year because of the injuries to where you can be perhaps a threat to the Spurs and the Thunder. I just don't necessarily feel that way, but at least you could get a look at it. It's unfortunate.

The Fred Van Vleet injury has just spoiled so much. We would know a lot more about where the rockets are, how close they are to the other teams in the West. They finished fifth. They won 52 games with Kevin Durant as their best player, with no Fred Van Vleet playing. is not a single minute of the season. That's a massive impact. It just is. I know people are tired of hearing about it, but it's just true.

And to discount it as well, Fred doesn't shoot them all well. Fred made had a great playoff series last year. Fred is a calming influence. Fred is a quarterback on the team. Yeah, where's you struggled most in clutch time and in overtime games and in close and late? And that's where Fred thrives. Yep, yep.

Javier is going to talk to you, Ross, after the news at noon. So Javier and Loreno, Stand by to him. Oh, is he going to sing? That's up to y'all. Okay. I got to the planes, the plane's taxing them.

But as I forget about me? I don't think they are. I'm just kidding. Rossi, I'll talk to you from L.A. tomorrow for a full four-hour get-together. Okay. We're going to celebrate a Astros win against Baltimore. Okay. Yes.

Yes. And we're going to play Don't Let Me Down by the Beatles tomorrow or no. Sure, why not? No, there's no energy for you to do it. Speaking of music, Matt, one thing you're going to miss at the news at noon. New York Times has named Kendrick Lamar among the 30 greatest living American songwriters.

So I'd say you'd be happy to hear that. I won't miss that. I'm going to be listening to the news and noon on the plane. Oh, good. That's all I got. We're leaving on Kendrakemaar. All right. News at noon. Joe Espada, Wex, Ross. More of the Matt Thomas show Ross straight ahead here on Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Oh, 3. And our number 3. of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas ducking out to travel with the Houston Rockets. They will be taking on the Los Angeles Lakers in game number five of their Western Conference first round series. Tomorrow, 9 p.m. tip here on Sports Talk 7.80. Ross, Vio, we are out with you for the next hour flying solo, though we will have Joe Espada joining us coming up at 1230.

Adam Wexer will join at 1 o'clock. And right now, oh, I'm not solo. We got Jonathan Allen bringing us the news. At noon. J.K. Allen, how are things? It's been going good. You know, it's a smooth Tuesday. It's a smooth day.

I like that. You know, it was chilling. All right. Good ride. But it's news, man. Kevin Durant, before we move on to Rockets, it's still questionable saying it's an alter G machine. Those don't know.

It's more, you know, just another rehab. You said it's like being in a diaper. It's literally like being locked in a metal diaper. And you're sitting there running and your legs are, You can't really feel them. They're a real light. They're real, you know, like you're on a cloud. Interesting.

It's really weird. Like you're on a cloud. It's very fun. How do you adjust to that? Do you have to change your gate? You change it. And see your weight. That's what they like,

so they wait when you're strapped in. And then you calculated, you can move how much percentage is off and how much like your gravity is not affecting you. It's very interesting, very cool about it. And, you know, it's kind of fun. It's kind of fun. I was actually, I was actually, I was Googling them. What are they called? Anti-gravity.

Altur. Altur. alter g yeah those those bad boys are like 50 gs yeah no they're expensive yeah i don't think i want to get one for the house i'm gonna go ahead and pass on that one but that's just me all right so kevin durant on and anti-gravity now you said that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be out but the fact that he hasn't been practicing he's still running on this treadmill and it depends on how much he's how much weight he's putting on his alter g he could be doing only 30% okay so you can calibrate that makes sense obviously you can calibrate how much you're putting on there

If he's right now doing 80% take off of him, then he's not really putting any way on himself. But he's going and trying to do like 25%, just take 25% off of that. We could try and see if he can put pressure on it to be ready to go tomorrow night. I would be surprised if he's going to play. Those of you don't know,

Austin Reeves apparently going to try to play. I'm going to imagine he does. Line has already moved from the Rockets being two and a half point dogs to four and a half. I did my gut feeling on the last. last hour. I'm not proud of it, but it feels like Lakers in five. Did you make a, you didn't make a prediction on that. Did you, Jonathan? Oh, that's right. You said overtime. You said, you said,

Min Thompson game winning bucket. I like that. Stick with it. No, no, stick with your gut. I know. I'm just manifesting out there. Listen to your heart. Listen to your heart, Jonathan. All right. What else is going on to the news at noon? Well, stay on NBA. News just dropped that ex-NBA player, Damon Jones is first to plead guilty in the gambling suite. that happened to live over 30 arrests in the NBA. Back-to-back hearings in Brooklyn and federal court Jones into the plea deal to count two counts.

This is the one with the poker games too, right? Two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in what prosecutors say for shorts betting and rigged poker game schemes. Oh, man. So what's the same? So what's the same? He has to forfeit $35,000. This guy A little if I like

Here's Damon Jones' statement I would like to sincerely apologize To the court, my family, my peers And also the National Basketball Association Hmm So he's going to do two years For getting people into rigged poker games You still think you get that money?

I hope he does Yeah I don't know That's the real question Or did it all into his Roth IRA I'm not sure Because that apology was like All right I'm sorry I did it

But, you know, let me do my time and I'm going to have my money when I get out. Yeah, I imagine if you're needing to defraud people out of $30,000, you probably have spent the $30,000. But that's just a guess. I don't know what Damon Jones is up to, but good news is he's going to get three square meals a day for the next 21 to 27 months. He'll be taking care of. He got a nice gym, workout area, some free time to read, catch up. Catch up on his books, all that stuff.

Oh, unfortunate. it. So, yeah, apparently this is the one Terry Rozier's caught up in and then also Chaunty Billups. Yeah, I thought the mafia was gone. See, I thought so too. For the most part, anyways.

I guess they're still running some rackets. Good for them. You know what? It's like horse racing and boxing. You know what? They can try to stamp them out, but they're not going to go away. Good on you. Koshenostra. Damon Jones. Wow. That is crazy.

for those rigged poker games and all that scheme. All right, what else is going on on the news at noon, Jonathan? You guys touched up on this a little bit. Phillies fire the manager of Rob Thompson after the worst season over two decades. 11 out of 12 games. They're both out of there. Yeah, they're 9 and 19 on the season. Projected payroll of $315 million.

Their worst start since 2002. I was just live. Rob Thompson's like their all-time, I think, win percentage, best manager. World Series in 2022. Phillies have been spending a lot of money. That's the, I don't want to say cautionary tale necessarily, but a lot of people are like, well, Jim Crane, he's cheap, he doesn't spend all this money.

It's like, okay, number one payroll in baseball, the Mets. They haven't won since 86. Number two payroll is the Phillies. God, when's the last time they won, 09? Whatever it was, when it was? like Ryan Howard of the boys. I think I was seven. Yeah. All right. You know what? You didn't need to add that.

I'm just getting perspective. No, I didn't ask for this perspective. I'm just saying. All right. Yeah, we get it, Jonathan. You're a young puppy. All right? I'm just saying. Yeah. You were a young snot-nosed kid.

2008, actually, was when they last won. They made it in 2009, I think. I'd have to go. Yeah, they made it in 2009, but did not win. And they won it in 2008 as I look it up. well there you go yeah rob thompson gone Alex cora gone a lot of people wonder if that means like is Joe Espada on the hot seat I just think look I don't know the exact injury situations

of the Boston Red Sox who just don't have a great roster and the philadelphia Phillies as well and you can call me biased or whatever and Joe spot is coming up here in 20 minutes but he is not he is not holding this team back they're walking everyone and they've had everyone injured go look at up and down this roster about all the pitchers and all the position players that have been injured.

It's crazy. It's crazy, but I digress. All right, what else you got? Jonathan? I really wanted to touch back up on going back to NCAA with this Texas tax fancer. Oh, Brendan Soulsby. You know what's your opinion on that? Matt and I were debating.

It's like, I understand you cross the line. As you mentioned, and you can give your athletes perspective that they let you know, like no gambling, no weight, know how it is completely. illegal and against the rules for you to gamble and now he's entering rehab apparently for addiction to gambling treatment what do you think about all this Jonathan I mean dude I can't

I can't even defend him I mean they even give you the rundown for non-profit sports they're telling track and field athletes you get caught doing this on any type of game that's involved with NCAA you will be banned like it's very plain and simple like that and he was doing

thousands like getting thousands of dollars off of 50 cent tickets? Yeah. I don't feel bad for it. If you really want to hide it. If you really wanted to hide it, why are you going to this a string? You had your little $500 a month, maybe. You know what I mean?

But why are we pushing to the fact that he's betting three bucks on the over and he's going to cost him his college career? That sucks, but he broke the rules. College career. Yeah, his whole football career. He can't. He can be able to be fine. I mean, if he's good enough to go to the NFL, he can try.

He can go to the supplemental draft. I wonder if he could go like a do a year in the NFL and try to reenter the draft or something like that. I'm sure any UFO team would take them. But what team is taking anybody that has a gambling problem? I feel like that's one of the... He's been 50 cents, Jonathan. I'm sure there's guys in the NFL have gambling problems.

He had a thousand times. He's getting treatment. You're right, you're right. People can change and improve, Jonathan. Is that true or is that like a PR stunt? No, that's... Oh, man, might be a PR stunt. It might be like, hey, story's about to come out.

You might not go to hit the rehab, buddy. Like Mike Rable going to sex counseling. He's out in like two days. He's all good now, folks. Everything's cool. It's pretty funny. All right, there you go. Let's go ahead and take a quick break.

Those you on hold, Javier, I promise you are next up after this very short break. You guys want to get in. You can 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5. 790. We got continuing along here. Hour number three of the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790 with Ross.

That's me. Without Matt Thomas, he is now traveling with the Houston Rockets. He's going to be hopping on that private jet, five diamond and or fancy and or high horse Matt traveling with the Rockets. There'll be in action tomorrow

against the Los Angeles Lakers. It is a must win game for the Houston Rockets tomorrow. That is my brilliant basketball analysis. 713 212.5-790 is the phone number if you want to get in. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Astros manager Joe Spott of coming up in the next segment. But Javier, in Laredo, has been

waiting patiently. Javier, appreciate you getting on the show. Do you have a song for us, Javier, or are we just talking some rockets? What's going on here? Yo, yes, sir. We got a song, man. I want to wish Matt to say Travels and just tell my people in H-Town, not to give up hope, man. not to give a vote. Just for the rocket.

All right. Let's keep hope alive, Ross. Let's keep hope alive, baby. Come on now. City of Houston, can rally around that. I don't know what's wrong with you, folks. Man.

He wanted to play. That's the Beatles song. Unfortunately, well, I think Matt's listening. I don't know if he's boarding the plane or what he's doing or probably getting accosted by security or something like that at this point. don't know exactly what's going on, but that's the Beatles song he wants. Look, I'd rather something a little more energetic.

Also, maybe something, you know, within the last, I have 50 years of music history, but it's not the worst song ever. But we'll see what happens at what we pick. Matt oftentimes picks the song. And did he want to play that tomorrow? He wants to play that if they win on and then play that Thursday. Probably if just for tomorrow, don't let us down or don't bring me down. What is the song?

Tomorrow before the game. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. But what about like I can feel in the air tonight, Phil Collins or something like that? Or we can just play those types of songs. We played the Rocky theme as well because the Rockets have their backs against the wall. Thanks to Javier, man.

It just makes me so happy. So he's done Stand By Me or Stand By the Astros, which, well, they won their last game. If you're only good as your last game. I predicted them to win this series coming up in Baltimore. You're getting Spencer Air. Getty. We'll talk to Joe Espada about that coming up. He's been pitching a lot better.

Mike Burroughs looks like he could possibly be turning the corner. That'd be good as well. But the rockets have been letting us down too. And I do like the Texans draft, even though everyone gave them like a C plus, B minus grade. Whatever. April grades don't matter. You really can't even grade a draft until like three years later.

But it's been tough going in Houston sports. C.J. Stroud just threw another interception, I believe. and then the Astros are off to a horrible start, which they've done before, but everybody's injured, so it doesn't feel great. And then the Rockets got down 03. And really the one that's really the Houston sports moment of it all

is game number three. When you're up six points with 30 seconds to go, and it's this like all-time historical collapse. It's crazy. I think we talked about it or I talked about it in the post game. Jonathan, did you know, NBA teams leading by six or more in the last 30 seconds of regulation in the playoffs in the last 29 years, their record. 1,713 and 1. Oh, I think I saw this.

I think I saw the statistic. This is crazy. 1,713 and 1. Now that also counts teams that are up like 50 or 20 or whatever. So I would be more curious The number is exactly six But at least it's something to one All time

Just an all time epic collapse Historic That's the one that hurts And you really as I said on my Twitter At Sports RV You can also follow my Instagram At Sports RV if you don't mind You have to hand it to Houston

When we fail we fail spectacularly When you lose the 2019 World Series And you're like the first team ever to lose all four home games. And then they follow that up in 2023. The first team ever, since you're the first team ever, to lose all four games at home,

that time against the Texas Rangers, just feels like it's always something, man. That was the most Houston sports moment of all, is that one on Friday, that game three. And it really stings, but that's what happens. When you can't make shots in game one, in a very winnable game, and you let the opposing team shoot 60% from the field,

then same thing in game number two. You're cold from three. Marcus, I mean, Lakers had some stuff going their way that's just playoff stuff, but you can also make your own luck. You can also make your own shots. The Luke Kinnar game, game one, the Marcus Smart game two,

and then the complete collapse in game three, to end up in an 03 hole. And you could have overcome any of those things just by playing better and just by making more shots. They made their shots on Sunday. They won the game. Now we'll see what happens with Austin Reeves into the fold. 9 p.m. start tomorrow.

Okay, the line's settling back down. Hmm, maybe I don't know if Vegas knows something we don't know. It's been fluctuating a little bit. Was that 2 and a half, then 4 and a half now back to 3.5. This is just according to ESPN, which is what I checked. They use the odds for draft kings. Kevin Durant, not likely to play. We talked about it in the news at noon.

He's on the zero gravity treadmill. and Sham Sharani I'm mentioning that it was like a two to three week injury apparently it's a bone bruise in his ankle sprain apparently I don't know that doesn't sound like fun I'm not a doctor

but I don't think he's gonna be back for game five Sham Sharani also went earlier I think it was on ESPN and he said he's not expected to play in game number five either Shams has been wrong about stuff but I don't think he's going to be wrong about this it's a multiple week injury but the rocket still no matter what

three and a half point dogs have won NBA games before. It can happen. You just have to play well. You have to make your shots. Alpern Shingoon's going to have to continue to be aggressive. You got like three threes from Aaron Holiday. You're not going to necessarily bank on that. But Reed Shepard was four of seven from three.

You were better there. And maybe you can get Jabari back on, Jabari Smith Jr. back on track because he was missing shots on Sunday. It can't happen. You can get 20 from Reed. or 20 from Jabari. Or Tari Isson is giving you 20 at this point. You get good games from Alpern-Shingooner and Amen Thompson.

They have the talent to beat the Lakers and force a game six back at home Friday night at the Toyota Center. If that does happen, by the way, it would be 830 on Prime Video. So we're going to see what happens. Tomorrow, hopefully they can win. And hopefully later today, your Astros in Action in Baltimore, 535 first pitch, Kai Wei Ting is going to get the start. Will it be just an opener roll? Are they going to look a little bit more?

I will ask the Astros manager coming up in the next segment here on Sports Talk 790. 1230, Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross v. Real with you. Matt Thomas had to step out. He is traveling with the Houston Rockets for game number five in Los Angeles. a must win game for the Houston Rockets. But of course, we also know Astros in action here on Sports Talk 790. 535 first pitch in Baltimore.

Joe Espada, Astros manager, our weekly guest here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Joe, first of all, we're going to give you the week off from Matt. You're welcome. Appreciate that. Yeah, no problem. The question everybody wants to know, does the hoodie come back on in Baltimore? The what? The hoodie.

What do you mean? What do you mean hoodies? Everybody's been talking about you wearing hoodies and when you're not wearing hoodies and it's like, I don't know why everybody's fascinated with it, but they are. Oh, you know, yeah, you know, hoodie, no hoodie. You know, it's cold here and it's raining, so I'll have, I'll have a jacket on. But, you know, I don't know that. I will probably change it up a little bit, trying to get.

get, you know, trying to get us going here. If something works that day, I might wear the next day. Might do that. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you were talking last week about Correa mixing it up and Christian Walker with the mustache, yeah. Walker with a mustache, you know, trying

different things. Well, I think you should probably keep your pants. That's what happens during long seasons. Yeah, pants up is probably better. All right, so I'll tell you doesn't need to change anything right now. That'd be Spencer Erigetti. Obviously, you want to win the series, but you were at able to salvage the win on Sunday.

What has it been like, especially you, of course. You know, we know you've been through a lot. It's been a lot of injuries. The pitchers, unfortunately, haven't been going deep in game. So how much is like an oasis in the desert for Spencer Arrogati and what he's been able to provide for you? Yeah, he's been huge for us. You know, the strike throwing capabilities, the breaking ball right now, that curveball is giving, he's given hitters. headache.

But for me, it's just how, you know, how aggressively he is attacking the zone, how he's quickly being efficient through innings. He's been really remarkable to watch him, you know, goes to AAA with a goal with the plan, executes that plan comes up here and continues to roll, you know, taking us deep into the game, allowing our back end to our bullpen to pitch in, you know, one innings and, you know, put us in a. position to be, you know, pretty healthy moving forward in this nine-game stretch. Yeah, you have Kai Wei Ting on the hill starting for you.

Is the plan for him to be in an opener type of role or he's gotten some length at some points in his career or you're hoping for more of the latter? No, it will be opener. You know, hopefully he's efficient and he'll give us, he'll give us a couple of innings and then we'll go hand the ball to our bullpen. But he's been, you know, he's been really good. hopefully can be a fishing, can throw strikes, you know, give us a couple of innings, will be great.

What has been going so great from him? Because he's just been one of the guys you can also talk about the way Arigetti's been helping you out starting-wise. He's really been a huge help, of course, in the bullpen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Number one, you know, he can mix all out pitches. You can throw him for strike in different counts. You know, the V-Loh has been there. as a reliever and that's something that will monitor you know today when he goes out there he

starts the game uses of his sinker don't have lefties right he lefties are pretty pretty evenly throughout the lineup so watching him go out there and set the tone um use all his pitches i mean i'm interesting to see how he how he goes out the same demeanor as he comes in out of the bullpen i expect him to go out there even if he's starting the game to have that same demeanor go off to hitters, strike one, and then be able to put hitters away with, you know, with his repertoire. Astros

manager, Joe Espada, was here on Sports Talk 790. You mentioned monitoring the velocity. What is the process with that? You guys are just every single pitch, you guys have the iPads out there looking at like spin rates and stuff like that. What are you doing in game

in terms of monitoring pitchers and how they're navigating the game and then making your decisions on when to pull guys and stuff like that from there. Yeah, not necessarily when to pull the guys based on Velo, but, you know, obviously when you come, when you are starting a game and

you try and do, go through a lineup once or maybe twice, you start saving some of those bullets, right? You might go after it a different way when you come in relief. You know, you have a certain amount of bullets. You are, got

through the pedal from that very first pitch. Obviously, today will have a little bit longer leash. So just monitor and how he goes about it, right? How he uses his pitches, how he sets up hitters. Those are the things that we'll monitor.

You know, he's been started before. So it's going to be interesting to see how we attack his lineup. Yeah, speaking of monitoring pitchers, you've got Tatsui Emi at Double A Corpus Christi. Before we even get to the baseball stuff, you know, there's been some talk about him getting over here and integrating and just getting adjusted. to being in the United States.

What has that been like for him or anything you can report the last couple of weeks of just, I mean, before he can go out there on the mound, just getting him comfortable as a human being. Yeah, and you know what? I think he has, it's been better. And I think, you know, this is a process is going to take them, you know, a long period of time

and we are here to help him through that. I think the adjustment has been a lot better. I see the routine, just pure routine, going in the weight room, and now that he has his full staff that helps him get ready for a bullpen, weightlifting. I feel he seems to be more complete when he comes to his day-to-day, you know, functioning operations, you know, he seems to be doing better, you know. His relationship with his teammates continue to grow, and we continue to support him. but it's been it's been fine and like you mentioned he's starting today in corpus we're excited about that see how that goes and then we'll we'll plan to what's next for emai but today you know today's a big day for him he really wanted to get back on the mound

he's getting an opportunity to do that today yeah is there any expectations or pitch counter anything or any type of word on what you guys have as far as expectations you know four or five innings uh number of pitches uh will be depending on where he, how efficient he is and how he feels. You know, he was pretty built up before he suffered the dead arm. So, you know, we feel comfortable with him. Just going out there four or five innings and see where he takes him. Astroats manager, Joe Espada, with us here on Sports Talk 7.

Let's go a little bit to the hitters. A couple of guys to highlight. I'm going to start with Isak Paredes. He's obviously got off to the slow start. He had talked about that. but now it looks like he's rounding into form and, of course, pulling the ball and hitting over the fence to the left field side,

which we know he's very good at. What's been going well for him? Nothing. He just needed some time. You know, sometimes we want guys to, at bat number 10 or 15 other season, to show and, you know, and produced right away. Sometimes he takes a little bit of a time. And, you know, he's starting to heat up.

He's starting to see the ball really well. He's starting to swing at the pitches that he knows that he can do damage and he's doing some damage. On the flip side, Cam Smith's been scuffling a little bit off to the hot start of the season. What are you seeing from him at the plate? He needs to continue to make adjustments. I think the league is making adjustments to him again this season. Seeing pitches in his hands, breaking balls away from him.

He continues to walk. He continues to show some patient trying to get his pitches. but you know this is again just adjusting trying to put him in some spots where I know he can have some success against certain pitchers but it's just going to take some time this kid's young and we just have to be patient and I can continue to give him opportunity to support him because he's going to be

he's going to be a monster once he figures all of this out Joe Spotted was here sports socks 790 I don't want to kind of like go down the list of everyone who is injured and just ask updates there, but I'm just curious, like, what is that, and this is not your first time doing this. Obviously, we know last year with all the injury issues and stuff like that. What is just like that for you as a manager to try to, on one hand, don't want to anticipate or mark down the calendar because things can always change and be fluid, but also having to

check up on all the guys. Yeah, and for me, the most important thing is just staying present, right? I, you know, we have a roster right now that I feel good about, and they put in these guys in a position to have some success. It's the most important thing while we get the rest of the guys back. And, you know, I check in with the rest of the players, you know, I check it with Pena. You know, Pearson, he's coming back, who's pitching tomorrow. I try to check up with all this individual Javier and Hunter, and I continue to talk to them, and make sure that they're on the right track and let them know that we are looking for.

to having them, but not to rush their process because when they get here, we want them to stay. And, you know, it's conversations daily. Check with the trainers and our strength coaching staff, just to make sure that those guys are getting their work in. Having those guys around their teammates is important. I want all those guys to feel like, you know, we are all a team and we're going to pick each other up. But, you know, it's a lot of work. And it's unfortunate it that we have to go through this again, but we find ourselves in a spot that we know that we've been here before, but we know how to overcome all these obstacles.

We've done it and we lean on one another and we're going to fight through it. All right. That is Joe Espada manager for your Houston Astros. Joe, thanks for the time. As always, we'll talk to you next week and good luck in Baltimore. All right, guys. Thank you.

All right, there you go. Appreciate it. Joe Espata here on Sports Talk 790. Good stuff with him. It's just unfortunately, we had to do it a lot last year. It's just run the infirmary report and run down the list of all the injuries. And it's just too much. But good news, it's sound like Izzy said he wanted four or five innings from Tatuya Emai tonight in Corpus Christi.

That sounds like maybe he could be close to returning very soon for the Houston Astros because they are going to need it. Got the good start from Araggetti on Sunday. We'll see what Kiway Ting can go. but he said more of an opener role. Peter Lambert, pretty good last time out. Hopefully he can keep that up. And then you get the reinforcements. That's just what you're hoping for.

And try to turn this thing around to where it's early enough in the season to where, yeah, you're seven games above 500, but you go to stretch, you win five out of six, you win six out of seven or something like that. You're back climbing up towards 500. And the A's are in first place, only two games above 500. That is the hope. Of course, we'll see how it plays out on the field.

All right, quick break here. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross, you want to react to anything that Joe Espada had to say, talk about the Astros, what they got coming up in Baltimore and then Boston on the road. 713-212-5790. The phone number, if you'd like to get in, 713-212-5-790. I'm also going to tell you something I'm excited about. It's not really a road game. I mean, it's a college station, but I'm going to say what I said, I think earlier in the week. What the heck is a polar barrel doing in Arlington, Texas?

What the heck is Leonel Messi doing in College Station? 1249 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Continuing along the Matt Thomas show. Without Matt Thomas? Yes, congratulations to Kendrick Labar for being named among the 30 greatest living American songwriters, according to the New York Times. there you go.

I wanted to make sure I got that in before Matt got out. Is that rude? No. A little bit. It feels like it's not rude. I mean, it's just something happened. I tweeted out too. All right, anyways,

welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas stepping out as he is traveling with your Houston Rockets. They are on the way to Los Angeles for game number five with their backs against the wall. And apparently, Lakers are optimistic for. for Austin Reeves return. This according to Sham Sharania in game number five. Let's move the line a little bit. We'll see what happens.

Austin Reeves on the season, 23 points, five rebounds, five assists. 36% three-point shooter. Going to be good. I mean, imagine if he's good to go. You can still condition when you have an oblique injury, right? You can still run a little bit. He's probably kind of in shape. You use your abs when you run, so I'm not.

Okay. Well, you can just tie. close to your arm. No. Yeah. Yeah. Put you, don't run with your arms.

Just run to your arms to your side. If you don't move your arms, you're good. Stay in shape. Maybe he can get on the bike. You probably got on, I bet you he did that.

You can get on your bike on the bike without the oblique, right? No handlebars? Maybe. I honestly, I don't think he could. Okay.

Well, all right. You know what? That's great news then. You're telling me he's way out of shape. He's not going to be ready to go. No, they're definitely, I'm just not a, I'm not a, I'm not a PT. They definitely find a way. Okay.

Well, yeah, maybe they get them in that, it's some kind of anti-gravity chamber or something, Neaking with the way where he's not going to have oblique pain or just shoot him up with the good stuff. So Austin Ree is probably going to be on the floor for the Rockets. I should say for the Lakers tomorrow. It's a 9 o'clock late start. Just FYI, the Rockets official watch party will be at the Little Woodrow's Midtown location. I'll be out there for the pregame if you guys want to come out and say hello.

it's a pivotal game obviously. I'm not going for full Kendrick Perkins. It's a must win game. That was a horrible Kendrick Perkins impression. A must win game. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

I already said it, Jonathan. You don't need to reinforce it. I'm sure you know. Come on. I know I said it. All right? Reinforce it. Yeah, Kendrick Perkins,

calling it a must win game for the Lakers. That is just absurd. It's just ridiculous. You know what? I think I need to. let me try to find my bit. I need to remind the folks. Here we go. It's not a must-win game, okay? For the Lakers. It's a must-win game for

the Houston Rockets. I love whenever there's a Best of Seven series, because then I get to hear my favorite sports reporter question. Would you consider this a must-win game? They always feel like you have to say yes. Yeah, we want to win it. is very important, you know. Got our uniforms on anyway.

Anyway, might as well try. But it's not always the right answer, man. It's a math question. I wish I would answer that question, honestly. It's a best of seven. You're down one game to nothing. Would you consider this a must-win game? No.

No, we can lose tonight. We can lose tomorrow night, too. We don't want to, but that wasn't your question. You asked if it was a must win game. And if you'd ever taken a rudimentary math class, you'd already know the magic numbers three. When you're down three, then you must win them or you're out. Thank you.

Thank you, Brian Reagan. That's all I'm saying. Just because people get a little too crazy with it. Must win games to the Boston. I guess it was a must win game early in the season for Alex Cora against the Astros. And they lost those games. But big game, of course, for both sides.

Lakers obviously don't want to go on the road to game six, but they can win there. They won game three on the road. Game four didn't go their way. Austin Reeves is coming back. Obviously, things favor the Lakers. How's what am I got feeling? I didn't want to say it,

but my actual true, real, I have to be honest with you people. My gut feeling is that things do not go the Rockets way tomorrow. We'll see. They finally got some hot shooting on Sunday, shot 40% from three. Lakers were ice cold. Most of that game,

they're shooting like 10% from distance. Reed Shepard, knock down a couple threes. Let's go. They've been better defensively, especially second half of game three and then basically all of game four, a lot more fluid defensively and doing a better job where you know the Lakers are relentlessly attacking both Alper and Shingoon and Reed Shepard. It is what it is. You're not going to run your offense attacking them in Thompson or Tari Easton or Jabari

Smith Jr. That's just not good process. Jabari can give up a little bit. Tari and them in two. they're not perfect, but you're going to exploit. This is the playoffs. It's all about exploiting matchups, finding things to exploit, and then adjusting and readjusting from there.

And so far, Rockets have done a lot better, having Reed Shepherd go under Pick and Rolls when he was getting attacked relentlessly when he was trying to fight through him, and then they were switching them, and that's just not good results. And then you kind of live and die with the Lakers three-pointers if you're going to be going under the pick and rolls.

And thankfully, didn't hit them on Sunday. Let's get a little bit more of the same on Wednesday. And then they can fight back. And you get Kevin Durant back and I know you just have this Goliath waiting for you in the Oklahoma City Thunder. So maybe it just feels like it's an exercise and futility no matter what you do. But as Herm Edwards said, you play to win the game.

So go out there. It's the playoffs. Go and win. Go win until you can't win anymore. and see what happens. What if you got Kevin to ramp back? And then who knows? She Gilgis Alexander turns his ankle.

And you're probably going to need some more injuries from there. But you go and you play to win the game. That's what the Rockets are going to try and do on Wednesday night. All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. That concludes the solo portion of the program. It's like a potpourri. A little bit of Matt Thomas, sprinkling of me, some Joe Spada. Coming up next, we will have Adam Wexler here on the podcast.

program. Phone lines open. 713, 212-5-790 if you'd like to get in 7-13 2-1-2-5-7-90. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross

without Matt Thomas now with Adam Wexler here on Sports Sports Talk 790. Phone lines open 7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-21-2-5. 790. Wex, first of all, thank you. Of course. I do appreciate you.

I wanted to get into a little something that's going on in baseball and kind of tie it back into here in Houston. Of course, as you know, Rob Thompson, veteran of losing a World Series to Our Houston Astros and Dusty Baker let go by the Philadelphia Phillies. Don Mattingly named interim manager. We had Alex Cora fired earlier in the year as well. and I kind of want to turn it to, of course, we know that people are going to be toxic on social media.

Everybody wants Joe Spotify and Dana Brown fired it as well and stuff like that. But I'm wondering not only for us or as pundits or people who are talking about this and our opinions, the only opinion that really matters on any of these things is Jim Crane. And if you're Jim Crane and you have this Astros team that is scuffling as much as it is, and I know you've seen this as a veteran of the business. I've seen this as a veteran in the business. Sometimes it gets to a point because there's always an excuse when a team is underperforming.

A lot of times it is injuries. A lot of time it is under performances, but also it is a bottom line business and the results are what matters and what spits out in the end. And Jim Crane knows and has normally ran this organization as a result-oriented business or even, well, winning a World Series

and letting James Click go. So where do you think he is right now in terms of patience with both of these guys and saying, hey, we've had all these guys in the IL for like two years in a row. We got rid of the training staff. The pitchers obviously haven't come over some of the guys like Mike Burroughs and Ryan Weiss and we'll see on Tatsuya Emai who's going to rehab in Corpus Christi as well. Like evaluating where the Astros are, how much of the culpability lies with Dana Brown and, Joe Espada and how much of it lies to just plain bad injury luck. Yeah, it's tough to separate them into just two categories and not to pile on one versus the other, the GM or the manager, but they're in a little bit different spot, the two of them,

each other. Clearly, if there's a scale with three pieces on it, I don't know how you balance the scale with three things, but it's obviously... You put two of them on one side? It's on the people that are on the field. By leaps and bounds, almost the entirety of it. But why are they here? How did they get here?

They got here because the general manager brought them here. Some of the players on this team obviously are Jim Crane ads or contracts, so you kind of factor that into it. But the players on the field are the ones that have delivered this record. The players that go out there and hit every day have been more than adequate, despite having many injuries that impact them. Two of the eight guys that would normally start every day, if you omit the catching position, or seven guys that they're not out there.

There's no Jake Myers and there's no Jeremy Payne. you obviously your catching situation has left a little bit to be desired from a starter standpoint. Most everything else is what you probably thought it would be or better. And it's all being sabotaged by their inability to pitch, their inability to get guys out. I mean, the Astros are two different teams. When they get pitching, they look like, why are we talking about firing the manager? Why are we talking about what Dana Brown did or didn't do? And then every other day, because they've had about seven or eight of those days while they've pitched.

and tonight's game 30. That means the other 20-21 games are they've got problems. And the problems are they don't have enough guys healthy that can get players out with any kind of regularity. And that starts at inning one and runs through inning 10 because their bullpen is as culpable as their starters. Interesting that today they're going with one of their bullpen guys as a starter. It's game 30 and this is the 11th different person who has started a game. You know, I do think, as Joe did earlier with you, describing it as a, an opener is fair today.

I don't think that's their true intention with Kai Wei Tang. I don't think he remains an opener. I'm okay with that if that's really what they want. But I think they're attempting to turn him into a starter because that's how far down the list they have to go. So let's look at the two situations where the manager has been let go. Those teams have been pretty healthy, especially the Phillies. The Phillies have everything they need from all...

offense is out there. Almost every single. Hardly anybody's missed any games. And even their pitching staff, Zach Wheeler started the year hurt, so they already knew that was coming. He has now returned for one star, but otherwise they've basically just given them all the same guy, five guys all year. And three of them have ERAs over six.

That sounds like the Astros problem. Except two of their other guys, like the guys that they should be getting pitching from, Lazzardo, Nola, even Taiwan Walker. They've been awful. Guess what? You're going to lose. Now, the Astros Those names are way further down the list on players they probably should have been counting on, but it's the same results.

Lance McCullors goes out there. ZRA is close to seven? Burroughs is ERA? It's close to six. I mean, these are guys you're giving the ball to every fifth day, and there's nothing Joe can do about that. Yeah, that's where I am, too, but I'm just wondering, like, how much is Jim Crane buying it? And I'm hoping he does. He's a baseball guy, smart guy.

And the other thing that's different than those two situations is money's not much of a factor. He doesn't have to eat a lot of money if he decides to make that because there's no more money after the next 123 games or whatever games are left this season. So I don't think that's an issue. It clearly wasn't an issue for Boston because they ate a ton of money with Alex Cora. It's not Rob Thompson's fault they're losing in Philly. It wasn't Alex Cora's fault they're losing in Boston. But they're trying to tell the players on the team it's your fault and we know you're better. And we don't have any other way to kick you in the behind if we're.

We think that's going to work. Then fire your, well, your coaching staff if you're in Boston and your manager if you're there in Philly. I don't see why Jim Crane would say that to the players here. Who's he saying that to? Daniel Johnson, Dustin Harris? Yes. Like, that's the thing. That's enough, Dustin.

It's so different. It's not on Joe. Come on Mike Burroughs. And I think you're with me on this because I hear you every day with Matt talking about it. Yes. And on post-game shows as well, he's not pulling the wrong strings. He's not pressing the wrong button. He's not failing the Astros.

He's not. Some moves he's made haven't worked clearly, but what did you want him to do with Bennett-Susa, per se? We got him back. We need to throw him. Okay, and then he fell on his face. Like, what do you want Joe to do? Yeah, that's the thing.

I don't know what I want to do, but also as you echo it, I mean, what did we want Alex Corr to do? What do you want Rob Thompson to do? And those moves have been made there. You were asking me a very direct question, so I'll finally get to the answer. I don't think we're at the time where Jim Crane

should be considering making that move. but I'm not sure that the team's going to start playing any better either. So we could definitely be headed there. I feel like we can kind of look things the way that we want to in a way. If Kai Wei Ting is pretty good, Spencer Erigetti continues to be good. Maybe Peter Lambert has some found money. Emai's, Joe just said he wanted four or five innings out of him tonight.

That sounds like he's pretty close. That would be amazing. To coming back. And also, hey, this is a little detail of being effective for the first time ever at the major league level. So there are a lot of ifs, but we can string together four or five ifs if Josh Hader comes back and well, we'll see it about Brian Abrayu turning things around. Yeah, that's the thing. He didn't even say it about him because you feel like he's on the roster so you shouldn't. But if Brian Abraeu comes back, that would be great.

He's got to, right? He's not going to have a two ERA of last year and then all of a sudden he's going to be at 14 ERA all year long. He's got to be better at some point, yes? or he's either got to be better or he's hurt. That's the only thing that makes sense. It really is as simple as that. If the law city isn't going to be there a month, six weeks into the season, then it can't still, I mean, is it a mechanical issue?

Is it, that's the thing that... We've been hearing. Right, but those don't usually last this long unless they're permanent. And certainly not for someone who has a three-year track record of being, arguably, number one, nobody better out of the bullpen as a non-closer in baseball than him. In terms of the accumulating war, I think he's one of the top leaders, too, because he's been out there 78, 72, 70 times the past few years, but that's also lends to the, if we're looking for reasons for decline, perhaps,

the high usage of the last few years. Yeah, not a major problem per se, maybe, but right arm fatigue. There's already somebody on aisle with right arm fatigue going on. So, yeah, I could see something like that, but, you know, until he goes out there and says, or Joe says or Josh Miller says, well, his mechanics are solid, and we're still seeing this or we're still seeing that. So we've got to adjust. And quite frankly, that's the one thing that Joe has been hamstring bung by a little bit.

We can't throw him when he needs to. And you're going four and five days without using one of your healthy bullpen arms. It's no way to navigate a season, especially with the way the rest of the group is pitching. There have been three or four games already where it's so obviously a situation where you can't throw this other guy for the third time in four days. Or the second time in three days when he threw 40 pitches two days ago. but that's what they're doing because they're not confident that Abrae can get three outs.

So the recipe for success is very simple. Hunter Brown, it's back and healthy. Emi, back healthy pitch is good. Lambert Arrogetti, keep it up. Abreu finds his fastball, and Josh Hader comes back and he's good. There, you just need seven things to fall in a place. And those have nothing to do with what the manager does.

And it's more than just the moves. We know this. The manager's got to keep the team together, keep everybody, you know, sharp, physically sharp, putting guys in and out. All those things are on them to do as well. And the Astros have had, I think, a pretty good run of managers who've been able to do that. It was one of the elite characteristics of Dusty Baker. Playing for Dusty Baker was made easy by Dusty Baker and how he handled his team.

Yes. I think we've seen a lot of the same things from Joe. Communication is always a big deal, and those are always things that you want to be at their best. And if they are, then there's more things that we can't blame on the manager. A couple of weeks ago. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Tuesdays, we do gut feelings. And my gut feeling was Spencer, this was actually before the start of the season. Erigetti starts more games for the Astros this year than Lance McCuller's Jr.

I think that's going to happen. I think I'm right. But the problem with Lance is, I think it was just yesterday. We had that conversation. Like, what do you do with Lance if things don't get better? Because of their bullpen issues, they probably would do what they did last year, which is try him out there. It did not work last year.

I do not think it would work this year. And ultimately, you're probably just... Nobody's going to claim them. Right. During the season, you're probably going to... If this continued, you have to just say goodbye. Would he accept his... Then he could elect free agency, I believe, right?

DFA, clear waivers. Nobody's going to claim him, that contract. And then for that reason... And he could elect free agency. There'd be no reason for other teams not to give him a chance. If he wanted it, I don't know that he will want it. Yeah, that's true. But for no financial commitment...

It seemed like he was ready to walk off. on the sunset. We were there in spring training and he gave that long interview of a very introspective, very thoughtful, smart guy, but he's been through a lot. If it's late in the season, there's a month or two left and you think, well, I'm definitely not uprooting my family.

I'm going to be away from them, but there's one of the teams that's in the race that I think my mechanics are sound. I've still been throwing the ball well. I'm just not getting the results. Give me a chance to clear my head, maybe work with somebody different. Who knows? I mean... This isn't that far. I just don't. I can't imagine being a part of this

organization if he's not an astro pitching for the astros. But that's several starts away. I had so much hope after that first start. And you've watched him. He should just retired right then. He should have walked off the mound and retired. And tipped it.

Wave just capped everybody. So that's it for me, folks. Like George Costanza, leaving a high note. Except he knows, he believes he can do it again. And again and again, he just hasn't. Okay. Let's hope it can happen since then he's Been giving up a bunch of runs.

All right, quick break here. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross with Adam Wexler. He is hanging out until 2 o'clock, at which point he will transition into a team mode with Adam Clinton. You guys can get in if you want. 713-790. The phone number 713-212-5-790. Quick break here. Back in a second.

Don't go anywhere. Ross via Real. On Sports Talk 790. That's me. the Ross part anyways Matt Thomas traveling with Los Rockets says he will be

in Los Angeles in a few hours Rockets preparing for game number five a must win game people are saying for the Rockets against the Los Angeles Lakers and if you're Kendrick Perkins

not only is it a must win game for the Rockets it is a must win game for the Los Angeles Lakers I don't really agree with that obviously the semantics of it Nobody should agree with it, but, you know, the Lakers, nobody wants to make an additional unnecessary trip, especially when you're a team like L.A., and obviously, the days off that come with it, the threat of the series extent, all that stuff. The Lakers are desperate tonight to a certain degree, but it's not a must win for the Lakers.

They have another home game coming. No matter how many games in a row, three in this case, the Rockets would have to win to get the game seven back in L.A., L.A. would be back home in game seven, and unless there's an additional injury to Austin Reeves, he's almost surely, available for Sundays, game seven. He's probably going to play in tomorrow nights, game five. I just had a deja vu flashback to last year where I was arguing it was a war of attrition. Old man, Draymond Green and Steph Curry. You get those old guys playing every other day.

And I think Jimmy Butler had gotten an injury at some point in the series, right? You get Jimmy Butler hurt and you get Steph Curry and Draymond Green. These old guys push him to game seven at home and you're going to win. exactly it doesn't play out that way they were down 3-1 they pushed it to a game 7 Jimmy had been upended accidentally by men Thompson earlier in the series and he had a bruised backside but he managed to to make his way through the necessary parts of a series they would go on to get crushed by after that yeah there's just going to be something heck these postseason in postseason during the postseason that just started on april 18th today's only april 28th

the amount of injuries to extremely significant players that have taken place. Not who was already hurt coming into the playoffs, but who has gotten hurt over that now 11-day period. It's incredible and incredibly unfortunate. I wonder how much, I guess we could pull up some data and try to figure this all out, because I think injuries have been affecting playoffs for years and years and years. No question. And guys getting hurt, I don't remember, like a Russell Westbrook injury or a Serge Abaka for the Thunder and they lost to the Spurs back in the day and a number of different other ones that we can point to that have had. happened, but I have been seeing that more and more because the injuries have been up.

The Achilles injuries, especially, are up in the last couple of years. Of course, we know Dante DiVincenzo and then Tyrese Halliburton, Jason Tatum, etc. Those have been ticking up. And that's been like a big topic for people in these playoffs. It impacts them. It always has. And, you know, there's runs that Golden State has made where they've played through a bunch of teams that were wounded or got wounded. It happens all the time.

Yeah, but Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving hurt one year in the first. finals, I believe. It's an unfortunate but almost a given that at some point during the postseason 2019 Raptors? Yeah, the team that won four series got lucky in one of the series because of an injury, if not multiple series, and the teams that

fall short of winning four series probably oftentimes have been hit within it. Or you got lucky because instead of facing the number two seed that won 57 games, you face the 7 seed that won 44 games because the 57 win team got hurt during that series.

And so you benefited from that. It's a huge part of things here. But, you know, the Rockets obviously have a lament beyond the injuries. They should be going to L.A. in a 2-2 series with a best of three. And they know it. They played very well immediately after it. They played their best game after it. I asked Jabari Smith, Jr., about the desperation, the must-win game feeling of it.

You know, we got to play this way. And I go, did you really feel like it changed between the end of game three and the start of game four? Because if you don't go into playoff series, feeling desperate, and playing that way so you can win every game, you go out there and play, then you're probably doing it wrong. He said he didn't really think it changed. So I thought there was a very good answer to it.

And he also said what we did well in game for was start the game with that mentality and not go away from that all night long. We're desperate. We have to win. We're playing with our backs against the wall. So instead of just, oh, good, we won the first quarter for the first time. Oh, good. We're up at halftime.

What they did the first minute of the third quarter is where I thought they won the game. They immediately scored on both. possessions, 50 seconds into the quarter, they'd added five points to their lead. The game was over at that point. Lakers had nothing left in them after not opening the third quarter, putting a dent in the rocket's lead. I don't know if you can

come into the crypto and try to win that first quarter. That's what you're hoping. I forgot you were down at the practice. The practice report, anything else of note down there, Mr. Wexon. I mean, when we got their training facility, which is... Did they let you try to the zero gravity treadmill? I mean, I was

about what basketball quarter? away from it. No, I didn't try. We've been through when they gave us a tour and I've been in there a couple other times. Their athletic performance area, what's right there off the court, and it's not a little door you walk through. It's a huge, massive opening. You can see right into it when you're at practice. And what we could see right into

was the altar G was being used by Kevin Durant. When we walked into practice today, it allows you to kind of test certain things without the weight of your body, obviously, on them. And he's got the ankle issue. He's got the bone bruise there, and he was done with that. And, you know, And he gathered his things. And he walked.

He would not be sitting if it were only the knee. That's not what's keeping him from playing. I'm saying, do we have word on the knee? The knee's still not good? Knee's better? The knee is better. Well, the knee was fine. He fine enough for him to play 41 minutes in game two.

But yeah, after he walked away from the workout he was finishing, obviously was the last that we saw of him. The rockets were essentially done with their workout, went through their huddle, and then a few shooting drills. and we talk to Jabari, Alpean, Ema, Udoka. Jabari thinks as many people do, especially on paper, and as he said, top to bottom, the Rockets are the better team. They have to continue to show it.

Well, I don't know. They've shown it for one game. They've been four out of the games, they've been favored by the odds. Unfortunately, they've only one of those. Four out of the games? Four out of four. What was the number on game one?

Do you say it was more than a pick-em by game time? It was like Rockets five and, a half or... But by tip-off because of the Kevin Durant news, I think it was like two and a half. Okay. I had heard that it had devolved into a pick-um by the time they tipped it off. I think it might depend on what...

Point being, I'm very surprised. After game one, Kevin Durant returned. Yes. So I think that's what obviously tipped the scales back in the Rockets favor. Is this the thought that Kevin Durant could have played in game? Like, why were they favored in game three or four? Because you're the better team? Listen to Jabari.

They're the better team. Yeah, if you want to... Yeah, Kevin Durant's situation for playing in game 5. I'm trying to pull it up, at least the same. Our friends at ESPN use Giraff Kings, and they put the closing line. Yeah, two and a half closed. And then tonight they're underdogs by...

Or tomorrow night, underdogs by one. Four and a half, three and a half, depending on where you look. It's been fluctuating. So they will be underdogs the first time. Hey, Vegas has been wrong three out of four times. Maybe they can be wrong today. Lakers have won the games where Rest was a part of the formula. Game one obviously was played five days after the season ended.

Game two had two days off in between. Game three had two days off in between. Game four only had one day off in between. I don't like this trend. I don't like what you're saying. After tonight, there's only one day off in between the last two games. So they can win the war of attrition. Get old man, LeBron James tired.

He did turn the ball over. I mean, he looked horrible on Sunday. I know there have been other games that may be in the debate for his worst postseason game ever. But that one's in it. He was awful. He's got a full Mount Rushmore. It would be James Harden.

Yeah, he was driving himself into turnovers. He was throwing passes down court that his teammates were never going to catch. And obviously, barely put the ball on the basket. Yeah, he looked, maybe he's tired. Maybe he's not 100%. He had a bad night, and as an older player, they're a little bit more prone to happen. He didn't look any more tired in this game than he did in the other games. He just performed a whole lot better.

Two days off. What did he have? Eight assists? I think it was nine assists and eight turnovers. So he was passing the ball to teammates making shots at the exact same rate he was in the other three games. Yeah, just turning the ball over a lot more. Lazy passes. Well, and turnovers got the rockets in game three, but I digress.

LeBron had a down game. How about the other guys? Yeah, every single one of them, except for DeAndre. Luke Canard didn't make a three. Marcus Smart didn't make a three. I'd like that to continue. Like, come on, man. It was a team-wide thing.

I'm not buying into this. LeBron was tired. No Marcus Smart explosion. for five threes and we're going to be fine. Reed Shepard, make your threes, Aaron Holiday. How about just two? I don't even three, two threes from Aaron Holiday. Their bench provided them useful minutes for the first time in this series.

Yes. And then they won. I got another idea. Dorian Finney Smith makes a shot. That'd be cool. He's probably going to get an opportunity because if you did notice one thing schematically from the Rockets, their intentions are to play smaller. Small ball.

Clint Capella was not a player in game three or in game four. and I think they're going to continue, according to what EMA said today, it sounds like they like what they've seen and they think that's a better play. Well, maybe he's figured something out. He's cracked the code and the rocket's going to win tomorrow night. One can hope. All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Phone lines open.

We've been talking some stroves. We've been talking some rockets. Anything you guys want to get to, 713-212-790 is the phone number 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Continues after this bottom of the hour break. Continuing along on the Matt Thomas show with Ross with no Matt Thomas. He is traveling with your Houston Rockets in action tomorrow in Los Angeles at the Crypto.com Arena. Okay, I don't know why I'm upset.

It's just like Matt checking standings every five seconds. I'm obsessed with checking the line. It went from four and a half to three and a half back to four and a half now for the Rockets. taking on the Los Angeles Lakers in game number five. Damn the points. Rockets on a money line. Lack of the week. That's what I'm going to go with.

Over the last several hours, reports on two players that impact the line have been out there. I don't know if that affects what you're looking at. Austin Reeves, I think the word that Shams used was optimistic. Optimistic. That he could make his debut in this series tonight. And obviously, the Kevin Durant, nothing's changed as his status, the E-May calling it, you know, day-to-day.

game by game, but if we're to believe the injury that has been reported, it's extremely unlikely, and I think he did ultimately, Shams report that that he's not going to play tonight. Basically, I said a couple, I think it was on, I don't know, worst take or whatever show he was on that he's not going to be playing. I mean, he did not,

he did not practice today. Yeah, he didn't practice today. He's in the zero gravity treadmill. All signs seem to point to him not playing tomorrow. Right. No injury report yet. Submitted, that will come later tonight. They can still get it done. I still believe. All right, 713-212-5-790 is the phone number.

7-13-212-5-7-90. K, so it took a game for them to really hear your speech, and then Alperin gave them one on Sunday as well. So we do appreciate your efforts, though, here on Sports Talk 790. Yeah, guys, I mean, you know, Al-Pice, Turkish, I'm Iranian, so, you know, we have that Middle Eastern connection going on. You know, I passed the message on to him, and he passed it on to the team. That's good. Yeah, quickly, it seems like this series has been quite close.

I mean, if you look at the box scores, I mean, have the Rockets lost the game trailing by 10 or more points? Has it been under eight points? What do you guys think? Every final score, you mean? Or have they trailed? The two teams are separated by one point in this series through four games. The Lakers have outscored the Rockets by one point. Did they go on aggregate differential like the Champions League?

I say it because I think it's a silly way to look at things. The Rockets were outplayed significantly by significant amount, no matter what the final score said in both games one and two. It was a miracle. It wasn't a bigger blowout. You could say that shows you that they're close. They have not played well in this series, and they found a way to play so badly for the final 30 seconds of game three

that they were down three games to none. I think they could have made a couple threes and a couple easy buckets. I'm sure they could have. Why are we four games into the series before they've ever done that? Three straight games. Actually, the three games during the season and the first three games. They can't make threes against the Lakers. It was not a trend. It was a fact. They're due. I was thinking, you know, this series, it's really coming down to, you know, just make your shots. We've seen, I don't think I've ever seen a professional team have their bench score, what was it, three points in a playoff game?

I've never seen that before. have been one of the lowest moments of my Rockets fandom is watching Brony freaking James outscore the Rockets bench last weekend. I couldn't believe what I was watching and I listen to Matt on the radio

he sounded so down. I felt for the guy because that 29 seconds was terrible but one last thing is it sounds like Austin Reyes will be back for game five. Is that correct? Optimistic is the word Shams used.

Okay, well, regardless, the Rockets need to attack him. He's not 100%. They need to attack, attack, attack. The Lakers have, their role players are stepping up, especially offensively. But defensively, these are just a bunch of guys on the Lakers. The Rockets are way too athletic to not be attacking these guys that aren't there on the defensive end every day. So I don't know, I want to see what y'all will be looking for in the next game, especially if we do get Austin Reeves.

How else do you think the Rocks can pull out a dub? And I'm going to say it now on the Money Line Rockets and Seven. Good day, guys. Thanks a lot, Kay, so appreciate it. I mean, Austin Rees obviously adds a more as far as like a dribble drive. He's basically going to be taking Luke Canard's minutes or, or in the starting lineup, correct? Marcus Smart, maybe.

Maybe Marcus Smart? I think they should keep. Marcus Smart's defense has been incredible. He's been getting like five steals every single game. He's all over the place. He reads the Rockets' offense very well. It gives you a three, maybe not one or the other. It gives you a real three-man rotation.

And I really, I mean, I'm not here to back the Lakers in any way. But you put a basketball team together for certain reasons. You have other players on your team that allow you to do that. I'm sorry. like calling them just guys is kind of, I don't think that's accurate at all. I agree. You know why the Rockets don't make shots? Because they don't have good shooters.

Do you know why the Lakers do make shots? Because they do have good shooters. It's not a fluke that Rui Hachamura and Luke Kinnard are the best three-point shooters in the NBA since 2023. It's not an accident. It's not an oops. They didn't get defended very well. It's they play with LeBron or LeBron and Luca. And these are good players.

Look at them with their other teams where, all the pressures off of them, and people might actually defend them. These guys are good enough to make shots when they're defended, but they're also getting a lot of shots where they're not defended because of the team that they're on. So you can call them just guys if you want. I hope the Rockets didn't do that when the series began. I don't think so. Like 44% shooters aren't wandering around the NBA everywhere.

It's a very select group, and they're both in it. And it's not just this series. And it has killed the Rockets in this series. Yeah, I think you can cut up on the averages and stuff like, that but yeah, Rue Hachamura and Luke Canar, but what really made me mad was Marcus Smart is like a career third, 32% every point shooter and he's like, come on

man, oh, I did yell about that. But he was absolutely positively at practice for those shots. Nobody was near him. They were begging him to shoot it and that was on the third, fourth, and fifth one. Yeah, some of them were tough, but either way, it's, yes, they have good points. They have no more of that. I'm going to foul you the next time you try to shoot a three.

Terrible. Now you're making me upset. Yes, they are, they're pretty well-built team. And if and when they get Reeves back and if and when they get Luca Donchich back, there's a reason they were one of the best teams in basketball the second half of the season. Yes, and much of that, Luca and Austin were there for,

just the final five games they were not. And these guys play, they become smaller role players when their stars are out there. They became bigger role players, but have played just as effectively with extended minutes with those guys out. It's why they're up 3-1 in this series.

Like, what is LeBron? done in this series that's surprised you. Me personally, not a darn thing. He's awesome. He still puts up numbers all the time. There was no reason to think the rockets were going to shut him down, especially as he played against them just a month ago. He's scoring, what,

21 and 8 and 8? He's not, oh my God, LeBron had to step up and go crazy. No, he's relied on his teammates to do the things they need to do in order for him to be able to continue playing like LeBron in 2026.

He doesn't carry the Lakers when the stars are there. He's not carrying the Lakers now. He's part of a team that's outplayed the Rockets three times and four games. They're going to win. Game five. All right. Stop it. Stop it, Wex.

Geez. All right, quick break here. Oh, we're having to CJ. CJ had beef with me. I wanted to talk to CJ. That's unfortunate. All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show. Final segment with Ross, of course, without Matt Thomas.

713, 212-790 if you want to get in. We are not going to do. What is that game called? Believe it or not. Yeah, we're not doing that. 713, 2,1, 2, 1,000, 5. What's today, believe it or not today, Ross? What are we going to do?

I don't know. Hell if I know. There is no category because there is no, believe it or not. I've got the day off, so you guys want to call in Talk Some Sports. You can do so in the final segment of the program. Final segment of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas will be back tomorrow. Make sure you continue to stay tuned.

of course for the A team with Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler. Kind of big, wonderful, exciting plans do you have for the show today? I'll sprinkle into some of what gathered from over at the Rockets facility earlier today. Obviously, we'll, I'm sure,

hear from all the morons that we all call talking heads around America talking about this series, because it seems like a staple of our program. I'm not sure how many days streak we're on now, but I'm sure it will be continued as we dive unnecessarily into the Diana Rossini, Mike Ravel story.

I'm sure Spotify will come up today. What's the late? Oh, I saw that. These internet sleuths are ruthless and relentless and quite frankly have too much free time on their hands. I did see somebody suggest that. I explain for those who don't know. Not saving it for the show. Oh, what you're going to get to in the first segment?

I hope not. Okay, see? All right, fine. I'm going to explain. This isn't the show I'm on. We'll get you into Astros on deck and early first pitch tonight. Oh, that's right. You guys are, oh, you guys got a short show. Yeah, you're all good.

That should be fun. Yeah, so apparently somebody dug up some a Spotify playlist that apparently Diana Rossini sent somebody named Mike. Now, there's a lot of people named Mike. Maybe she sent it to her son. Maybe that's who she sent the playlist to. Are you going to go song by song, breakdown?

I mean, if somebody screencapped it for us, since it doesn't exist anymore. Oh, it got deleted? Yeah, it was screen capped all over the Twitterverse. That's pretty funny. The Diana Rossini saga. This just continues to get weird or weird. Quick question for your lessons. Okay.

Your listeners. Why, she has quit. Yes. She resigned. Why isn't it the Mike Vrabel saga? He's still doing the same thing he's been doing since this all was unfolded. Why don't we refer to it as the Mike Vrabel saga? He's the one who's in the NFL.

He's the one who is coaching a team that might play the Texans again this year. They did twice last year, like twice over the last couple of years. Yeah, well. It's his saga, isn't it? And the families that are involved. It's Kevin G's saga. It's Jen's saga. It's also, I mean, at the end of the day, if she was committing unethical activities,

that means he was too. She could be definitely, could have been a two-way street. What if he was given information about certain injuries or certain other things and whatever dealing she was getting into and other terms at teams. It's got to be a two-way street anytime you're getting or giving inside information.

And I imagine it wasn't only sexual favors and a relationship. Well, you know, I'm sorry, consensual sexual acts. Whatever you want to call it? I've got this nugget. Do you want it? Okay.

You're going to have to earn it. I mean, come on. Oh, she probably said that. Come on. You don't you're going to say that language wasn't ever used. Oh my gosh. Whether in a joking manner or serious one.

I haven't been able to get the research team on this, but had a baby named him Mike, shared a playlist with someone named Mike. Oh my God. The head coach of the Patriots. You got 31 other head coaches to choose from. Can you please find someone with a unique name?

Didn't we just have a postseason where everybody in the postseason was named Mike or Sean? I think so. It's not the most popular name. His name isn't Liam or Noah or Oliver. which have become very popular. Those are very popular. There are a lot of people walking these streets of America, at least, where this story is popular,

named Mike a lot, not just Mike Rable and her son. It feels a little shady, yeah, but still at the end of the day, there's like two million different names, though. And it happened to be Mike. It could have been Jonathan. That's the thing. It could be, it could be anything. Could have been Matthew. Couldn't have been Ross.

Matt would be pretty non-suspicious. Up here it is. I mean, 33%. of us here is on our host. Yes. I like one of the producer, Adam, would work you guys show too. It would be the three Adams. Good times. Shared it with someone named Mike,

and here we are again. It's crazy. But yes, I mean, I've talked about like, there's potential ethical violations. Yeah, I just don't think there's much. Byrd. Nobody cares? What could he have done? That the Patriots would be unhappy with? You could have gotten an advantage. No, that they would

be unhappy with, but with the NFL. Roger Goodell's like, no, not my problem. Team problem. What if he was, how do other coaches feel? If they were potentially getting, she was potentially feeding him some kind of information on stuff. Will reporters do that already, don't they? What injuries are inside information? That's the coach's fault.

Don't give the, don't let them get the information. That's true. One of my coaches gave a reporter information. Coaches get ticked off about that all the time. Where's the leak in here? I don't like this. You guys need to check yourself. That's an internal problem.

But she could also have things that were said to her that weren't for public information that she gave him. How often have you ever heard about a certain injury of a player or myself as well or anybody or Matt, any of us? We've heard things that we're not allowed to report that are true, that come out to be true, that we're not allowed to say. So she could know those types of things and then divulges them to Mike Vrable. Yes, I'm sure the other 31 coaches are really ticked off. I don't know. They probably wouldn't mind if Mike Vrable got fired.

Well, that's actually probably true. But not because of this. Because, oh, this is a good way to get one of the coaches that has been out-coaching us out of the league. Awesome. I just don't. The Patriots, unfortunately, aren't going to. It doesn't look like it. I've changed my mind a couple times on this, but for how he was handled during draft night,

I mean, he's on the phone with draft picks. He's telling him, I'm doing great, man. It was awesome. He's not going to counsel tomorrow. He's not getting fired. Real busy. See you guys. He's all fixed now.

So he's all good. All fixed. I think if we did some digging, we could find some serious ethical violations committed by Mike Vrable. I think so. But they don't want to dig, and that's fine. They're like, ah, it's a team problem.

Robert Kraft's, I can investigate that. Head to the massage parlor together. Have a good weekend. Coaches giving information to the media. It doesn't have to be from coaches. The NFL has anybody inside the organization giving information to media. What's the NFL going to do about that?

This isn't new to them. It's not new to any sports business. Well, He's gained an advantage. Yep, the A-Team. And he gets the happier ending. A-Team is next. Here on Sports Talk 790.

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