The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Lance McCullers Concern, D'antoni Joins Us & Several Texans Speak

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas Show. 12-01 in H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you. Welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

Down the right field line. And now Springer's going to have. to chase as it ricochets wildly towards center field. Straw's gonna pick it up. One run will score and they're gonna send Calhoun and he'll score on an inside the park home run. What a tricky home run. A two-run homer for Cole Calhoun on a ball that hit

off of the fence in right field and just ricocheted, shot towards center. Breaking ball and that's hit hard, down the right field line and that's fair. It's gonna go into the course. and that's probably going to clear him. Marteo score. Walker's going to score. They're going to send Escobar. He'll score.

It's a triple for Peralta. And the Diamondbacks all of a sudden lead five to four. Here's the pitch. Breaking ball hit well, right field. That's a single in one hopper to Springer. Marte off to the races. He's going to score an RBI single by Calhoun. And it's eight to four now, Diamondback.

First and second the pitch is grounded and it is a single is through into left field. That's a base hit. Calhoun will score. Marte to third base on the sharp single by Walker. And it's nine to four now, Arizona. Poor Steve Sparks. You can hear progressively more despondent every highlight. Oh, that happens to me too.

Yeah. Case in point. The night, the rockets are playing the Dallas Mavericks. And something called Trey Burke is hitting one three point or after the other. I mean, what's your favorite Trey Burke moment as an NBA player? That one. So he's hitting threes.

He's hitting threes. Trey Burke left corner, three point. That's good. Steve Sparks. That fourth inning took a half an hour. The top of the fourth inning took a half an hour. Not the top, the bottom of the fourth inning. Oh, oh.

And guess which guy had to do the 10th inning show last night? This one. Michael Connor? That was me. Gordy? Me. Cliff Saunders? Me.

Oh. You didn't, you messed up all of those. Oh, okay. All things considered when you have three touchdowns scored in a baseball game, and the game ended in three hours and 14 minutes, I consider myself blessed. You should be blessed. I was fully expecting not to welcome, get the show on until 1245, 1 o'clock in the morning. Now, I went about 1215.

Yeah. MT after dark. How was the show? Anybody asking for more buntz? It was fine. Why did the Astros Bunt their way to 14 runs, Matt? No, I think the bunt stuff

is kind of gone for a while. You said that last time. Until... It came back like that weekend. Yeah, it's true. That's why we're going to outlaw extra inning games and just say every Astro game

from here on out. If it ends after a nine and a tie, it's just going to be a tie. Yeah, there you go. Okay. Lance McCullors was amazing in the first and the second in the third

records a couple outs, took a while to do so in the fourth, and then he couldn't get out of there. I'm telling you, gang, I know this Astros team is scoring a boatload of runs. In fact, last night they scored seven. We had, what, one, not two, met three home runs in the game last night,

whatever it was? They're second in the entire major leagues in OPS behind the Yankees. They're crushing the ball. They're scoring. Yes. But if this starting pitching continues to go sub-four innings every time out,

there'll be no World Series virtual downtown rally parade. There will probably be first round bye-bye. They've got to go get starting pitching. I'm convinced of them. They've got to get some kind of They've got to. It's just bad.

Yeah, James Click was on yesterday, and you had Sean Salsbury asking him, is this a World Series roster? James didn't answer it directly, but pretty much said probably could use some help. So that's what you're going to, I mean, you're having Lance McCullors a wheel swall off. Then you're following it up with

Navaldo Rodriguez. Brandon Bailey and the major league debut of, what's the guy's name? Sanibria. Excuse me? Santa Maria. Bless you. It's a refreshing, cool beverage that you would have in Mexico on a beach in the month of October.

Okay. And then you had, yeah, Carlos Sanabria. Sanabria? Sanabria. It could be a Sanabria. I'm going to go Santa Maria because it sounds more like a drink. Sir, what would you like? We've got a variety.

We've got cold beer. We've got margaris. I'll have a Santa Maria. Would you like it with, I would. Sugar or a rim or a salt rim. I'll go sugar rim. Cold, delicious, refreshing Santa Maria. I'll go with Himalayan pink salt myself, man.

Really? Okay. You're really going out there. But yeah, he wears number 93. That's all you need to know about him. This Astro pitching staff is so young. You're going to see the first 100 plus number on the back of a jersey. They're just going to run out of numbers this season.

Doug Ross, a 37th round pick of the Astros in 2017. making his major leg debut wearing number 104. These are the numbers of the pitchers last night. 92, 97, and 93. I'm sorry. Is this a game in the middle of February? Some of that is because you're a badass. Some of it is because you're playing February games in West Palm Beach.

It's never supposed to be because you're playing a regular season game in Phoenix, Arizona. By the way, you see McCullors got all mad about the roof being open. Yes, he did. And every single pitcher that played gave up runs. Oh, that's a big ballpark. Did you notice left and right center? Huge. Four 13 to the alleys?

I mean, like, what are they? What do they want, Hercules out there? And then you realize the ball travels externally well. I don't remember which Arizona player it was, but a pitch was thrown down. I mean, well out of the zone. And he kind of chops that a little bit. And the thing, the ball just explodes. So thankfully, Phoenix figured that out and said, yeah, we can't have 375 gaps in our alleyways.

We can't. So 413, not an issue. By the way, Kyle Tucker's home run went past the pool. Yeah, that was a nice. And the roof opened up and it was like it was a little league field again. Yeah, you did have four home runs. So that was nice, but only got seven runs off of it. And the pitching was, I mean, oh, that's got to be Lance McCuller's worst ending ever, right?

Or I think it was tied for it. Well, you know, he's had three performances so far this year. Yes. Opening the second day of the season when he pitched, he was fantastic. The last two, but not good. His ERA's over nine. Is that bad? Well, that's not good.

It's concerning, Matt. But it's not just him. It's about every, I mean, as much we love what Christian Valdez at dinner day. Christian Javier. Christian Javier. Christian Javier. Look, man, there's a lot of Valdez. and Rodriguez and Javier's.

Give me till like the 15th, and I'll get all these guys down, I promise. Well, you just had your eighth major league debut, or ninth, was it ninth major league debut last night? I don't know, but I want you to throw two and two thirds before the season is done. I am left-handed. As am I.

I also have zero armed talent. I'm Mabed Extra, so I will throw with my left hand. It'd be just fine. Yeah. Okay. So you're going to be a switch pitcher. No, I can't throw it with my right hand, only my line. I right, right, throw left.

Oh, okay. Interesting. How did that happen in my life? I wasn't an athlete either way. Something's cracked inside your brain probably. This makes me different and more interesting. All right, 713-212-5-790 is how you reach a show. 7-13-212-5-7-9.

If you want to reach out through Twitter, you can do that as well. At SportsMT, at SportsRV and at Brendan Riley underscore. Mike Dantone is going to join us at the bottom of the hour. Tonight. The Mike Dan Tony? Well, how many are there? I feel very confident saying there's another human in America with the name Mike D-D-A-N-T-O-N-I. Now, we already know there's a Matt Thomas, who he and I get confused with often.

He plays with the Raptors. I talk about the Raptors. There's a Matt Thomas who's a soccer player, I believe. There's a Matt Thomas who's a musician. Really? But frankly, Jump Main 24 and I get confused all the time. I'm in bars and restaurants. I go, sir, do you play for the Toronto Raptors?

And I go, yes, I do. And then they buy my meals. That's not true. And they say, man, I love your jump shot. You should play more. And I say, you look like you're long since retired. No, no. I tell them, yes, I do play for the Toronto Raptors.

All right, 713, 2,12, 5790 is how you reach a show. How long, okay, tell me the truth, how long do you stay for the Astros last night? Did you fall to sleep or did you go, no, I'm talking about you. I'm talking about YouTube, but. I can tell you. I believe I gave up in the ninth. That's good, that you were there for two hours and 59 minutes of it. Or maybe even more than that.

After the Astros got retired in the eighth, that's when I kind of... You went nine and I'm out. I get you. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't. A lot of runs scored. George Springer's tearing the cover off the ball, thank goodness. He's back.

Jose Altooby is not. The pitching is going to do in his team. In fact, Ross, it's going to dune them so much if they don't get it fixed. They might shut my mouth by saying this. Don't do it. You know what I'm saying? Go ahead. They may not make the playoffs.

Oh, I'm not going to go that far. The lineup will keep them at least 500. If you've got one of the best lineups in the league and one of the worst pitching staffs, it evens out to about a 500 record. Okay. So I'll say this. If we were back in old school format, they wouldn't make the playoffs for sure. Correct.

This go around, they probably have a puncher. So I'll say this. They're going to make the playoffs. it's just not going to be a deep run until this team go get starting pitching and they're going to go get it they have to go get it. And it's going to be a function of them also. I mean, you need to get second and the Mariners Angels and Rangers are not

just not very good. No, the division sucks. And you can get fat and happy off the plan of Mariners and Rangers this year. You go 500. You should be able to be second in the division probably at this point. 713-213-1-2-5-790. Mike Dan Tony, bottom of the hour, Rockets and Lakers tonight. We've got Astros chat to get to. Bill O'Brien

spoke, a couple of other Texans spoke as well. as they are full-fledged into lots of Zoom meetings in the NFL. That's what training camp 2020 has become. 713-212-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas Show, and we look forward to having you with us today until 3 o'clock on Sports Talk 790. No fear, no worries, and no hair. It's the Matt Thomas Way.

Houston Sports Talk continues with the Matt Thomas show. 1217 sports talk 790 it is the math thomas show dwight howard is probable for tonight's game against the lakers with right knee so right knee markeith morris is probable with a left hip contusion uh rajan rondo was out we already knew that Alex caruso and that headband is is questionable with the left neck muscle spasm wow but the headband is probable Yeah, the headbed's definitely there. Cantavius Caldwell Pulp is probable with a right rib contusion. Contagious Caldwell Pope. KCP is the kids call him.

Okay. Anthony Davis is probable with a sprain right ankle. Good for him. LeBron James. LeBron James. So right groin. Out. Oot.

That's good. Out. All right. Wonderful. Out. What's the latest on Russie Westbrook? We'll find out with Coach Mike Dan Tony in 12 minutes.

Sports Talk 790. Okay. A little drama. So how are our friends at T&T? Tonight's a TNT thing, I think, tonight. I think they're doing like three games as compared to just the normal two on Thursday? Yeah, I think so. I'll say one thing about this bubble stuff is we're getting more games from both sports

than we ever had before. I mean, why would you want to buy the Sunday ticket, you know, the league pass or the extra innings package? There's no reason to. You are getting boatloads of. of Major League Baseball games, if you so choose. And you're getting, I mean, like 10 NBA games. It's like Christmas level worth of NBA games every day.

NBA TV has starting up Kings Pelicans in 10 minutes. Should we do a scoreboard update? Kings Pelicans scoreboard update? Well, it's the Kings, I mean, they're going to have to just win every game and then get help. But the Pelicans are trying to squeeze into that eight spot. Well, how many minutes is I going to play? That's a great question. Then you have heat bucks at three on TNT, 530, Clippers Mavs.

That should be going on. That's not bad at all. And then Lakers Rockets. Well, the late game at 8 o'clock. They're saying 815, it probably can go, it'll be closer to like 820, 825. I don't imagine Clipper. Well, Clippers Maver's could be a quick one, maybe. You never, first of all, you can never anticipate quickness of a bit.

That's true. And by the way, another thing for you is Scott Foster's officiating tonight's game. And I will go on the record multiple times with this and tell you. you. And again, I can't talk about officials a lot. Mm-hmm. But the Rockets have won lots of games with Scott Foster as their official. I thought he just hated Chris Paul. He's gone now. There were the two that butted heads the most.

Yeah. And what was I going to say? Oh, and he's a good referee. I don't know if he's a bad person, great person, or just a nondescript goes to work, comes home and shuts the door kind of guy. I don't know him personally at all. There are some referees that kind of show their personality before games, and I get to talk with them a little bit here and there and say hi, shake a hand.

Scott's not one of those kind of people. He gets in and his mind is in tune in the game. He's business like. He's locked in. There are a handful of really, really poor officials. Like, just can't call the game properly. Scott's not one of them. Okay.

Is that fair to say? I mean, I don't have any huge issue with him, but he was a game in 2018 where they got screwed six and seven, really, for the most part. They were getting screwed by the referees in those games. Yep. That's okay. It is what it is. I'll just remember that for the rest of my life if the Rockets don't want a championship soon. I mean, there are officials that will get sideways with a player.

And Chris Paul, clearly, is a great example of that. And that's not just, that's with a lot of referees. I mean, you could have the nicest referee in the world that just can't get along with people. I remember legendary Jake O'Donnell and Clyde Drexler for years didn't get along. In fact, Jake tossed Clyde in a playoff game and never refereed a game again. So they got to be careful to let their personal bias towards these particular people get in the way. Yeah, there was the Joey Crawford Tim Duncan thing. Yeah.

And he got suspended. Joey Crawford got suspended, right? Absolutely. I had to apologize to Tim and everything. So I still think referees generally speaking in sports get away with, like the anger in, and is much worse for players to officials and they can't get away with much. Meanwhile, on the other side,

referees get away with more, but sometimes they do get step in there and do that. Scott Foster's refereeing. It's not, I don't really pay that much attention to who's refereeing. Yeah. Because it's out of the Rockets control. It's out of your control as a fan.

It's what it is. I don't think Scott Foster just wakes up in the morning. He says, you know who I hate, Houston Rockets? I'm going to make all these calls against him. I don't believe that. I choose not to believe that. No, because look, he's going to run sideways with a bunch of different players. So it's not just going to be, oh, I hate the Houston Rockets,

and I got to make sure the team they're playing wins the game. Right. I agree. All right. So No LeBron tonight as the Rockets take on the Lakers will have it for you. It's over on KTRH this evening, right? I think. Rockets, yes. Yeah. All right. And you will have the launch pad beginning at 7.

That is correct. on news radio 740 KTRH. Well, Gerard and Maya better know that. Am I even called the show lately? She hasn't called any of the ones I've been on, and I've been on two of the three. Okay, I got you. Yeah, when I hand it off, it was my brother's birthday. Good friend.

That's okay. All right. So what do you do? Does that impact how Russ plays tonight if he does? I think if he's ready to go, he's ready to go. I think you're playing. Maybe you keep an eye on him as far as minutes-wise. if he says he's good and he was ready to play,

max him out of 30 minutes, something like that. Yeah, I would say that I don't think that Mike Dantone sits down and says, all right, Russ, LeBron's not playing tonight, so you can sit too. I mean, maybe he may be coming up in conversation, but I think if Russell Westbrook wants to play, he's going to say, give me some time. Yeah, I think you seize that opportunity that LeBron's out. And if you have all your horses, if Russell Westbrook, is healthy and he's available, then yeah, you still play him because that gives you that

much more chance. Because just because LeBron James is out, doesn't mean the Rockets are guaranteed to win. Certainly if you take Russell Westbrook out. So it becomes difficult. And this game is a lot more important to the Rockets than it is to a lot to the L.A. Lakers. We've seen scenarios where the Rockets, the other team is missing players or like the last game before the season paused.

Carl Anthony Towns wasn't playing and maybe some other Minnesota Timberwolves. It was like a knockdown drag amount. They had to barely one in the fourth. quarter in that game. So, I mean, I'd say if Russ is available, you play them because these games are important for the Rockets as they try to move up the stand. And stay, but mostly stay out of the seven spot is my concern. Isn't it weird? They win two games, get bumped to four. They lose one game and then sit out because it's a day off and all of a sudden they're back down to the six spot. But if they win tonight and a couple of teams drop as well, I mean, this thing is

so fluid. It's almost like they don't, you don't know up until probably the last game of the season where the rockets are going to ultimately end up. Yeah, they should be able to avoid the 7 because even though it's two and a half games in the standings, they're going by win percentage and they're four games ahead in the loss column. So the win percentage is comfortably ahead for the Rockets. The negative about

finishing 7 is that obviously the time in the bubble wasn't nearly as productive as they thought it was going to be, right? Well, you've got to play the Clippers in the first round. Well, but there's also a part of me that says if you're going to have, if you're going to win, you're going to face a Clipper team regardless, right? Yeah, but if you can wait around, be nice. Wouldn't bother me.

Yeah. Because think about, we said that last year with the Warriors and what happened. If the Rockets, I mean, obviously, you can't say apples to apples, but who did they play in the Western Conference Finals? The Warriors last year, was it the Nuggets? And they didn't have Kevin Durant for the entire series. The Rockets played the Warriors without Kevin Durant for a game and a half. Now, you don't want to wish injury on another team. Right.

But that's more opportunity for some. to get hurt, I guess, and you avoid them as long as possible. Yeah. I don't know. I just can't. These seating games are cool, and it's nice to have regular season basketball, and it's nice that everybody's healthy and safe and ready to go. And they've been good games.

And here's the crazy thing, is that we're going to, the Rockets and the rest of the NBA are going to finish their season on a Friday. You get two days off, and you're starting playoffs right away. And I know there's this very short distance between when the NBA season ends on a Wednesday and they play on a Saturday or Sunday, but, man, it feels like it's just as fast of a turnaround as possible. I mean, they're, they want those teams out of that bubble as fast as possible. So they're not going to stretch these playoff games out to four and five days in between.

There's no travel to speak of. It's all good. And that's why if you're a basketball thing, you are just going to get all this and you're just going to love on it because you're going to have action almost every single night. It'll be, yeah. What I'm curious about is what if there's all these teams? So how many games you have to be within nine, it's three games or four games? I thought it was five.

but you have to be the ninth seat. Okay, so only one team. No, only one team gets to do it. So only the best team. Only the best team. There's not going to be a playout. What if there are a couple of them are tied? Then they'd have to go on win percentage

and then head-to-head tiebreakers. It's only eight versus nine. No matter what. No matter what. Okay. And if you're the nine, you have to win both days. If you're the eight, you only have to win one. Right.

Which is confusing as hell. 1227, Sports Talk, 790. We visit with Mike Dan Tony next. It is Sports Talk 7-9. if you want to get in after Mike says hi, 713212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-790 with a message here for TGS Insurance. The folks at TGS Insurance will do a great job when it comes to saving you serious money on your home policy. And how you do that is you get to the word money on your phone. That's M-O-N-E-1. You text it to 23-2323.

The folks at TGS Insurance will then ask for your address. And then after that, they'll give you a... quote on a coverage that you think, I think will save you a lot of money. In fact, the average 790 listener is going to save probably close to $900 and a lot of folks are saving more than a thousand. But it all starts with you first and texting the word money. M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23. M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23, and start saving big with great coverage on your home policy with TGS insurance. That's M-O-N-E-Y money to 23, 23, 23, 23. it's hard.

That it drops it down with a left hand. This is Coach Dan Tonin. Matt Thomas is a great guy. And I always listen to the radio show. On mute. What a shot. I don't believe that Mike Dan Tony would ever say that about this radio show. He did.

I've known Mike for almost now four years. I've known his wife for a lot longer than that. I know she's a big fan of the show. There's no way, coach, that you would listen to my show on mute, is there? No, no way. Who is this? Who's good? It's your buddy, man.

What's your? Hey. Good, man. What's up? I want to ask you, how's your very talented guy? Russ Westbrook? Is he going to play tonight? I think he's probably more than that.

We'll look at it when he gets through it. We're not going to take any chances. And he just feels it's a slight little thing. So we just want to make sure he's 100%. That's probably the right thing to do, clearly. I'm really wrestling with this and I thought like I've asked you this a couple of times already Mike how do you balance

the we want to win we want to go in on a high note and maybe the seatings and finger at the bracket as compared to at the end of the day you're playing in a non-home court advantage you're not traveling there's no issues with you know I think the guys are going to have plenty of rest in between so do you change your opinion about that

or have you been pretty consistent about how you feel about what to expect and how much standings watching you're doing at this time of year Well, I'm not really standing in one of the team because, like you said, it doesn't really matter. The biggest thing is I think the number one priority to make sure that everybody is healthy as much as we can't, you know, playing for everything. But get him healthy as much as they can go into the playoffs. And two, playing as well as you can, knowing that there could be disruptions like if Ross doesn't play. Or Eric, we've got to work him back in.

But try to get the team playing as well as they can going into the playoffs. but the number one thing is health and when I go risk things for sure. And then after that, you ask Fonda kind of watch who's in third, fourth, first, or whatever. But at the end of the day,

you've got to beat three teams to get to the finals, and you tell me which one's better and worse and, you know, first round, second, round, third round matchups doesn't mean a whole lot right now because of home court, the band is not there.

So, you know, other than just as a perspective, I'm going to speculate. I worry about our health and how we're playing. And how would you describe it through the first three games? I mean, very interesting matchups. Unfortunately, the rebound numbers have not gone the way you probably had won to, or the discrepancy, but you're still two and one and very much had a chance to beat the Blazers dinner night.

So how would you summarize your first three games? I mean, there's some good things we're doing and some things that we didn't do well against Portland that gave us an opportunity to have the group to watch on film and talk about it. You know, while I went that way. So, you know, hopefully we can learn from it. So I'm good. I mean, I feel good about where we are, and guys are just getting their legs. And both things are tired on the third game.

And that's the moment. After about two or three weeks of practice, you kind of have a dead leg period for a little bit. But we've got to get over that. But one thing, man, I've got to caution you as all overriders and pundits of basketball, just don't look at the rebounding as the total. And everybody does that. And I hear it all the time, all you guys got killed on the boys. In reality, against Portland, who is a big team, they had four more second chance points than we did.

So it really doesn't matter if they rebound all our misses or something. They would have less rebounds if we just make shots. because we haven't been shooting the ball well, a lot of teams rebound. And we're small. So we're going to give up some disparity in rebounds, especially total rebounds. But if you look second chance points, those are the ones that we want to keep as close to zero as possible. I don't think we'll ever win that battle. But then we need to make it up by creating turnovers, getting good threes up at the percentage and the amount,

getting to the foul line, at the pace of the game. those are our advantages. And we didn't do that against Portland. We took a lot of three that kept us in the game. But our turnover's been way down, but we didn't create turnos, and we didn't create a pace that put them on their heels. So, you know, we'll talk about things like that and just try to get better at. Well, I appreciate you call me a pundit.

That means a lot to me. And I don't care if you get out reunited by 40. If Jeff Green and Daniel House are knocking down three, you're going to be in pretty good shape here. Well, you know, you don't want to rely just on shooting. I agree with all that. But, you know, when we made this decision, it goes, well, we knew that rebounding could be a little bit of a problem. But it hasn't been that big of a problem that we can't overcome that if we take care of the ball and we create turnovers and we take good shots, wide open shots. I mean, obviously, if we don't shoot the ball at all, you know, our chances go way down the wind.

But we shot 39% as we'll walk and beat them. and that's you know even against Dallas I don't think we hit 40% against Dallas so you know we need to shoot the ball better I think that'll come with legs and stuff rocket tech coach Mike Dan Tony here on the Matt Thomas show and coach just your thoughts it seems like defensively the other teams are well for James Hardin he's getting hunted by of course they were working on him Donchitz the first game and Yonisitza Tentacouple the second game but looks like he's he's holding his own and doing a pretty good job

defensively. How would you assess his defense so far? Oh, I think he's locked in there and he's trying to. I think he plays well, especially in the post, is really good. On the perimeter, he's good, you know. His hands comes up to a lot of steals. Everyone's why he gets blown by, but

everybody gets blown by. You know, it's a league that it's tough to guard, God, especially not as you're talking about in the combo, one-on-one. I don't think anybody can't go against one-on-one. I don't think anybody going to go against one-on-one. Just tell me, any, great defensive player in the league that James goes one-on-one with that, oh, man, he really plays a good deal.

James will go by him or get a three every time. So that's not the case. If you're going to pick those out, you can pick anybody out. So I think his defense has been good. He's got to get it better, like the whole team. And that's the key for us that we've got to keep improving our defense. Level of concern for James getting in foul trouble. There's been a feeling that the league is calling things a lot tighter in the bubble. And it may stay that way. They may loosen things up, but unfortunately, James is kind of running into some problems on that. What are you saying, and does he have to change much of his game to kind of get out of that? No, he doesn't have changing. I think that comes from a product of him

really trying to, you know, box out and get in there. He's got a lot of fouls that he won't necessarily pick up as we go fall. A lot of his dead legs, you know, when you get a little tired, you start reaching a lot more, but that's not going to be. He's too smart for that to be a can have a problem that will continue. Coach, offensively, been getting double-teamed on James Hardin's side a lot, of course, as you would expect. I noticed, or can you just tell me, when did you guys start having the Russell Westbrook there available at the free throw line? And what is the aim and what are you guys trying to do with the offense there? Well, when James gets double, we're just trying to get Russell a ball, and then you have a four-round-three situation.

And either Russell gets to the round, or we get a wide-up in three, and we get a wide-up in three. take either one of them. So, you know, again, I've never been really bothered about double teams with James. It just, the only thing I worry about might take him out of the, out of his rhythm a little bit down the stretch that he's got to find out. But I think we do that by a better pace. We walked the ball up way too much and left him double team and didn't attack before the double team came on. So those are things we talk about how to get it better. But if they want to jump, junk up the defense or whatever, a little bit like, Milwaukee does, which we get 61

threes, and a little bit like Portland did, we got 50-something threes. You know, we should be able to make enough of a sense where we went both those games. We won one, and we had a chance to win the other one. But, you know, again, I think the guys are smart and they figure

things out, and our offense is not going to bother us. It's making sure our defense is good enough to win. Mike Dan, Tony, with us here on the Matt Thomas shows. Coach, I know it is a little bit of a challenge to be down in Orlando, but the fact the NBA continues to announce zero positive tests after zero positive tests. I told the audience many weeks ago that once you guys got down

there, you'd be on the safest place on earth, and it's turned out that way. That has to be a tremendous amount of relief for all of you that everybody's basically following the rules for the most part, and those tests are coming back negative. Oh, for sure. I think the NBA has done a terrific job of making it safe. They're very strong, very well guarded, very well. Everybody knows the rules and protocols. And so far, you know, some guys have, you know, by just being nonchalant, if you're going around the protocols, they get caught, which they should.

And it's going to be closer to get the playoffs, that's going to cost the team a lot. So I would say 99% of people are following the rules exactly, and then the ones that aren't will pay for it. But they've been great. You know, I feel like a better job. Be hard-pressed to find somebody to do a better job. The NBA is done. Now, I heard there was a story, I think, in ESPN about there are thousands of bottles of wine being delivered.

Have you got any of that? And what's your favorite blend at this point? No. No, no, no. I haven't seen that. I don't know that. I have no idea where the story comes from because I don't hang out over the players' lounge. So I don't know.

I have no idea. Well, can I send you a bottle of wine? I know you. It might be, it might be just the pops room, too. But I can be. Oh, my God. Have you ever gone,

have you ever had a wine night with him? I'm sure the answer is yes to that, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. When I spent time with him in Italy, when they had the McDonald's open, which used to be.

And we went to Milan and I was kind of a, kind of just with them, and a little scound moving up. But, yeah, we got there. And, you know, Bob loves his wine, and he's really good, he's very smart about it. Hanging around him and you drink some good wine, that's for sure. Oh, it sounds like you're going to get a Laker team that's not at full strength tonight. So when you and I always talk about opponents, it's never usually about what they're doing.

It's about what you want. So what would you like to see tonight from your squad, especially if Russ doesn't go? And how do you... Well, really, include me in who's not a full strength. Well, let's just say he's one of the greatest players of all time. The boss not playing? Well, I didn't know that. Well, that's too bad

I was given an injury report and so that's what I'm going off of. I mean, I don't know. Oh, really? I see, look at that. You know more than I do. I really don't care who we're playing. I'm just worried about us. I know you never care who you're playing.

It's always about what. So let's say if Russ doesn't go tonight and you've said kind of you don't know how do you distribute his minutes and do you want to see a little bit deeper in your bench tonight because of that? Well, you know, yeah, if Russ doesn't play, definitely going deeper in the bench. he plays that he's either going to be able to go 100% or not play. So if I walk over there and there's like, well, you got to limit his bed, he probably won't play. I know he's taking a chance.

So that'll, we'll be all over that. But, you know, that's another thing. Like, or crash you then to go deeper. You know, I don't need to, I'm Austin Rivers played 15 minutes the other night. To go deeper in the bench means, he'll play 30s in the night. That's deeper in the bench. You know, it's like, they crack me out by numbers. It's like, well, you only play eight guys.

Well, because I had three guys playing in the low 20s. I'll just up Jeff Green to 31. I'll be in to 30 and Austin to 30. Then that's all I need to do. You know, and that takes minutes off of everybody else. So it's a matter of James right now that average about 34 minutes a game. I'll do the first game. First game over time, okay, I get it.

You know, kind of screwed us up statistically. But last two games, he had 34, 33 men. PJ last game had about 33 minutes. Russ was at 35, just a couple minutes too high. Everybody else in the 30s. 13. They need that, get in shape, get in rhythm. They got to get tired so they can get on the other side of it.

You don't get insane by not pushing yourself. We have to push these guys to playoff time. You can't get in shape when the playoffs start. You better be in shape when you get there. So we're a modern internet. And if it, you know, Russell sets out today, which if that happens, we'll add one more to the next. And I think we'll leave it at that. Coach, thank you very much for the time.

Good luck tonight, and you and I will talk this weekend when you take on the Kings. I appreciate the visit as always. Sounds good. We'll see you, Matt. All right, it's good. Mike Dan, Tony, one of our favorite people on Earth, connoisseur of the show. Able to give them some information about the opponent tonight. Yes.

It's getting Twitter. Sharoni had just retweeted somebody, not you. Oh, dang. That's okay. LeBron is out. I didn't mean to it. I was literally giving an injury report. That's what I was providing information.

I wasn't trying to, like, let me taste it. LeBrienne ain't calling me and telling me. We're going to start calling you scoops. No, you don't. How about Matt Winhorst? No. No. How about Jump Man 790?

Just like Jump Man. That's what they call Matt Thomas in Toronto. They call you Jump Man? They call him that. Oh. I want you to call me that. Nobody. You can't jump over a phone book, Matt.

Well, maybe I'll put a video out there to prove otherwise. We have the debut of what you're talking about. This is the season debut. We've always done it. What's you talking about Bill O'Brien at one? 1.30 this afternoon. Can't wait. And at 2.30 today, non-flora stories. Oh, okay. There's your, there's your hour 45 in advance. Let me check Louisiana's.

Yeah, Louisiana's always good for that. 713-212-790. 7-1-3-212-790. 1246 on Sports Talk 790. Stop that wave. Busting the wave since the stroves were in the dome. Who are you going to call? Wave Busters. and sports talk continues with the Matt Thomas show. So just to repeat, Mike says more likely not than yes. Correct. On what Russell Westbrook.

Okay. I should text Mike and say, man, I don't mind you taking jabs at me. But don't play Russ. No LeBron the night. No chance, right? And do you think he's on the fence? And he's going to be like, you know what? Matt Thomas says not to play him.

I just, I'm not going to play him. I would take my advice occasionally on things. Isn't it funny how I... You saw the wine story too, right? No, I didn't. What is that? I know Mike Danonee loves wine, but what was the wine story? Apparently, there are a couple of thousands of cases of wine sent to the...

Somewhere in the NBA bubble. By whom? I think by either the NBA is paying for it or wine companies or something. To who? To the players. And they're all talking about it's a great way. And I thought naturally, if the players were getting some of the coaches were too. And did LeBron James set this up?

And he's off today? Oh, so you're saying he's a hangover? He's a whino. Is he really? I don't know he was a long. Oh, he loves wine, yeah. He is huge into wine, red wine. I got to be.

Remember the controversy? He gave his little kid a sip of red wine. Isn't red wine generally speaking not terrible for you as long as you don't over and as long as you're not a toddler? Yes. I think it's. I'm telling you. And I've told you guys before.

I have almost, I probably had less than five glasses of one in my. entire life. And I feel like here's what I want to do, Ross. You're missing out, man. I want to do a wine tasting for dummies. Okay. You want to take a wine class? I'll do that. And what I want to do is I want to go, because my wife loves wine. All of my friends love, I'm, I am honestly a fish out of water when we go to dinner with friends because I'm the only one at the table that doesn't drink wine. Well, that's what you need to do. I thought you broke bread with Mike Dantonie. He didn't make you have some wine. No, I didn't drink. No. No, when we went to dinner recently,

No, I did not have any wine. But he's, and he's not, you know, he's not, well, give me a bottle play. No, no, he's. Well, I'm not saying he's a drunkard. I'm saying it's, he appreciates the finer things, I'm sure. But a lot of people do, and I'm clearly a minority. So what I need to do, we need to do is we need, and, you know when we get this pandemic, we're going to do a lot of different things.

We'll go to a winery. Let's go to a winery and then just a little sample of everything, because I want to be able to find something. So when I go out and have dinner, yes. And I ain't feeling a beer, and I don't want to drink something heavy, like vodka or Akela or bourbon or whiskey. A nice glass bottle of wine with, apparently with a good steak is the one-two combo, right? Red wine with some red meat.

It's just a divine combination, Matthew. All right. So just, y'all keep out for your, look out for your boy on this one. I've been to wine country in Sonoma and in. And apparently, if you go. Via de Guadalupe in Mexico. If you go on those wine trips, you get blank-faced. And your wife and your girlfriend is just like, they want to maw you because they've had so much wine.

And then all I want to do is just go back to hotel and have sex. This is a wonderful mall back from 2017. Sure, and you just drink it. Don't you think the average... You pretend you know what you're doing. Yeah, don't you think the average trip to the wine country is lots of sex and lots of wine? I don't think you're having sex at a winery, no. No, but when you go back to the hotel you are.

I'll give you... Well, usually in my experience, I'm just drunk and pass out. So I don't know. That's because I'm a very lightweight drunk. So, you know, me at two margaritas, you've got to carry him out of the restaurant. When I went to Sonoma, though, we started at 8 in the morning. We were on a party bus. And we were taking fireball shot today in the morning.

Now, why would you do that when you knew you were going to be sampling many, many different varieties of wine? I don't know. You wanted to get, because you were stupid. We weren't driving. Yeah, but didn't you realize you were going to go there? It hurts your palate, right? And you can cleanse it over there. Can you get some grapes for you?

Okay. Some nuts. So you're telling me, fireball on the bus. Yes. Adds to the day of sipping wine all day long. It didn't hurt. And yeah, I think I was passed out drunk by 3 p.m. I woke up at 11 that was going on. I didn't know what day it was.

That's happened a lot of your life. I was like, is 11 in the a.m. or is this? What day is this? I don't even know you anymore. Okay, come on. If I'm the first person did not know what day it is after day drinking. But I'm just curious why you went to the fireball first. Because it was passed to me. I didn't buy it and bring it. Oh, okay, good. I mean, I was going to say, I don't want to be rude. So how about you and I, but we'll skip a trip to Vegas and we'll go to the wine country?

We go to Wine Country. We're going to do it. We're going to go to Monterey, right? I mean, that's what you got to do. You get a limousine, and they pick you up at the hotel, and you go there, and then you go to buy a four or five cases. Why don't we just go to Sonoma or Napa? That's fine, whatever.

Next time there's like a Warriors game or something with a day off. Yeah, for sure. We'll go day trip to Napa. Sacramento can't be that much further, right? Yeah, I don't think so. Okay. I like this. I like how we're thinking.

All right, 35 minutes from now, we're going to go to the season premiere of which you're talking about Bill. David Johnson spoke a little bit today Brandon Cooks spoke a little bit today and we'll hear from those guys should Lance McCuller speak he's not a big fan of that roof called it ass yes that's true

of course it was bombs away from everybody as the two team scored three touchdowns in the Astros 14-7 lost to Arizona 713-212-5-7-9 if you want to get in today 7-13-212 790 with a message for Cromberg flags and flag pulls. If you want your company to stand out, getting a really good looking flag from Cromberg flags and flagpoles is the way to go. If you are in charge of a school PTA and your school needs a new flag for their flagpole, or perhaps a U.S. flag or a state flag, or you want to put any of those things I just mentioned in front of your house, get with Cromberg's flags and flagpoles.

Really nice people based in Bel Air have been members of the Better Business Bureau's Gold Team for, many, many, many years. And so if you want any of the things I just said for you to stand out, getting a flag and obviously a flag pull to go with it is the way to go. Their phone number is 713-661-922. 713-661-922. You can also check them out online at Crombergsflags and flagpoles. Any size, any shape, banners, flags, and the installation of flagpoles. All today from Cromberg's, 713-661-922. Hey, it's Craig Ackerman. Put a grand in your hand on Sports Talk 790. Text this nationwide keyword, money, M-O-N-E-Y to 200-200.

You'll get a confirmation text and info, standard data and message rates apply in this nationwide contest. Take your shot at $1,000 on the home of the Rockets, Sports Talk 790. Text money to 200, 200. Yeah! is the Matt Thomas show. A sore right groin. I don't have one. Ross, you got a sore right greener groin, all right?

My groin's doing well, Matt. LeBron's is not. He will not play tonight for the Los Angeles Lakers against your beloved Houston Rockets, a game you'll hear on our sister station. News Radio 740 KTRH, beginning at 7 o'clock with the launch pad with your friend Ross Vidal as the host. A wonderful, fantastic, splindiferous launch pad

coming up on KTRH. Also within the last hour, Mike and Tony Withers telling us that more likely not than yes that Russell Westbrook will play but you got to remember these athletes, these alpha dogs if he takes his nap today and wakes up and feels 100% he's going to play. We'll see.

How do you feel about the rankings? We're going to get some baseball here in just a second, but just real quick to wrap up this. How do you feel about seatings? I mean, are you, Mike felt very indifferent to it and I believe it to be him being honest about that. I would like to avoid the seventh seed, which they should be able to do comfortably with just a few games to go and four games ahead in the loss column. Other than that, I don't care.

Dunder don't scare me. Jazz don't scare me. Nuggets don't scare me that much either. Especially the Nuggets don't scary because they're not playing games in Denver, Colorado, where it's 5,280 feet above sea level. My guess is Miami's. I mean, not Miami. Orlando's 40. Michael Porter Jr. is playing really well for the night.

right now, though. You name seven nuggets? Seven? I bet you can. No. Okay, we'll do it later on. Nicoliochich, Michael Porter Jr. Will Barton.

Is Paul Milstap still there? Nope. Oh, crap. They probably got a Plumley. Don't they have a Plumley? I think doesn't every NBA team have a Plumley? That's what I'm saying. You get assigned a Plumley.

I think Paul Milstap is there. Okay. Well, Paul Milstaff's there. Oh, Bo Bull. Oh, yeah, but he hardly, but he's not supposed to normally be playing. I think I'm tapped out now. What did I get to? He does play for the Nuggette.

Okay. Okay, you know, good enough. Good job, good effort. I tried. We're not going to do, we're not doing Denver Nuggets radio on the mad time. I am the weakest link. Goodbye. I couldn't name seven nuggets.

No, forget it. All right, let's get to the baseball. The fourth inning. What the hell happened last night? Lance McCullors, how did he, how do you go perfect for three and then give up eight runs in the fourth? Can somebody explain that to me? The roof. Which is ass.

No, it's not the roof. That's what he said. He didn't blame the roof. Well, he said the roof was open and he says it was ass when they were doing it. And then he went to go moisturize his fingers. And they wouldn't let him do it because, of course, the COVID. And hit after hit after hit. How about the cold Calhoun inside the park?

The ball lands in deep right field. And then it was almost like there was a firework behind it. Because it jumped out. And Springer's in right field, he normally doesn't play. He's normally in center. While Straw, who doesn't play a whole lot of defense periods in center, he didn't, I mean, it was a combination of perfect things. Two guys

playing positions are not accustomed to, and this ball that has just darted out of there. And not only did Cole Calhoun get the inside of the park, Rossi, he probably could have walked home the last 90 feet. Well, because

the cutoff, Carl's Cray, if you remember, he dropped the cutoff. He might have been able to turn around and gun him. because you know Carlos has a great arm. That's why he's always the cutoff man. But they didn't think it was bad enough to rule it not on inside the park. No, it kind of slipped through his finger. It was one of those things where he should have got it.

It was the throw was the problem. So if it was a better throw and Carlos Correa were able to get that cleanly, I think he might have gunned him down at the plate. That would have been cool to see. That would have been nice. Isn't there nothing better in sports than some Gibroni who thinks he can go that fast around the bases and he gets his ass thrown out at home? That would have been amazing.

And then he winds up getting triple and a put-out would have been. been six two on that one. It had been very nice to have. Didn't happen. And a bunch of people you don't recognize for the Astros pitching, giving up more runs as DeAndre Hopkins had 10 catches for 175 and two scores as Arizona beats Houston 14 to 7. Yeah, number 92, number 93, and number 97 coming on in relief. It is amazing that the Astros will not bring up somebody that doesn't have

three numbers on the back of his jersey. You know what? Hey, we're only 11 games into the season. Give it time. Brendan, can you name the first player ever to have three digits on a uniform number in Major League Baseball history?

A future astro? See, that's... You're supposed to say, no, I don't. And you probably got the right answer in saying a future astro. Has a team ever retired like a jersey number

that's been super high like that? Well, the first one is going to be Aaron Judge 99. That's true. Some guys are doing it just to be cool or they think they're cool. I don't know. What is,

is the, can I Google the highest MLB retired number? Go look at the highest. Try, this, try to, you test me. Go to the Houston Astros' retired numbers. I found one for the highest one. Go ahead, who is it? Carlton Fisk, number 72.

Yeah, I knew that one. Okay, that's good. Go to look at the Astros' retired numbers. I've got every team's retired number. Okay, give me the highest number for the Astros. It's going to be 49, I think. Yes. Forty-nine?

Was it Jim Umbrick? No. He's 32. 45 was Durker, right? 49? No. You mean the first letter of the guys of the first name? No. It would be too obvious.

Should I know who? When I say it, yes. Should I say, okay, it's 40? When I say it, you're like, oh, I knew that. Well, give me some hints like an at least save face here. It was not a position player. It was a pitcher wearing 49, 49. God, I'm going to feel like ass when you tell me this.

Yeah, you are. Go ahead. It's Larry Durker. Oh, okay. So I was off because I said, thought Durker was 45. Okay. I knew it was in the 40s. Doesn't mean I win.

Still a loss. That's an L, Matt. You were the weakest link. It's like, we were playing weakest link on our Facebook page today. And everyone's like, if I had gotten any other one in that category, I'd got it right. I did not say that. No, you didn't. There's a couple.

There was a couple I didn't know that other people got. And I was like, oh, I'm glad I didn't get that one. Okay. So 49 is where it's at. Okay, Larry Durker, 49. Who's next? 40? No, I'm talking about, I'm going like, who's the next great astro pitcher or player that's going to have a number of, say, in the 50s or 60s?

Oh, in the 50s or 60s? And not happening. Brandon Belak's going to throw it tonight, by the way. The Astros made a little switcheroo. Zach Rinkie was supposed to throw it today against his old teammates. He is going to pitch the opener against the Oakland Athletics. And I believe Dusty, Dirker,

Dusty Baker said last night that Michael Brantley will DH today. Yeah. So that's good. Yeah. Encouraging news. Yeah.

713. We've not taken a single phone call yet today, have we? I don't even know. Except my, I don't think we've even given another number. Show's been home and along, man. I can't keep track of these things. I know.

Okay. We're just having a good time here. If you'd like to join us, you may do so 713-212-5-7-90. If you're Russ and you were able to whisper in his ear, play or not play tonight. against the LeBron list, Los Angeles Lakers. 713-212-5-790.

Also, I'd like to know what your early verdict is on Lance McCullors. Let's lay this out here. Lance McCullors is a good person, first and foremost, charitable, funny, interesting, has things to say, worked his ass off Ross to get back from T.J. I have respect for anybody that has an injury or like that that makes them miss a full season, and he gets to get back on the mound and do it because he worked his ass off. A lot of guys could, I mean, they don't usually do this, but a lot of guys could say, this wasn't meant to be.

I mean, I think also technology and the ability to rehab and things are a lot better than they were, say 20 or 30 years ago, but it's still a lot of hard work to recuperate. And by the way, a lot of mental confidence get back on the hill and throw a ball hard, right? hoping that it doesn't happen again. He's one and two with an area nine so far. Actually, one in one, I think. But it hasn't been a disaster. Last night was a disaster.

I mean, yeah. Well, three out of the four innings he threw a pretty good. That's 75%, Matt. Well, it's funny. Abraham Lincoln loved the first two acts of the play. Last act wasn't great. No. Mrs. Lincoln thought it was the same thing.

She's like, I'm loving this. And then the last act, the movie. Old Mary Todd. Who always says that? You know, but other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln kind of thing? I think Charles used to say that. Oh, okay. The point being is this.

No, I get it. I don't particularly care. I'm kind of just Josh. Right. One, two, it's a body of work here. And I want him to be good because he worked his ass off. But the Astros are not going to be deep in the playoffs. No.

At all, if their average starting pitcher is not making it to at least well, I would say five innings right now, but if they're not getting to the six by, say, playoff time, because you want to shorten that bullpen up. You don't want middle relievers getting key outs in the postseason. You just don't. Their most reliable starter right now is the guy who has made two starts. Christian Javier.

That's not good. I mean, Grinkie's been up and down, and we just saw it from McCullors, Verlanders hurt. It's Josh James already relegated to the bullpen. Framber Valdez was good in, Frambere in relief a couple of days ago, but it's absolutely shaky right now. This is not, it normally, like we said, in a normal season, this would not be a playoff team. This is certainly not a championship team right now because of the arms.

And that's why I still thinking, you know, I always say, well, what wins, good defense or good pitching or good defense or good offense in sports, you can have a murderous or a lineup, and frankly, the Astros are starting to really hit the ball really well, but it doesn't matter if you can't get outs. Yeah, you have to have some pitching. I think, I mean, the 18 Red Sox and the 17 Astros were had better hitting than pitching, but they didn't have terrible pitching.

They didn't have 30 minute and half innings. Yeah, they had decent pitch. Yeah, for sure. Right. 713, 2125790. 713, 212, 570. We take this program to 3 o'clock. What are you talking about, Bill O'Brien,

at the bottom of the hour, your phone calls, and we have now in Florida stories at 2.30. This is Sports Talk 790. Astros, buddy. H grad. Tex-Mex connoisseur. Well, is there anybody more Houston than Matt Thomas? No way.

Back to the Matt Thomas show. 118 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. I mentioned this while you were gone. We may have to go back to this making it Florida stories because it's a little bit more of a, not a little bit more. It's quite a bit of a challenge. I go up Florida Stranger. S there's like 85 of them to pick and choose.

from. This is your deal, Matt. You're the one that wanted to issue the Florida stories, which I said we should use because they're fantastic most of the time. You want to just do odd news? Call it odd stories? No, I think we should stay with... And you're going to Florida and the world. But I would go to Florida every week. How about Florida versus the world? Okay.

Problem is, you want to go challenge the world against Florida? I'll take the world. I think Florida's undefeated. I'll take the world. Or we could turn it into a game show and call it Florida, foreign, or fake. Ooh. That sounds familiar. Who did that? I did that on sports I reshow for a while. And you got rid of it?

Well, we don't have prizes right now. And it would take a while for me to write fake ones and come up with good ideas. Yeah, we will have, believe it or not, return when we get prizes back. And it's not because we don't have them. Well, we don't have. Well, there's nobody here to hand them out. There's no one to hand them out. And we have to have them delivered to us.

There's a global pandemic right now. Yeah. But when they do pop up, like e-cards and whatnot, we had. I thought you were going to do. You Venmo, the winners, $100. That was never a possible. under any circumstance. Okay.

All right. A little astro chatter coming up. We've got what you're talking about, Bill O'Brien, at 130. Now in Florida stories at 230. And do we have something at 2 o'clock? No, I don't think we do. A great sports-related content. That's true.

All day long, and your phone calls are certainly welcome. We are the most interactive show in America. 713-212-5-7-90. Ross, let's eat with some Texans cuts. Oh, you want to eat? Yeah. Okay. Coup it down and some Texans.

cuts. What we got? What's time I'm at the bottom of the arm? Do you like a two piece of cuts? Let's start with, so Brandon Cooks, a new Texans wide receiver. They spoke today, yeah. He spoke today.

One of the big issues with him or question marks for him coming in has been the concussion issues that he's had throughout his career and limited his production last year. Here's what he had to say about that. Yeah, no, for me, I'm not worried at all. If there's any hesitation or worry of, you know, I wouldn't be here right now. But, you know, at the end of the day, things happen in this. game that, you know, you wish don't happen. But when you start to learn through this process, so you really get an understanding on what this is. There's so much out there that

people just don't understand that goes into it. Everybody think, oh, it's just impacting. But without going into specifics, I'm comfortable and I feel great, and I look forward to continue to just, you know, do what I have to do and go out there and give it my all. Sounds right, right? You ain't afraid of getting hurt again. He shouldn't be. Well, he's afraid to get hurt. You can't play. You just can't.

And it's not like somebody says, well, I mean, it's not like he's doing dumb things to get the concussions. It's, you catch the ball, he lands. He's playing one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Now, there are some guys that, I remember Kevin Johnson's been a corner for the Texans and the place for Buffalo now. There were some things he was doing that wasn't helping his cause in terms of the guarding guys, the way he was bringing guys down that were forcing some injuries. I remember that was a criticism of his. I'm not going about to tell you if he was doing it right or wrong, but they were saying that Kevin wasn't doing himself any favors by some of the ways he was trying to bring down people.

And he was just slight a bill. I mean, even when he was drafted, it was a guy who was thought of his thin and small. And a lot of times, those type of body types don't hold up in the NFL. The same thing was said about Will Fuller. And he's I. He has an I-H. Who's IP then? He has an injury history.

Mr. Glass. George Glass? Yeah, I'll mean. So you call him in. injury prone. So you're saying a person that is injury prone has a body that's going to not be able to withstand

the rigors of the activity. There's something structural. I think. I don't know. I'm not right. No, I'm totally behind that. If you're in, for instance, if you are a baseball pitcher and you are fat and you don't warm up properly,

you're not going to have, you're going to be prone to injury, right? There's no reason to call Cici Sabathia out like that man, it's not nice. Well, there were other people who are thinking too, but C.C. probably was the one, right? Fat, out-of-shape athletes are more injury-prone to those that are in shape. Correct. Will Fuller's in shape.

He's not doing anything to circumvent the system. He's got a small body type. He's just, he has an injury history. Yes, he does. But I'll say this. If he also has a body that is not willing to be an NFTA. fell body, you know, with stand hits and whatnot, then it would make you injury prone. Oh, and I will also say this, apparently, according to doctors and neurologists, if you have

had concussions and multiple concussions, you are more likely to get more concussions, so you are prone to concussions. All right. Well, as you just said that, that makes Brandon Cook's injury prone. I agree. Not an injury history. Yes. That makes him prone to get them another one again.

According to neurologists. And for a team, it's already got a boatload of possession receivers. shouldn't hurt because there's five or six slot guys already in this football team. Well, Brandon Cook's is a burner. Well, yeah. I just hadn't been burning a whole lot in the last couple of years. Well, last year. How tall is he?

I don't know, six foot? When I think of burners, I think of, you know, um, oh, 5.10. Yeah, so he's, he's not an inside slot guy, though. He's going to be on the outside of nine rounds. That's true. That's true. Julio Jones, A.J. Green. when I think of the big-bodied 6-3,

I mean, Deandre Hopkins, although Danre is never considered a speed guy. Yeah, he's a outside receiver in a slots body. Yeah, because he just gets down the field. Yeah. Tyree Kill does it. He's a small guy. Yeah.

Yeah, I remember it used to be when, if guys weren't at least 6-1, 6-2, you didn't think about it. Now you've got guys that are 5-10 that are really fast. Steve Smith, great being a great example. That's from Carolina. All right. So he's saying all the right things. I'd expect him fully to be ready to do this,

but I'm not holding on a whole lot of hope, just like Will Fuller. I keep hearing how great Will Fuller shape is in. Problem is, every single year, he misses games. And week of playoff games, week of huge regular season games, you don't know if he can go or not. And if it's driving us mad as fans,

it's got to be driving the coaching staff just nuts. Yeah, I would think, I think that Bill O'Brien has sometimes runs out of, patients run thin with all these injuries. So I'm going to be optimistic, but I'm going to be practical in saying that if they get 16 games at all the guys we just talked about, it's gravy. It's very unlikely to happen. I just feel like there's so many ifs on this offense, including David Johnson. And speaking of David, he's very excited about being with Duke. Duke and David?

Yeah, the D&D connection. We call him David and David? No, we'll call them the D&Ds. David Duke. Yeah. We can call him David Duke. Perfect. Probably not.

I'm actually pretty comfortable with it. I think it'll really help out our offense is what I feel because they're not going to know who's going out of the backfield, who's blocking. Or if we're both going out of the backfield, who's lying up at receiver, who's staying in to run the ball. So I feel like it's going to honestly help out the offense a lot. Okay. Well, we know they're good receivers. Yes. But it's third and three.

and then you get a first down, can get four yards on a ground game because guess what? Really good defenses are going to know that those two guys are gone to the backfield. And that also means at least one, if not two guys of extra protection for Deshawn Watson in that passing situation.

Have we set over-runners on David Johnson rushing yards this year? Do you even want to? I mean, we can find them, but, I mean, assuming 16 games, I guess. No, you don't have to assume that. because if the guy rushes for 1,200 yards and misses one game, I'm not saying he's playing 12.

I'm saying there are scheduled 16 games. Oh, that's true. Okay, assuming there's a 16 game schedule. You know, we're in the midst of a pandemic, Matt. This is true. Is there an over and under on his number? I'm trying to find something. I can't, I can't find it.

Well, just, let's just set our own one then. You're good. I'll say over under 750 yards. I was thinking an exact number. Under. Is it because he doesn't play? Or is it because at the end of the day, he's getting three yards of carry and Bill O'Brien gets mad at him?

And then Tim Kelly wants to call some plays for him. And then Tim Kelly. And then Bill O'Brien gets mad at Tim Kelly and then fires him. And he winds up calling plays and saying, we'll only use David Johnson as a receiver of the backfield. I don't think David Johnson has a whole lot in the tank. That's why I said that. And he's a top five paid compensator-wise NFL running back.

Well, yes. making well north of $10 million. I think he's around $10 million. I thought it was more in the 12 category. I don't know what it is. It is. You know, it doesn't really matter what he makes because if he rushes for a thousand yards,

he's going to say, told you so and say Arizona suck. Oh, even worse. That trade took place, what, in January after the season? No, when did that trade take place with DeAndre? Was it right around the start of the pandemic? Yes, it was in March. That trade still sucks. These are the highest paid running backs in the NFL.

Go. Christian McCaffrey. Well worth it. Ezekiel Elliott. Yeah, sure. Levion Bell. That's a no. David Johnson.

He's the fourth highest paid running back in the NFL. Yes, he is. David Johnson. David, let me tell you. I don't know if you're listening to show right now. I'd love you if you would. Please get 250 yards. That's former pro bowler, David Johnson.

to you, Matt, still under 30. Why do they get rid of Carlos Hyde? We already know that Carlos Hyde can get you a thousand yards. Because they don't like him. They don't think he's versatile. You know, Bill likes versatility. Oh, like having like five swing tackles on a team. Yes, he likes everybody.

He's like people who can play all along the offensive line, the Jackal Vall Trade Master of None. That's what Bill O'Brien loves. Speaking of Bill O'Brien, the season premiere of which talking about Bill is next, one 28 on Sports Talk 790. Hey, it's James Arden What a pass. What a finish.

Listen to your home of the rockets on your smart speaker. Just as. Hey, Google. Play Sports Talk 790 on IHR radio. That is something else, folks. National Sports Talk. Hell no.

To the no-no. Houston Sports Talk. You got that right. This is Houston Sports Talk 790. Home for your home teams. Nothing can stop me. I'm all the way up. 132.

on Sports Talk 790. I just got a tweet from my buddy Sam Khan, who we've had on the show before me, ESPN. And I was excited for a second. It said Texas Tech adds Houston to the schedule for its low non-conference game

of the Big 12, the 9 plus 1. And then I had to double read it and double check it. Oh, okay. Houston Baptist. Oh. So, Red Raiders versus the Huskies? All you HBO Husky football fans, September 12th in Lubbock,

The lone non-conference game, Houston Baptist at Texas Tech. I didn't even know HBO had a football team. It's been around five or six years. Okay. Go Huskies. What division do they play? One AA, Southland. Okay.

They're in Southland Conference. I didn't know that. So it'll be FCS. It's hard to say. How big is their stadium? Oh, maybe a thousand? I don't think anybody goes. But, I mean, I think when they wanted to join the Southland Conference,

and part of the reason for joining the Southland Conference was to play football. Head coach Vic Shealy was 18 and 56 overall. Oh. In eight seasons there. You can make it 18 and 57 here pretty shortly. Is it like coaching gym class? They play at Husky Stadium.

It is the capacity is $5,000. $5,000? I mean, $5,000 people. What did I say dollars for? Yeah. Yeah. Head coach Vic Shealy is also the groundskeeper. I'm just kidding.

Now, see, if you can't have fans, like, for instance, Texas Tech would probably pay HBO a million dollars to play that game. Something like that. But that's 50,000 people at Jones Day. But they're going to try to do 25 percent, aren't they? So I guess you could look it up because Texas Texas State School. Yeah. What do you think they paid?

I guess I could find out, but I know some people at HBO. I just don't want to ask him. So what are you getting paid? But my guess, so if you can have 25% of the fans in the stadium, would you then pay 25% of what you would normally pay to bring a team in like that? Because think about this, if you're, if you're HBO, $250,000 to get your ass kick, that's money well spent. I mean, that's money well earned, right?

The airplane ride is probably going to cost you 70 times, Well, what would have plain right of Lovick on a charter cost? 15,000 maybe, 20? My guess is, I'm the last person to ask about a charter flight. They'll play a game at night. You want the spirit rates, I got you, Matt. My guess they will probably not fly up the day before. They'll fly the day of.

Go right at the stadium where, I mean, because they're just, they're going there to go get their brains beat out. That's just, I mean, right? Is there even going to be a line on that game? Are there usually lines on Wondable A game? Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes. times. FCS, excuse me,

when it was like Youngstown State was playing FCS. No, I think at the end of the day, you probably spend 40 to get there. There's 25% of the crowd is there. You're probably walking away with over $200,000 comfortably. And again, that's a small estimate

because if, let's say they just wanted to pay more, my guess is that every school in the state of Texas, especially in the Big 12, called HBO and said, we would like for you to be our plus one. The average is about a million, apparently. Well, at least this is for SEC game, home games against non-power-five teams. 987,000 average. The highest was, this is a year ago, 1.9 million Auburn paid UMass.

Right. So Texas Tech's probably going to, for an HBO game in a normal circumstance, would probably draw 40,000. They won't sell the game out. So 40,000. Well, yeah, would, would HBO normally go for $750, $8,500? somewhere in that range? Probably.

Do you give them the discount because there will be no fans? You probably don't do one for one discount, though. You probably, I wouldn't think HBO would say, I think HBO would want close to half or more. Yeah. My guy, yeah, I bet you he's, you know, I'll do a little deal. Let's probably negotiation.

See if I can find out. Okay. Matt's got sources. I got sources. I got sauces. Like Chris Broussard does. Now they're better than 50-50. I would hope so.

All right. Within the side. Matt is a mole deep within the HBO Husky system. I'm going to try to find out. All right. Now, we welcome back for what is this about the fourth season we've done this on this? Because we try to make,

because everybody plays sound bites and they're boring as a. Well, we've been doing this longer than four years. We used to do what you're talking about Gary. Oh, that's right. We're looking at season seven and eight of this. Yeah, somewhere in that neighborhood. Of taking the head coach of the Houston Texans football team, instead of turning around 15, 20-second boring-ass sound bites,

have a little entertainment value to them. we do this right here Coach O'Brien All right since you have the computer screen in front of you Yes I have the slugs

But they don't But create Have too much information All right Give us the first soundbite You would like to play for Let's go with Bill O'Brien Asked what he hopes to create

With David Johnson And Duke Johnson At running back How many seconds 52 seconds Ooh That's got a lot of meat On that bone

It's a lengthy These are all pretty lengthy 52 seconds I'll throw a couple things and you throw a couple things we'll do it together we're a family they

he loves their versatility will be definitely in there good route runners tough durable which is really not true and always want to keep defenses guessing

okay I'm going to go with, yeah, I mean, we got a great group at the running backs, and right now, I mean, you talk about David Johnson. This is a guy who just a couple years ago was all pro over a thousand yards from scrimmage. He's got great hands. He can block. He can run. He can really do it all. He's a complete package. And Duke Johnson, we know what he can do catching out of the backfield. And I think we've got a really dynamic group right now. And one of the things you have to do in offense is you have to scheme for mismatches. And I think we'll be able to do that with this group.

Yeah, we've worked hard in the off-season to, you know, come up with different packages, you know, relative to some of the things we've done in the past. And, you know, some of those packages obviously involved David and Duke. Both guys are, I believe, three-down backs. They can play on all three downs. They can run it. They can catch the ball in the backfield. Really smart guys, really good communicators. I would say, you know, David's come in here and been very impressive in great, fantastic shape, smart, durable, you know, really picking up the offense well.

We saw that in the spring. Versatile. But to see him in here in the walkthroughs and things that we're doing, you know, I think he has high expectations for himself. That's the type of guy he is. And we have high expectations for him. Is he speaking in an underground crypt or something? No, he's in his office. Okay.

On a Zoom. I guess Brendan, you're judging this. Well, I failed miserably. I didn't get close. Matt,

no, Matt was all right. I thought you did okay. Good job, Matt. I did have him saying he can catch the ball, but he didn't say block. I thought he was going to say that too. The biggest mistake we made in May boys

is not mentioning three downbacks. Or relative to. He always says relative, this is relative to that. We should have absolutely had that. For the record, I think you saying versus,

or not versatile, but durable and him saying good shape, to me, that's close enough. Thank you. Brennan's... Every NFL player's in good shape. If you mention it, you need durable.

Brendan's kiss-ass game is improving. You know what? I appreciate your kiss-ass game. It's a five-star. Go ahead. Well, let's get another one for... I didn't point at him, so he doesn't know this. Coach O'Brien.

Bill O'Brien asked about Brandon Cooks about what he heard about him before signing and what he sees now. Oh, how long is this? Forty seconds. What he saw before? First of all, this is a million-star guarantee. And so I'm going to go with one-and-one only here.

Okay. He's going to mention how much Jack Easterby loved him and how he had to bring him in. What else you got? I'm staying with that and that only. Well, look, what I saw before is one of the most dynamic pass catchers in a league. Brandon Cooks has been over 1,000 yards three of the last four years. He can really run down the field and actually can get the whole route tree going. and he's going to really stretch the field for us,

and he's going to bring a dynamic element to our passing game. And we knew that before, and now, I mean, he's just such a hard worker, good teammate, works hard, and we're really happy to have Brandon Cooks on our side. Number one thing that everybody talks about, Jack was around him in England. So, you know, it was just what type of person he is. Yes.

Really good teammate, you know, cares about the team, does whatever the team asks, puts the team first. team. And then as skill set, you know, great speed, a guy that has come up with tough catches in his career, good ball skills, and a guy that practices every day and really does a good job of trying to get on the same page of this quarterback, which he's doing here with Deshaun, although, you know, we're just walking through right now. But yeah, a lot of great reviews of Brandon. You're right. He's in a tunnel. Yeah, I know. I was happy, gentlemen. I went with Jack and Jack only, and I won.

Five seconds in. It didn't take any time at all. Good job, Maddie. All right. Last one of these. Coach O'Brien. Bill O'Brien asked what they miss out on no preseason. 40.7 seconds. You know, nothing

replicates practice. Nothing. You can zoom all you want to, but to be on the field, run the routes to hear the pads the pads are popping i'm staying with just that okay i'm gonna go with there's and is what it is at some point i'm gonna say uh well yeah obviously you miss on the games it's tough to evaluate everybody when you can't get them in here we're doing a lot of zoom meetings we're doing a lot of virtual meetings and we're getting to go guys know no guys that way and and

that's important but it would be nice if we could get a look at these guys but you know it is what it is we're in the middle of a pandemic right now and every other team is is dealing with the same thing. So we got to go about our business and we got to be smart and we got to make good decisions and do what's best for the team. Look, it's an unprecedented year. There's a lot of things that would take place in a normal year that you're going to have to figure out. I think my college background gives me a little bit of experience in that. You know, there's no preseason games in college. So relative to, you know, getting ready for game day from a communication standpoint with the coaching staff, with the players and things like that, I think we have a good plan for that. I think

the one thing that would be something that would be missed would be the opportunities that the younger players get in the preseason games. You know, they're not going to, they're not going to get as many opportunities. So they really have to take advantage of the opportunities that they do get, you know, especially now, but especially once we put the pads on. Oh, I did say pads. Did I not? I don't remember that. Oh, I got a little bit towards the end. But I didn't do a great job, nor did you. That's okay. 144. I really thought we were going to get it is what it is. is. Yeah, and relative two came into play. He did say unprecedented time. That's true. Everyone should have been every time we do a sound bite. Let me tell you about Coors Light.

You want to watch a Rockets game tonight at the house? You want to listen to the Rockets and Astros on our stations. Have a cool Coors Light in front of you. Cold, delicious, refreshing light. Have two or three. Have four or five, but don't drive. That's all I'm going to ask for you. And when the mountains are blue at the top of the can, that means they are at. peak refreshment. Cori's light, when they said, hey, we're going to leave Colorado and try the... Matt has eye trouble. He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything anytime soon.

Sorry about that, friends to the north. Back to the Matt Thomas show. We have a little bit of breaking news here, 150 on the Matt Thomas show. We were talking about this with Dusty a couple days ago. Remember, we were asking him if he thought the roster should be staying at 30? Well, they said, no, you have to drop it to 28, but they're going to keep them at 28 the rest of the season, which is a smart move. Yeah, they were going to go to 26, correct? In the 30 days, yeah, we're going to keep it to 20 years. So the two players that I got sent down

to the Taxi Squad, taxi squad will be Brian Obrayew, who I thought was really highly regarding the organization, but just hasn't pitched well or enough. And regular Jack Mayfield. Super Jack Mayfield, unfortunately, said down. I don't think if you... Do you think people call him super around the office? Super Jack? Supreme Jack? I just Googled Super Jack. What is that? It's like a burger at Jack in a box, yes?

Super Jack is a potent sativa-leaning hybrid that amplifies the outstanding effects of its two-parent strains. Or is it? The energetic bud is a product legendary sativa jack-haer in a house... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's weird. There's a marijuana strain of Super Jack. All I'm saying is if I'm going to have the word super in front of my name.

Let me put Mayfield. I'm either going to be a man with has great powers, or I'm just the biggest badass you can find. I'm more of a Curtis Mayfield guy. But, uh, yeah. I mean, he's kind of a fringe major leaguer the whole time anyways, right? He's four A. Yeah. And that's fine.

I mean, he can carve out a nice career. Yeah, make some money. not great money but good money start a car dealership somewhere at some point let me tell you where are super jacks from he has a car lot come down and see super jack mayfield super jack mayfield here

gonna tell you about the vehicles we have here that are second than none you want a brand new two thousand twenty one Nissan come to super jack mayfield you want a nineteen seventy seven gremlin you come see me

super jack mayfield i got them all here It's Super Jack Mayfield's lost. He's not selling Gremlins, Matt. Okay. We have Ugo's as well. Do you remember the Does Ford make focuses anymore?

Yeah, I think so. This is when I was making no money, basically living like you do now. Yeah. I love the focus so much that I told Kim, we were very young at the time. I think we were barely married. We should buy two of them.

Wow. Because they were, they can't. So you should want it to buy FOSI. We got our first kind of starter home at young couples in her 20s get. And then we're like, well, how are we going to keep? Because I was driving from the Kingwood to work at the time, which was in the Montrose area. I said, I need a car that's going to get me great gas mileage.

Yes. And these Ford focuses are really, are really, you know, get 35, 38 miles of the gallon. Yeah. Nice cars. Until I got in the car and was extraordinarily uncomfortable and said, I want no part of this. Why were you uncomfortable? It just wasn't a great ride. Well, I thought you loved it.

so much you wanted to get two. Well, that's because I fell in love with looking at the sticker price. Oh, okay. You get like a full Ford Focus loaded up for about 15 grand at the time. That sounds nice. My guess now Ford Focus is going to win you 20, right? Most cars cost you 20,000 these days, at least. I mean, if you're buying brand new, probably. If you're doing a small level. So you're going to go to Beck & Mass and get you a good deal. Entry level sedan, yes. All right. So where are we going? How do we get Super Jack and you feel? Oh, the car lot. I don't know how you got to for folk Wow

What They have a high-end package Ford Focus ST that's going to run you 44K You're lying I'm not lying What There's no change Ford you ought to be embarrassed

Wait Ford Focus retires There's no way there's a $44,000 Ford Focus out there It's the ST It's got a six-speed manual Or a seven-speed Automatic transmission You ain't getting ladies that way

It ain't happening Uh A suited-up Ford Focus will not get you women. There's no chance. I would never turn to my car to get women. First of all, I can't afford it. Oh, it happens, though. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, if you're driving a Lamborghini, you're not going to get the type of woman you really want. I used to do commercials for Porsche, Audi dealers in Minneapolis. Really? And they used to give me cars to drive. Yeah. I used to go.

I was in a, is it the Cyan? Is that what that is? Yes. And there's a Boxter, too, I think. Yes. Boxer's kind of the low-level roadster. It was the, yeah. It's like kind of an SUV, right?

Both of them, I would get honks and thumbs up from people. Really? I was like, man, I must be driving really well. And I'm realizing I'm driving a $75,000 car at the time. Well, yeah, but did you have any women hitting on you because of it? Well, they can't hit on you when you're driving. Okay, well, that's what I'm saying. You're making my point then.

Well, unless you're Christy Brinkling vacation. She's winking at you and you're taking your sandwich and kissing her on that. Has that ever happening? Well, I mean, I wouldn't sound there. And while you were in a Porsche when you were in a cayenne? I can't say this. You know who's listening? It didn't happen.

I'll tell you after the show. It didn't happen. It might have. I don't think so. I'm just telling you, cars can get you the ladies. Yeah, if you have no game

and you're unattractive and uninteresting, maybe for a week. I don't know if a $44,000 forward focus is going to do much good for you. I mean, it could hurt. That's true. All right,

we have the final hour with the show coming up. 350 horsepower not in a Ford focus in the ST this whatever that is okay sport team no it's just all made up

are we going to play some more sad astro highlights if you want to we might as well depress everybody they give up 14 freaking runs guys in the number with their jersey numbers in the 90s all pitched yesterday sounds great after left with colors eight run inning that plus a load of breaking news on

Lakers and Rockets games. What? Well, not since we've talked about it, but since the show began. And non-Florida stories at 2.30. A lot to get to in the final hour of the show. 713-212-579 if you'd like to join us. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. It's 157 on Sports Talk 790.

Is the Matt Thomas show. The pitch, and it's pulled down the right-field line, and it is off of the the wall and now Springer's going to have to chase as it is it ricochets wildly towards center field straw's going to pick it up one run will score and they're going to send Calhoun and he'll score on an inside the park home run what a tricky home run a two-run homer for Cole Calhoun breaking ball and that's hit hard down the right field line and that's fair it's gonna go into the corner and that's probably gonna clear them

Marte will score Walker's going to score they're going to send Escobar he'll score it's a triple for Peralta and the Diamondbacks all of a sudden lead five to four hit on the hands and hit out into left center field that's going to send straw back and that's going to bang off the wall off the base of the wall and left center field Marte with an RBI double second bench knee is grounded and it is through into left field that's a base hit Calhoun will score Marte to third base on the sharp single by Walker. And it's nine to four now, Arizona.

I've never heard this song, but it does fit. It sounds like a song you'd hear, you're getting your clothes on in an old Navy. Okay. Perhaps an American Eagle. Yeah, that too. American Outfitters, right? American Eagle Outfitters, yes.

Yeah. Well, let's not say we went to a mall to buy clothes. Yeah, see me too. Christmas of 18, maybe? And it wasn't for me. I was buying presents. Yeah. You said I'm going to stop by Levi's get your pair of jeans.

I bought myself something. I'll go to an outlet mall. Yeah, outlets a jam. I went to one of those a couple months ago. I don't go shopping a lot as it is. I just don't, you know, but I'm just, yeah, outlets at the jam. Like San Marcos. Yeah.

There's one in Texas City on the way to Galveston. Yeah, it gets you some irregular jeans. Yeah, like one pant leg size is like a half inch sword in the other. One's longer than the other. One of the rivets is missing on the pocket. It's totally fine. Perfect. Massive savings.

So who sang that song? What's it called again? Post Malone, I fall apart. Post Malone. Yeah? I fall apart. Your favorite rapper, Matt? I've been to one or two of his concerts.

Have you? Yeah. Okay. What's your favorite song of his? That one. What's your second favorite? Hmm. Let me think about it.

It's a very difficult decision. Yeah, I don't want to put you on the spot like that, Matt, because you just celebrate the whole catalog. That's true. All right. So on the scale of one to 10, How worried are we about Lance McCullors having two bad performances and one really good one to open up his young season? One to 10, 10 being, I'm in full panic.

One, I'm like, leave the man alone. Eight? Oh, that high. Yeah, I think so. He had one really good start. And then since then he can't get through the second go through the lineup without giving up a bunch of runs the last couple of times. And he just completely fell off of the face of the earth yesterday. How much of it is the moisture?

he wasn't able to get moisturizer or whatever his story was. And see, I'll say this. You know, when someone is as forthcoming as he is, and I had the same problem, sometimes you're too honest. Like, you know, they call me around here, honest, Matt. Nobody calls you that. And sometimes you say too many truths that some people can go out the wrong way. In this particular case, he never should have brought up the roof under any circumstance.

He called it ass. They knew it was going to happen before the game. I guarantee you, Chase Field Guy doesn't have the authority to just decide when he wants to open up the roof. First of all, why are they opening up the roof to begin with? I don't know. It's August in Phoenix. It was 105. I think Blummer said during the broadcast. It was 105 when they opened it up. What? There's no fans. Who are they opening up for?

Granted, I understand the humidity is at 12%. Yeah. But my God, again, the only way I would think of it, honestly, is the ball travels even more at that stadium. Is that what they wanted? And maybe they were thinking, you know what? We haven't done squat against him. Here's the problem with. Here's the thing that you kind of a little bit sighed with McCullors on this,

is that the first three innings, he's just throwing BBs, getting guys out. They open up the roof, and all of a sudden it becomes batting practice. I mean, it literally became batting practice. Everybody that went to the order, one hit after one hit. They went through 13 guys in the inning. Yeah, but he's a guy who's been struggling of the second run through the lineup. Yeah, I would put my concern level at a six.

Okay. I'm an eight. I'm concerned. I hope he's okay. It's not about arm. It's not only about him. It's about effectiveness. It's about effectiveness.

And it's the fact, you know what? If Justin Verlander were pitching well and Zach Grinky were pitching well, I would be probably at a six or a seven like you. But because the Astros need him and they need him to be an ace and somebody to step up and help this bullpen, that's what put me at an 8. That makes me that my concern level is that much more heightened

because how much more important he is. Yeah. I'll say this. If he doesn't turn it around, the Astros are screwed. Christian Javier, fantastic, right? Unless Brandon Belak is all of a sudden prime Randy Johnson or Kurt Schilling or somebody.

None of these guys, well, is Javier was a minor league pitcher of the year, right, in the Astros organization? Yeah. So there is a little bit of, we can't wait to see what he's got going, right? The rest of them, be like I've never heard of as a high-level prospect, right? No. Fromber, we know what he does.

Josh James has been relegated to the bullpen. There's not a whole lot of options. The only way the asterers are ever going to get their mojo back is if two things happen. One, they make a tray, which should be happening. And two, they get some incredibly good news from Justin Verlander about him being able to come back and pitch. Short of that, you have a very young, not necessarily, well, partly ineffective, and mostly unknown starting rotation. In experienced. With a bullpen who's done well so far, but the second and third time through the order with these guys.

And the guys start getting tape on them. And oh, by the way, you're playing the same opponents over and over again. Yes, that's true. You're not just going off to play the end. Yankees wants, the Indians once, the Royals once, you are facing lots of Arizona, lots of Texas, lots of Oakland, and they'll be able to figure out who these guys are, and Scana reports will be that much easier. I agree.

It's a concern. The first run with everybody making their major league debuts, it's been fairly solid. The Bullpenny RA is good, but I'm concerned long term. Like yesterday, the Bullpenny R.A. just got beat the hell. I mean, it just did. Yeah, I guess I don't know what the Bullpenny R.A was, but I don't want you. You checking it every day. Everyone gave up a run.

All the 92s and the 93s and the 97s and the Navaldos and the Sanabrias. The Astros bullpenny RA is like you getting on to a scale. If you get on the scale every day, sometimes you're going to get good results. And if you have one bad day, you've gained those five pounds and you feel miserable about yourself. Today would not be the day you'd want to go to the bullpenny R.A. Now tomorrow or tonight if they throw BBs and Brandon Beulet goes five and the Astros bullpen gives up one run over four, And you feel better about yourself tomorrow. But I would treat the Astros Bullpenny RA

the same way that I would treat getting on the scale the way yourself. Just do it about every four or five days. Well, just like that with the scale, I can't help myself and I have to check it every day. Oh, no. What is it now? It's 2.83. It went from 1.993 to 2.83. So I'm also running one single day. Where are they right now?

They're seventh. So that's still way better than I thought anybody, anybody would think they would be at this point. Pretty good. Okay. You're not allowed to check. the bullpen ARA until Monday. Okay.

That's four games. Well, let me check their bullpen X-Fit for you. It's not good. Let's move on. I don't even know. Am I supposed to know what X-FIT is? Field-independent pitching, and then it's adjusted for ballparks.

That's a dorky stat. It is, but I think it's a good stat. You look at the X-Fit numbers constantly. When you're sitting around, you're like, I want to know what the X-FIT is. Yeah, I don't look at field-independent pitching, yes. Because if you have a bunch of hard-hit balls, Sometimes, Matt, you know, somebody will give up a hard hit ball.

It goes right into a glove, right? It's just fielding independent pitching. If somebody's giving up a bunch of hard hit balls and then they're not pitching well. All right. Let me give you. The defense is saving them. Okay, not counting home runs, RBIs, batting average, and ERA. Here's what I look at.

I like, I'm a big fan of OPS. I think OPS is the determination, especially if you're 800, that means you're at least an average competent major league baseball player. Anything under 800 gives you the hebi-g-g-bees. Anybody that's in over 1,000, and you're like, this guy's a megastar. On the pitching side, I believe in WIP, walks and hits per innings pitched. I look at the walks-to-strikeout ratio. If you're a big strike-out guy, that's awesome. But if you also walk as many as you strike out, aka Josh Flames James,

those strikeouts don't mean much to me. That's what I really look at. Okay. That's fine. Like the war number? I'm not huge under war, certainly not early in the season, because it doesn't matter. I mean, like, 0.4 war doesn't matter. But if you're 0.4 war, does that mean you've got to make a change, or does that mean the guy's going to the Hall of Fame? I look at field independent pitching.

ERA plus is a good one I like. Of course, you want to your favorites, Matt. Exit Velo. I hate exit Velo. I hate spin rate. Again, these are people that normally don't touch people on a regular basis intimately that create these numbers to justify their jobs. Now, if I'm in the baseball operations department of a major league baseball team, I have a different focus on this. If I'm a basketball ops person, like if I'm working for Darrell Morey, every one of those like EF, e field goal percentages. Effective field goal percentage. Yeah. E, whatever. I'm all in. You don't like EFG?

Right now. Why not? No. The only stat I do like is points per possession, for hunter processions. Yes. And I also think the defensive rating kind of evens things out, too. effective field goal percentage is just basically tells you, it just factors in three-pointers.

It's quite simple. I like keeping my field goal and my three points separately. Okay. What if, well, the Rockets shot like 39% from the field and they still beat the bucks. You know why? Because they made some threes. The effective field goal percentage was better.

And as Mike Dan Tony said earlier, he doesn't care about your rebound numbers. Leave him alone on that. That's true. He got feisty today on that. A little bit, yeah, about the rotation as well. He has been criticized for not lengthening the rotation. And if you miss part of that, in fact, we will close a show out with a little bit of that.

We'll talk about the rotation and a little bit about the rebounding numbers. We'll get those two little snippets in before the – we'll do that in the final segment of the show coming up in about a half an hour. Wonderful. 212 on the Matt Thomas show, 713-212-5-790. If you'd like to be a part of our show today, that's 7-1-3-212-7-90. Big news of the day is LeBron James is not going to play. against the Rockets with a sore groin, but don't we all? And Mike Dan Tony said earlier today that it'll be more likely not than yes that Russell Westbrook plays against the Los Angeles

Lakers. How much of that has to do with LeBron? Probably quite a bit. This damn groin of his has gotten him in a lot of trouble. Again, the people here at 790 trying to alter things I say to satisfy their own needs when it comes to sound bites. 212 with the Matt Thomas show. We welcome You next. 713-212-5-790. This is Craig Ackerman. And the Rockets get the job done. Oh, here's another new catchphrase I have for you.

Good gracious. Good gracious. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. 217. We've got non-Florida stories coming up in the next segment of the show. Brendan, where is your non-Florida story from this week? I'm still trying to find something better. I'm not in love with anything I have yet.

I got a couple, but nothing I love. I've got one from South Yorkshire, England. Mine is from Athens, Georgia. Beautiful. Is that something happened to the Georgia Bulldog? You'll find out in 12 minutes on Sports Talks, 7. We got some college football players bowing out of the season. That is correct.

I don't follow Penn State football, so I can't speak to whether or not this is a big deal or not, but Micah Parsons is out as a linebacker this year for Penn State. And I know that's a big deal because Sam Con retweeted another guy who did it. Let me ask you about college football players saying thanks, but no thanks. Is that a big risk they're taking? Do you think way more so than, say, an NFL player or a majorly baseball player because they're under contract?

These kids, these scholarships can be revoked and moved on. and taken away year after year after year. They don't do a lot of that because that sets a bad precedent. And so kids won't want to go to school if they don't feel like they've got multiple years guaranteed. But I'm wondering if we're going to see a handful of players that are good, but not like all Americans, say, I don't want to take this chance. And then why not wanting to go back and say 2021 or 2022 and their spot not being available to them? And what kind of negative brushback colleges will give?

if they tell kids, well, we understand why you didn't want to play, but we can't hold your scholarship and we're going to go, we're going to go in a different direction, we've got another kid to play. Can they do that? I don't have the answer to that. I'm just curious if that is going to be a storyline. I would say no.

I think most of the Micah Peters guy, I think, is thought of as a first-round draft pick. So maybe do you think he's doing it as much for COVID as he is for, this doesn't seem like a season that I want to hurt my draft status. I'm sorry, Michael Parsons. Yeah,

Michael Parsons is, I'm just going to a random draft website to the draft network. They have him as a third overall prospect in the entire. Trevor Lawrence first.

Pinaisual, offensive tackle with Oregon, and then Michael Parsons third. Okay, so this is clearly a big name guy then. So he doesn't really count. but I'm talking about just Joe guy. Greg Rousseau, who also just opted out from Miami,

he's number seven on this list. See, that's the thing is the regular guys aren't going to gain much traction, right? Like a linebacker at Iowa State. Starts, makes tackles, but not considered any sort of serious pro prospect. Does he think twice, he being whoever he is, think twice about missing out, taking his season off,

knowing that if he does, that somebody could take his spot right away. Because there's, I mean, at this point, Rossi, there's going to be college football in 2020. It may be a CF when it comes to who plays. Not Division 2 or Division 3. They've been canceled. Right. But my point is Division 1.

I mean, they're going to try to do this. In fact, we just found out today that Texas Tech signed up to play HBO in September. Go Huskies. Go Huskies. And by the way, source is close to me. Think that we were a little conservative in the $250,000 category. Okay. So it is what it is.

well I did say I didn't think it would be a one-to-one 25% down to 25% payment but yeah he did it well so what do you think do my guess is if you are a college football player and you've got no health concerns about yourself or your family you're ready to play football I would imagine yeah I mean this is only a couple of big names that we've heard of I don't know how many opt-outs there have been across

the Power 5 conferences or FCS either like if the only name it's going to resonate honestly, and I know that this Micah Parsons obviously is a big time stud from what you just said. But if Trevor Lawrence says, I'm not playing because of COVID, that's going to rock the world, right? That'll be very big story.

Short of that, there really isn't anybody else in college football that could take the season off. Maybe Justin Fields at Ohio State. Yeah, that'd be one of them. Yeah, it's going to be a very short list of guys who are just going to, as you say, rock the college football world. But these two guys are big names,

within that realm because of the third thought of as high level NFL prospects. And that's probably a reason why that there was nobody really pushing for a spring season because if you had spring football and you were going up against the NFL calendar and the NFL draft, then that list of really notable players would be probably 10 big and 10 times the size of it right now. There's no reason if you're, there's no reason if you're Trevor Lawrence to be playing spring football where you're going to be drafted a month. Unless you just love football. You can.

but also I would say it's a long-term win to not play, to opt out. Let's go to Gerard on the southwest side at 223 on 7-90. Gerard, how are you? I'm doing all right, man. How are you guys doing? Now, before you go, we're doing great. It says you want to talk Astros on here? Man, I talk everything, man.

I know all the things, man. NFL, NBA, you know, it don't matter. Box, I talk everything. You know, I call the Rockets Post game show. I know. I call the Astros Post game show, too. I talk Astro. I love the Astro.

Can you talk Seshwane cooking? What's Sashwan cooking? Yeah, Sashwawin. Oh, okay. Cetswash cooking? No, I can't talk there. Don't know what they. All right.

Don't know that. All right. Don't know that. I watch yours, friend. I watch him most of his whole career. That guy's got a lot of talent, man. But it seems to me, man, he gets a little bit too amped up before games. He's a guy that relies on his breaking pitches a little bit too much,

If you ask me, man, a guy's got a 95-plus fastball. It seems like when he gets into, you know, two strikes, man. The opponents know he's coming with a breaking pitch. He's coming with a curveball. You know, they kind of know what to anticipate, man. He's got to get out of that consistent pitching rhythm that he's in, man. He's got to change it up, man. He's got allowing his fastball a little bit more.

Because I think when you look at his whole career with the injuries, and even when he's pitched well, he's a guy that goes five innings, 105 pitches. He doesn't never get, he's never been a seven inning. guy. I think the year he went to the All-Star game, he came, you know, he put in a couple of six-inning games, and he was able to make the All-Star team. But it seemed like the second half of his, that season, he kind of fell off. So he just got to get more consistent, man. You know, he's got the talent. He's got the talent level, but it just for whatever reason throughout

his career, he hasn't been able to put it all together, man. And hopefully he won't be one those guys that you'd be looking like, dang, he had the potential, but it just never reached this full capacity. Hopefully that won't be the case with him, man. But hopefully he'll get it together, man. But I'm like what I'm seeing out of Christian Javier. We get Jose Ocudee back. Maybe we're going to have to rely on the young guy this year, along with the Wiley veteran, Zach Rinkie, man.

We'll see how it plays out the rest of the season. Quick thing on the Rockets. Covington and PJ Tucker have got to find these three-point shot. I think the problem with them is, you know, they're going against bigger guys. They're banging with bigger guys. They might be taken away from their three-point shot, man. But they've got to find that three-point assistant.

We want to, you know, win the championship this year. Hardin, based on the last game, he's got to get a little bit more aggressive going to the basket. Quit settling for the three, get to the basket, defense collapse, fire your shooters. Russell Westbrook, his mid-range game has been off really since he's been in the bubble. He's going to have to get more consistent with that. Get more consistent with that. You know, that's a shot that's really frowned upon in the rocket's offense. So if he's going to take it, you've got to be more consistent.

Like with Chris Paul was here, he was hitting that mid-range jump on a consistent basis, which made that tolerable. in this Rocket's offense. So he's got to get better at that aspect of his game. And the Rock has got to be more consistent shooting the three. I like what I see out of house and green. Macklemore's been consistent, man. But I think PJ and Coventon's got to find their three-point shot,

which could be a problem when they're going against other teams big. They've got to bang and stuff like that. They could take away from their three-point shot. But nevertheless, they've got to find this shot, man. So let's see what happened against the Lakers, man. I don't know if LeBron or AD playing today. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're not been listening to my show today.

I told you at 12 o'clock LeBron James wasn't playing. Oh, you're not playing? No. Where have you been? No, man, I'm out here working the things, man. When I get in the car, I try to catch you guys. I'm in and out, man. I'm in and out.

So, you know, I'm in and out of stuff like this. I catch you. I must have missed that. That's all right. That's all right. I'm just teasing you. Go ahead. Okay, so yeah.

So, okay, they've got to take care of. After the day was playing. He's probably not going to play full minutes. So this is a game. The Rock is not about, you know, beating the late. because at their best, but the Wrecking isn't got to assure some things, based on the games we've seen in the bubble. So let's see.

We'll see what happens tonight against the Lakers. Thank you very much, Gerard. Appreciate the phone call. Glad you caught us for part-time of the show. With the interruption... What are you playing that? Because of the buzzer on them. 3-11, for those of you playing at home,

but that was with a small interruption by me. Yes. Yeah, by the way, whenever he calls you on the post-game show, which you'll do the night, don't interrupt him. I like to do it just to throw up. No, don't do it. That's the only reason I do it. Don't do it.

Don't do it at all. Non-Florida stories next 227 on Sports Talk 790. Hey, it's Craig Vigia. Listen to the home of the Astros in your home. Just tell your smart speaker, play Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. Every Thursday at this time, we take a segment of the show because I know that you need a break from your Texans backup lineback. talk to do something that no other radio show in the market, much less America does, and that is to give you stories outside of the state of Florida. It's ridiculously easy to give you stories

about woman beats up drive-thru employee with a firecracker, and that happens in Melbourne, Florida all the time. What's happening in the other 49 contiguous, 48 contiguous states? No, there's 48 contiguous into it, so 47. And go. And, uh, a, uh, Other world. We could use in Alaska, though. There's no problem with going to home. Oh, I'd love to go to Alaska. Weird stuff happens in Hawaii.

So we're going to go with this week's non-Florida stories. I will start today. We will go dateline, Athens, Georgia. May I read it in a Georgia voice? You want to read it in Georgia voice? Yeah. Okay, hold on. Give me some Ray Charles here.

Well, how about we just give you this? No, that's, that's Kentucky. Oh, is this content? What about this one? I really get Brendan, give me some Lou Rawls

Georgia on my mind. Lou Rawls. Not Lou Rawls. Ray Charles. What are that great song? Yeah. We don't play enough I just don't want you

desecrating that great song with some story. I'll start. He'll finish it up. A junior at the University of Georgia I'd rather just listen to the song. Said her professor kindly gave her another shot

to finish her economics exam after a meatball sub incident logged her out prematurely. Excuse me? Let Mr. Charles sing for a moment, if you will. Oh, such a good song. Brendan, do you know this song? Absolutely not.

For what's worth, I'm enjoying it. Fade down. Let me go finish the story and we'll give him some more ray. Sam Lee, 20 years old, was eaten a meatball sandwich. while taking her test when the meatball fell onto her keyboard. That didn't happen in the old South, mad, of Meatball on the keyboard? Lee said, Initially, she was more worried about her sandwich and computer that either one of them would be ruined.

But when she realized the screen she was taking the exam was no longer there, she really began panicking. I then took about six hours to write an email to my professor and sent it later that night, she said. According to Lee, her test results came back at 39%. So she concluded her email to her professor by asking if she could take the test again. To her response, her professor responded the next day and very empathetically. Samantha, this is certainly a new and unusual excuse for a low score.

But for that reason, it seems unlikely you've made this up, he wrote in his response. I've extended your deadline for the module 6 test until midnight so thus eat your meatball and take my exam and that's my non-flora

story from a neighboring state okay there's no way we can keep Ray Charles gone I mean I've made up a lot of things about why I messed up an assignment or missed a test or something like that most of the time the professors were not very forgiving so there you find

me here without a degree. I'm trying to think, I don't think I've ever made up a story. Oh, really? Well, I guess I should have thought about the meatball. Mike Neherian on Twitter says, Yo, Georgian accent sounds like more like Foghorn, Leghorn. Well, I say, well, I say, I say, you might be right, Mike. Where is Foghorn, Leghorn from?

He's from the South. He's got to be in one of those South Eastern States. All right. Do we have a place of origin? for Froghorn Leghorn? I'll look it up as you read your story. All right, let me take you to England

and more specifically South Yorkshire. Let me tell you about a man named Albert and Drew and his lady Valeria who they met on a dating site together and were dating for about a year. Eventually, Albert thought

that the time was right and it was time for him to pop the question. Now, he often did a little nice, small gestures for Valeria, but he wanted to do something big for this proposal. So he spent four hours lighting up their living room with 100 tea lights, 60 balloons, and more. Also with candles. Mr. Romantic, you call him. Yes. So he went to go pick up Valeria because he was going to bring her home, surprise her, and pop the question.

Well, he did all that prep time, and then after he went to go. pick her up and they came home. They returned to their place to find dark smoke billowing from the apartment at about a 30 p.m. Three fire crews from the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue came to the scene

and Noah was injured, but the apartment was completely burned down. He said, I wanted to do something from my heart, even if it didn't go exactly as planned. Apparently they continued to talk. He still proposed and she said yes.

he also bought her some flowers. So he just started her apartment, right? I think they lived together. Oh. When he showed up with flowers, I thought he must have broken something or destroyed something in the house, she said. Little did I know he had destroyed our entire living room.

He pulled out a box from his pocket, and I was speechless. He said that he messed up and that our house was literally in flames, but asked me if I married him, and I said yes. Let me ask you this. What if there wasn't an engagement on the line? What would she have done with that relationship?

It was like a third date. That is great. You know what? Maybe he wasn't going to propose at all. He just burned the house down. He's like, well, crap, I better propose. Let's be true and honest on those we are on the show. There are some people we know in life that get married because they get pregnant.

That's true. Maybe he didn't like her all that much, but thought, well, I burn the apartment down. The least I can do is marry you. Okay, now, hold on. He lit a hundred candles. He must have liked her at least a little bit. Well, I mean, it all burned to the ground. We have evidence of this?

I don't know. Maybe he's just a freak, Brendan. He's just a freak. People in London are freaks. And 100 tea lights and 60 balloons. There are pictures of the home. It's completely destroyed. Maybe, okay, I'll stay in correct.

He did like her. No, but I mean, it's possible that there were no candles at all and he just burnt the place down. But there's a chance that he wasn't going to propose her, right? Or was that the whole thing was to propose? That's what he says. That's his story. I will say this is not a case of I'm pregnant. Let's get married.

I'm going to say that he wanted to marry her all. long. Okay. I think so too. Okay. And I have a well wishes for Albert and Valeria. And they got married since? Uh, I think they're engaged. Okay. We should send them a gift. Like a fire extinguisher. If you'd like to, sure, yeah. That would be bad. Perhaps something that's flame retarded. That's true. All right, Brandon, what are you going to do to top those? Oh, I don't know that I'm going to. Although I did look at Ross's story. I think we get ours from the same place. This has happened many times. Um, I'm actually going to England as well, but I'm going to Cambridge where a man who's been missing for five years had been feared dead for some time

was found in a wooded area actually near where he had already been living hidden under some undergrowth that said very well hidden they hadn't had any leads on where he could be until a new Facebook account was set up under his name with pictures of him he intentionally chose to hide in the wooded area. This wasn't, you know, there were concerns that he was... Missing or dead?

Oh, yeah, there was concerns that he was dead, but the reason he was believed to be hiding out were fears of exploitation. They don't get too into the details. He has recently been found. What? So maybe a checkup on this down the road would have been the better route here.

But this man who's hiding in the wood set up a new Facebook account after five years. And it led to his discovery. That's how they found him. He's back on Facebook. You know what? If I had to go back and hide, like I shouldn't say, go back.

I've never hidden before for a long period of time. I'm not doing any social media. That's a bad idea. He missed it apparently. He missed Facebook. Yeah. What would you, what would be the one? All right.

I hate Facebook. What's the one you would miss the most? Facebook? No. Instagram. I'm good. Snapchat. Let's give me one more.

At Twitter. Twitter. What would you miss the most? Twitter's the one I use the most. I don't know. I wouldn't miss any of them. I think I'd miss Twitter. If I was going into hiding.

I'd miss Instagram the least. Facebook's way down the list for me. Twitter, Facebook. And then what was the fourth one? What I hardly do Snapchat? How about TikTok? Would you guys miss TikTok? What about Snapface?

No, TikTok is ridiculous. If you're 15 years or older, you should. be on TikTok. She mean for 14 and unders. Oh, okay. Unless you're hot in 26. That's why I'm on it. See? I'm speaking on a half of branding.

I thought that's why you're on Instagram, right? That's what Instagram is for. No, TikTok's the new generation. Okay. Instagram is so 2017. TikTok is just a, uh, I thought, well, I thought Donny T was going to shut that down. No, it's people, it's people that go on there and dance. Oh.

My daughter is on there all the time. And don't look at her. All right, 242 on Sports Talk 790. Mike Dan Tony updates us on a couple of things that we get asked about here on the radio show. Plus, if you want to get a phone call him before we close the show out, we'll look forward to hearing from you too. 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-2-5-790 with a message here for Shaw's jewelry at the corner of West Graham Montrose. Zero percent financing. Does that sound good on most purchases today at Shaw's jewelry?

They've been in the exact same intersection since 1966. Take care of Houstonian's needs for fine jewelry. If you've seen something in the newspaper on television and you want to create that special masterpiece piece of jewelry for that late in your life, tell the folks at Shaw's about it. They've got an on-site master jewel that can create anything you want. There's also a great selection pre-owned Rolexes. So if you've always wanted a Rolex but couldn't afford it,

now's the best time to do it with incredible savings and they look just good as new. That's pre-owned Rolex's. largest selection in Houston, Texas can be found in only one place. And that is, at the corner West Gray Mantras. They've been there since 1966, open Monday through Friday 10 to 7, Saturday's 10 to 6. That's Charles Jewelry, West Grey and Montrose. Hey, it's Carmelo Anthony. The Matt Thomas Show continues.

On your home of the Rockets. Sports Talk, 790. Yes. Ray and West Houston wants to talk about my Georgia accent. Do you think he will say Matt, that's magnificent? Matt, that was awful or somewhere in between. You will be criticized. Yeah, you wouldn't take the time to call the show to say, Matt, your accent's great.

It's like Twitter. Matt, love your show. You're the best. No, your show sucks. Go away. And I love Bunce. And how about you tweeting out when LeBron was, first of all, you got a bunch of retweets off of it?

We should explain. Go ahead. You tweeted out that LeBron James was going to be out because the injury report was released. I get an injury report off a text. And I'll peel the curtain back on this. Peel it. And I'm one of the first people in America about the game I'm about to call. What's the Rockets?

I don't get injury ports on the Nets and Clippers. I get it on the Rockets and whoever they play. Can you relay that to me so I can relate it to my bookie? No. It doesn't do it. It's something illegal. It's not interesting information. It just happens to be what I'm getting.

And it's for our preparation for the game. Well, I'm not working the game tonight because it's technically Rockets' home game against the Lakers. So where's I going with this? Oh, so I got it. It's a fairly significant note. So I just thought I put it on Twitter to say, hey, but if you're thinking about it. I wasn't looking for retweets or likes. And don't you, mm-hmm, me?

I'm just messing with you, Matt. I know you are. But it took a life of its own. Yeah. And there were people who were like, I haven't seen this anywhere else. I don't know if I believe this guy, this radio guy from Houston. There was a couple of retweets like that. but anyways we were just talking about how Twitter can be mean

yeah and thus people but we digress how many retweets did I get 659 how many likes that I get three 750 how many uh... comments what's your record for retweets you're probably gonna hit over a thousand okay was it was that the Lenny

no no no no no uh... retweets I don't know likes is over a thousand okay you're Linet Kakuua one got over a thousand. What was that about? You said Lanay Kakua is the Mayan calendar

you connected the two somehow. I did? Lanakakua is the mine, remember there was people talking, it was it 2012, was that when that whole thing went down with with, uh, what's his name too? Oh, anti-teo? It was fake government,

Manti-Tayao? Yeah, I got catfished. You said the Linnae Kakua is the mine calendar, is on the mine calendar or something. I don't remember. And it was really good, It was a rare good tweet. Well, I was baffled at how many retweets it was getting. But you got that. I want to say over 1,000.

Okay. Well, you find it. Yeah. It's, yeah, that's why you've got to follow SportsMT for breaking news on LeBron James and funny material. Basically, basically a subsector of this radio show. All right. So Ray, you believe, is going to rip my accent. Here it goes.

Ray on 790, good afternoon. Hey, good afternoon, Matt. Good afternoon. Rossi. How you doing? well. Thank you. Okay. I just want to say, I really love that Georgia accent. What? I think I really love.

I love it. And I love your Rockets play-by-play. Thank you. So I'm going to get a combination of you doing a quick James Hardin play-by-play and your Georgia accent, please. That's quite a challenge, Ray. Thank you. Could I do that?

But the problem is radio play by play, Ross, is so fast that the Georgia accent has to be slow, right? James Holland across the time. Yeah, it's hard to do difficult. You got to go more of the Keith Jackson if you're going to go. Oh, I found the tweet. Okay. It wasn't as many retwits as I thought. Okay, let's go with James Holland across the timeline.

Looks over to his love, Russell Westbrook. Russell Russell looks left throws a cross-court right-hand side over to Jeff Green Jeff Green going to look gives up the three gives it back up the James top of the arc now to the free throw line settles for the mid-range jump in no way up begs the man to the lane scoop and his skulls I got Ringo star mix in there how do I get that in there you did go Ringo I can do Ringo stall a lot easier with play-by-play than doing a Georgia yeah I can't do it so the answer is Ray I cannot what so we're trying to find something. Okay. Yeah, I can't do it. Well, you know, Matt, okay, you can't do it? No.

You went a little wringo on us. That's okay. How did I go from Georgia to Rango? All in the same. Not good. It's okay. Actions are difficult, Matt. There, there. Mike Dantone. Who? Said today that it's probably more likely that Russell Westbrook does not play, but Mike Dantone was asked about rotations and how y'all are dying to see Tyson Chandler played 27 minutes, and you're dying to see Damari Carroll play 31 minutes. What does Chris Clemens have in the tank? We need to know. Can the team go grab Isaiah Hartinstein for the loss of Russell Westbrook?

Here is Mike earlier today here on 790 about the minutes and how deep they'll go. Well, you know, and that's another thing. When I crash, maybe go deeper. You know, I don't need to. Austin Rivers played 15 minutes the other night. To go deeper the bench means, you'll play 30 tonight. That's deeper in the bench. you know, it's like they crack me out by numbers.

It's like, well, you only play eight guys. Well, because I had three guys playing in the low 20s. I'll just help Jeff Green to 31. I'll be in to 30 and Austin to 30. Then that's all I need to do. You know, that takes minutes off everybody else. So it's a matter of James right now that average about 34 minutes a game. I'll do the first game.

First game over time, okay, I get it. You know, kind of screwed us up statistically. But last two games, he had 34, 33 minutes. PJ last game at about 33 minutes. Russ was at 35, just a couple minutes too high. Everybody else in the end of 30s. You're on 30. They need that.

Get in shape. Get in rhythm. They got to get tired so they can get on the other side of it. You don't get insane by not pushing yourself. He's like, leave me alone. I know what I'm doing. Yeah. If I wanted to play those guys, I thought it could help us win.

But I need my starters to play all 30. and Austin can play a little bit more, but that's about it. It's going to be nine when Eric Gordon comes back. Asked and answered. I think it's been a valid criticism of the lengthening of the rotation or lack thereof, certainly in the regular season where you're trying to keep guys fresh for the playoffs, and we've seen other teams do that, the quote-unquote load management. But coach gave us his reasoning, and I think it's sound.

I'm going to tell you, you sit down with Mike Dantonie and tell him about a rotation being needs to expand. He'll sit you down and he's rather convincing. It's not because he's being told not to play players or he gets in fights or gets sideways with him. This is what he thinks has to happen. Yes. We have time for the rebounding one? And we're out of time.

Sure. I think real quick. Here's the conversation we had about the rebounding numbers being such a one-way discrepancy on the other side of things. One thing, man, I've got to caution you as almost like. and pundits of basketball, just don't look at the rebounding as the total. And everybody does that.

And I hear it all the time, all you guys got killed on the boys. In reality, against Portland, who is a big team, they had four more second chance points than we did. So it really doesn't matter if they rebound all our misses or something. They would have less rebounds if we just make shots. But because we haven't been shooting the ball well, a lot of teams rebound. but so and we're small so we're going to give up some disparity in rebounds especially total rebounds but if you look second chance points those are the ones that we want to keep as close to zero as possible

and suck it and we're two and one i don't think he said any of that man he called me a pundant though which made me feel very happy i i will be officially play by play man yeah and a pundit speaking of pundits we got two great pundits coming up adam wexler adam clinton They are the A team pundits? It's the A team. Just a regular A team. They're going to grind it out until 5 o'clock today. Hope they're not going to be too tired after pulling a two-hour shift in.

They're next. We'll talk to you tomorrow for anything goes Friday here on Sports Talk 7-night.