The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Are Still Alive! Can This Young Squad Turn it Around? Astros Are Now 2nd In AL WEST

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Rockets Are Still Alive! Can This Young Squad Turn It Around ? Astros Are Now 2nd In AL WEST

1002 at H-town. Good morning, and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Thompson behind him to Shangoon. Baseline right here goes Jalen. Going to go up, lay it up, and drop it in. And that's the kind of start to Jalen Green and the Rockets Need. This game is tie with two with a foul on Golden State.

So does Shangoon at the top of the yard. Crossover against Green, turns spins, left-hand hook shot, back hill front. Iron and in. Two shots, almost the exact same spot. And Shangoon's got a pair of baskets. 13-8 rockets. Green curls around. Pritchemsky now guarded by Curry.

Back out to mid-court for Vandleet. Screen set by Shangoon. Pick and roll comes. Alpy, baseline left, Brooks three-point try. Up and in. Dillon Brooks with nine in the quarter. Rockets up by 12 at 25.13. By Brooks.

Brooks going against Butler. Turns it back out. Left Van Bambly. 27 feet. And that's nothing but night on. 10 in the quarter for Fred on his third three. Rockets up by 18. Lobb, baseline left.

Smith likes a side pocket three, and he's going to nail one to make it 49. It is a 13-0-0 run now. Butter steel for a man. Are you kidding me? Down the meet in the lane. And a jam on the right. Silly foul on Jimmy Boone for a three-point play. One-on-one, Euro steps against Buddy Heel, floats it over the cylinder,

and drops it in for two. Rockets back up by 29. Man Thompson going to go right up against Post, drops in a basket, and he's got an N-1 in the misery for Quentin. Post continues tonight defending any Houston Rockets. The make was by Moody, who finishes with 25, but ladies and gentlemen, inside TOTA center, it is a Rockets. Playoff win, and these two teams are headed back to San Francisco. Final score. Houston

131 Golden State 116 Let me tell you something I am back blank crazy right now All right, well take you that Well that's every day But especially today

I was highly charged during the game Highly charged a way home Yes Listen to sports RV For a good 45-50 minutes Got the complete rundown from Girard From start to finish Yeah you didn't

Did you tweet out his time? I was driving and I had Kim and Carl in the car, so I was like, they don't want me driving. I got you. You know, so I didn't do that. But I definitely heard it. And then I go to bed. Well, and then I'm like, I didn't pack and got to find out, we're leaving earlier than I thought. You got to pack for San Francisco.

Be sure to wear flowers in your, well, I can't do it in my hair, but that's a different issue for a different time. You'd have great flowers in your hair. Thank you, Matt. All right. And then I woke up in three. a bouquet. I woke up at 3.30 this morning and I have been awake ever since. So needless to say, I might say some things that may not be the most politically correct things. Thankfully, you're here to kind of squash those things and hopefully send me in a proper direction.

At the end of the day, I'm basically like your security guard. I just keep an eye on you, Matt. Well, you're my babysitter. Baby sitter, whatever you're going to share. You're like my firewall. Go into websites I shouldn't go to. Somebody's got to rain your ass in, Matt, and I'm here for it. I don't disagree. On the Matt Thomas show. And you know what?

Kudos, congratulations. You put your name on it and they blasted them, Matt. If you had a wheel of, we always are the wheel of topics, right? Yes. If we had something called the Wheel of Scenarios, Mm-hmm. On the wheel of scenarios, Ross, there is a buzzer beater. Yeah.

There is a close game. There's a comfortable eight-point win. And there is a pullaway in the fourth quarter to win by 10. On the wheel of scenarios, I did not have them up by 31. I did not have the reserves coming in and absolutely being atrocious, forcing Emaya Doka to bring the starters back in. I did not have Pat Spencer on the wheel of scenarios dropping dimes, head budding somebody. something called Braxton Oh, I don't even know how

I forgot his name, last name Braxton Q. Oh, no, he's got three numbers. I mean three names. Trace Jackson Davis. No, no, Trace Jackson Davis. He plays a little bit. Is it Braxton Key?

Is that who it is? Braxton Key, yes. He was God awful. Moses Moody was putting together his own YouTube video off of one game. Yeah, I think he finished with 25 last night.

Yeah. And then I, and then you go to the press conference were basically people that are covering the team are getting texts from people that are watching the Golden State broadcast saying that the rockets are going after Steph's finger

and basically the rockets are like and that's not on my will of scenarios it was it's pretty wild, pretty wild stuff in this series and then you had another review of an altercation I'm going to tell you this

and I don't and I, I'll have to check with the folks when we get to San Francisco later today. This Rocket Warrior, rivalry, you have to win on both sides of it, so it's not that. It's just, what would be the proper? It's not a rivalry, but it is an ugly, nasty. I mean, I don't even know if Warrior Laker gets this kind of chippiness. Yeah, we always go to the chippy word, and we seem to only do that in sports. It's greater than chippy.

Nobody's walking down the street and like, hey, those guys are getting chippy. We just talk about it in sports for some reason. Yeah, guys, it pulls a knife. It's aggressive, mean, angry, pugnacious. Ooh, pugnacious, great word. Huge word. Too big for this show. But whatever it is, it's really nasty.

Like, you know, in hockey, I don't know if you know this or not, but at the end of the series, they always, they do a line where everybody shakes each other hand. They punch each other in the mouth. No, they don't do that. They do it during the series. At the end of the series, they walk in the middle of the ice ring and they shake each other's hands. You know, and typically in the NBA, they'll hug each. I don't think Rockets Warriors are going to hug this one out.

I don't think so. It's going to be, what, a Pistons Bull situation? They're just going to walk out? But, I mean, we've had, what, over a dozen technical fouls. Probably. We had Pat freaking Spencer get ejected from the, I mean, milk toast. T-shirt-wearing number 61

Northwestern douche Yeah Try to headbut Alper in Shangoon And then Trace Jackson Davis pushes him after that

We've got Dylan Brooks saying If my ankle was hurt I'd expect you to come after me So why can't I go after Steph in his hand? I mean Rossi this ain't chippy

This is ugly And this is you got to hide the women and children kind of series. This isn't family-friendly broadcasts. This isn't a family-friendly NBA playoff series. But it's going to six. And I'm going to give you this. And I'm going to tell you something right now,

and I'm the voice of the rocket. So this, you have to take, you know, again, if you want to do this with a grain of salt, you can take this. Now that I had a chance to think about this, because when you're in bed at 3 o'clock in the morning and your wife is sleeping and you can't sleep, you think about a variety of things.

Okay. The rockets, need to be up in the series. They are athletically, significantly more gifted than the Golden State Warriors. The Golden State Warriors have two main scoring components,

Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler. They've had a couple of other guys step up. Bernie Pajinsky was really good in game number four. Moses Moody was good early in the series. Gary Payton was a difference maker in game three of the series. but the Rockets can throw at you five guys that can make a difference, five or six guys. Golden State can throw really two at you.

And that's why they've got to go win this game tomorrow night, and they've got to come back here and win Game 7 because for the first time, and maybe I'm off of, as you would like to say, recency bias. Hey! I'm going to steal a term of yours. The Rockets pound for pound are the better basketball team. They have hurt themselves with free throws, turnovers early in the series. And Jalen Green just...

Missed shots. And Jalen Green being in a different world for a couple of games. That's another ball of wax we haven't gotten to. And also, the scales tip in their favor when they're playing every other night, which last night was the third game in five days. Steph Curry looked gassed. Jimmy Butler looked gassed. Dremont Green didn't even play 20 minutes.

So now you're going to fourth game in seven. days. Clearly, Steve Kerr punted on that game, pulling all of his starters with $5.50 left in the third. He said, we're going to rest up, we're going to pack it up, and we're going to try to win it home. The more in the deep waters they get playing every other day, the more

it becomes an advantage for the Houston Rockets. And that's why we're going to go on a plane and go four hours again, the other direction, and the Rockets end to win this game. I don't want to think about what could have been. Because sometimes like, for instance, the Minnesota Lakers

is Minnesota just outplay the Lakers. Peered into story. We've got to get to Luke a little bit during this. Okay. And clearly Oklahoma City was better than Memphis, and we can go, and Boston was better than Orlando. I mean, we can go on, on, on, on, on.

The rockets need to show the moxie that they have shown this year with some incredible road victories in Cleveland, in Boston, in Oklahoma City. They need to beat the Golden State Warriors. If they beat them in game six, the series is over. They will win game seven.

In my opinion, put your name on it? Yes. You don't have to. I'll put my name on it. What's up? That's what I like it. That's what I like.

If they win game six, they're winning game seven. It's over. Let me say game six is a bear. First of all, Steph plays what they want home as he's done anywhere. I mean, he plays well anywhere.

How about that shot that he took from 60 feet that almost went in? Off the backboard, hung on the front rim. He just flippantly threw up a three-quarter shot and almost went in. He makes those with ease

and pregame and I mean he's made half-court shots a ton of times in his career. It was a work of art that almost went in. He's got the greatest hand-eye coordination in basketball history. I wasn't shocked. I caught part of me thought it was going in more than it would have with any other player on the history of the plan.

Correct. More so than LeBron, more so than Michael Jordan, all the tricksters, that was going to go in. Curly Neal with a hook shot maybe, but other than that... Metal arc lemons like that. I couldn't have made that. All right. 713-212-5-790.

Again, I'm going to fully admit to you I'm a hot mess. So come to be a mess with me. All right, Rocket fans, get in here. How about just good old-fashioned sports fans? By the way, we'll get Brian McTaggart on the baseball side of things at 11 o'clock today. As the Astros with A.J. Blueball. Oof. Now, the slam wasn't, well, he threw the pitch,

but it was unnecessary because Jeremy Payne commits the error. Yeah, it was an unearned runs. But still runs. That is true. And man, they, I think Steve Sparks would I use the term effusive with his phrase? Praise, yeah. Of? Just of A.J.

I think they, I think the Astros like him a lot. I can imagine. He's a good manager. So, no, no, no. AJ Hinch, you're talking about. Oh, I said what you did there. Yeah, so Blue Ball gets hit pretty hard. He's no longer, and then, well, I was going to go with a little hanging fruit about his name,

but we're not going to do that because we like the kid. And then so as soon as he finishes his start yesterday, he gets sent back down the AAA. Appreciate you, kid. It doesn't even get to go on the road trip to Chicago. And then the Astros will start. He will be replacing this rotation by? Lance McCullors, Jr. That'll be on Sunday.

And we'll talk to Brian McTaggart about that coming up today at 11 o'clock. I just don't get it at 1130. And then Gordy's going to step in. Is Gordy stepping in? Is that what the game playing? Today? Yeah. I don't know. He might have a meeting pop up or something. He's locked on SEC. I think he's supposed to be on in Lafayette at that time. I believe he's got four radio appearances all in the state of Georgia between 12 and one. He's in Athens, Macon, Savannah. He's not in the Atlanta area.

Oh, okay. We're going to get him there eventually someday. We've got them all over the map. So I've got to roll at noon today and we're leaving a little bit early. So yeah. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross. sometimes Matt. It's, I sort of got, I will, I will pay you back. Can you say pay you back in spades? Is that what they say? I think so.

What does that mean exactly? Does that have to do with the game spades? Do I have to buy you a deck and cards? Is that what you want? No, I don't know. But I'll be with you for a full four tomorrow from San Francisco. So, um, it was a must win. They got it.

By the way, if you want to call in, you need to call in. Because I think you guys are good sports fans and we like to talk to people. I mean, we're not on a show that likes to listen to ourselves speak for four straight hours. Google says in spades comes from Bridge. Oh, I've never played bridge before. Me either now. All right, 713, 212, 790. If you want to chime in, 713, 212, 570.

Rockets get the win. You guys want to get in on that. Yes, I do. Okay, so Jalen gets off to a fast start, then the knee is wrapped and hurt on the bike. He was, yeah, he was limping noticeably. He did not look good. Dylan look good.

Fred's knocking back three-pointers like nobody's business. I'm so happy about that. What else we got that was good? Amman Thompson knocking down steals. Pull up off the dribble 3s from the wing?

A man Thompson? Just retire his number already. If he starts making those. Okay, I got one for you. It's over. I got one free that needs over. I got one free that needs. needs to happen in San Francisco that had happened last night. Alpe's mid-range still does not look fluid.

He got three bounces off a mid-range, front-rim, heel, glass, and drop. Shooters touch, Maddie. Those feel like those fall in Houston, Texas. Those feel like those don't fall in San Francisco, California. That's okay. Yeah, he opened the game with a fallaway mid-range. His flamingo shot, as Craig Ackerman calls it. Yeah.

Those, if you want to talk about what a difference needs to be in the series, those have got a drop. You got hit your free throws. Amen Thompson scored a couple of times on basket cuts, and he was getting easy putbacks. As you said, Alper and Shungoon was making his shots. But the biggest factor to me was, I mean, they shot extremely hot from three, and they made 13 out of their 13 free throws in the first quarter. They were up 40 to 24 after the first quarter. If they had a shot like they'd been normally shooting, they would have been up only, what, like 12 in the game, I guess.

So, yes, it's crazy, Matt. You make these things called free throws, they put a point on the board. It goes up there. And you get it. When it once again, I think, proves for the 9 millionth time like free throws, it's mental. You don't all of a sudden have one day in between games and go, hey, Calvin Murphy, can you come over to the Rocket's facility and help us? Maybe he did. There's no chance.

And his Sequin jacket. There's no chance. What you do is you mentally focus and you think about the eye and you think about the concentration and you don't want. worry about the people waving things and whatnot or they're hooting and hollering and whatnot. And you just focus. And you keep similar form over and over again. Statistical regression to the mean as well.

I mean, it's generally things tend to tip back. Like, you know, like Yordon's hitting 200. He's going to have a hot, he's going to go back to the mean at some point. He's going to start swinging a hot bat. Yeah. 713-212-5-790. If you want to chime in on the conversation, 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. on Twitter at SportsMT at SportsRV.

All right. When we return, and we're going to be back in just a second here, won't be going along. Nico Harrison had to have a little smirk on his face last night. Is he a genius? No, I mean, I can't answer that right now. We don't need to save it to the next. But there's got to be a part of him that was like, told you so. We'll discuss that next.

713-212-5-790. It is the Matt Tomas-Misho Ross. Come on in, say hello to us as we celebrate a Rockets victory and advancement to game number six of the NBA's first round playoff series. Right now, I want to tell you about quality home products at Texas at 713 quality. I promise you, if you get a Generac standby generator from quality home products, you're going to be very pleased with what you're going to receive. 713 quality, 713 quality for outstanding. installation, outstanding customer service, and the ability to be able to have power when the power goes out.

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Great friend of the show. Dan occasionally works beyond his four hours per day. He does some Astro stuff. Boy, I owe you guys so many Astro games. Dan's doing great, actually. Sometimes he's doing like three, four games a week. Yeah. When I...

Cut for your ass. When this rocket thing is done, I'll be doing a lot of on deck. You'll be hearing me doing a lot of on decks. Previous morning co-hosts didn't do anything. So now I'm happy that Dan's doing a few. At least Wexler and Clinton are stepping up on the on deck content ending shows. Love you, Brian. Are they?

A little bit, yeah. Okay. Adam Clinton did the Rockets launch. I'm going to do about 10 Saturdays for you guys when this all sends out. This is what I'm talking about. Yeah. Because, you know, peel the curtain back. I'm going to give you a hug.

The hardest day of the week for all of us to kind of step in up and help is Saturdays. Absolutely. like our Saturdays, but I feel like you guys have been stepping up for me while I've been out and whatever, so Saturdays are going to be mine for a couple of months. Yeah, we haven't had, well, you haven't had a weekend, really, and because the rockets are always playing on a fighter Saturday or Sunday or two out of three a lot. Or flying back, and so yeah, I know. By the way, the Sunday game, put in the cart before the horse.

No, let's do it. Okay. Is a 730 start, I think. Okay, that's manageable. I was thinking it was going to be a Sunday 230, like for ABC, but they're going to put it on TNT at night. So that will give us everybody a chance to fly back from. And maybe that's part of the consideration is that these trips to San Francisco, I mean, by the time you take off land, you know, jet to the terminal, it's four hours.

Well, on the way back, you catch a jet stream a little quicker, right? Nope. No. Sorry. I mean, I like how you think. All right, real quick, before I go the phones. And I didn't watch the entire game because I was just trying to pack and get ready to go to bed and knew this would be a short day tomorrow. Oh, quick turnaround.

Luca Donchich is a terrible defensive player. Horrible. I mean, brutally bad. Yes, he's got the defensive prowess of a traffic cone. If there is a term for, he's Slovenian, right? Is that what he is? Slovenian, yes. Slovenian for Ole defense?

In Slovenia? Yeah, what is Ole and Slovenian? Uh-huh. You want to find out what lamp post me? So let me ask you this. I'm going to forward the narrative. three to four years. Okay.

You can maybe understand why you move Luca. You just can't understand the lack of return. Can we use that as a potential narrative down the road? Yes. I think Nico Harrison could... He's never going to win the trade. I'm sorry. No.

Lucas is just too much of an offensive threat. He wakes up with 28 points in the piggy bank. I mean, yeah. He carried a Maverick's team to the finals. Well, I mean, with Kyrie, if you put him in the right situation, you can win with him, but it's got to be a lot of defense. And LeBron James ain't it right now.

I'm sorry, 40-year-old LeBron, we love you and respect your career, but he ain't it. No. And so they need Luka to lose 25 pounds to at least get to average defense. He looks like he's slow-footed.

He looks like, and for those of me that play church ball, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The guy wears the t-shirt. He can check up shots from anywhere on the floor. He's got man boobs. He's got, yeah, he's got breasticles. and he just can't guard anything.

He's got a ketchup stain on his chest. He's thinking about having a beer in the middle of a game, which you know Lucas's thinking about it. Yeah, he's tapping the Rockies. Yeah, I mean, some guys drink vitamin juices at halftime. Some guys are drinking vitamin juices at halftime. Luke is looking for a PBR. Yeah, he's slamming a bush light.

Yeah. And again, what I watched, he was terrible. Every time the Lakers tried to do something offensively, Ann Edwards and Nas Reid and Dante Divencenzo Julius Randall even Rudy Gobert You just mentioned a lot of good players They absolutely did

We have to credit the Timberwolves They're a really good squad And this by the way we'll knock out the narrative Of the NBA needs to have the Lakers In a deep playoff run Because you know what, talent wins out And Anthony Edwards and Friends Were significantly better than the years

I see how the ratings go from here But yeah The first round ratings have been really good But who told you that the Lakers were on fraud alert all season long and going into the playoffs, Matt. So let's face it here. Our man, Shannon Sharp,

knocking boots with the wrong people, playing 25K a cheek, and he kept saying Lakers in five over and over and over again. Well, he was kind of right. That's true. Lakers done in five. Exactly. Lakers out in five. He just missed one word. Troy and Unball on the Matt Thomas show at Ross.

Troy, thank you for waiting a good morning. Hey, man, to be honest, Luca Don's been bad defensively for a while. Boston exposed them all last. year and the finals last year. It just turns on him. So he just benefited with having three big centers that played defense last year that got to the final. The Lakers didn't have that. But the Rock is I got to commend them. Man, the way he played almost as perfect as you could play. The score 76 points of the first half and hold them to what, 49. My only concern is, man, you can see how Steve Kerr and Steph was working the rest for the next game. Yeah, they following them

on the hand and they need to call it if it's a foul or stuff like that. My concern is going to go to the state that they're going to call it tight, you know, kind of deal. But the Rockets have showed something that all year long, they've been a resilient team. They might not shoot the ball well, but one thing, they defense travels. And if they can get everybody on board, Jalen and all them, I'm not saying Jalen Greenhawk, I've got scored 38 points, you know, like that, because the Euconnells got off to a good start before he got hurt, they can beat this team.

They've been in every game, and you said it, they truly are, on paper, the better team, minus, you know, Steph Curry like that, and maybe Jimmy Butler when he's on. Right. But they are the better team. So it's just a matter if they cannot miss 10, 12, 13 free throws. They have to be decent from the three point line because their defense does not, their defense is never lacking. So I think they can go in there and do that. And I'm, I'm calling it. They're going to go ahead and beat them.

I'm with y'all and we're going to see game seven in Houston and that's going to be a great thing. Thanks, Troy. I just want to get you guys opinion. Appreciate it. I want to get you guys opinion how you think about the referee for the next game. Well, I looked at tonight's referees and there are two guys that I really worry about. And neither one of those guys are working tonight. So that means we're going to get a punch of chance of getting one of them tomorrow.

That would be Scott Foster. No, Scott Foster's, he's got a, I think he's ACL or she's got. Oh, that's a shame. He hasn't refereed a game in months. Tony Brothers concerns me. and Mark Davis concerns me. Although Mark Davis, even though

he'll call it more fairly fit down the middle, he's just such a mean person. By the way, speaking of officials. I think Tony Brothers does a good job. Oh, Tony Brothers is working tonight,

by the way, New York Detroit. So that's... See? You're all good. Yeah. Remember that New York Detroit game where that Tim Hardaway

was fouled on the three-point shot? And it was, the NBA said, or even the lead official, somebody Guthrie? David Guthrie. David Guthrie is working

as a crew chief of the Denver Clippers again tonight. Yeah, so he's fine. He missed a call. It was a close bang, bang, play. All the officials that are available to them. And who took that shot again? Tim Hardaway, Jr.? Jr., yeah. He did jump into the defender a little bit.

No, I get it. A little bit. But the call was, we've looked at over and over again. Josh Hart was the man who was the man that filed. But what kind of message does that send? Or I guess there is no message that David Guthrie, who was the crew chief on that again, I don't have a problem with David Guthrie in general.

But he was the guy on the call that missed it. And like, Rossi, 15 minutes after the game, he admitted it. Yeah, we goof. Yeah, well, why don't you? Well, what are they going to do? Banish him from the planet? If they think he's one of the best guys and you missed a cruiser call. But you can change.

That game was over the weekend. We're talking about games on Thursday. You could have replaced him. You could have replaced him. You could have replaced anybody on that crew. They just, they like, you know what? NBA referee is like, we ain't perfect. And there's a great example of it.

Yeah. Umpires miss. strike three calls crucial ones and they're in the world serious. It's got to work, man. I mean, you must, you have to really be awful to get pushed off of a crew. It's a hard job. Very hard job. Let's talk to Cameron on the Matt Thomas show at Ross.

Cameron, good morning to you. Hey, good morning, guys. Two quick things. Did you guys notice during the days of our lives with the altercations last night, um, Draymond wasn't involved. And I was watching and I'm like, okay, at least he's not involved. And then the camera cut to him like laughing and clapping like a proud father. And I just set me over the edge.

I think you guys brought up the other day implementing hockey fights like center court one-on-on-one until one guy comes down. We need to make that happen because I need to see Stephen Adams take it up, bring an elbow to his nose and drop Draymond. Yeah, I think it would be great. Two things. First of all, I don't think Stephen Adams is bothered by Draymond Green. I mean, they're kind of the same ilk. Kindred spirits. But Draymond's worse than everyone, though.

Secondly, you know who Pat Spencer is a guy that. got tossed for the headbut, right? No, I don't know who he is. I'm talking about, I'm talking to Cameron, not you. So Cameron, Pat Spencer gets kicked out, and I'm watching him go to the locker room. Who's the last person he hugs before he goes to the locker room? Draymond Green.

You think Draymond sent him in there to do that? Maybe, I mean, I was just picking Adams because I'm thinking of, like, the biggest guy in our team, but who would you pick if you had to send someone to fight Draymond? Oh, Stephen Adams will break him in half. Yeah, that'd be great. But Stephen Adams has respect for him. Frankly, the Rockets have respect for him because they kind of share the same DNA.

I think Draymond goes way over the top. He's way more, he's way dirtier than any of the rockets are. But the Rockets, Cameron, we've got to be honest with ourselves here. And they'd be the first to say it. They're an inquire boys. And that's part of the moxie of who this team is and I'm okay with it. But we're at that allegedly stage. Like we allegedly target his step's finger.

Whereas like three different angles of him. Anyway, guys, I love the show. I'm out. See you later. Thanks, Cameron. Thank you. Yeah, Warriors fans are circulating all these videos saying that Dylan Brooks is targeting his hand and then it was also apparently said by a Warriors broadcaster. We do have Dylan Brooks's response to that.

Yeah. No, I've been playing the game. Shoot. If you're going to come play the game, injured, or whenever you guys are all about the ball about the game. You know, if I had an injured ankle, I would attack that ankle every single time. So

whatever they're saying on the broadcast, they can keep saying it. He's like, no, I'm just playing the game, but by the way, if I had an injured ankle. Well, let's be honest, in the sport of boxing. Yeah. If there's a wound or there's a cut-over eye. You got a cut in the eye? I'm hitting that eye. Yeah, I mean, it's just the reality.

If somebody's got an ankle, now you don't want to do anything dirty. You don't want to, I don't know. Like, if somebody's got to get it. You don't like kick somebody in the knee if they got a bad knee like Jail and Green. No, I'm not watching TV broadcast and I'm calling the game from my perch at the Toyota Center. You tell me, I mean, did you look at replays and go, wow, this is dirty? I will tell you this.

Yeah, one of the replays that I saw, there's one, I think, but it was from way earlier in the season. It's, it's Dylan Brooks contesting a Steph Curry 3 and he swipes at his hand and then he kind of does it again. It looks like, but that also, it's also in super slow-mo. If we could see that in regular time, it probably looks more like a regular shot contest. So I'm not sure. I could see that. If you told me that Dylan Brooks is trying to go after

Steph Curry's hurt thumb, I wouldn't be shocked. And again, I don't think it was a denizen. He just said, I'll be going after somebody's ankle if I got a hurt ankle. The reality was what he just said was not an denial. It just wasn't. It wasn't. I mean, at the beginning, he says like, oh, no, I'm just playing the game.

No, I've been playing the game. Shoot. But then he goes in like, no, I'm just playing the game. but if somebody had hurt ankle, I'd go after that ankle. Okay, so is that an admission or not? Okay, so let me ask you this. Or a denial. If Jaylen's Green's knee is 100%,

are you going to want him to shift a certain direction to test that knee? I would attack him defensively. I think that's well within the bounds of the game and the rules of the game. I don't want him getting kicked in the knee or punched in the knee or anybody trying to like alligator roll his knee and hold on to it in a scrum or something like that. But going after him defensively, I think, is certainly something you should do. and they would do. Brian McTaggart on the Astros coming up at about 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. Right now at 7-1-3-212-5-7-0. Brian McTaggart in 10 minutes.

I just don't get it at 1130. And Ross and Friends noon to 2. And so we head off to San Francisco for game number six tomorrow night. That is going to be, by the way, if you don't know, with the Minnesota win over the Lakers, we're going to start a little bit earlier. So it will not be a late night affair on the Pacific coast. Yeah, thank you, T. Wolf. 7 o'clock on the launch pad on KTRH, 730 will be the network pregame,

and 8 o'clock will be the tip time from the Chase Center. All right. So we've got Astros coming up. We mentioned a lot, Rockets so far, a little NBA. We've got to get to the future Mrs. Belichick. They have gone into full apology mode and prevent defense. mode over this Sunday morning CBS News Appearance.

Big statements. She's saying stuff. He's saying stuff. Basically saying that, you know, that she's not trying to run his life, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And apparently it's cost them, it was going to cost him a college version of hard knocks

because she was interfering. She's running everything in his life. Ross? Mm-hmm. I'm going to assume there are very few people in this world that are 72 years of age that have a 24-year-old girlfriend. I'm not saying they're not the only ones, but I'm going to say it's a rare group. It's probably a sliver of a percent. So of that percent, how many of them are 24-year-olds that are running the life with the 72-year-old?

I'm going to say it's a fair number. It's a pretty good majority of people. How many of the 72-year-olds are very rich? 17 year olds are rich They're like I got a 24 year old sidepiece here or on my arm I'm lonely I'm either divorced or widowed And the girl wants to take care of me

I'm going to let her take care of me She's obviously number one team Belichick So much so that she's probably Sticking her nose and things That she shouldn't be sticking her nose in like the North Carolina Football Program or CBS Sunday morning news or A variety of things

Is this going to cost him at the end of the day? Because if you want to tell me that Bill Belichick can't coach college football, that he can't relate to 18 or 19-year-olds, I get that. But do you want the legacy of one of the greatest coaches in NFL history? For that matter, all professional sports are college, to basically end his college career because his old 24-year-old flusie is running his life? I don't think he...

He's in the twilight of his coaching career regardless. and I don't think that he's going to be a long, he's obviously not going to be a long term of success. It's about how much success he's going to have at North Carolina anyways. I don't know how much it has to do with his girlfriend. I don't think she's running, running the program into the ground or ruining anything.

They're just, maybe it helps him relate to recruits more. He's like, hey, you see this girl that I'm pulling. Why don't you come play for us? I think she's micromanaging his life. And maybe he asked her to. No. From my young perspective, knowing Bill of her check,

it's like, now we find out he's a weirdo and it's kind of like it's kind of weird by the way I could see that so originally it was told they met on an airplane yes she kiboshed the answer to the what did y'all meet and she said don't answer that no she said we're not talking about it that's right I shouldn't be correct about that it feels like to me maybe there are some holes in that story yeah because you can find flight records, right? I mean, I think if there was some, you know, some reporter

or somebody wanted to do some investigative reporting and digging, it's possible that they could find records and find that that flight didn't exist, that they were not sitting together, and then that was a completely made up story. I could buy that. Okay, so let's go through the potential scenarios. And this is being in all seriousness. They could have been

set up by mutual friends, although that probably seems very unlikely. Hey, why don't you come hang out with my 24-year-old daughter, 72-year-old man? They could have met in a restaurant or a bar. Yeah. Or they could have met on an app. A Sugar Daddy website.

Which I am now putting at the top of the list. Sugar Daddy website or escort. Yes. Or both. Yes. That's possible. And guess what? If they did and they're happy together, I don't care.

I really don't. Well, they're two adults. Well. They're two consenting adults. Well. I understand why you would say that. But there are optics that make that look awful. I know that most people aren't going to agree with me.

Because when you say escort, that means paying for a relationship. The oldest profession in the world. Rossi, he ain't Bill Belichick truck driver for 46 years. He is a multiple-time Super Bowl winning coach, a Hall of Famer, one of the most recognizable faces in NFL history in the last 30 years. From an optic standpoint, you can't go, hey,

I saw her on an escort website, I dialed her up, she said hello, we exchanged, you can't pretty woman this and go this is normal. Because it's Bill Belichick, it's just not. You can't do it that way.

I mean, I don't care. But what are the repercussions? Embarrassment, that's it. Yeah, exactly. Like, and that's why, and that's why you have to come up with the full-proof 100% lockdown story of where they met. You got him a hookah for the heart of gold. And that is easy to do. What did you meet?

We met at, at Rennies. I was getting a moons over Miami. It was on a flight to Palm Beach. You know where Ristine Rylenders around there? I know where you're going with this. Well, you know what? I'm saying, you've had, they've been dating for, what, a year or so, give or take? I think they said for three years and then they made it public.

So she was 21 when they met? So you could have easily come up with a foolproof story. It's got to you. Well, I think by her doing what she said, there are holes in the story. And it wasn't even like the CBS news reporter was poking the bear a little bit. He was like, he said, oh, hey. Hey, how'd you meet? That's all it was.

That'd be me. You know, we have dinner with your wife and your girlfriend or whoever. Hey, how'd you guys meet? And then it turned. If you're having dinner, if you're having dinner with a couple and you're like, yeah, well, so how'd you guys meet? We're not talking about this. Yeah.

We are not talking about this. It opened up a can of worms that should have been open. Canter the apps. We just go home. But they did release a statement and basically said it was discussed beforehand that that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about my book. You only wanted to talk about his book, The Art of Winning Lessons from Life and My Life

and my life in football. But he would have to be stupid and or naive. were both to have the 24-year-old in the room and not be at least a question posed. So the question was asked, not answered, but the question had to be asked. It's atypical for a 72-year-old successful coach to be dating somebody a third of his age. It is. He said, I clearly communicated with my publicist and at Simon & Schuster that any promotional interviews I participated in would agree to focus solely on the content of the book.

unfortunately that expectation was not honored during the interview that's foe anger that's that that's trying to cover your ass is what that is all right bryan mctaggart to start the second hour the matt thomas show with ross 1102 this is our number two the matt thomas show with ross we are very happy to have you with us until two o'clock this afternoon ross is going to carry the show as many of you believe he already does from noon until two

as I will head off to San Francisco, a man going the other direction to Chicago to see the return of Lance McCullors Jr. is joining us right now as he does every Thursday. It's our friend Brian McTaggart. Tags, how are things? I'm good. How are things going there? Ready to go back to San Fran?

Yeah, it's a quick fly. It's only like three hours and 45 minutes. You know what that's all about. That's it. I'm sure you'll be in complete luxury, though, so you'll make it. That is fair. Are you an economy plus or do you get the upgrade to Chicago? talking about today?

No, I was 60th on the upgrade list. I don't think he's kind of. Yeah. They don't realize who you are then, apparently. All right. I'm going to have to talk to something. Let's get to Blue Ball's performance. Obviously, the Salami giving up was not great.

The defense behind him hurt him, obviously. Just some general impressions of what you thought of A.J. Blueball on his major league debut. Yeah, I mean, he was kind of what we'd heard or seen in spring training. I mean, a guy that throws hard, you know, hitting 98. competes, throw strikes. I mean, I was impressed the way he came out the first inning and, you know, got a couple strikeouts and looked like he belonged.

And, yeah, things got a little messy there. The error didn't help. But I think the most impressive thing probably is that he came back out in that fourth inning after giving up the slam and posted a one, two, three inning. And, you know, he brushed it off and just went back out there and, you know, did what they asked him to do. So all things considered, I mean, there's a reason why he's one of their top prospects and a guy that think is going to be in this rotation next year, probably maybe even

later this year. And he's got a great demeanor. He's got a great makeup. Like, you know, a lot of these guys they have now, you know, Eric Geddy's probably cut from the same cloth as well. So, you know, he was a guy drafted out of University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, not exactly a baseball powerhouse. He was a reliever.

So, you know, credit to the Astro Scouts for really seeing something in him and turning him into a starter. And, you know, they might have uncovered a guy who could be. you know, a middle of the rotation starter for them down the road. You know, Ross and I were kind of teasing each other during the course of spring training about. Would there be enough starting pitching depth? You know, you're going to get blue ball back at some point as he got sent down. You're going to get Arrogati back.

You got McCullors returning. Give me the state in your mind of where this rotation is. And is there enough to obviously put together a six-man rotation? And do you feel like that there's going to be enough to withstand any sort of pennant race in summer with these? guys right now on the mound. Yeah, I think there's probably more depth than I expected. I mean, they're pitching really well, but you're right. You know, Blue Ball is an option.

You know, one guy that I thought would be, you know, an option coming in, and I think we'll still see him at some point is Colton Gordon, a left-hander, another one of their top prospects. So they have enough starting pitching depth if they don't have any more injuries if McCullors comes in and is effective. You know, I'm not sure Garcia's coming back this year. I'm not sure Javier's coming back this year, so I'm really not. counting on them at this point.

But to me, the biggest concern coming into the season, if you were the Astros, was starting pitching depth, which, you know, they've answered that bell and the bullpen. And if, you know, they've had some guys step up in the bullpen and pitch really well. And now, I mean, look, you know, I think the Astros are fifth in the league or in major leagues in ERA, and third in bullpen ERA. So the pitching staff has been one of their strengths. Yeah, and McCullors being part of that starting on Sunday. I mean, I just find this fascinating, Brian.

I mean, you know, you've been covering sports for a long time. And one of the things to me is kind of seeing things and talking about them and then watching them play out. I'm so fascinated to see how this Lance McCuller's Jr. thing plays out. I mean, I could ask you to guess. I guess your guess is good as anybody's. I mean, the setback word is always going to be hanging over his head. And then the real question is, is he going to be able to still get out at the major league level? Yeah, I think that's a fair analysis, right?

I have no idea what to expect Sunday. I mean, you kind of know what Frumber's going to do on Friday. You definitely know what Hunter Brown is going to do. And then just, I mean, he's been out so long. And yeah, he's made some rehab starts at AA, AAA, AAA. Can't put a lot of stock into those things. You can't put a lot of stock in the spring training results. I have no idea.

I think we're going to see a little bit of a different pitcher than he was. Last time we saw him on the mound, he's not going to be 97, 98 anymore. his mechanics are a little more compact, I think. His pitch mix has probably changed a little bit. So I think we're going to see a guy who still competes like he always has. I mean, Lance McCulloch has always been a competitor, but it's just going to be a little bit different look than we've seen. And yeah, I mean, you know, he's put in a lot of work.

I know he's frustrated a lot of people by constantly getting injured and all the surgeries that he's had. But, you know, talking to him and talking to people on the team, I mean, this is a guy who has put in a lot of. of work and a guy who thought a couple of times that, you know, it might not happen. I might be done. And, you know, credit to him for pushing through. And now he's here. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. And that's going to come out on Sunday afternoon. And, you know, hope he does well. I mean, I, you know, I don't root either way usually, but just seeing the work that he's put in,

you know, facing the White Sox is a good soft landing spot for him. So I think he's set up to succeed on Sunday. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790. Let's flip to the lineup side. Jeremy Pena, been in the leadoff spot, the last few games, paying big dividends. We've kind of been talking ever really since his rookie season and the ALCS and World Series MVP

about a breakout coming. And I guess we have to wonder if it's finally here. He's got eight hits in his last four games. Yeah, I mean, he had a really, really good spring. And again, like I just said, you can't put a lot of stock in the spring, but he looked like a guy

who had made some adjustments and was poised for a big season. Came out of the gate. Didn't happen right away. But slowly, but surely, he's coming around. And I think there's just a different error and a different confidence about Jeremy that we haven't seen. He looks like he belongs more. The word leadership is getting thrown around a little bit more about him. And I mean, that's a great thing for the Astros, because, you know, he's a guy that's a gold glove caliber shortstop. And I like the look at the top of the order. I mean, he's walking a little bit more. They beat him maybe, you know, not to strikeout as much. I think he's trying to cut down on strikeouts as well. But I thought the whole thing with

Altuve going to the number two spot in the order and pretty much asking to be put in the number two spot was fascinating as well. And just from the fact that he did more time to come in from the outfield to get ready for his bat to begin the game. And talking with Altuvae later, just, you know, after the interview was over, he said that, hey, they asked me to go to the outfield and I did it. And I think it's only right that, you know, they work with me if I want a bat second. So, and that's fair. And Jeremy's been the guy who stepped into that number one spot. And so far so good. We'll see. There's a long way to go. But it looks like, yeah, this could be the best season yet of Jeremy Pena. You may not have the metrics on this. Is he hitting sliders better this year than in

previous years? I don't get to sample sizes really small. But there's been anything that has been his Achilles heel that has been that teams will just bury him with that slider. Yeah, I'd have to look. I'd have to look it up, Matt. I mean, it appears to me that he is. I remember back when he was winning the MVP, the ALCS, he had a couple of big hits on sliders and in the World Series, and then it still ended up being a pitch that's giving him fits. But, yeah, that'd be an interesting thing to look at. But he just seems overall that he'd just become a more complete hitter.

You know, a couple of, it was spring training last year. He came trying to hit the ball in the air a little bit more after, you know, he went the second half of the 23 season without a Homer, and that worked out pretty well. So he's constantly adjusting and trying to get to where he needs to be. But, you know, he's growing. He's maturing. This is what is fourth year now. So he's sort of putting all that information together, and it looks like it's working.

How many more left-fielder's we're going to see this year? How many more left-fielders? Yeah, there's been a lot. I mean, Zach Desenzo sort of forcing their hands to try to get him out there. I mean, he's a guy that is getting more and more playing time. He can play left and right at first and third. I mean, it's hard to get opportunities at first and third, just with the guys you have there. So, you know, I think getting him in left field, you know, here and there,

it'll be interesting to see on the road, a six-game road trip here in a couple of parks, how much they play out too-way in left and second and DH. So I think there'll be a couple more opportunities for Desenzo to play some left field. But, you know, he's starting to creep into some at bats too in right field, taking those away from Cam Smith a little bit as well. And how do you size up the battle at second base at this point, too? Well, I think it is what it is. I mean, you're going to have Al-Tubei start occasionally.

Brendan Rogers is going to make two or three starts a week. Dubon's going to be out there, two or three starts. I mean, I wouldn't say it's a battle. I just think it's a rotation at this point. Who's the starting second baseman? I guess it's Brendan Rogers. You know, it's just the way it is. I mean, we're so used to seeing Jose Al-Tube start at second base the last 14 years

just pretty much over and over with the exception when he got injured. and Dubon stepped in a couple of years ago and did a nice job. But it's all going to depend on Altuvae where he plays. And that just sort of sets up a lot of things in the lineup. Who's the left? What do you do with Jordan and things like that? Is the game slowing down for Cam Smith at all in your mind? Is it still moving in a pretty fast pace?

I mean, the batting average isn't great. The OPS is getting a little bit better. Did it have a hit for the squad yesterday. But just in general, you know, with so much publicity going into the season, and for the regression, which was natural, to try to settle in. How is his demeanor? Because, you know, obviously he wakes up with a smile every morning and he's happy with the big leagues with his little experience he had in the minor league level.

What are you noticing from him into the last two weeks or so? Yeah, I think he's settling in a little bit. You're right. I mean, there was so much hype about him in spring training and he embraced it. And he was a fun personality, a guy with a lot of energy. And then when he made the team, it was such a great story with his mother coming in the club. house and he's had some moments early in the season the Sunday night game he came up with a big hit so I think now we're sort of getting to the dog days where the attention's off him a little bit

some other guys are playing a little bit better like you know Desenzo who's also still a rookie I believe and so it's just time for him to settle in and put in the work and see what he can do I don't think his demeanor's changed at all I mean I don't think he feels overmatched or too big for the moment but I think he knows that hey this is this is the big leagues and I need to make adjustments on a daily basis. He's going around the league and seeing pictures that the caliber he's never seen before playing in parks. He's never played in before. So there's a lot going on for him right now.

And I can imagine if he's overwhelmed at times, it's probably to be warranted. But yeah, I mean, I still think there's a lot of room for growth, obviously. But I would keep running him out there because he does look a little bit more comfortable than he did. But obviously the results of the plate aren't there yet. but he will get better. Tag, safe travels to the windy city. We'll talk again next week. We appreciate the visit as always.

All right, safe travels to you too. Thank you, friend. That's Brian McTaggart, who will be on the Astros on Deck show Friday from Chicago. And what do they call it? I always get the ballpark mixed up. Used to be called Newkimoski, and they made it up like 10. Is it still U.S. cellular? No, no, no.

It's a guaranteed rate. I think you're right. Guaranteed rate, field. Nice stadium, really surly part of ten. What? It's just rate field. What, shut up. They took the guaranteed off. Maybe they can't guarantee.

They're like, well, we're going to give you a rate. We can't really. It's going to be fluctuating rate field. Doesn't sound as catchy. Have you seen the cost eggs? Are they serious right now? Just rate. That's it? Yeah, it's just rate field. They took the guaranteed off.

Lord. 1114 on Sports Talk 790, bottom of the hour. Bottom of the hour we have, I just don't get it. Ross, what don't you get? dozens of things. 1120 on Sports Talk 7-90. I'm looking at this box score. And again, for those of you just joining us,

I went to bed about 1045 last night, got up at 3.30, and I've been up awake ever since. So, needless to say, if you think you could take pot shots at me while I'm in the air because I'm not going to be listening on the I heart radio app when I'm in the plane, you're probably right. Okay.

So if you wanted to know... I wasn't thinking about it. Oh, you were thinking about it. You were right in the script now. I wouldn't worry about it. All right. Just going to do a show. Rockets won last night.

131. 131 points. 131 points. In this series, that's crazy. That is absolutely nuts how crazy that got out of hand. Rockets, let me give you the numbers that were so good. Give me the numbers. They were actually better than this, if not for the horrific bench play in the fourth, late third, early fourth.

Yeah, come on, Reed, Shepet. 55% from the floor, 43% from three. and they went to the free throw line 38 times. Made their first 13-0 or something like that? I think it was even more than that, maybe. They definitely started 13 for 13. Finished 32 of 38.

Turned them all over 13 times. 31-point league got down to as low as 13. It is what it is. But Van Bleet had 26. 25 for a man, Thompson. Baller. Bill and Brooks 24. Balin.

Alpi got to 59 and 9. Pretty good. He also fouled out. Jay and then had to do a whole lot because he really sat a lot of the game, especially in the first half because he was working on that knee, but still wind up finishing the game, 28 minutes and 11 points.

It proved you that you can win a game without Jalen being that big of a difference on the offensive side of the floor. No, it helps when you start off shooting like 60% from 3, which is what they were basically doing for the first half of the game. So, and yeah, Jayling got a couple of buckets early, and then he was dealing with the knee injury. So we saw some Aaron Holiday.

We talked about him possibly playing. And for those of you, they had been clamoring for Cam Whitmore, even in the... Or Reed Shepherd. We love the kids, but they're kids. Oh, at least Reed got out there in the third quarter. Cam Whitmore, what didn't show up until the final two minutes? Yeah, he, Nate Williams and Jeff Green were the last ones.

Reed played 634, did not even take a shot. did have two steals, but also turned it over one time and got a block shot. Yeah, this is a nine-man rotation at the very most. And Aaron Holiday being the ninth guy. I definitely, it would be interesting to see, because we kind of talked about this at the end of the season where Jalen Green was limping around. He's holding his wrist. He doesn't look 100%.

And Coach Yodoka even said, yeah, he's banged up when we talked to him about it. And that didn't look good, man. He had a giant wrap on his knee, and he was gimping around. pretty badly, but he was put back into the game, and then he was put back into the game in the fourth quarter when all the starters came on to try to write the ship or stamp out the fire, whatever you want to say? I will choose to look back at last night

and think about the two and a half quarters where they just destroyed Golden State. Steph curring the last two games combined 30 points. Yeah, we didn't, also, a big part of that was a men Thompson. Men Thompson was ripping the ball from him and then going the other way for an easy bucket or a foul. or a free throw trip and he was knocking down his free throws. Rockets also did a better job of converting three-on-one,

four-on-four-on fast breaks. There have been plenty of those that have not been finished so far. Men Thompson was locking Steph up. And it was taking a village because it always does for Steph Curry, so it wasn't just a men Thompson, but he did a good job getting the ball away from him a couple of times. And Steph Curry, he looked gassed.

And they only played him 24 minutes? That's why, I don't know if I changed my... I did change my tune a little bit on this, because I have been afraid of the Warriors, and I'm not hitting the fact that I was not looking forward of playing them in a series because of the history, and there's just, you have PTSD about certain things, and playing Golden State's one of them.

But from it, athletically, the series on my mind turned last night. Now, if you're Golden State, if you're a warrior fan today calling in the show, you're like, eh, it was one game, we got game six in our building, we win games. Yeah, I believe your day's not calling in today. Funny, huh? How that works?

Funny, I haven't happened. Yeah, is he called yet? Yeah, Bleacher Day, where are you? 713-21-2-5-7-9, our favorite Bay Area guy. But last night, to me, was a storyline that I had forgotten about, maybe didn't even think about being a big deal. Athletically, the rockets are far superior to whatever goldins they can throw at you. Yeah, well, you mentioned it when you were putting your name on it.

There was three games and five days for the Warriors, and they're old. Jimmy Butler's 35, Dremont's 35, and Steph is 37. Yeah. And the rest of the guys just keep. can't make a difference. I mean, they can help out in small doses, but you're not going to, I don't think Moses Moody's going to help you

win a series. I don't think Quentin Post, who by the way was just being molested defensively last night, five fouls. I mean, God Almighty. How about Guy Santos? Knocking down his first couple of threes. Guy. I call him

you want to call him Guy, that's fine. Gwee. Yeah, he was out there. There were some strange people knocking shots down. I was like, who was this dude? just like Pat Spencer played 18 minutes, played 13 and a half minutes before he got kicked out. He went five of seven.

Kevin Knox the second. Trace Jackson Davis, a perfect two or two. Moses Moody took up 18 shots in 26 minutes of play. That's impressive, actually. He was balling. Reed Shepherd, by the way, has a great stat line. Six and a half minutes, zero points minus 15. Well

Jack Landale's like Oh my beer I was a minus 12 and 451 It's pretty impressive Yeah Really really Fun night Until what about

Three minutes left to go In the third quarter And it got great to Yeah it wasn't a panic We got some people calling Like Why would Coach Udoca do this Why did he go to the bench

Because Steve Kerr Went to the bench first He went to the bench at 550 Udoca waited five more minutes. He went there was 50 seconds left when he cleared the Mitch. Yeah. Let me ask you, I'm going to ask you a question. My wife asked me last night. I've been asked about this before.

And we've seen this in, in fact, in the Golden State Houston series, regular season. Rockets were getting blown out. They went to their subs early in the season and got all the way to overtime. You never saw the starters. Rockets were getting blown out again by Golden State. They went with the

backup guys, got almost all the way back on that. Last night, Golden State's doing it to the Rockets. And my wife was asking me and this and I didn't have a great answer for her. Maybe you can help me out this. She's like,

they got within 13. There was plenty of time left. Why didn't they bring in the five guys? Do you think, and the only answer I could give her was that I think when coaches raise the flag and surrender, they really surrender. I think in the,

I think it would have been different if still, still when it got within 13 at that point, it was still like a 99% win probability for the Rockets. Right. So you don't want to risk that 1%. He decided, I think, that he was going to rest Steph, Draymond, and Jimmy Butler, and then that was that. We're packing in. We're going to go win game six at home.

We're going to get our guys rested. I think if there were two or even three games, somehow three days off in between games, you might have seen them. But I think with the one day off, with the fact that it was already extremely low probability, they'd come back in those moments that they said, nope, we're not going to try to open this window. So we're going to rest our guys, have Steph Curry and Draymond and Jimmy Butler ready to go and as rested as possible for game six. I didn't hear a lot of quotes after the game from the Golden State sideline. But my guess is the easy narrative was we're going to go back to game six. We're going to go in our building. We want a lot of basketball games there and we're going to finish them off.

Because if I'm Golden State fan, I'm thinking that's, again, I'm not going to, I haven't listened to Golden State Radio the day, San Francisco Radio. But that's my thought is rockets were desperate. need to win this one, must win situation. They're not going to shoot as well in San Francisco that they shot in Houston. They're not going to make as many free throws. There's a storyline. Rockets have given, I wouldn't say giving away two games, but for them not to split either three or four,

I think it was a huge, huge missed opportunity. Warriors got within 13 with 538 left. The Rockets win probability still there was 98.7%. So you're not going to say, I'm going to risk A, injury, and be more rest for a 1.3% chance. Ross, I want to ask you a question. I want to ask Jonathan a question.

I want to ask you the great people of Houston a question. What don't you get? It could be about the Rockets Warriors. It could be about your favorite TV show. It could be about life in general. It could be about what your boss says. You can work Monday through Thursday, but we need you to work a double on Friday if you don't get that.

Anything in your life you just don't get. To be traffic issues, it could be the cost of produce. If you don't get something, our sage ability to give you the right advice is what we do every Thursday for a little bit on this radio show. What don't you get? 713-212-5-7-9. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret.

We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend the things that make us. And use our friends, it's time to say, I just don't get it. Bound, bough, there it is. There must be some sort of misunderstanding sports rave because we have to do this once a week. We invite you guys to join us at 713-212-5-790 and ask, what don't you get? I'm going to go back to something that happened to me a couple days ago

when I was coming back from San Francisco. Why is the HOV lane going slower than the main lanes of the interstate? I pay $4.50 for a reason to go fast, like 78 to 82 miles per hour in the lane. 78 to 82, Matt, the speed limit's 65. Okay, shut up. When I'm going 26, I deserve a rebate. You want your money back. Correct.

Good luck with that. I ask all of you, those of you that are in the lanes, why is it so damn slow at 545 at night when I'm trying to get out to the northeast, beautiful part of town the note is Kingwood, Texas. I just don't get why HOV lanes suck. Is the traffic that bad?

Do you need the HOV? What time of day was this? I landed at Hobby at 415, probably on the road at 430. Oh, okay. Yeah. Guess you're going to need it at that point. 45 was a crawl, got around George R. Brown, down the Toyota Center, and then jumped on the HOV and

just stopped. Wouldn't you relax, Matt? Put on a good podcast, listen to the A-Team? No. Just sit in traffic. enjoy it. Soak it in. I despise driving. I despise traffic. I just don't get it. Why don't you hire a chauffeur? I would love to. You can afford it. Uber costs are crazy expensive. That's true. So I say I don't just don't get it.

I'm going to, well, you caught behind a bus? I mean, how many cars could you see forward? Was it one person that was slowing everything down? Five or six cars easily. I'm sorry, Matt. I mean, I don't get it, but I mean, there obviously has to be a reason. I guess it was one person driving slow. So to that person, I will find you and hunt you down like a rabbit dog. That seems a little aggressive. It is aggressive because I'm sick. Just for an HOV lane. I was paying $1.50. I'd be fine.

Ross, that's $450 don't grow on trees. It's not like the kid. It's not a taken situation. It's not like they kidnapped your daughter. Driving sold the HOV, man. All right. That's my beef this week. I just don't get why the HOV can't run with pristine accuracy and speed. Okay. I got one.

Please. So last night, man, I had a playoff tradition. This is back in the James Hardin days. After a late night Rockets game, I would go to a certain Vietnamese restaurant in Midtown. I would have one beer and eat food to kind of relax after a long day and an extensive postgame show. Okay, so what time was this last night? This was like 10.30.

And this place was still open? No. Oh. This is where I get to my just don't get it. Now, I understand a lot of places that were late night closed during COVID. Correct. But none of them have reopened for late night. Is nobody wanting to go out late night anymore?

Is it just because the kids these days are staying inside on their phones and they're all scared to socially interact? I don't get it. I went to a place that said it was open, a pizza place that was open to midnight. They were closed. I went to this certain Vietnamese place in Midtown. Some of you know who I'm talking about.

That used to stay open 3 a.m. every night. Wow. Mousa Mize used to stay open 24 hours. Shut up. Mousa Mize is closed? They close early now, too. Shut up. I understand why we did it for COVID, but were you not making money in those times and you just can't do it now?

I don't get why it hasn't come back. It's because the number of service employees are down. That has to be the reason why. So I'm going to say, I'm going to say I get it. So basically at the end of the day, if you want to get some late night eats, you got to go to Rye Rop, Rennies, Muffle Mouse, or Nutterberg. Nutter burger. Nutter what? Nutter burger.

Don't say Nutter burger. No, I said Nutter burger. Nobody wants one of those. You're down to four restaurants. Now, if you want Mexican food, there is a place that's open. There is banished blowers. That's open late.

Right. There's also Mamutabica. Oh, yeah, I've been there. I've been in Moummita. And that's good, but this is the thing. Funny enough, I thought about that place and I was in that area. Yeah. But I was like, that place is only good when I'm drunk, and I'm not drunk.

You can also go rack in the rocks and get you that big muncher. Meal. See, that's when I, yeah, I had, I went with fast food because I, but I wanted to like a sit down place, have one beer, have an ice cold pint after a long day, a good rocket's win and a long post game show. Yeah. Now, doesn't, Rats is never closed, right? I actually, there's one near where I live. There's one of Montrose. But I was like, I don't want to drop 25 bucks on pancakes right now. It's expensive. Two eggs and bacon. I know, exactly. You see where I'm coming from. Any, any, the Grand Slam over there at Rats is. Exactly. Exactly. So basically you need to step up your financial game. Well, all of our great advertisers, if you want to advertise on this show, Ross at Sports790.com. You know what, big city wings, stay open for us. Thanks to our great sponsors like Synergenics and Draft Kings and Top Tax Defenders. If you would like to sponsor this show, I'm available.

Ross at Sports790.com. He's handsome. He's polite. Yes. He might wear a collared shirt to the meeting that you guys have. Might. I wore a collared shirt. Do you wear a college shirt at the game last night?

Absolutely. I didn't notice. It was wearing, well, yeah, whoa, I barely ran 80 for like five seconds. Yeah. I was trying to avoid you. That's okay. I get it. That's what I do get it.

All right, so I'm going to say to you, Ross. I know you don't want to hear this, but I get it. I think the service industry is lacking, and I think... There's a bunch of servers out there. Let's go. You know what they don't like, though. These owners will hire a billion servers and they only need half of them, But since they only have to pay them $2.50 an hour, they exploit them.

Like my favorite Chinese restaurant next to a Toto Center, Reinerarden, doesn't open for lunch anymore. You're so open for lunch all the time. Now it's just for dinner, basically. Really? Yeah. Why not? Nobody's getting lunch over there?

I guess not. Because I had a friend in town, and we were going to go with the biggest eight-year-olds you could find. Yeah, that half-blind lady, she loves you. She, you're so rude. Really at the end of the day. I mean, I just think rudeness is just in your DNA. She's very nice. Why?

Why did you have to go to the half-blind card? God. Do you hear that, folks? Do you hear how insanely rude he is? God. Send her my regards. Well, guess what you're not? You're going to be paying double for your meal.

Jonathan, what don't you? I went there with Matt and she was like sending over apps and all this. You were just taking care of you. Like you were her baby boy. Yeah. People like me, Ross. I don't get that. But that's another discussion for another time.

Go ahead, Jonathan. By the way. Jameson says the Rot is a nice place on the Gulf Freeway. You know, like near Gulfgate Mall. For what? Rot Coffee House. Coffee shop.

I'm not going all the way down there. Well, you can get good food. Reasonable prices. Yeah. I'm going to wear my Kevlar down there. Down there, too. Now, I like Rot Raffee House or whatever you're calling it. I like that place. Got good pie? Good breakfast. The mouse of my eyes is terrific. That wasn't where, I mean, I live west side,

basically west of the loop. I'm going all the way over there. Do you think I'm going to stop anywhere between Toyota Center in Kingwood on the way home? Oh, hell no. And I was at the Toyota Center, so I was looking for something in the area. I can also get, by the way, it's a new PI opening. Oh, no, new Scottish Inn has just opened up on the New Scottish Inn.

You know, on that traffic I was in a couple days ago. Come here on get your side piece. I was able to see there's a brand new on the left side. I could Laura Copy. Oh. If you're staying in a hotel at Laura Copy in 59, you are there for the hour and not for the night. All right, real quick, Jonathan. What don't you get?

Oh, we got it. He's on the phone. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll go. We got a couple people want to get in. Yeah, yeah. We've got to get that in here.

It's a huge segment. You know what I can do? Jonathan quickly, and then you don't get? I went to also at the movie theaters and watched the new movie, you know, the new movie centers. Centers? Yeah, it was a really good movie. I don't understand. It was packed.

I don't understand why people, and my mom does this. I just don't get it why you bring out your phone and try to bootlet, record the, the, Oh, your mom did that? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The guy's girlfriend beside us left because of it. Uh-uh. Shut up.

That is a lie. This is not in 1983. You call it out. That's great. I just don't get it. Oh, my God. That is crazy. How did your mom get involved in this?

It's because she does the same thing, and I don't understand it. Your mother bootlegs movies? On her phone? How can you even have the memory to save two-hour visits? video on your show on your phone. Blockbuster for since I was a little kid. She's den notorious for that. And it's like 125, 240P resolution.

And you just put it on the dark web website, I guess. I don't know. Oh, that's crazy. Should we get her mother, his mother arrested? No. Yeah, FBI is going to come calling. Jonathan, you want to maybe want to admit that. Will she get a tripod out?

What is she doing? Setting up studio lights? How do you even hold your phone for that long? Two most guilty things I've ever done in a movie theater is I've gone to see a second movie on one ticket, which I think all of us have done. And I brought my own candy in from the house because it was significantly cheaper. I thought you could say you got caught fornicating. Not fornicating.

I don't even think I've ever made out in a movie theater. Hmm. You? If you don't want to say answer. I would just say one time the worker was like, don't worry, I do that all the time too. Jonathan, do you and your girl make out in the movie theater? Yes or no? Yeah.

I have before. not with her though You know in your younger days You know Like you can't be packed Right you know So is it better to make out with a full movie theater Because you're just kind of incognito

Or just go home Yeah Don't get arrested It's not worth it What will be the arrest If you're kissing that's it Oh I thought you're talking about Oh I thought you're talking about

Yeah No you cannot You cannot do that in a movie theater I'm sorry Okay really? No I when I was in high school

a girl said let's go see a scary movie and I'll make it worth your wow What does that mean? What do you think it means? Pop-combox or you know I think Jonathan close. You're doing the hole in the popcorn box trick? And

I was almost going to go But my fear of I said you know what If she really wants to You hate scary movies so bad that you Gave up that yes What was the film? Do you remember? It was like Pet Cemetery or something?

Maybe Coojo or something like that? Coojo? Yeah. You're with the rabid dog? Yeah. Come on, man. I'm just saying that's how much I hate scary movies. That's funny that it was Coo Joe.

You were looking for something else. Maybe it was Childs Play. I don't know. Childs Play? It's a little harmless doll, Matt. You can't go get some and watch Childs Play and cover your eyes? You tell me that Chuckie was harmless? I don't believe that. Yeah, come on. I was thinking I'd say Jeepers creepers.

Man, I would pick Chuckie up and pun him over the mountains. that little doll has no shot. Get out of here. What about the bride of Chucky? Yeah, bride of Chucky too. Starting Jennifer Tilly. Morgan on 790 Morgan, what don't you get? Hey, y'all, this is what I don't get.

Like many of your listeners, I just love my Astros. Oh, my God, I love my Astros. I'm the number one fan. I'm the number. And so I'm going on. I live over here in Sunnyside, man. It's not many places for me to go to watch. the game. I either go to

Parra Land or maybe I'll go to Myerland, something like that. I'm out in Paraland trying to watch the game and went to this place to eat. I probably can't say the name. But anyway, I asked them, do y'all have the game? Say, yeah, we got the game.

So I said, well, they told me they had the game. Okay, well, I'll go ahead and order something to eat. So I ordered something to eat. And then they switched the channel to what that the Astros, the Space City Network, and the game was not on. So I said, hey, man, what? I want to watch the game.

Oh, well, we don't know how to find it. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I don't get it. I don't get it either. If you own a restaurant, I know it.

Sports. Okay. Know how to get to the Astros. I went down the street and went to another place and sure enough there is the game was there. I just don't get it, man. Morgan, I'm so sorry for you. Thank you very much for the phone call. That's why I have my company, Morgan, that is thriving, both regionally and nationally. If you guys don't know what it is, please check out my website, remoteforyou.biz.

It's not real. That's remote for you. dot biz where we change a channel for you. I thought they were in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. No, no, no, no. We're expanding. We're now going outside the state of Texas. We're now in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi. I thought you were getting seized by the Department of Justice.

Oh, remote for you. combs is not. I think it's struggling. Trying to get that thing off the ground for years. Well, I think probably a lot of the workers aren't used to finding the alternate channel. That's the thing. No, no, no, no. Last night they were not on the alternate.

No. They were both on the main. Just last night. This is the afternoon. There was no conflict laughter in the afternoon. He went to go to lunch. I think you just went to a complete boob place to eat. There's no other way to say it.

Okay. Yeah. You just went to the wrong place. And again, if you guys want to invest, I'm looking for investors to expand remotefor-you. com. Check out the website, remote for you. Dot biz. And you can grow the company along with me.

It's not real, Matt. Send me Venmo. Yeah. Oh, my God. Now you're really going to get. He heard from the Department of Justice. I'm just teasing. Ross, we're out with you for our number three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. You want to get in? You can't. Phone lines are open. We're going to be talking some Rockets. We also have some Astros stuff to get to. Brian McTaggart on earlier talking some Stroes. Anything you want to get to, 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-2-5-790. But we're focusing on that game last night from the Houston Rockets. It started off with two things in my mind. free throw shooting and three point shooting. Those had been the bugaboos, especially early on in the series, and really it plagued the rockets throughout the season. They finished dead last in free throw shooting, 30th out of 30. They were, I think, 21st in three-point shooting. And they just didn't shoot well enough in game one, bounced back in game two, and then the next couple of games.

There was some three-point makes, but it wasn't a high volume. They were not making their free throws. and well, on the other, and Steph Curry and others were just having special games. Brandon Pajemski as well. I mean, Jimmy Butler had been good. But last night, the Rockets, third game in five nights. This is key to me. Third game and five nights against a team with 35 plus players, 35 years old plus,

their key components talking about Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and Steph Curry, and a younger, faster, more physical Rockets team seems like they're wearing them down. least that's what it looked like on the floor last night. Of course, we can say, oh, everything looks like sunshine and rainbows when you're knocking down 60% of your threes in the first quarter, and that's the first half, excuse me, and that's not going to happen all the time. So they have to keep this going. They're going to have to win with defense, and if they get some hot shooting, the Warriors

aren't going to have a chance, like last night. So they can keep it close. They can grind out another win and hopefully bring the series back to Houston for a game number seven, that would be on Sunday at 730. Right now, Warriors favored by four and a half. I said this on the postgame show last night. It opened at five and a half. And I thought that was crazy.

I said, give me rockets plus five and a half all day. That seems insane. The way that the rockets have been grinding down this Warriors team and the way that they've been playing defense in every single one of these games. So that has already moved down for five and a half to four and a half. So that'll be something to keep an eye on. I still think it's going to be basically a coin flip game. You can win the coinflict game on Friday, and then you come home on Sunday.

I think the Rockets are going to win the series. They can win game six. They are winning game seven in my mind. They're just too good, especially defensively. I mean, Min Thompson was all over the place. Five steals in the first half. He was eating Steph Curry's lunch. Steph Curry's coming up to the, it's basically up to the halfway line.

And, and I'm in Thompson just poking the ball away and going the other way for easy pockets. Steph Curry looked although lethargic and disinterested. Draymond Green didn't play well either. He looked like he could hardly move around. Same thing for Jimmy Butler. And you had Steve Kerr waving the

white flag, 5.50 left in the third quarter. I mean, I don't know if I've seen a coach in a playoff game give up that early. That was insane. Now, the deficit was like 29 points at that point. And what Steve Kerr said is we don't have it tonight.

We are tired. My old veteran guys are exhausted. We're going to pack it in. And that's that. We're going to get this extra rest, put it in the bank, head back home and try to win this bad boy in San Francisco in game six. That's why I don't even think he probably entertained the thought of putting his starters back in in that fourth quarter when they got within 13 points a couple of times.

Now, if they had gotten under 10, that's when I think things could have really gotten interesting to where they might have actually had a shot. But it didn't happen. So the Rockets and Emio Doka having to put their starters back in around eight minutes in the fourth quarter. Then for six minutes, I think until basically the two-minute mark, they took care of business, got it up to 18. And then with two minutes left, that's when the bench brigade really came in and closed out the game for the Rockets to get the 15-point win. Could have been a much bigger blowout. Rockets got up by as much as 31.

Should have been a bigger blowout. But at the end of the day, you get the win. That's all that matters. Amen Thompson was spectacular. Alpern-Shingoong was pretty good. Fred Van Vleet's knocking down threes again. But to me, as I said, the biggest thing and key to the victory was the three-point shooting, which cooled off to 43% for the game.

That's still well above average for the rockets on the season. And then 84% from the free throw line, starting off a perfect 13 for 13 in that first quarter. That completely changes the complexion of the game. I mean, after that first quarter, it's 40 to 24, right? and that's a perfect 13 of 13 from the free throw line. You take off six or seven of those points from where the basically how they'd been shooting from the free throw line before,

the Warriors are thinking they're in this game. You're down 40 to 24 at the first quarter. That's when they start to mentally get worn down and maybe it is time to pack it down. And then by pack it in, by halftime, they did. They had completely given up. Start of the third quarter is when they really started to look disinterested. It was looking like,

preseason game, middle of that third quarter. I think that's when Steph Curry is like, all right, this is time to pull the plug. Team's tired. Let's go, pack it in, try to win. I think they did want to go into that game, trying to give it a shot and see how things went early on. But once they started getting blown out, once the rockets

are making threes and free throws and then just snowballing downhill on them with the turnovers that they were forcing and scoring points off of those turnovers, that's when it was that was that. So it's not a whole new series. or anything like that. This is going to be a tough one.

This is what the Warriors wanted to be at home with a chance to clench the series. But the Rockets are still alive. Really hurts that you didn't get game four, especially, which was winnable. I mean, you miss 12 free throws and you lose by three, man. That still hurts. Game one also very winnable.

I mean, all these games have been winnable that the Rockets have lost. And I want to say now, if you add all up all the points for the whole series. The Rockets are winning. Unfortunately, on aggregate. That's only like a soccer thing. All right, we're going to play two games. We're going to add it up on aggregate. They don't do that in a seven-game

series. You've got to win the games as they come. Unfortunately, the Rockets have only won two of those. But I think they're like six points ahead of the Warriors if you add up all the points scored in this series. So it's been closer than maybe the 3-2 deficit in getting down 3-1 would show. But you've got to go out there. You've got to win the games. I think the Rockets are the better basketball team. One of the things I'm really going to be keeping an eye on

we'll talk about after this break. The number one thing I am keeping an eye on for game number six for the Houston Rockets. We'll talk about what are you keeping in your eye on? How did you feel about that win last night? Rockets staying alive, staving off elimination. 713-212-5-790. The phone number if you want to get in. 7-13-2125790.

Ross v. Real with you on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We also got Astro stuff as well to get to if you'd like. You can send tweets to at SportsRour. RV as well. We're with you until 2 o'clock. We're going to take quick break and be right back here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross, Via Rio de Real with you. Here on Sports Talk 790.

Hi. The Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He's like basically a part-time player on this show at this point, but that's okay. We appreciate him for his service. He is out jet set and flying out with the Houston Rockets. They are heading to San Francisco. So it's a good thing. Not saying I want Matt gone, but it's a good thing he is traveling with the team.

That means they won last night. They're heading out to San Francisco for game number six on Friday. Phone lines open for you at 713-213-2-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Will we be joined by Chris Gordy? I think so at some point on the program. In the meantime, as I mentioned, phone lines are open if you'd like to get right in at 7-1-3-2. 1-2-5-7-90. Talking about that, Rockets 131-1-16 win over the Warriors last night. It was huge.

It was a weird one because at the end of the day, I mean, the Warriors outscoring the Rockets, 36 to 24 in the fourth quarter. Having to go back, I don't know if, I really, I think it's happened before, definitely. I don't think under the Udocha regime, maybe it happened back in the day, the Mike Dantonie days where the starters had to come back. It's somewhere in the back of my mind, but certainly in a playoff game, you're up 29. The other team is wave the white flag. 5.50

left in the third. They're going to their backup players. And even Udoca. Again, we had a couple of people calling and some people on Twitter arguing like, why would Coach Udoka do that? Why wouldn't he just keep his starters in? Like what? They have to play in another day too. They've already waived the white

flag. Udoca waited in a whole other five minutes left. There were 17 minutes effectively. or I suppose 18 minutes left in the game when Steve Kerr wave the white flag. Of those 18 minutes, you don't go, waited five of them. There were only 13 minutes left in the game,

and they were up 30. You should be taking care of business. I'm sorry. You can't have a guy. I mean, Reed Shepard and Jack Landale, and I mean, Tari Easton was on the floor. Jabari's Jr. was on the floor. It wasn't like they were completely giving up.

It wasn't like Nate Williams. and the boy and Jay Chonte, well, Jay Chonte's hurt, but you know what I'm saying? Those guys weren't out on the floor and they just got thrashed, man. They were just getting killed by Moses Moody and Pat Spencer and Kevin Knox and it was like, who are all these guys scoring all these points against the rockets?

And you had to go back to the starters, unfortunately with eight minutes left there in the fourth. So they came in for six more minutes. I don't think that's going to be some huge storyline or it's going to loom large. I think the number one thing I will be looking at for the next game is again what we were kind of talking about going into game five and that's jalen green and it's got that added layer to it for me it's not only okay is he going to be taken out of the game with double

teams and missing shots like he's apt to do how healthy is he going to be because i was concerned with him the way that he was moving around in that game he left with that knee injury at the end of the first quarter did check back in with 11 seconds left when there was an offensive possession and he did play in the second half a little bit for the Rockets as well, but Jalen Green, as much as we want to dogg on him and talk about how poor he is, like if he's completely off the floor and is not at least a threat for the Golden State Warriors' defense to account for, that's going to hurt the Rockets offensively long term. See, I got to be real. Be real. I liked Aaron Holliday getting some minutes.

Yeah, but who's going to be better over a 48-minute game, Aaron Holiday or Jalen Green? A healthy Jailen Green. Have you watched these playoffs? Yes, I have. game. Yes. He's been very good. Well, Aaron Holiday hasn't even been playing. Made the most of his minutes last night.

I guess. Nine points. Okay. So they won because of Aaron Holiday. I'm just saying it didn't hurt him. Jaylen Green's been hurting them. He has been. He's also one of the reasons before last night,

he was the reason that they won game two. But also, I'm just worried about his. And that's something that we've been talking about throughout the season. He's the reason you lost game four. No, no. No, the reason you lost game four wasn't because of Jalen Green. because nobody can make a free throw. You missed 12 free throws. No. If he does what he, if he performs like Jalen Green is supposed to be performing here at the end of year four of his NBA career,

he'd be rocking and roll. Well, he's not, and he's not moving well, and he's got knee issues. Play Aaron Holiday. Okay. Aaron Holiday, the key to victory. I mean, he's giving you a little bit of a different look and a little bit of, like he can at least, he makes shots. Aaron Holiday can shoot. All right, I'm going to tell you something. If they're getting like 35 minutes of Aaron Holiday, this team is not better.

No, I mean, it's just not. 20 plus. Okay. Would you get 16? A lot of that was because of garbage time as well. Aaron Holiday did play some last night because of Jalen Green being hurt. And if he's not close, that's a decision, I don't know. Nobody even asked about it, by the way.

This is like two straight games. Nobody asked about Jalen Green at the end of game four in the media availability postgame, and then nobody asked about him in this post game either, at least of all the cuts that we have, there's not a single answer on Jalen Green. Like he was out there noticeably limping. He had a huge wrap on his knee, and he was grimacing and not moving well the entire time,

and then nobody asked about it. I don't know if we're getting, I hadn't heard from Matt, if we're getting Eme Adoka in the next couple of days. I would imagine we are. I mean, that's a question that has to be asked. And coaches talked about him being banged up, but he was not moving well at all.

So it comes to the point of like, okay, should he be out there? And like you said, if that means, even if it's not, he doesn't play or he does, it's how many minutes does he go off? And then, yeah, I'm okay with Aaron Holiday. I mean, he's fine,

but I don't think he's like some key to unlocking the rocket's potential as a team. If Aaron Holiday is that, then your team's not very good. It's about the other guys, it's about playing team defense, it's about Alprensing Gund doing his thing and getting some three-point production

from Fred Van Fleet the last couple of games, which has been huge. So it's all of those, things wrapped up and it's something, I would say, the thing I'm keeping an eye on and curious to ask coach about if we get

the opportunity, or if somebody can ask him pre-game in game six, is what is the deal with Jalen? What's the deal with Jalen Green and his knee? It's all on you, Aaron. Need Aaron Holiday. Come through tomorrow. Stop. Stop. Need them to make some shots.

And you know what? We're going to put it all on. We're a Jack Landale. Would you know that meme of that guy that gets drafted? He's pointing at himself. That's Aaron Holiday. me it's all on me you know it's scary though it feels like like Fred can't have another off game we need Fred to be really good tomorrow you look he you can do what he did this game now a four of six three point shooting isn't going to happen but I'm saying to the level of what he gave you in game four which was wasted unfortunately because you lost eight for 12 from three that's not going to happen and and that's not necessarily what you're going to need but yeah if he can go out

there and make three or four threes that just opens things up so much if he if he's he can be effective for you offensively. It's all about everybody contributing because, as we know, the Rockets don't have any one guy who say, you go out there and you dominate for us and we're going to win this game. Steph Curry has been that guy for the Golden State Warriors. To an extent, Jimmy Butler has been that guy for them as well. And they're continuing to wear down.

They're older. The series is wearing on. They're going to be playing their fourth game in seven in a week. That's a lot for the old man. That's what gives me hope that this young team can. like if anybody can win three in a row and come back and win the series it's the young guys that maybe the older guys for the Warriors

are getting a little bit worn down they look worn down Steph Curry looked completely gassed in that game and this is where we're in the stretch of play a game day off play a game day off as opposed to earlier in the series where you're getting like three days off between games exactly yeah that's why I mean yesterday being the third game in five days

and then coming up you get the fourth game in seven days that's what you're hoping for. God, they just have... Fifth game in nine days coming up would be game seven. That's why I think if they can steal this one on the road, they're winning game seven at home.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they just... But like the Pesemskis and those guys, like, they just have threes. It's like, where did you come from? Yeah, Brandon Pitchmesee's good. I mean, look, they're a well-built team.

Buddy Heild can go off. He didn't do much of anything in game five. That post, dude. Quinn Post. What is he? Where did you go from? Quentin Post. How about Moses Moody with 25 off the bench?

He's good, man. They're a, all right. They're a really good, well-built team, I feel like, with Jimmy Butler on the floor. But also, I think the good thing is, is their spacing isn't very good

when they start Jimmy Butler and Dremont Green, and both of those guys are not three-point shooters, and they're not keeping you honest, it makes it that much easier for them to double team, or at least hedge or shade Stefan Curry and guard them the way that they have been so far in this series. What's so weird,

is the dynamic shift. When the Warriors were in their heyday and rocking and rolling, they wanted to run. They run up and down. This Warriors team doesn't want to and the Rockets want to. Yeah. And like when the Rockets are running, back and forth, back and forth, you can see it. The Warriors getting tired. Yeah, getting tired, getting gas.

And that's why one of the reasons I'm in Thompson has been so effective the last couple of games, it's getting out in transition. When the other team is making shots and then getting set in the half court, it's a lot tougher for the spacing. It's a lot tougher for a men in Thompson to get down on a runway and get towards a basket. Teams are going to back up off them in the half court, and we've seen that.

So get out, get some steals, create them a little bit of your own luck as far as the turnovers and turning that into transition offenses and get running up and down the floor and running this old team, this old Warriors team ragged, good things are going to happen and they have. And they did in this last game

for the Rockets in game number five. Game number six coming up Friday That'll be on our sister station, News Radio 740 KTRH. All right, quick bottom of the hour break here on Sports Talk 790. I see you guys on hold. We'll get to you as we go along. 713-212-5-790 is your phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90 tweets at Sports RV and at Chris Gordy as well.

With you until 2 o'clock. It is The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross Vireel. and not Matt Thomas. Chris Gordy hanging out. Appreciate you. Gordy?

Rock and roll. I'm going to sit in with a Quentin for a second. Would you take it as a compliment, or would you say it's a negative if I called you the Maricio Dubon now of Sports Talk 790? I don't know. Rather Marwin. You're filling in all over.

Okay, we'll put you, how about the Marwin Gonzalez? Yeah, he did. Well, we can call you the Orlando Palmero of the Sports Talk 790. That works too. He was pretty good. The Jed Lowry. Oh, Jed Lowry.

Lowry. I like that one. Well, you're filling it all over the place. You're going to be hanging out with Adam Clanton too? I mean, my God. Well, just for a little bit, yeah. Okay. Well, Chris Gordy's hanging out with me. Now, you guys can get in at 713, 2, 112, 5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. We've been

talking some Houston Rockets basketball. And, well, Mac, in Pearland, wanted to get on the phone lines and talk some Rockets, and he can do that right now. Go ahead, Mac. I didn't know. know, Jalen Green was hurting. The national broadcast doesn't say a lot about it.

But yes, that's very concerning. Also, I've just come back from working in Midland for a lot of months, and I'm curious what Cam Woodmore did or did not do to get so far in the doghouse. Yeah, there's no specifics on that necessarily. I'm just going to tell you just from observations, Cammore attitude has looked pretty bad. It looks like, you know, he had those weird, bizarre comments that he had made in a postgame as well. After one of the games, he had gone off and he was like, I don't know what else I need to do to get more minutes on this team.

I'm going to guess it's an A, an attitude problem. B, he plays a little bit too out of control to get meaningful minutes in a playoff game. And C, I mean that offensively. And then C, the defensively, he misses too many assignments and perhaps shows too much of a lack of focus for coach. Judoka to trust him in a playoff setting. Got it. Okay. So he's probably trade bait. Yeah, if there's another team that says,

hey, I can fix Cam Whitmore. I can fix him. We can do it. If you can find somebody that's interested, his highlight reels look good, he's aggressive, gets to the basket, but I think he sometimes plays a little bit too out of control, plays a little bit too much for himself rather than for others. He needs to go to Phoenix. And who would be coming back?

Mac. Nobody. Nobody. You ship them off for nothing? Okay. I don't know. There's got to be, got to be, he's on what, some sort of rookie salaries. Yeah.

I thought you were meaning, hinting at a Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant trade package or something. I hope they don't do that. The cost is going to be high. And, you know, he could be in the third game. get a knee injury and that's that's kissy goodbye you know yeah all right thanks a lot mac appreciate it uh yeah he'll be 37 by the start of next season i think kevin durant would be but this this rocket's team as of right now a lot of people have been calling for cam whitmore it's the 52 million that

bothers me with kevin durand most of my money i don't care but but no but you got to match salaries right to make it work yeah fred van vleet's making 40 uh jane green's making 30 how does that work with the team, so it's a team option. Team option. I think they opt him in and then you can move it. I think so? Well, the NBA, the ESPN trade machine says he's not tradable. Okay, well then he's not? So to make it work, at least salary matchup wise, you'd have to give up and at least this is through the trades I've run.

Dylan Brooks, Jock Landale, Reed Shepard, Jabari Smith, and a draft picker two. Did you mention Jalen Green? I didn't, I don't think I had Jailen in the trade. Yeah, he's making $30 million. That gets you there. close quick. I've seen some people though say, don't do it, don't give up on Jalen Green. You're going to regret this because there have been

some, okay, so the Jalen Green truthers, you know what they say out there? Well, yeah, two years under Stephen Silas. Those don't even count. So now he's only got, now he's got two years of NBA coaching. So he's just scratching the service. And if you trade him, mark my words, within three years, he's going to

be a superstar in this league and you're going to go, what did we do? It's possible, but unlikely. I I think that's completely foolish to just dismiss the first two years of his career just because Stephen Silas is there. Stephen Silas is a good offensive coach. And they let him work and operate and get up a bunch of shots talking about Jalen Green. And that's ridiculous to say that. I think it is valid to say he lost a developmental year in between high school and the NBA because he was on G League Ignite in the middle of the pandemic.

And I want to say he played like seven, eight games. No, no, you know, that's wrong. I think it was like 17 games or something like that. It's under 20 games that he played in between high school and the NBA because of the COVID G-League season was shortened. I've seen people say similar thing about Chengoon. I'm just telling you right now, if the bucks want to send me Janus and Chengoon has to be part of the deal, I'm doing it.

I'm okay. But there are people out there were like, nope, hanging the phone up, not even in discussion. A guy who just made his first All-Star game and is becoming Next Yokic. No, not interested. I'm like, guys, I love Shingoon. But if you can get Janice Ante Kumpa with Amat-Topsin and some of these other pieces, you do it. I'm going to tell you something for, yeah, those people. And these weren't even Turkish bots.

Like, those are the ones on Twitter. They're like, you got to watch out, though. Those guys will threaten your family. Best player in country. Like, good Lord, man. Those guys are like, here's your IP address. I'm going to come find you. You're like, oh, my God.

It's not that serious, dude. We're talking basketball. He's awesome. it's awesome, and he's got fans out there and all that, but I'm just telling you, like, if this, if they decide this offseason that they want it, that they are a superstar away, I'm sorry. There's nobody, nobody off the table to get a Janus to me. Can we do some real talk on a Thursday about both Jalen Green and Alperinchingoon? There was one player that the warriors were hunting on every single offensive possession to start that game yesterday.

His name is Alperin Shungoon. They were getting him out in space. They were trying to find him on pick and rolls. He was guarding Brandon Pajinsky. and so they were bringing him out there and then trying to get in pick and rolls where the rockets were scrambling and trying to trap everything. But they're hunting Alperin Shungoon.

He gets hunted and he's going to get, that's going to happen because his defense is just not there. Now I'll say his defense is way better than it was. It's improved. So can he continue to improve, maybe? He is 22 years old. That is also true. And Jalen Green's 23 and Alperin Shungoon will be 23,

let me see, in July, in the middle of this season. but also for three straight years Alper and Shungoon's field goal percentages have gone down down to where he was under 50. He's 6'11. The vast majority of his shots are within the painter in the mid-range and he's shooting under 50%. Yeah.

The Shaggild just thing is the one that scares you because the clippers, it's almost like they didn't know what they had. That's true. And he's become one of the faces of the league with the thunder. And I was talking about this with Adam. Clinton. Shea Gilgius Alexander is an example a guy who got traded away and then he blossomed into a superstar. Jalen Brunson is

another example of a guy who was traded away and blossom into a superstar. Devin Booker is another guy who was very young and he stayed in one place, but he got better and better and better but I'm going to tell you something. I was looking at this yesterday because I had a lot of free time in between the Matt Thomas show

and doing the Rockets game. I looked up shooting percentages and three point and two point percentages and all like box plus minus win shares, all that type of stuff. And I came to a sad realization. Shea Gilgis, Devin Booker, Zach Levine, Jalen Brunson, all of them in their first four years were miles ahead of Jalen Green.

They just were. And so this waiting around for Jalen Green to become a superstar, honestly, it's looking more likely that he's going to be Kevin Martin or Monta Ellis than he is going to be Jalen Brunson or Shea Gildegelgis Alexander. That's another harsh reality. I'm fine keeping him if, you know, like I said, like if it takes moving a Shungoon to get a Janus, I'm fine Jalen Green playing with Janus.

Like, I'm not saying you have to move him, but I'm just saying like to go get a monster piece, I'm willing to move whatever it takes. Yeah, the only question would be with Janus being 30. He's got three to four more elite years in. But his game is predicated on his athleticism more than his skill, in my opinion. I mean, he's skilled, especially with making tough layups and all that type of stuff. But once he kind of loses that, maybe he never will, just because of how tall and how lengthy he is.

But that explosiveness that he has, that first step, his game is really, really predicated on that. So when that goes away, that's why I think, I think Daniel Lillard's career was over. He just ripped his Achilles. He's going to be 35 years old. He needs that fast step, that quickness. James Harden never needed. Derek Rose just called him and say, hey, man, join the club. We talked to, yeah, well, unfortunately. But Kevin Durand has been successful outside of an Achilles because he is one of the most skilled shooters and players and scores and bucket getters in the history of the planet. He's got, I mean, a bag way deeper than DeNia Stensigupor or Dame Lillard. So he can still be effective also because, you know, you can't teach that height and

link that he has. The only thing that scares me, you make a move for Durant. Even if it's just for one year to bring him in here, what if he gets hurt? Totally screwed. It could happen to anybody. It could happen to Yonnes. Could happen to Jalen Green looks hurt right now. But it happened to him in Golden State. Yeah, you're dealing with a lot of unknowns. That's

unfortunate, that's the harsh reality of this business, and that's why it's very hard being an NBA general manager. Would you, if you made a trade with Phoenix, would you rather Booker or Durant? Booker. Look at his years and money. He's got a lot of years and a lot of money.

Again, tell me, how much is Tellman for Tito Worth? Ain't my money. I don't care. No, it's not your money. I'm not saying like I care about him making a lot of money. No, I don't care. There's a salary cap and you're restricted and you can't. Right now they have flexibility. Yeah.

You don't have flexibility if you take on a Devin Booker contract. Oh, no. I'm taking on a superstar player who's carried a team to the finals. I'm okay with taking that risk. Carried team of the finals, but also sucked ass the last two years. Like their team ain't doing nothing. Yeah. recently.

Okay. The reason why they want to sell, why they got them in their garage sale. Well, the Rockets could be out on Friday in the first round. But also, I understand the philosophy of saying this team just exceeded expectations. Stay the course. Right. I get that too. And I'm okay. I'm not saying shake things up. I'm just saying right now, to me, the odds are Shingun is what he is. Fringe All-Star type of player with big defensive issues. And Jalen Green is what he is. Fringe All-Star player who maybe never, maybe never reached. is that echelon of perennial all-star and superstar player.

And that's what Raphael Stone has to figure out. They're around these guys. A lot of all those figuring those things out is work ethic and what is inside their heads and their hearts rather than the physical gifts that we see that they have. It's about putting in that work and getting better and reaching their ceilings. If the rockets say, hey, we're going to stay the course, we're not going to get off course. We're ahead of schedule anyways. So we're going to stay with this core.

I'm okay with that. We'll see how it plays out. That's up to them. What do you think? 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. Series ain't over, by the way, either. 7-13-212-5-790. And I also think if they can get through this Warriors series,

they would be clear favorites and have home court advantage against the Minnesota Timberwolf. So a lot to discuss with the Rocketeer with Chris Gordy, myself, Ross, Vireel, and you at 713-212-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, with you until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. 12.50 PM here. Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show

with Ross. With Matt Thomas, he's basically a part-time host on this show at this point, and that's okay. We appreciate him traveling with the Rockets. Well, here's the thing. Do you want Matt back? You get more airtime than he does on this show. Do you want Matt back in the studio, then you want the Rockets to lose?

If you want the Rockets to keep going far, then you're going to have to do without some mats. Oh, yeah, I can handle it. No, Matt and the Rockets. are winning. That's a dub that. You win twice, brother? Here's the problem. Lakers lost last night. So what? So the Warriors are going to get every call on Friday.

Oh, shut up. The league cannot have, they can't have the Lakers and the Warriors off. You and Adam Klan with your tinfoil hats, this is supposed to have happened all year long. Wouldn't they have already rigged the series? We're five games in. I'm just telling you.

Guess what? You know what they can't? rig when you're taking when you're making a bunch 60% of your free throw 60% of your three pointers and you're making all your free throws they can't rig anything If you're Adam Silver you're sitting your office right now going. Stop please

We already have Janus out Yeah No Lillard Aunt Edwards is LeBron and Luca Aunt Edwards is an ascending star Oh the Oklahoma City Thunder and Shaigilges Alexander

The freaking calves that nobody can name a player. Okay, they're going to be pretty pissed if it's Wolves Thunder. But the Warriors, okay. Rockets have Super. Wolf's Thunder and Cavs. Who are the other teams of these? America loves Jock Landale.

They want them. Nobody gets more ratings than Jack Landale. I'm surprised the Nix don't get calls. For being in New York. Yeah, see? That should tell you. Shouldn't the Nix didn't get a call on the last play of that game when Tim Hardaway, Jr. got fouled against the Detroit Pistons.

That should tell you the league is not rigged because the Knicks. have it won since Walt Clyde Frazier and the boy Willis Reed is popping out of the tunnels. Steph Curry is still like he's one of, if not the face of the league, he's still up there. I would, is it still

LeBron, I guess? I'm talking like kids in school, like kids, it shifted from kids, like young kids just being fans of stars from LeBron to Steph. Like every kid out of Steph Jersey. I think a big part of it started with LeBron James because he was a cavalier and then he went to the heat and a lot of people

love LeBron James and they became heat fans and back to Cavs fans and Lakers fans. And so it's like, that to me kind of kicked off this culture that we have now where people are more fans of players than teams. Yeah, but I'm just saying like Steph, if they could keep stuff in it, they would love to keep stuff in it. They would love to, but also they just got to win. Nobody nationally's tuned in to see what you have.

So Adam Silver is pulling down the call. Look, if the league was rigged, Tim Duncan and the boring-ass spurs would not have won five championships. They just wouldn't have. They're going to go. All right. They're going to go T. I know Draymond pushed Jabari, but Jabari swung back.

So Jabari, you're ejected and Draymond, common foul. Well, we'll see what happens. Put your tinful hat on and watch the game Friday night. 713-212-5-790. The phone number, 713-212-5-790. Marcus, holding Longest. What's up, Marcus? Hey, guys, I just wanted to touch back on the Jalen Green.

stuff. I just had a few questions for y'all. Maybe y'all can answer them. Number one would be, does Jalen Green make superstar money? No. I don't think he does. You do or don't? So where I'm he doesn't.

No, no. Where I'm going with this is he doesn't get paid like a superstar. He's 23 years old. Some guys, it takes a little bit longer to develop, especially for a 23-year-old young man in any profession. number one.

I don't know. Hang on, Marcus. I don't know about the NBA. We see got, by year four, superstars are usually starting to blossom if you're a superstar. Yeah, and look, it's, everybody is certainly on a different timeline, Marcus. But as far as, like, John Morant busted it out in his third year.

Anthony Edwards became a star in his third year. It did take a little bit longer for, for Devin Booker. But as I said, if you compare, like, shooting percentages and points per game and all that type of stuff earlier in their careers. Devin Booker is miles away ahead. Go ahead.

Let's look at the full context of this. All those guys were A1 player, option one player. Who's been the number one option for this team over the last four years? It's been a multitude of different players. I bet if we go look at the field goals attempted in the last four years, I'm going to guess. I don't have it in front of me. I'm going to bet you, though, that if we look at field goals attempted the last four years,

it's been Jalen Green. I think it's been Jalen Green all four years. I'm going to pull it up. But not over the course of a full season, guys. It hasn't consistently been him as our number one option. There was a point in time last year when Sengoon went down and Jalen took off because he was kind of that guy. So I do want to show him grace in that area because I don't believe that we should be so quick to move on from somebody that number one isn't getting paid like a superstar. superstar. Number two,

where a lot of Rocket fans are running around with this entitlement, like we're to Boston Celtics. And three, where the hell have they been the last four years? They just showed back up to the party. Okay. Your last... I just want to tell everyone, pump the break just a little bit.

You're going against a really, really great player across from you. Not to mention, he's playing beside two all defensive players with him, with the great COVID. So we need to take everything. Yeah, but that's what's going to happen in the playoffs, Marcus.

You've got to step up. You guess what's going to happen? If you want to reach a superstar status, you're going to go up against great players. You're going to go up against great defenses. You're going to go up against... I'm going to put you on hold for one second because we're talking over each other, Marcus.

I'm putting you on hold. I will let you get the last word. Now, when you go into the playoffs, and this is the first round, this is the first round he's getting shut down. And by simple traps and double teams... Even James Hardin would crush in the first round. Yeah, I mean,

look, and I understand he is 23 years old, but I just looked it up for you because you were bringing it up. He hasn't been the focal point of the number one option. The last four years, the number one player in field goal attempts every year has been Jalen Green for the Houston Rockets. And this is how it's

going to be. If you want to be a superstar, the Sacramento Kings aren't hanging out in the playoffs. It's got to be the Golden State Warriors. It is going to be the best defenders on the planet. It is going to be smart coaches scheming against you. And you're going to have to rise above that. And so far,

five games in, Jalen Green has risen above that just once. That's what I'm saying. This is how it's going to be. Us Kate Cunningham doing for the Pistons. You can't, I don't know. I mean, we can bring that up. But we're talking about specifically Jalen Green, who has been basically below average by every metric. Those top guys that here was him, Evan Mobley,

and Kate Cunningham. Like, the expectation is you were taking top three in a draft four years ago, you should, the expectations you are a, Broadway line superstar. We look at the same draft. It is Cade Cunningham, who's been an All-Star and carrying a piston teams. It is Evan Mobile who just won defensive player of the year and is on arguably the best team in basketball and then Cleveland Cavaliers. Scotty Barnes has been an all-star team, all-star player in that same amount of time.

And I'm not saying Jalen career, Jalen's career is over, but he is significantly lagging by others even in the own top of his own draft class at this point, Marcus. And all that is fair, I get it. I'm just being realistic here. Yes, you're going to have to beat Steph Curry and to get to the top. That's the obvious. But in your first year in the playoffs, I don't care who you are,

you're not getting past Steph Curry, nine times out of ten. And that's all I'm saying is I'm just trying to show the kid a little bit of grace. I don't believe that there is a dire need to rush this offseason into making that decision. He's not getting paid like a superstar. I believe you have another year of flexibility.

After this season, if he continues the inconsistency, I'm full on board with you guys or a bunch of other people that want to move on from. I just don't think we should be that much in a rush. I get you, Marcus. Thank you. We've got to hit the top of the hour break. And I even said as much in the last segment, I said, look, if Rafael Stone says, hey, we're ahead of schedule, we're going to roll with these guys,

we're going to dance with who brung us to this level. I'm okay with that. He's getting 35 million a year, though. Yeah, Max is like 50. He got three years, $105 million or something like that. Like, it's not dirt. That's not superstar money, though. It's not the max, but it's not dirt.

They gave him star treatment, not superstar. But Marcus is right. $50 million is max money. And, well, I don't even know he's eligible for that because it was just a rookie extension. He's a younger player. So I don't know what the exact max he could have made. But Fred Van Vlid is getting paid more than him. because, well, he signed it because I think he wanted flexibility with the opt-outs.

But Supermax money is $70 million. Max money is $50 million. And even if he's not eligible for that right now, he is not making money that Aunt Edwards and whoever else that we're talking about is making. So that is true for Marcus. But $30 million is, as you say, nothing to sneeze at, and you still need to be performing up to a level. Okay, we've got to get a quick top of the hour break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Sports Talk 790. You want to get in, you can. 713-212-5. Our number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross is upon us. Matt Thomas is traveling with the rockets. They are headed to San Francisco, as they'll be taking on the Warriors. Uh-oh, line back to five and a half. I'm just telling you, folks, this is my unofficial...

Warriors minus five? Minus five and a half. And my unofficial rockets, Homer opinion, rockets are covered that five and a half. Let's go, baby. I don't know if they're going to win the game. 50-50 spot there for me. But you feel like if they win six, they're winning seven?

They're winning seven. Barring our good friend Jalen Green's health. We've been talking about him and having some healthy discourse. You imagine, though, another game seven loss at Toyota Center versus the Warriors. You don't talk about that. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I'm just saying, man.

So as I mentioned, I was bringing up. the careers of some young wings, some other guys. Like Anthony Edwards was an all-star by his third season. John Morant was an all-star by his third season. Devin Booker and Chegelgildjus and Alexander, Jalen Brunson, guys like that. You look at their... I might have taken... You started to see it.

Yeah. I mean, he won a dunk contest at age 13. Look, okay. So right now, if you look at some of those tracks of the biggest stars, Let's see. Kobe was an All-Star his second year. Okay, yeah. And he had a shock. I mean, when they won those titles. No, that can't be right. He was an All-Star in his second year?

Yeah. It must have been fan vote or something. He only averaged 15 a game. But then he didn't make an All-Star team in his, oh, that was the lockout year in the third year. And then he was starting to get MVP votes to Plenty Flare the Year votes and All-Star votes in his fourth season. That was at age 21. Also, Kobe Bryant's one of the greatest of all time. Jalen Green is well behind that track. It just is what it is.

So the question is, where is he going to end up? Where is he going to be? How much is he going to improve? I do think he's gotten better all four years in the NBA. As far as an all-around player, especially defensively, the question is how much better is he going to get? I mean, I hope he's a superstar. I don't think that's happening. His personality has to be realistic.

It sucks. He's such a good dude when you talk to him, but he's just soft-spoken, too. You always think of like superstars are like... Yeah, who's been like the quietest, like Tim Duncan? But he just didn't like to speak. Right. And he was in a market. Who is the best NBA player who was extremely soft-spoken and didn't really want to speak to the media?

I don't know. We have to think on that. We got a couple of people holding. So let's go ahead and get to you folks. 713-21-25-790 is the phone number. Biscuit has been holding patiently. Biscuit, go ahead. The floor is yours. Yes, sir. That's soft-spoken player.

You're talking about this. Great. I would throw a quiet under in that bunch. Oh, that's a good one. But let me say this, Ross and, I mean, Ross and, I mean, Ross and Stan. First of all, I kind of came in late on it. So, I mean, Gordie, I know Gordy was saying.

So are you guys saying that we should move on from, Jaylen Green? Is that what you got saying? What are you actually saying? I'm saying I don't know. We're just talking out loud. If you think that Jaylen Green is going to be a superstar, you keep him. If you think he's not going to reach that level and you want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, then you get rid of him. Go ahead.

I was just going to say, this was rooted in the conversation. It's been talked about a lot of social media. Okay, if the season comes to an end, do you go get a superstar? If Janus is available, if Durant or Booker is available, and who's off limits? And I've seen some people like, oh, you can't trade Jay, Green because if he goes elsewhere, it's going to kill you when he becomes a superstar and you're five or you're six. But to me, I'm like, you can't worry about that.

Like, if you feel like that's what's best for your team to get over the hump, is adding a Janus, I give up whatever the hell I need to do to get a Janus out to Tocompo. Yeah, and if you're asking for my current opinion right now is Jalen Green is not a superstar in the waiting in the wings. But do we have to become a superstar? For this team. Somebody on the team does. Unless they're going to be the 2004 Pistons who won one,

one championship. Somebody, if the goal is championship success, yes, he has to be one or somebody on this team has to be one. And then maybe it could be Thompson. But let me, let me say, what if he comes to a level of of a Jamal Murray?

Not a superstar, not an all-star, but a very good player on a good team. But what does Jamal Murray have next to him? He's the greatest player in the planet. Maybe, maybe Thompson can be become that. Or maybe Sangoon can

become that. What I'm saying to you, though, I wouldn't, to me, let's pump the brakes. I keep saying that, but let's go look and see what Steph Curry and did in their first time in the playoffs. They wasn't lighting it up. I mean, they got beat too. And go to state. We know Jalen Green is the number one offensive player on the team, and

Golden State knows that too. So they're concentrating on Jaylor. Now, it's something that he has to go through, Ross. That's what's going to happen to the playoffs. Oh, no, they're concentrating on them. That's what they're going to do. That's playoff basketball. They concentrate on Michael Jordan. They concentrate on LeBron James.

They concentrate on Ann Edwards, and they rise above it. They didn't do well their first time at it, though. It's something that he has to grow on. And you guys keep saying, I'm of the opinion. I'm only counting two years of Jalen Green. Okay, Jalen Green is at, okay, let's know. You told me to bring up Steph Curry. I just did it.

Steph Curry has played 152 playoff games. He has double digits twice. Jalen Green has double digits three times already in one series. Single. I'm sorry, single digits. Single digits. Excuse me. I'm sorry.

I miss one. Single digits. Steph Curry in 152 playoff games. He's done it twice. Jalen Green has done it three times already. And it might have been in that first time around. And if Steph Curry might not even be a good comparison. Okay.

Because Steph is a higher level than safe. Yes, he is. He's a superstar. I don't think Jalen Greene's a superstar. Right. So the point I'm making, Ross, is if you pay for Yonis and you give up the whole team, you're going to be Milwaukee in Houston. You know, I'm not saying Jalen's untouchable,

but I would be very wary of giving up all my assets to bring in one guy, and then you stuck where you was before. I'm saying it's add to what you got. Let's see if the guys can continue to grow. let's get a coach another season to season them. It's a 30 game improvement over two years. 30 games. Yes.

And Jalen has improved. He's got, now I'm with you like I doca. If your shot is not falling, you can't just fall off the map. And that's what Jalen has done in a couple games in this series. So let's hope that he grows from it. Let's hope that he grows.

Now, how many years of Steph go to college? He was at Davidson. I don't know it was a three or four years. You know what I'm saying? Jaylen didn't do that. So when Steph probably was doing it, he probably was older than

Jaylen is right now. I'm just saying, man, it's not time to panic and throw everything, the bath. Let's stay the course, man. Okay. You got some assing. Now I'm far adding to it,

if you can get somebody without giving up much, but I don't know if I give up Green, Sangoon, and Thompson. Those three, I think you need to keep. And if you give up other people's around that, to add two, then I can go for it. But Sangoon, Thompson, and Green, I think that should be your core. All right.

Thank you, Biscuit. I appreciate it. You're going to have to give one of them up in a deal for a superstar. If Milwaukee says they're giving up, Yonis, they don't want to bottom out. They want to hit the ground running and make the playoffs again real soon. So in order to do that, you've got to get the next potential, you know, an up-accoming star. So they're going to want a Shingun or Jailen Green. And you probably can throw in a Jabari Smith or a Reech Shepherd or Cam Blet more to help sweeten the pot.

But that's what it's going to take. I don't think there's a world where you could add a Durant, a Yannis, a Booker, and you get to keep Shingun, Jalen Green, and I'm in Thompson. Yeah, it's like stock trading. You have to decide where is the ceiling of Jalen Green's stock? If you think he's getting close to the ceiling, then you sell that stock. and you look for something better, and you look for something bigger. And I'm not saying, and I understand the sentiment that you need to stick with this and you need to stay the course, and they are ahead of schedule.

But I also am seeing things that we have not seen from other players on Superstar Arks. And Biscuit brought up Steph Curry. He's only got two single-digit scoring games in his playoff history. I just brought up Aunt Edwards. He has played 32 playoff games. He has zero. Cade Cunningham right now has played as many playoff games as Jaylen Green has had. he has not been under 20 points in a game.

Can I throw her into I owe the Timberwolves an apology? Because the day they traded for Gobert, I said that was the dumbest move ever. That seemed like a dumb trip. And now it's worked out. I didn't know they were going to give up on towns. They made the conference finals last year. All right, we got to get to a break here. We got a couple of y'all and hold.

I promise we will get to you. And I understand that the grace period and the waiting on this, but at some point you got to stop waiting. And when is that going to be? that's up to Raphael Stone and Coach Udoca and the Houston Rockets. 713212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Matt Thomas Show continues after the short break.

All right. Some fun-spirited discussions happening here. That's what sports radio is all about. You folks want to get in. You can. 7-1-3-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. The phone number, if you'd like to get in.

You can also send tweets. at Sports RV at Chris Gordy as well. We get the A team coming up at 2 o'clock. We'll also hear a good conversation from Brian McTaggart on some Houston Astros coming up as well. All right, let's keep it going on the phone lines here with Mike in San Antonio holding longest on the program. Mike, go ahead. Hey, good afternoon, guys. I'm mainly called, I heard some comments about Steve Kerr, but what a fantastic.

It was to see the Rockets do what they did last night. It's a shame they didn't get one of those games in Golden State, but it is what it is. Before I talk about Kerr, the question on Jalen Green, and by the Ray Ross, I really like your analysis that you do. I don't call a lot, but I consider myself a casual fan, no expert by any means, and it makes it simple to understand some of the, you know, Tic-Tackey stuff, so I appreciate it. But the Rockets don't have a great shooter. they don't have a superstar guy like you see the other teams.

I've asked like Matt before and I've called, what do they need? They need a perimeter shooter. They need somebody like a Steph Curry that even when somebody's in his face, he makes these in credible shots so they don't have it. So that's kind of my take on Jaylor Green.

But what I really called that was Steve Kerr. I heard his post game a little bit of it last night. And he was asked if when the game was getting a little bit closer than we like it and it was still double digits, would he have put his starters back in? He answered no.

He said he wouldn't have done. He can't do that. I didn't believe him. That's what he said. I'm curious of your take on this. And the other thing, this thing that's going around about the targeting of Steph, he was asked, and I'll say to his credit, the way he answered it, he said, that's the rules. The rules of the NBA, and I don't even know this.

After the shots made, I guess you can hit their arm or something. He did not answer yes. I mean, the guy was, I heard all this. a little bit last night, but I'm just curious you guys takes on that. You're talking about Dylan Brooks's comments on hitting Steph Curry? No, Steve Kerr. Oh, Steve Kerr talking about. Yeah,

so I think once the ball leaves the hand, you can hit somebody on the hand. Now, that doesn't mean you can, like, swipe at them and try to, you know, like gorilla grip their thumb and rip it off. You can't do that. But you can hit somebody on the hand once the ball leaves the hand, that is legal. And that's what he said. So when he was asked a question, because you can say they were baiting him or whatever,

You know, you want to call it. He was asked the question, and the way he answered it, because he could have said, yeah, he didn't. He said, that's the rules. We want to get that changed, but that's the rules right now. He did not say they're targeting him, you know, not, this was curse saying it. And so I'll give him credit for that, even though I don't like him. I am curious to hear your thoughts on if you think he would have, it's got a little closer, if he would have the starter.

He said he wouldn't have. Yeah. He didn't do it. And I was just, I was really surprised by it. There would have been the threshold, Mike. Thank you. Appreciate you getting in. It's probably to a point, right? If it was like a three-point game with five minutes left, yeah, he puts his starters back in, I think. But we mentioned this earlier that even to the point of where it got, to where it was within 13 points with like five and change left, the win probability for the Rockets was still 98.7%. So if you said we're packing it in, we're resting our guys, we're putting them on ice, we got a bunch of old veteran guys that need this extra. time off because this third game in five days, clearly they weren't fresh for that. And Steve Kerr saying, nope, we're going to take it easy.

We're going to treat this as kind of a half day. And then we're going to try to win this bad boy at Golden State and get as much rest as possible. I do believe him up to a point. Where is that point? I don't know. So, I mean, if it would have been, if the Golden State Warriors would have taken the lead, God forbid, I think he would have put the starters in. If it got within three, probably, five, maybe. It got within 13 and he didn't entertain the thought.

But as I said, I brought up the win probabilities. It was still 98.7% that the Rockets win. So why, if you've put those guys on ice and decided to give them all that rest, why would you bring them in for a 1.3% chance at victory? So I don't know about that. But on your other question, oh, you're mentioning Jalen Green in the development and guys making tough shots. first of all, nobody's ever going to make tough shots.

Like Steph Curry is the greatest shooter to walk the planet, and it's not because he makes wide open corner threes. You can find guys to do that. We can go to, I don't know, the Steve Kurz of the world, or Luke Kinnard, or whoever else. Ray Allen, one of the all-time great shooters, but a lot of it wasn't. Now, young Ray Allen was creating a lot of offense for himself,

but the older Ray Allen wasn't, but he was extremely reliable when he was open because he's one of the greatest shooters of all time. What makes Steph Curry the greatest shooter of all time is the degree of difficulty at which he can make these shots with guys draped all over him, falling to his right, falling to his left, 35 foot and in.

I mean, dude almost made a half court plus shot last night, and he just makes it look routine, man. He's just insane. He has insane hand-eye coordination. He's also a really good golfer. It's like anything that he does that involves hand-eye coordination. He's great because he's the greatest shooter to ever walk the planet.

So Jalen Green and the Rockets do need better shooting, but I don't know if they're going to get anyone to that level. They're not going to get anyone to that level. But Fred VanVlate has been making threes the last couple of games. That has been huge. That needs to continue if the Rockets are going to be competing in these games because we've been waiting for Fred Van Vleet to find a shot all year long. The last couple of games, he's found it.

He's a career 37% shooter. He shot 34% this year. Generally, things regressed to the mean. water finds its level. And if Fred Van Vleet wants to find his three-point shooting level right now, it's not a bad time for him to do it. The rockets are definitely going to need that. 713-212-5-790.

The phone number, at least keep it going with Charles holding longest here on the phones. What's up, Charles? Oh, not much. I want to be honest, I don't watch the rockets a whole lot. I have tried and tried and tried, and I just can't. It's tough. I mean, defensively, these guys are a unit. They're communicating.

They're switching. Guys are coming from off the ball blocking shots. But then they get the ball and it just goes away. It's like you got five guys just with no clue. The team concept just disappears and I get so frustrated. I can't watch it. You're talking about the Rockets offense? Yeah.

They don't really run. They don't really communicate. It seems like they just kind of. willy-nilly here and there? No, I mean, normally they're running high pick-and-roll actions with Alper and Shingun and or Jalen Green. They do it a lot with Fred Van Vleet, and then they have guys moving. If they're depending on how the other team is defending that pick and roll, then they're going to go from there. They run a lot of stuff with Alperin-Shingun at the elbow.

He had nine assists last night. Fred Van Vleet has been a good assist guy for them. So, no, I would say they're not just running around willy-nilly, not running an offense. Then maybe it's just whenever. I'm watching, I'm having bad nights. I mean, or maybe I'm just not watching the same game and seeing the same game y'all are.

Because I get frustrated because it just looks like, you know, I mean, there are some there is some cases. I'm not saying they're just totally, you know, but when it starts getting pressed and then the other team starts picking it up a little bit,

you know, like the last game I really sat down and watched a lot of the game was the Oklahoma City game. And I mean, I get Oklahoma City. Charles, they've played five playoff games. You haven't watched any of them? I've watched Bits and Pieces. Okay, they scored 130 points last night.

Yeah, but the night before that, they missed 13, 13 free throws. Yeah, that's not an offensive structure. That is bad free throw shooting. Three-front shooting, but, you know, I mean, they're just, you know, it's just me, okay? Okay. All right, Charles.

You know, it's, I'm frustrated. it's your stop. Yeah, the offense has been frustrating. I don't think it's not that they don't have a structured offense. I think they do. Like I said, they run a lot of top of the key elbow actions. They try to get Alpern Schengoon down low. Generally, they're getting,

I mean, one of their, they're basically bread and butter is going to be Jalen Green and or Fred Van Van Vleet as the ball handlers, and then going from there. They're probably at the best when they're going in transition with all the speed that they have. Guys like Amin Thompson, Jalen Green getting downhill, and Tari Isan as well. I'll throw into

that mix. But yeah, they run their normal, regular offensive sets. They do some high horns as well, which is like when basically two guys come up and set screens and try to get the team off balance there, try to find shooters. They just don't have a whole lot of good shooters, unfortunately. Does this team, and especially depending on who they have on the floor, things can get muddied up in the paint. But, okay.

They scored 130 last night, so things weren't going too bad for them offensively. Charles, but I do appreciate you getting in. Let's watch Game 6. Hope some good things happen. Oh, I should also say the Warriors have a very good defense, and they have guys who cover a lot of ground, who are smart, who are playing passing lanes, and doing all those types of things.

Jimmy Butler is a great plus defender. Honestly, Steph Curry hasn't been a horrible defender in this series, and Dreamon Green is a perennial defensive player of the year candidate. So they got some good defenders over there as well that can kind of get the rockets out of their comfort zone offensively, and they've been doing some crazy stuff running one-three-one zone, mixing that up as well. It's been an interesting

chess match back and forth all series long between the Rockets and Coach Udoca and the Warriors and Steve Kerr. Going to take a quick bottom of the hour break here on Sports Talk 790. When we come back, we'll get some Astros talk with Brian McTaggart. My name is Ross Vireal.

You're listening to the Matt Thomas show with Ross with you until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is out traveling. With the Houston Rockets, they head to San Francisco for game number six. A must win game for the Rockets.

And I'm going to say it right now. They win this game on Friday. They are winning on Sunday. Let's go. Then they would go on to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in a Western Conference semifinals series. I would make them favorites in that series, especially as I said, you had Jalen Green limping around,

sore knee and a wrap and all that type of stuff, depending on how he's doing. and then if they did that, it'll be the Clippers or the Nuggets taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder. That'll be a great series. It's been a cracker of a match. A Cracker of matches?

What do you call it? A series? Cracker of a series? Cracker of the matches in English, Tim. But anyways, Nuggets and Clippers tonight, Game 6, win or going home situation for the clips. Same thing for the Knicks and Pistons. Pistons have to win at home

in order to force a game seven. It's been some good playoff action. I know here in Houston we're not always locked in on playoff basketball, but it's been great so far, and it's going to get even better in the second round. Will the Rockets be a part of it? We shall see. All right, earlier today, we talked with Brian McTaggart, MLB.com.

Covers the Astros. Does a great job, as always. I wanted to bring you guys some of that conversation because, well, that was like two and a half hours ago. We got audiences turning over all the time. So wanted you guys to hear that. Astros get the loss yesterday against the Detroit Tigers, seven to four.

They have the day off before a weekend set, against the Chicago White Sox. One of the things that has been good for the Houston Astros has been the starting pitching depth that was a big question mark. Ryan Gusto has been good, blue ball not so much. And Lance McCulloch, Jr., coming back. Here is what Brian McTeaggart had to say on all things Astros starting off talking about that pitching staff. Yeah, I think there's probably more depth than I expected. I mean, they're pitching really well, but you're right.

You know, blue ball is an option. You know, one guy that I thought would be, you know, an option coming in. And I think we'll still see him at some point is Colton Gordon, a left-hand. another one of their top prospects. So they have enough starting pitching depth if they don't have any more injuries. If McCullors comes in and is effective, you know, I'm not sure Garcia's coming back this year. I'm not sure Javier's coming back this year. So I'm really not, you know, counting on them at this point.

But to me, the biggest concern coming into the season, if you were the Astros, was, you know, starting pitching depth, which, you know, they've answered that bell and the bullpen. And, you know, they've had some guys step up in the bullpen and pitch really well. and now I mean look you know I think the Astros are fifth in the league or in major leagues in ERA and third and bullpen ERA so the pitching staff has been one of their strengths yeah and McCullors being part of that starting on Sunday I mean I just find this fascinating Brian I mean you know you've been covering sports for a long time and one of the things to me is kind of seeing things and talking about them and then watching them play out I'm so fascinated to see how this Lance McCullors Jr. thing plays out I mean I could again again ask you to guess. I guess your guess is good as anybody's. I mean, the setback word is always going to be hanging over his head. And then the real question is, is he going to be able to still get out at the major league level? Yeah, I think that's a fair analysis, Ross. I have no idea what to expect Sunday. I mean, you kind of know what Frumber's going to do on Friday. You definitely know what Hunter Brown's

going to do. And then just, I mean, he's been out so long. And yeah, he's made some rehab starts at AA, AAA, AAA. Can't put a lot of stock into those things. You can't put a lot of stock in the spring training results. I have no idea. I think we're going to see a little bit of a different pitcher than he was. Last time we saw him on the mound, he's not going to be 97, 98 anymore. His mechanics are a little more compact, I think. His pitch mix has probably changed a little bit. So I think we're going to see a guy who still competes like he always has. I mean, Lance McCulloch has has always been a competitor, but it's just going to be a little bit different look than we've seen. And yeah, I mean, you know, he's put in a lot of work.

I know he's frustrated a lot of people by constantly getting injured and all the surgeries that he's had. But, you know, talking to him and talking to people on the team, I mean, this is a guy who has put in a lot of work and a guy who thought a couple of times that, you know, it might not happen. I might be done. And, you know, credit to him for pushing through. And now he's here. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. and that's going to come out on Sunday afternoon. And, you know, I hope he does well.

I mean, you know, I don't root either way usually, but just seeing the work that he's put in, you know, facing the White Sox is a good soft landing spot for him. So I think he's set up to succeed on Sunday. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790. Let's flip to the lineup side. Jeremy Pena, been in the leadoff spot the last few games, paying big dividends. We've kind of been talking ever really since his rookie season. the ALCS and World Series MVP about a breakout coming.

And I guess we have to wonder if it's finally here. He's got eight hits in his last four games. Yeah, I mean, he had a really, really good spring. And again, like I just said, you can't put a lot of stock in the spring. But he looked like a guy who had made some adjustments and was poised for a big season. Came out of the gate. Didn't happen right away. But slowly, but surely, he's coming around.

And I think there's just a different error and a different confidence about Jeremy that we haven't seen. He looks like he belongs more. The word leadership is getting thrown around a little bit more about him. And, I mean, that's a great thing for the Astros because, you know, he's a guy that's a gold glove caliber shortstop. And I like the look at the top of the order. I mean, he's walking a little bit more. They feed him maybe, you know, not to strike out as much. I think he's trying to cut down on strikeouts as well.

But I thought the whole thing with Altovae going to the number two spot in the order and pretty much asking to be put in the number two spot was fascinating as well. And just from the fact that he did more time to come in from the outfield to get ready for his at bat to begin the game. And talking with Altuvae later, just, you know, after the interview was over, he said that, hey, they asked me to go to the outfield and I did it. And I think it's only right that, you know, they work with me if I want a bat second. So that's fair. And Jeremy's been the guy who stepped into that number one spot. And so far so good. We'll see.

There's a long way to go. But it looks like, yeah, this could be the best season yet of Jeremy. you may not have the metrics on this is he hitting sliders better this year than in previous years i don't get to sample sizes really small but there's been anything that has been his Achilles heel it has been that teams will just bury him with that slider yeah i'd have to look i'd have to look it up matt i mean it appears to me that he is um you know i remember back when he was you know winning the MVP the alcs you know he had a couple of big hits on sliders and in the world series and then um it still ended up being a pitch that's giving him fits but uh yeah that'd be an interesting thing

look at. But he just seems overall that he'd just become a more complete hitter. You know, a couple of, it was spring training last year. He came trying to hit the ball in the air a little bit more after, you know, he went to the second half of the 23 season without a Homer. And that worked out pretty well. So he's constantly adjusting and trying to get to where he needs to be. But, you know, he's growing. He's maturing. This is what is fourth year now. So he's sort of putting all that information together, and it looks like it's working. How many more left fielders we're going to see this year? How many more left-fielders? Yeah, there's been a lot. I mean, Zach DeSenzo is sort of forcing their hands to try to get him out there.

I mean, he's the guy that is getting more and more playing time. He can play left and right at first and third. I mean, it's hard to get opportunities at first and third just with the guys you have there. So, you know, I think getting him in left field, you know, here and there, it'll be interesting to see on the road, a six-game road trip here in a couple of parks, how much they play out too-veh and left and second and deep. So I think there'll be a couple more opportunities for Desenzo to play some left field. But, you know, he's starting to creep into some at bats too in right field, taking those away from Cam Smith a little bit as well.

And how do you size up the battle at second base at this point, too? Well, I think it is what it is. I mean, you're going to have Altuvae start occasionally. Brendan Rogers is going to make two or three starts a week. Dubon's going to be out there two or three starts. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't say it's a battle. I just think it's a rotation at this point. who's the starting second baseman?

I guess it's Brendan Rogers. You know, it's just the way, you know, it's just the way it is. I mean, we're so used to seeing Jose Al-Tubei start at second base. The last 14 years is pretty much over and over, with the exception when he got injured. Duvonne stepped in a couple years ago and did a nice job. But it's all going to depend on Al-Tubei, where he plays. And that just sort of sets up a lot of things in the line up.

Who's the left? What do you do with Yorda and things like that? Is the game slowing down for Cam Smith at all in your mind? Is it still moving at a pretty fast pace? I mean, the batting average isn't great. The OPS is getting a little bit better. Did it have a hit for the squad yesterday. But just in general, you know, with so much publicity going into the season for the regression, which was natural, to try to settle in.

How is his demeanor? Because, you know, obviously he wakes up with a smile every morning and is happy with the big leagues with his little experience he had in the minor league level. What are you noticing from him instead of the last two weeks or so? Yeah, I think he's settling in a little bit. You're right. I mean, there was so much hype about him in spring training and he embraced it and he was a fun personality,

a guy with a lot of energy. And then when he made the team, it was such a great. All right, there you go. We had to cut out of that because we've got to get to a break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. My name is Ross Vioria. If you want to address anything that he had to say about the Astros and what they got going off day for them,

They will be back in action tomorrow. Against the Chicago White Sox with Lance McCullors Jr. throwing on Sunday. The question is, well, okay, of course, it's always going to be the health question looming over Lance McCuller Jr.'s head, but is he going to be able to get outs? That'll be really interesting. I'll be fascinated to watch the game on Sunday afternoon. And, of course, you can listen to it here on Sports Talk 790,

your home for your Houston Astros. Also, your home for your Houston Rockets. will be in action on Friday in game number six against the Golden State Warriors. It's a quick break. Final segment of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross is coming up. You want to get in. You can no, believe it or not today, with Matt out. 713-212-5-790 is your phone number.

7-13-212-5-790. Thanks, Craig. Appreciate you. That is one of the OG original rejoin liners of the Matt Thomas show. now with Ross. It was the Matt Thomas show for a while. And then I pride my way in here. Sorry, Matt.

Here I am. Ross Vierre out with you on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. As I said, a couple of minutes left if you want to get in. Phone lines open at 713-1-2-1-2-5-790. Matt is traveling with the rockets. I don't know if he's up. I don't know if it's wheels up right now or when they're going to be headed out. But they'll be taking on the.

Warriors, they're heading to San Francisco. I keep seeing the line fluctuate. Four and a half, five and a half. Golden State Warriors favorite. It'll be eight o'clock start, seven o'clock rockets launch pad on a sister station, News Radio 740 KTRH. Then if and only if they can win that game, it should be a 730 start, I believe, coming up on Sunday night at the Toyota Center win or go home.

As some have said, the greatest two words. in sports, game seven. By then you'll have some second round series started. Well, depending on what happens tonight, you have a couple of six game sixes. There could be some game sevens on Saturday. It could be

another one with the Rockets and Warriors. Three series left with the potential to go seven games. That would be if the Pistons win tonight over the Knicks, if the Nuggets, excuse me, Clippers win at home over the Nuggets. You'll get some

Game 7 action, and same thing if the Rockets are able to win against the Golden State Warriors tomorrow. Rockets, excuse me, Astros back in action tomorrow against the Golden State Warrior. Excuse me, against Chicago. This is that time of year. I'm getting everything mixed up against Chicago. White Sox, you have Framber, Hunter Brown, Lance McCuller Jr. Isn't that wild? And if he's just like, picture for a moment, a world where Framber is out there.

dealing curveballs and getting ground ball outs and cruising seven innings of one run ball. Then the Diesel Hunter Brown comes up next game. Boom. He's breaking off knee-breaking 91-mile-an-hour sliders. He's hitting, he's getting broken bats with a sinker running in on right-handers. He's striking people out, spitting on the ground, looking like he's got an attitude, strikes out 10. And he's throwing like seven shut out.

And then if Lance McCuller's Jr., if we could live in a world where he comes back and he is effective and he is getting outs and he stays healthy, I know that he just piled up a lot of big ifs. That would be awesome, an awesome addition. Erigetti gets healthy. He gets back in the fold as well.

Renal Blanco has been not terrible in a disaster. Seems to go out and throw five innings at three-run ball every time he goes out. That's not a quality start. but that's enough to keep you in a game and not have you get blown out if the bats can just do enough, we could be in a good spot here in Houston.

That Lance McCullors Jr. is quite the wild card with him on the probable pitchers list coming up on Sunday for the Houston Astros. A couple of minutes before we get out, so let's go quickly to Cameron who called in. What's up, Cameron? Hey, Russ, super quick. Thoughts on Janus,

especially God forbid we lose. game six in terms of trying to get him and trying to get some more talent on the team. Yeah, that'd be interesting, especially. Now, the question is, and we were kind of talking about this earlier, with Chris Gordy, is if the Rockets went out big game hunting this offseason,

Janus would be on the list, Kevin Durant would be on the list, Devin Booker would be on the list, and Janus at this point doesn't show any signs of slowing down. He's 30 years old. He just scored 30 points per game. Now, he's getting up a lot of shots, but he's still been very efficient shooting from the floor at 60%. And a lot of what his game is is predicated on how quick, how fast he is. So you would question how much is age going to wear on his game?

Is he still going to be effective? Well, the answer right now is he's still pretty darn good. Had some injury issues, hasn't played more than 75 games since 2018, but for the most part has been in the mix for MVP, defensive player of the year, all that type of stuff, year after year. What is it going to cost you? It's going to cost you a bunch of picks.

And maybe Jalen Green, maybe Alper and Shingoon, are they going to want him in Thompson? That to me, if I'm putting a pecking order right now, and maybe it's just because he's the youngest one and still showing the most promise, I probably put him in Thompson. Is he the most untouchable? Or is Alper and Shingun,

because he has been an all-star. I think you have issues with the ceilings of both Jalen Green and Alpern Shingun because of what we've seen from them four years in their career, Alpern Shingun for three straight years, his field goal percentage has gone down. Jalen, and he gets attacked defensively. He just does. The lateral quickness is not there. You know who could shore up for that?

That would be a guy who was a perennial defensive player of the year candidate in Yonis Tentacompo. Jalen Green, same thing. I think he's improved incrementally in his four years, but he hasn't made the leap of others. Like we mentioned earlier, Aunt Edwards was an all-star. His third season were into four years of Jalen Green. John Morant was an all-star.

His third season were into four years of Jalen Green. Guys like Shade Gildes of Alexander, Jalen Brunson, Devin Booker, looked at all their careers the way that they started. They've all were far ahead of the pace of where Jalen Green is. So where does he end up? And also, I mean, the only reason, the only caveat to me, as we kind of mentioned, is the possibility of Jalen Green not being 100% and that kind of stunting the growth. But I don't have the answer to that question.

I just see what he's been on the floor. And so far, four games out of five in the playoffs, he has been pedestrian to below. So yeah, a lot of questions to answer. I would take you honest. It's a matter of what it's going to cost you. That'll do it for the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Appreciate all you for listening. Appreciate all you that called in and got involved in the show directly.

Thanks to Chris Gordy for hanging out as well. Thanks to Jonathan Allen for producing. I'll talk to you folks tomorrow at 10 a.m. It'll be a must-win Friday for the Rockets. Right now, though, you've got Adam and Adam coming up. They call themselves the A-Team. They are on 2-6 here on Sports Talk 790. Don't go anywhere.

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Dot E.D.U.S.C.HB.M. Houston. KT.HD.HD.HR.R.R.T.A.R.R.A.R.S. Basketball. Your home for your home teams. This is Sports Talk 790. From the Parsons and Matchin Next Studios. Hey, it's Robert Ford from the Astros broadcast team, and right now your show.