The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Force Game 6!! Can They Push It to Game 7? Astros vs Orioles Game 2 & 3.

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

Rockets Force Game 6!! Can They Push It to Game 7? Astros vs Orioles Game 2 & 3.

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. And welcome to a snack size edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross from Los Angeles. This is Sports Talk 790. You know, I was wondering if she could keep on because the forest has got a lot of power. It makes me feel like that. It makes me feel like that. 6.3 seconds left. Ball in the hands of a man, Thompson.

And facing elimination for the second time in this series. The first time in Los Angeles. It's another. And final score. Houston 99. Los Angeles, 93. And Ross, Billerreal, I listened to the entire post game, smiling from ear to ear. You did.

Yeah. Wow. I couldn't call because I was on a team bus and that would have been kind of weird. We had full phones like at 1 a.m. I love it. I love it. Crazy. So you and I are going to power through this 27 minute episode of the show.

Yes. And I'm going to get on a plane and come home and you're going to go take a big old nap because you deserve it. I'm going to try to stay up actually. Are you? I'm going to try to stay up and go to bed early. Okay. That feels fair. Because I mean Astros should be done early.

Yep. And there's no like Thursday night football. or anything like that. It's NBA playoffs, but I'm going to try to get to bed like 8.39 p.m. and get a good 12 hours of sleep. Because Friday could be a long one. It's going to be a long one. We've got an 8.30 tip time for game number six of the series. On Prime video.

Yes. By the way. Got to get rested up, baby, because game number six is coming. Is it on prime? I don't even know what channel it's on. Is it really? It's on Prime Video. Yes.

Oh, what do we get Kevin Harlan? We haven't had Kevin Harlan yet in a long time. That'd be nice. Yeah. Oh, yeah, at Iron Eagle on, he does Prime Video, right? Yeah, but he's bad juju. Why? We don't win with him.

Okay, it's not his fault. He does, he does an excellent call. He does, I love him. He sends me game notes. That's beautiful. One other national telecaster who sends me game notes. Yeah, you guys are broskees. That's great.

All right, so can we end the Eme Adoka's going to get fired, chatter today? I think so. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's done. I, by the way, I did see Kevin Durant after the game yesterday. He was in attendance. I don't know if you notice it or not, Ross. But I donated my knee and my ankle to him.

He did not want it because he's been ruled out. Yeah, he's like, you're a white man who has no athletic ability. That's fine. Yeah, I feel like you try to jump once like Kevin Durant, your knee will explode into seven million pieces. Yeah, that would not be great at all. All right, we have a very short show today. So let's not kid around because I was so encouraged. So many people were calling you last night.

It made me feel good. I couldn't believe it. We get the 10 o'clockers coming in, too. So let's go. If you want to talk about last night's game, and I would hope you would. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We have a very short show.

I mean, literally, like, two segments. We're taking calls from the rip. Or, you know, I don't know from the rip, but in the first segment. We don't normally do that, but we only have two segments. Let's go. Let's not mess around. A quick thought for me. Again, you heard me in the highlights.

I heard you gritty, gutty. young basketball teams youngest lineup ever to win a playoff game is that right as I heard this morning I think is that true yeah I mean they were starting lineup was the second youngest playoff to ever start a game so it's the same starting lineup as Sunday right yeah it's got to be the youngest to win it so

uh Lakers tried a late little push but read with that huge steel oh man put back Tar Easton playing out of his mind Rossi you got a little bench contribution yesterday yes a second consecutive game A little.

A little. Like a little charkootyri appetizer. That's right. Yeah, just a little one. A little meat and cheese board. Yeah, it wasn't like you were going to have a meal off of it. Yeah. It wasn't a full wedge.

It wasn't, yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's right. All right. All right. 713, 212.5.7. There will be at game six. We've got Astros double header today.

We're going to let Dan Matthews handle the Astrode. Yes. Logistics. We've got a half hour. We're going to talk rockets. It is funny. You know, it's incredibly. last point for me, national narratives change, literally the game to game.

That's what we do in sports media. So funny. We change the narrative. Now it's all, it's one, two, three, Galveston, and now it's, well, the Rockets are going to kick the crap out of the Lakers in game six and force of game seven here in Los Angeles on Sunday. I hope they do. Three and a half point favorites.

And it is funny, as you say, as everything kind of turns. And I mean, some people are sticking with the Kevin Durant, doesn't care, it doesn't want to play stuff, but. It's ridiculous. He was on the bench, so we can go ahead and do away with that one too. Yep. He was on the bench for games four and five, and they won. You know what?

So maybe those haters were right. He needed to be clapping on the bench in order to get the team going. And I don't know who did the-oh when he's on the bench. I don't know who did the pre-game speech in L.A., but keep it going with the pre-game speeches too. It was Shinggoon again? No, I'm just saying. They kept talking about it.

No, he did it on Sunday. Ignited them and fired him up. Ignited him. Yes. You know who ignited him. It was our producer, John. Jonathan Allen. Whoever's doing the speeches for the Lakers needs to step their game up.

That's probably LeBron. He's going on there and missing everything. All right. Very last thing for me that we're going to go to Vince and we'll get the rest of you in. Are we creating too easy of a narrative that LeBron's getting old? I'm going to backtrack about a little bit. As soon as I say he's old, he's going to score 26, 9, and 7. I mean, he had two days off.

I think the Rockets defense has been really good, and he still scored. 25 points and had seven assists. I mean, I'm like he was terrible. That's the funny thing. If 41 year old scores 25, that should be headline news. And it's like, what's wrong with LeBron? That's the standard he said. Isn't that

insane? And by the way, we can add a new member to the foul bait club, and we've always known it, but just when you see it right in front of you, Austin Reeves is a foul bait and is what he is, right? Yeah. I mean, come on. you look pretty good at least to start but then you kind of calm down. That's a storyline for the game on Friday. Austin Reeves getting his feet under him

and getting more comfortable and probably getting inserted into the starting lineup. That's right. But Rockets have to play better and I have this crazy brilliant basketball analysis, make your shots. The team who has won the three point percentage battle in all five games has won. And it's not even really a big component

into the game, honestly, for the Rocket side. I mean, they're just making them. Well, they shot 40 in the last game, which I think it's got to be the most in the series. I haven't looked, but it's got to for sure. Let's talk to Vince on 790 at 10-10. Vince, good morning to you. Good morning, guys. Hey, I was watching the game yesterday, watching the national feed, and about six minutes into the game, the announcer says, oh, give a broader break. He's 41. I'm like, oh, my God, not this 41 thing again. So I did, I try to have, you know, let me, try to think mad up with the TV

and man I synced you guys up perfectly and I watched the rest of the game and listen to you. It was incredible. Appreciate that. Did you get your hug from Amen after the game? We're going to hug it out on the plane. If you didn't catch it, I told him I'm going to hug him after the game.

He goes, if I find you first. So we're bros like that, guys. Just want to let you all know that. Me and a man. Me and the twin. Okay. Yeah, one more thing. Did you catch LeBron saying some stuff to Alpi. The same dude

when he was to Alpy toward the end of the game and I kind of take it that maybe Yalpi called him soft or something. You said it was a soft

foul call is what he was talking about and then LeBron was basically saying you're the last guy that needs to be talking about soft foul calls. It's blank talk.

It's what it is. Yeah. I got you. And I'm here for it. I appreciate it. I enjoy a george call of a game and I'm hoping

I can do that again this next game. Vince, very nice you to say that. Thank you very much. It's not easy unfortunately. I would like for these networks to sync up our radio calls to the prime,

but they don't want to do that because they want their ads run. So I understand that. You ready for a nice compliment, Matt? From who? Me. Well, okay, can I, let me put my feed to the grid first. No, yeah. So when we can, we have a feed that we're able to get our producer, Josh C, who does it,

where it's a live time. And so we can listen to you in live time. And when you do that, I mean, I always think you do a great job anyways on the call, Matt. but when you can see it in lifetime and how you're describing and painting the picture and just getting everything nailed and doing a great call,

it's even that much more impressive. You do a great job. Let me take you something. I'm going to buy you lunch tomorrow. No, don't buy this down for the Friday open. Shut your bum ass up. Don't buy me lunch.

You do a great job. And it's even more impressive when you can see the live video feed and how you're describing everything perfectly as it happens with your eyes with your ears. It's awesome. You do a great job. And thank you very much.

I appreciate that. And again, it was so, it was a fun night. Great call. Great call. I was so unhappy that I was listening. From the arena to our hotels about a 30-minute drive. So you had calls all the way in. I got to the room.

I put on the I heart radio up, but listen then, I was like, thankfully, there are people in this town that care about a basketball team. Now, if the Rockets lose game six or seven, it's going to be all the direction around. Everybody's got to get fired. Kevin Durrance, Derr, get a fire. I mean, that's what sports do. We just flip on a dime. For right now, I'll take the dime on our direction.

All right, 713, 212, 790. 713, 212, 570. One more segment of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here. And then we're going to send it over to Dan Matthews for Astros on deck for a double-header of baseball. It's Sports Talk 790. 1017. Ross, what's in the locker room from last night? Anything worthy of playing here quickly?

Oh, you would like some audio? That's what I asked. I forgot. I'm sorry. Did you ask me that? I asked Jonathan. Oh, okay. Oh, sound.

See, I thought he said song. No, I said sound. That's okay. Okay, you know what? There was this a miscommunication. Sorry, I was on air till 126 in the morning. What time did you go to bed, finally? I mean, I probably took me about an hour to wind down.

As you know, you do, like, first of all, it was a big game. It's fun. It's hard to wind down anyways. I know you feel the same after you call a game. Yep. And then the show was so excited. And as you mentioned, everyone called in. like we had I I've been doing these post game shows since 2017 and I the best parts and the reason I do them is for nights like last night where everybody's fired up we're talking ball we're having a good time we're having fun we're being positive that's what it's all about and and and and and yeah it took me a little while to wind down so still feeling good though all five starters and double figures by the way yes a little bit of a smattering of bench production you knock down your threes and they play great defense

They did. All right, you talk, man. I'll pick some audio up here. I was just happy. Oh, you know what? I made a page last night. Let me just open that up. Yeah, let's fire some audio.

Let's go. Yes, sir. Okay. Let's hear from EMEA doca on the team's response. It's a very EMAU doka answer. I'm surprised he hasn't been crushed too much on social media for this. I mean, I wouldn't say it's particularly about that.

In general, we have a resistance. in group that plays hard and very competitive on every night. Rarely do we get blown out. If, you know, a deficit we fight back and we might have lost some leads, but that's kind of our DNA. And so that part I wasn't worried about. We had a hard fought series last year. We went down 3-1 and got to game seven, so we know we're going to battle.

You know, we saw a lot of things we could have done in the first few games, specifically shooting the ball a little bit better. And we've been in different shape, and then obviously finish that game, we've been different shape. But there were a lot of positives to look at where we dominate off. defensive board dominant transition when the possession battle we're getting 20 plus more shots to shooting a low percentage we knew if that worm turned a little bit would be in good shape I'm just going to try to say this very few times between now and tomorrow night

so every time that I say it unique you can zap me or find me whatever okay rocket should be up 3-2 the 3-2 the 3-3 law still freaking home they should just does I try not to think about I mean because it doesn't matter we can say that all we want they should be up 3-2 but also I mean Butterfly Effect if you're up to if it's 2 to 1 instead of 3-0 Maybe you don't get that same Alperin Shingoon Pre-game speech Matt That vaulted them into a win

So anything could have changed so we can Say that that it should be that They played well enough to win three out of the Five games but they just didn't So it's flipped instead of up 3-2 You're down 3-2 Very very simple recipe Win two games

Win two games one at home and then win one on the road and you're advancing. And the reality is, you just play that EMA sound bite there, Ross. That's just who he is. He's not going to come into a media press conference availability, or for that matter, his practices, and be something who he isn't.

The part of who EMA has been has been extraordinarily level-headed, even though there have been times that you just want to ring the player's neck. And he does sometimes during the game. But generally speaking, that is the off-the-court stuff. He's much more reserved and measured when the game is not actually. going on. Yeah, that's just who he is, and it's fun. Let's go ahead. Jabari Smith, Jr. was

asked about, oh, we talked about this yesterday, Matt. Oh, no, Jabari thinks they're the better team. Why would he say that? Why would he give them bulletin board material? Well, they won the game. Here's Jabari. I mean, it's just like a mindset to have. You know what I'm saying? I don't care who we play. I don't care what team I'm

on. When we was winning 22 games, I'd probably say we'd a better team every night. You know what I'm saying? So it's just a mindset to have. I mean, people are going to take it. How they don't take it, but I don't care whoever I'm with on the court. I'm going to think that my team is better than the other team. So it's just a mindset. But you got to get on the court and prove it.

You know what I'm saying? You can't just say it. And then come out and tuck your tail, you've got to get out there and fight and do the things that it takes the win. So I'm going to stand on that statement and we just got to keep proving it. I love Javari, but those 20-win teams sucked really bad. But they believe, as I said yesterday, we had Indie Kalu. They were like 50-point dogs to Ohio State. They believe they can win.

I have an older brother. would play basketball in the driveway. We would play anything and he would kick my ass at everything. But you know what? I believed I could win. The people crushing Jabari Smith Jr., I'm sorry to say it, you have not competed a day in your life. If you are a competitor, you have to believe. You have to believe you can win. And if you're competing at an NBA level, you're a psychopath, quite frankly, when it comes to competition. So for Jabari Smith Jr. to come out and say that, he is using what is woven in the fabric of his DNA is that is that belief, that competition, that I am better than you,

and I need to go out there and prove it. Whether it's irrational or not, that's how he has to think. Hell yeah. So we're playing believe tomorrow by Cher on the matthop of show, Ross. Can I wait? No, we play that pregame. They're going to lose by 40. David, East Texas at 1023.

David, good morning. Hey man, I just want to tell you last night What I did is I paused my satellite And I thanked you up And, man, seriously, you did a great job Really enjoyed it Thank you And with a minute to go in the game

We had a storm come up Lost all of our electricity But my phone still kept playing So we got to hear you call the last minute To the game And man, I'm so glad Because it was a good ending for us So man, just want to tell you

I appreciate it and go rock it Thank you very much That's nice to hear Yeah. First of all, I know these teams like the back of my hand because I've seen them five strike times now. Second of the view of the arena. I mean, I wish, Ross, you could come to a game here. First of all, there's celebrities galore.

McCauley Cawken was here yesterday. Oh, really? Dustin Hoffman was in the building. The girl from CSI, you know. SVU, Law and Order. SVU. They showed her on the TV like five times. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I've seen like a couple episodes of SVU, but they're treating her like she's, I don't know. Like Merrill Streep or something. I know. Yeah, there was no, Merrill Street was not here. It's an event for sure.

And it has a, as a, it's got, I mean, it's like being on an award show and a basketball game breaks out. That's cool. It really is.

Let's go to Paul in Champions Forest at 1025 on Sports Talks. I'm sorry. Paul, thank you for waiting a good morning. Hey, man. That wasn't too bad. So full disclosure.

Full disclosure. I'm a big, ask-to-s fan. I haven't really watched and rockets a lot since the heart of the champion because they haven't been playing like champions.

And I don't do that. I can't stand by time. But about, I don't know, about a month ago, they just figured out maybe they want to win something. And so I like that. So, Matt,

I'm just agreeing with you. And I know you're going to say you changed your mind. But they're not going to win two back-to-back games. They want to, going to do it because nobody's done it maybe one person i don't know i don't i don't get into those analytics i can i'm a baseball guy well of course matt's going to say well they can't do it down

man but assuming they do matt assuming they do yeah do you think do you bring if and if katy is ready to come back in potentially do you bring him back in or do you rock the boat to disturb the dna and don't don't cop out of it right now on me go, I don't know, man. It just depends on no, no, no, I'm going to tell you right now. This is easy. If Kevin Durant's available to play, if Kevin's a rant available to play, he plays.

100%, 1,000%. He wakes, Paul. He wakes up scoring 26 points a game. You need that. Hey, the dude just laughing. Don't laugh at me. That's a reasonable. Not laughing at you. I'm giving you the answer you wanted. I'm sorry, I'm laughing. It's not

reasonable, Paul. I'm going to tell you this. There's a 1,000 million billion, could trillion percent that if he's ready to go, he's going to play. I understand that. I don't understand that. That's probably the mindset. But, I mean, you've got this thing called DNA. You've got to think momentum.

You've got this thing called the guys that aren't working their ass off because he's not in there. I don't know. I think I could take a little bit of an argument. You can keep laughing if you want to. It's okay. That's just kind of like, okay, Katie, are you really ready? No. You know, if you practice him with a team.

I mean, you know. But I get it psychologically. If he's ready to go and hopefully he is, yeah, I tend to agree with that. So I'll let you guys laugh at the more caller's lying. Thank you, Paul. I'll say this. I appreciate you, Paul.

It is silly, Paul. He would play now. He's not going to play tomorrow. He's already been basically ruled out. Yeah, he's been ruled out. It's been a two-week injury. I think it would be 12 days by the time Sunday.

Normally it's a two-to-three-week injury, they say. Here's the real truth. The talent upgrade from playing Los Angeles Lakers to the Oklahoma City Thunder is seismic. So you need your best players. Now, I'm not talking about OKC. It ain't happening on my watch. I got two more

games to win to call it before we start talking about that. Yes. Well, Paul said it's not going to happen anyways. And then he asked the hypothetical. Yeah, I don't know. It's an interesting call. I see his point, though. No, you don't. I don't see his point. No, I don't see his voice. In a similar way that I could see

how people think the earth is flat. I can see it. I can see what he's saying, but he's wrong. Jadub, I got 60 seconds for you, Jadab. Go ahead. Yeah, just about, I want to comment on the last call. I just talked to his name was Paul. So the guy just literally said he want to watch the Rockets when they win,

when they win him. Other than that, he's not watching. I mean, we don't want, that's like a fair weather fan. I mean, I've been watching the Rockets up since I was 8, 19. 80. So if we happen to win the championship, that guy just called, he's not going to be through. He's not going to feel that. You're not going to feel that at all. I've been through the ups, downs, most of the ups, down, Calvin Murphy in the cruise since 1980. Same. We won the 95. We won the 95. I felt that. We won in a while. We win again. I'm going to

feel that. Thank you, J. Deb. I got a roll on that. Ross, go get a nap in. I'll talk to all of you with Ross. Good night. Super busy show tomorrow at 10 o'clock. Matthews, Astros on deck next here on Sports Talk 790.