The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets HC Mike D'Antoni On What He Has Seen From The First Two Games

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

I Heart Radio, the free app for your music, your stations like Sports Talk 790, and number one for podcasting. All right, game three, tonight, news radio 740 KTRH has the game 8 o'clock tip time. And now the series has shifted. The Rockets have home court advantage for the next two games. Coach Dan Tony, how are things? Good, man, how are you doing? Good. How about having those cyber fans behind?

you, that's got to be a huge difference in these home games, right? So, you know, I guess Oklahoma City works. That's right. But, yeah, we'll see what happens. All right, so let's run through everything. First of all, game one, I mean, it's just crazy how the NBA works. You're on the brink of elimination against Oklahoma City, and then you guys just crush it against the Lakers in game one.

You'll fall behind early in game two. You come all the way back and then kind of fell short at the very end. I mean, it just shows you how turbulent an NBA playoff ride is. it? No, it is. And you've got to expect teams to, just mentally more than anything. They were the desperate team, and they came out like that, and they punched us in the mouth. And then we kind of righted the ship a little bit, and then got back, and we were up. And we've been, you know, they came back again. So it's, you know, really our games with them has been that. Like, you know, they go up, 16, we go up, and they go up, and we go up. And it's a lot of runs.

But, you know, there's a lot of good things, and we've just got to play a little bit better and finish it off. So if the team hired a turnover analyzer, which game film essentially does that, are you more frustrated in some of the, you know, the, why did you throw that? Or I saw what you were trying to do kind of turnover. Well, you know, it's hard. There's nobody who wants to do a turnover, so you don't dwell on it as much as you just try to, you know, hope to make the right play and you talk to him about it and make the easy. play and there are going to be turnovers if you know, the guys that are trying to make plays are your high turnover guys. And that's what happened.

And, you know, again, of all the stats, that's probably the one that jumped out because they're so dangerous in transition that if we turn it over, they're also scoring. And we can't have that. You know, there are so many superstars, Mike, and you've been around all of them, that the turn-on and turn-off switch is pronounced. and LeBron never seems to turn it off. But when he gets into that fifth gear, whatever that is, that's tough to stop. And I commend you guys because in the fourth quarter, he and AD were on the bench.

And that's the easiest way to stop them is for you to shoot your threes and make them and make sure those guys aren't a factor in the fourth quarter games. Well, yeah, you know, they're going to be valuable, obviously, to the Lakers, and they're going to play, and they're veterans. And the broad has proven it over and over and over. So they're going to do what they do. We've got two really good defenders on them, and we'll try to make it hard and try to do as best we can.

But the other guys just killed us, and those are bad turnovers led to, you know, transition where we didn't get back and matched up. And, you know, the Morse gets, I think, you know, five or five from trees in the first half that can't happen. And it just, it just ballooned. You just, you know, mushroomed out of control. And we just got to do a better job.

We've got a better job. handling the ball or, you know, making good decisions and better jobs to have a little bit more urgency. Rocket Ted coach Mike Dantonie with us on the Matt Thomas show. And Coach Russell Westbrook, obviously, he didn't have the game that you wanted in game number two. Are you hands off or do you talk to him about any of that? And what is it that he needs to do to be most effective for you? Well, he knows what he's supposed to do. I mean, in the sense of he's got to play.

He's going to be aggressive and he's going to go after Matt. That's Russell. And we don't want anybody else. You know, it's not like I have a magic potion or whatever, but he'll be fine. It's like when James doesn't shoot the ball well or whatever, it's not like, you know, you talk to him and say, well, don't shoot it or do shoot it or whatever. They've got to play their game, be aggressive, be half-confident, and then we'll go from there. Mike, is this the best Eric Gordon you've had this year?

Because it's been up and down consistency shooting-wise, the injury bug. But, I mean, the last couple of games, is this been the best? best you've had him? Yeah, without doubt. I think he's finally healthy this year and you can see it just the way he moves.

You know, and he could have bad games or whatever, but he's moving well, so more of the possibility that he's playing well and doing a great job. I want to ask you,

because somebody asked me about this, and not that I want to get into particular officials, but just how do you think, there's always this thought of, well, officiating and the NBA changes come playoff-wise.

Are you sensing a different sort of officiating or just what you normally see in this, kind of type of year? No, I don't think I mean they try not to change. They try to do you know same job. You'll see more intensity from the teams and so with that some calls will be a little different or whatever but your speed is a little faster and everything else so officials have to adjust but they're trying to call it exactly the same way they won't just through the playoffs.

So no I don't see much of it. It's probably you know spent too much time. It's we got to take care of They'll take care of theirs and hopefully it works out. Well, the best thing is if you have something you want to argue about, there's no way they can't hear you, right? Do what? There's no way they can't hear you. You have something you want to complain about. They're definitely going to hear your voice.

Yeah, well, they'll always hear. You know, that's part of the game. Everybody complains, so they're used to it. Anybody on the L.A. side surprised you in terms of what they brought. Rondo, a little bit of a mixed bag. You've seen Markiev Morris have a little bit. is there anything that they've surprised you with so far in the first two games of the series? No.

No, they are a very good team that has a lot of players that can contribute. And it's our job. Not let them, but no, no, no, no, they're really surprised us. And they mix it up with you, Coach, with the one-two-two zone and a lot of trapping of James Hardin. Some success, some not success. What do you guys need to do to break that one-two-zone? Is it just player movement, ball movements, screening? What's the most effective to stop that?

Well, you just got to move the ball and you've got to take open shots and we had a bunch of open shots with discount. You know, they're not, they load up where they need to load up. They're just trying to keep Russell away from the basket. So, you know, we'll add a couple little things and try to have the right guys on the floor

when James is off because they won't go on his own, I don't think, and we'll see, but when James on the floor, they won't do that. And so we'll figure it out. You have to be pleased, however, with the ball movement. I feel like the national folks have been talking about, wow, that great extra pass.

I would say, Mike, with all the years watching you guys, that's been the one positive is that you've got some unselfish guys out there that are always saying, hey, there may be somebody else in the floor that's got a better look than I've got at this point. Well, I think they're doing a good job. I think we are moving a ball. I'm talking about it all the time and talking about it from the first day and the last day. So guys are doing that.

They're finding guys. They don't hesitate on doing that. So it is good. And again, you know, 109 points we scored. that should be enough. We just gave them 117, and you gave it through, you know, turnovers to the transition, and we gave it to not quite having their decision we need.

So we've got to do a better job defensively, and that's been the case when we turned it over against OKC. They won when we did and we won. Obviously, that's a big key. Is it amazing, too, that even though they have such a significant size advantage, the rebounding issue hasn't been the problem in the games. I mean, if you're hitting threes, they're not. going to beat you. And if you're turning the ball over, they're going to have a much better

chance of beating you. Well, 100%. Plus, again, the size is something that media, you know, it's not that big of a deal. If you got guys that can guard big guys, and we have that. So, you know, they don't get to rebounds above the ground, but their ball is long or it's on the floor or you box out and you gang rebound. There's ways to negate that now. And then, you know, they didn't play their big very much. Dwight didn't play. And McGee went out real quick.

He just played a few minutes. So they had to match up and go small with us. Now, they're small. And LeBron and they do, and they're good. You know, so we'll just have to keep doing what we're doing, just make better decisions and play better. And coach, it seems like we can ask you this every week, and we probably do. But just speak to what PJ Tucker just means for you guys.

I mean, the 18 points, the 11 rebounds, the will, the being what he does for you guys on defense and the heart and sold his team. and how important he is. Well, you know, he's a key, and we tell him all the time, whether you make shots, you don't make shots, there's all kinds of ways to win the game, and he's going to battle, you're going to talk on details, and he's going to anchor that,

and that's probably where, you know, we'll find guys to make shots now. Obviously, when he makes shots, even better, but he's always going to be a valuable piece. Lastly, coach, from a logistic standpoint, Houston, L.A. is a three-hour trip. Sometimes there's two days off in between one. have you guys thought about

how fast these games are being played in short turnarounds but not having to jump on a plane to go back and forth it's got to be one of the small benefits of being down the bubble right now? Yeah, it is a benefit. It's a benefit of both teams. And it comes every other day and it's almost like Groundhog Day.

But guys get into the rhythm and they get to routines. And like I said, both teams are dealing with the exact same thing. So that's why it should be close games. It should be good. It should be great competition. Nobody should be tired than the other guy. And it's actually a good setup. Now, I know Doc Rivers sneaks into games sometimes.

Are you sneaking in other games or are you just staying in the room? No, there's nothing I can see there and I can't see on TV. I just thought you want to bond with your fellow NBA teams. I guess you just want your own long time. I understand that. No, we're all good. We're all good, Matt. Coach, thank you for the visit.

Have a great time that night. Get a win and we'll talk with you very soon. Sounds good. Thank you. You got it. Mike Dan Tony with us here on Sports Talk 790.