Speaker 1: You know, love it two on seven ninety Man and
Ross with you. We spend ten minutes now with the
head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets. Last night Rockets
took care of business one to the LA Clippers. He
may duckle with us, coach, good morning. How different was
it facing a Clipper team without Zobots and a Harden
on the floor. I know you know all those players
very well. You certainly know Kawhi and what he's able
to do. But just for the strategizing during the course
of the game, was it a complete different change or
there's some elements that used in previous games without those
two guys on the floor.
Speaker 2: No, it's very different. Obviously, Harden is just such unique
player and what he brings to the table. You have
to game plan this game for him. And you know,
Zubo's kind of their anchor on defense, and so they're
very different. As far as the space thing with Lopez,
you know, more spaced out on the perimeter the ball
and Leonard's hand one hundred percent of the time now,
and then you know they're not at full strength. You know,
Garland's out and obviously they're getting their guys up to speed.
Mather and then Jackson playing in the first So it
was very different than the team we faced before.
Speaker 1: The double team on Kawhi. Look, he got his shots up,
but it took him nineteen to get twenty four. So
I think you'd be generally speaking pretty police the way
you guys doubled him on a fairly regular basis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's my point, you know, with with with
hard Gun and some of the guys out we you know,
have to go after Kawhi Leonard obviously he's going to
have the ball in his hands and much more. And
so yeah, you don't always look at the final score,
you know, him having twenty four points, it's the nineteen attempts.
Other than you know, nine free throws. I think we
did a decent job on them.
Speaker 1: Read back off the bench. Good to get Amen back
out there. There was some time out there that looked
like that Amen didn't have to necessarily worry about ball
handling as much as maybe in previous games. Was that
intentional or just how the game progressed, especially because he
had not as many big men chasing after him as
he had in recent weeks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, we'd like to have multiple
handles out there at times, and so when we can
get reading the men out there together, it's always been
good for us. You know. Obviously you can initiaate through Alpe.
Kevin does his share handling as well, so as always
this year, you know, we tried to go through a
little bit through committee while the young guys are learning.
But yeah, several different ways to attack it. And like
I said, without you being such a unique center that
can play up top and get us into our sets,
you can take some of the pressure off the other guys.
Speaker 3: There has been a lot of talk about him and
Thompson and the fives guarding him. How much has that
been discussed in practices and meetings and things like that,
and as part of you as a coach kind of
like the challenge of seeing that and trying to work
on ways to combat it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's something that we've seen since his
first year, is since his rookie year when you know,
when Alper went out with their last eighteen games, I'm
in was technically our small ball five or you know,
him and Jabbari out there at the four and the five,
so quite a few teams had the bigs on him.
So something that he and we are very accustomed to.
And you know, he knows the spots that he can
pick whether he's handling. Obviously, putting the big on him
a second back takes away some of the drag lanes,
but very good in the in the pocket, very good
in the dunker spot. You know, him setting screens and
rolling has always been good for us. And so he's
had his practice over the last few years and we
know the areas we can get to with him not
handling the ball.
Speaker 3: Rocket take coach Im Dooka was here on Sports Talk
seven ninety just Reachepherd. Of course with the bounce back
night shooting last night. Is there any bit of a
kind of a semblance of a maybe he's not a rookie,
but a rookie wall to he's played double the minutes
that he did all of last year. What have you
been seeing from him, not only just from on the floor,
but as far as energy and maintaining and being out
there on the floor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's played a lot more this year.
Obviously then you know, didn't play a ton of this
rookie year. But I think for all young guys, everybody's
gonna have a slump at some point during the season.
And you know, what we say is don't let that
affect your overall game. You know, don't just rely on
jump shots to impact the game. And so for Reid,
you know, he's making some really nice passes and stepping
up on the defensive end is what we're asking all
guys are doing. So they may hit that wall and
obviously one more before all start break. You can get
your legs back, get a little rest in, and kind
of reset from there. But I think he's playing fine,
you know, missing some shots that he normally made early
in the season, but Jabari did a few weeks ago.
Oppert has gone through his thing, and so you just
have to push through it, like I said, and I
just let made shots dictate how your games going to go.
Speaker 1: We've discussed as many times where coaches like yourself have
to kind of fight the All Star break, you know, like, hey,
I want to think about the vacation or getting away
from the sport. Your guys have fought through that the
last couple of days. Discuss the bounce back in your
mind the team has had after those two home losses
to Boston Charlotte. How you fought back and now with
a chance here to go to the break in a
three game winning streak.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's just the effort and intensity that
takes to win a basketball game wasn't there in those
two games. And you know, quite simple. You know, whether
you make shots or not or guard well enough, if
you don't play with the right effort in mindset, you're
not gonna give yourself a chance on the nightly basis.
And so for us, it was just getting back to that.
I think you saw that in Oklahoma City game. We
watched quite a bit of film on the Charlotte and
Boston game and looked like two different teams, whether you
know it was his legs or guys thinking about All
Star break or whatever. We had five games left and
we wanted to play well. So you know, two of
those not too well. The last two have been really good,
and it's like I said, you can see the difference
on the tape. Our guys have been back locked in
and obviously want to finish on a good note tonight.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've heard from the medical staff.
Where are you on who can sit and who can
stay tonight? Is there anybody that would be definitely out
for tonight's game.
Speaker 2: Dorian will be out tonight for sure. Sorry, will be
a game time decision. You know, he's gonna try it
down and see how he feels and go from there.
Speaker 1: All right, Josh did not play a sure. Is everything
okay with him?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, just Josh was fine. I think part of
it was the fact that Dorian's going to be out
tomorrow tonight and you don't want to rest him. But
obviously Josh is always ready to be called upon and
went with a little shorter rotation knowing that we were
gonna run some guys some longer minutes and we'll have
Josh to night for sure.
Speaker 1: What did you think of Bennett matherin getting his first
amount of playing time for the Clippers. We just saw
him a few weeks ago wearing paster gear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's gonna be a good asset for them.
I think. You know, it's always hard when you kind
of get implemented into a new situation like that, and
you know, he wasn't as aggressive as he's been with Indiana,
but expect that to happen over time here, you know,
probably right after all start break when they gets some
practices in. But good pickup for them in general.
Speaker 1: Do you tell the NBA folks to keep your center
and your power forward on ice and make sure you
don't work him too hard. I mean, it's a great
experience for both of them, especially for Albi when getting
the late addition. But Kevin's been through this a lot,
so do you think about that, Like, hey, man, I
want you to get away from the sport. But it
feels like to me that Katie's been such a gym
r at his entire life that it's hero he trying
to find a place to shoots some baskets even during
this off time.
Speaker 2: He definitely would have done that regardless, and so you know,
it's another honor for him. Man outbring, you know, and
we want those guys to be perennial All Stars. And
you know, as much as the rest is good for you,
that's a huge honor. And I think the guys will
trade that off any day, but in know how to
mix it in and get the rest in that they
need in the in the days with the media and
all that. And then obviously the game isn't full speed
full speed, so they'll they'll be out there getting some rest.
But even after that they got two, three, four days
off to until our next game agains Charlotte and get
a chance to rest up then.
Speaker 1: And we've still been through this amazing run of back
to backs. It's getting better. I mean, they're they're being
knocked off the list, but it feels like this squad
has had more back to backs in the last month
and a half of maybe anybody else in the NBA
has had.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm sure we have. I think we didn't
have any for the first you know, eight or so weeks.
I think we had our first in late December, and so,
you know, we had it easier early in the year,
and now it's catching up to us. You know, we
basically had one every week for the last four weeks,
and so it is what it is. You know, it's
going to catch up to you at some point. And
like I said, we have done a good job and
some struggled earlier in some others and now we want
to finish tonight with on a good note against Clippers.
Speaker 1: Is there any the wrap things up with you? Is
there any individual message you like tell the guys that
they step away from the sport orders or is it
more of a team get together conversation as guys try
to take a step a break away from the sport
for a few days.
Speaker 2: I think I think it's both. I think, you know,
team and individually, everybody needs to, you know, kind of
take a step back and decompress, you know, get your
legs back. We have twenty nine games coming out of
the break and that goes really quickly. So get the
work in that you need to. Obviously, don't come back
out of shape or you know, rusty, but also get
away from it for a minute, Like I said, clear
your mind and prepare for what's ahead.
Speaker 1: Are you much of a standings watcher guy right now
or is that never going to happen for you?
Speaker 2: No, I think we're all conscious of it. It's such
a tight, tight race in the West that every game
kind of matters, and so when it's that tight and
this one of the season, you're already starting to peek
at it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the visitors always, well see you tonight
and good luck against the Clippers.
Speaker 2: Thank you, guys, you got it.
Speaker 1: Emao a Doka with us here on Sports Talk seven
ninety