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Speaker 1: One on Sports Talk seven ninety It is the Matt

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Thomas Show with the Ross Ross that they off. Let's

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spend tenqulty minutes right now with the head basketball coach

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of your second seeded Western Conference playoffs, Houston Rockets email.

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Speaker 2: I don't over with this on the show, coach, Thanks

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for joining me late this morning.

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Speaker 1: A thought or two about first of all, capturing the

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two seed, and obviously you sat out some folks against

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the Clippers of the night, and what's it like being

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in a in a really good spot here we can

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rest some guys between now and the end of the

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regular season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is an accomplishment.

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Speaker 3: Obviously, got more to go, but you know, our guys

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should be proud of where we're at and the fact

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that we earned some rest and are in a position

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to pick our own, our own destiny and fate instead

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of having to rely on anybody else. There'll be in

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the late season battles like a lot of teams are

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doing right now. So guys understand that they deserve it.

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They put in the work to get here, and now

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it's chance to get healed up, rested up, sharpened up

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and give some other guys some opportunities so we can

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improve our depth.

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Speaker 1: Is everybody. I mean, by the time that you guys

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get started, you feel like I'll bey'll be back to

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close to one hundred percent. Is this is this off time

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between not only these games that they may or may

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not playing in the week off. Is that is that

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put you as close one hundred percent as possible?

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Speaker 2: Oh?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, I mean other than All Star break, you don't

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get this amount of time off in the season at all.

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Speaker 2: And so we got guys nicked up.

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Speaker 3: You know, Ifrid got the ankle, Jabari had come off

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the ankle and got a little growing some up, you

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got a little back and things here and there. They

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could obviously play through if we needed to, but a

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chance to get healed up obviously in these games. Don't

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want to be off too long. So we'll get in

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some work in the next two games. But chance to

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stay sharp, get rested, get healed, and at this time

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of year, with that week off before the playoffs, avoiding

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the playing is a big advantage as well.

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Speaker 1: So is there gonna be a big watch party at

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the Adoka House on Tuesday night to see who you play.

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Speaker 3: Not a watch party, but I'll be watching alone to

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see something like that.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, myself and.

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Speaker 3: The staff will be prepared for two opponents, and so

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we'll have a step ahead regardless of who it is,

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and then obviously focused and zero in on the opponent

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once we figure out who it is. But it's a

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little bit different than the years past, where you may

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know a week before who you're going to play based

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on the shootings. The player brings another element to that,

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but exciting for the fans, opportunity for other teams to

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sneak in. But we have to prepare for two as

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if we're playing each of them.

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Speaker 1: You may have your personal favorite, and I wouldn't ask

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of that of you because I have my personal favorite,

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and I don't want to give that out too much either.

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But the point being is that you know, I've looked

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at the standing. I look at it every day. I

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look at it fifteen times a day. I didn't anticipate

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the Spurs beating the Warriors a couple of nights back,

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and then they lose that game, and then Memphis loses

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to Minnesota and that moves up the Golden State of

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the six spot. It's incredible how tight these teams are

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and how you try to anticipate who you might be playing,

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and it would be frankly idiotic to do it because

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things could just change here a lot in the next

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forty eight hours.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why.

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Speaker 3: Ever since, probably with ten games out, twenty games out,

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we've worried about ourselves and wanted to be in this

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position to solidify our seed and not have to worry

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about anybody or get the help. And at this point,

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to your point, it could be anybody changes on a

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nightly basis, and a lot of these teams are playing

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each other heads up, so it can change and flip flop,

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like you said, game to game, night to night, and

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so for us, so we worried about ourselves. We'll figure

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out the opponent when it's there and not try to

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get too cute and manipulate anything. And like I said,

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being in the number two seed with the day is

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off and the rest is that was our goal. Be healthy,

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be playing our best basketball, be sharp, and then we've

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achieved that.

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Speaker 1: You might not have said this yet, but I know

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there's going to be a speech coming up from you

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about what playoff basketball is. Like Dylan knows about it,

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Steven knows about it, Fred knows about it. But you've

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got a lot of young men that don't. So what

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have you told them from your experience about the game

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of the NBA playoffs that is unlike a regular season game.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that everything's heightened.

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Speaker 3: I think we've done a pretty good job of building

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toward that in the last ten games. We obviously our

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last eight games, I think seven of those were against

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high level teams, playoff contenders, and so we already had

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our mindset around starting to shift our mentality towards that

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preparing for the playoffs.

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Speaker 2: So we don't have to flip a switch.

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Speaker 3: But what we do is what we do, and it

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carries well in the playoffs. Of physicality, the effort that

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we play with, all those things are great things going forward,

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but you have to experience them for the first time.

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But at the same time, keep its simple as just

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basketball and what we do works and what we've done

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all year the guys have bought into so at the

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end of the day, that will carry over.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 3: I'll let the bets talk to the guys about experience

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as well, but we'll share our stories. But getting out

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there and getting a feed wet for the first time

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is the best way to handle it.

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Speaker 1: What do you think was more impactful, and it could

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be both. The answer to it, you guys playing more

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zone second half of the year or you going to

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the double big lineup second.

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Speaker 2: Half the year.

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Speaker 3: Well, they coincided with each other, honestly, and so the

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reason obviously, when you play a smaller lineup, we can

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switch some things and the results are great. I mean

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we're top whatever three in the league and defense and

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so what we do mainly works.

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Speaker 2: No doubt.

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Speaker 3: But when you want to play the double bigs, which

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is really good offensively, you have to go to the

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zone with some of those smaller lineups, and so they

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coincide with each other. The more double big we played

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and teams don't match it, they try to downsize. We

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have to play some zone for matchup purposes, and our

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zone is really good. Communication is good. We got active

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at great activity. Feels like we are talking even more

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in the zone than a man. And then on the

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offensive end we take advantage. We have big bodies down

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there getting second third opportunities and so they go hand

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to hand, no doubt. But even when we do play

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with one big, we do like our zone. The activity

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is good, keep teams out of rhythm and protect guys,

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if them poule trouble or a little bit of rest.

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Speaker 1: You may talk with us for a few more minutes

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here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross you may

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you took the Celtics of the NBA Finals and you

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played three series and one them. What is it like

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for the players? Just look, video is a huge part

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of it. Are there a lot of things that teams

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will throw at you different wrinkles or is it just

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kind of accentuate the stuff that you want to do?

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I mean meaning, is there anything that the other teams

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could be hiding that they have not put out until

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the playoffs? And would that surprise you at all if

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teams would make a massive shift or is that just

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doesn't happen in the NBA in right now.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's a little bit of both.

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Speaker 3: You have to do what you do really well and

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then obviously somebody's going to make an adjustment at some point.

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If if what you're doing is working, obviously stick with

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it and try to amplify that. But teams that are

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struggling will obviously go to adjustments. And that's the job

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of the coaching staff to have you know, plan ABC

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D E. If you need b and for us, I

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think we've thrown a lot out our guys this year,

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mixing some things to keep teams off balanced, off rhythm,

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and you don't throw it all out in a meaningless game,

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but you save certain things that you've seen worked well.

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And then obviously you have all the stuff in your

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back pocket and so if you if what you're doing works,

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you go with it until need be, but expecting other

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teams to throw adjustments if they're struggling in a certain

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area or trying to take advantage of something.

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Speaker 2: So it's a little bit of a chess match.

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Speaker 3: Of course, much different than a regular season game where

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you're preparing for that team one time and then you're

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moving on to the next. It's back and forth ups

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and downs of a playoff series, and a lot of

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times it comes down to.

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Speaker 2: That in your mind and your history of being in

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the league.

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Speaker 1: Are the whistles tighter or are they a little looser

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come playoff time?

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Speaker 3: No, I definitely think they let you play more, which,

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like I said, goes well for us.

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Speaker 2: You know, we want to be a physical team.

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Speaker 3: We are one of the more aggressive physical teams, and

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at times we have to adjust to how they're calling

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it in a regular season game. In the playoffs, the

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game slows down, the physicality goes up, and I think,

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like I said, what we do well well, we do

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well travels in the playoff and so it's not like

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we're trying to flip a switch and become aggressive all

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of a sudden. That's who we've been all year, and

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so they let you play more, no doubt. I think,

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like we said, the pace slows down, you have to

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grind out possessions on both sides of the ball, and

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so it bodes well for us. It's in our favor

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to have that, and we like the games that they

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let us play aggressive, and so that's that's the case

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in the playoffs.