THE PALLILOG
The timing of Russell Westbrook's return should come down to this
Aug 21, 2020, 11:00 am
Composite image by Jack Brame.
Despite Russell Westbrook's absence from the lineup the Rockets have had a fantastic start to their postseason, routing Oklahoma City in game one and then blowing apart a close game two in the fourth quarter. The work isn't done but the Rockets' 17-0 final quarter blitz Thursday had the look of basketball heart surgery. As in cutting out the Thunder's heart. Momentum can be very fickle, but the Rockets winning game two by 13 points when James Harden had a lousy shooting game while Eric Gordon was even worse? Very ominous for OKC. That the Rockets have committed just seven turnovers in each of the first two games is phenomenal.
Thunder Head Coach Billy Donovan greased the skids for his team's game two demise with a ridiculous lineup for the first four and a half minutes of the fourth quarter. Having Abdel Nader and Darius Bazley in the game while both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari sat? Billy D was Billy Dunce on that one. The Rockets ripped off 15 straight points before Donovan subbed. Game over.
One certainly should not assume the series is over, but the Rockets do gain some luxury to pad Westbrook's quad recovery time. Maybe he sits the whole first round. At this point I wouldn't play him in this series until or unless the Thunder wins a game at the earliest.
With the Rockets likely to advance, the plot is definitely thicker than one would have imagined a month ago with regard to who wins the 1 vs. 8 matchup that would produce the Rockets' second round opponent. That the Lakers crushed the Trail Blazers to square that best-of-seven at one win apiece doesn't mean the Lakers have restored order and roll the rest of the way. Before the shutdown the Lakers were head and shoulders best in the west. Since resumption in the "bubble" they had been very shaky until Thursday. That they lacked motivation for the eight seeding games is legit. So is that their outside shooting has stunk. The Blazers are good and dangerous though in the end LeBron James and Anthony Davis should still get the Lakers through to round two.
Going streaking
Cap tip to the Astros as they ride an eight game winning streak into San Diego this weekend. They haven't beaten quality teams (Giants, Mariners, Rockies) but eight straight is eight straight, especially given their ever-growing injury toll. What a bummer losing Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman in the same week. The already gimpy-kneed Alvarez lasted two games before a patellar tendon tear ended his 2020 season. Yordan's upside remains David Ortiz-esque, but bum knees at 23 is just sad. Bregman is a short term loss but the best Astro is sidelined 10 days minimum. Bregman will be out through some if not all of next weekend's big Astros-A's series.
The Padres are led by emerging superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. who leads Major League Baseball with 12 home runs and 29 runs batted in over the Padres' 27 games. If a draft of all current leaguers were held, Tatis might be the first pick. Think what Carlos Correa was when he arrived in the Major Leagues. Now think better. Like Correa, Tatis got to the bigs as a 20-year-old. Carlos won American League Rookie of the Year in 2015. Tatis was having a superior debut season before having that season ended by a back injury in mid-August. Injuries have short circuited Correa's expected rise to superstardom. Anyone who likes baseball should root for both Correa and Tatis Jr. to stay in peak health going forward. Quirky stat, the Padres have hit a grand slam in each of their last four games. That's a first in MLB history.
There's no place like Denver for a hitter or hitters to get going. It's an offensive freak show environment. The Rockies at home last season hit .300 as a team. Everywhere else they hit .230. In 2018: .287 at home, .225 on the road. 2017: .298 at mile high altitude, .248 on the road. You get the idea. So that the Astros scored 23 runs in two games there isn't a big deal beyond the big deal that they won both games. Jose Altuve certainly wasn't complaining. His batting average had sagged to a you have to be kidding me .163 before four hits in his last seven at bats at Coors Field. Altuve is now at .190. That he gets going for real takes on added importance in Bregman's absence.
Buzzer Beaters:
1. With games galore that matter going on who misses NFL preseason games whatsoever?
2. Throw out the mere five games he played this season and Stephen Curry's worst season three point percentage is better than Damian Lillard's best season percentage.
3. Worst aches: Bronze-tooth Silver-head Gold-heart
Sengun has 32 points and 14 rebounds as the Rockets beat the Grizzlies
Jan 10, 2025, 2:32 pm
Everyone raved about the leadership of second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud this week as the Houston Texans prepared for their wild-card playoff game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Everyone, that is, except the man himself.
“I don’t think I’m a great (leader),” Stroud said sheepishly. “I don’t know. That’s probably a bad thing to say about yourself, but I don’t think I’m all that when it comes to leading. I just try to be myself.”
But the 23-year-old Stroud simply being himself is exactly what makes him the undisputed leader of this team.
“C.J. is authentic, he’s real,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “It’s not only here, it’s in the locker room around the guys and that’s what leadership is to me. As you evolve as a leader, you just be authentic to yourself. You don’t have to make up anything or make up a speech or make up something to say to guys. C.J. is being C.J.”
Sixth-year offensive lineman Tytus Howard said he knew early on that Stroud would be special.
“He has that aura about him that when he speaks, everybody listens,” he said.
Stroud has helped the Texans win the AFC South and reach the playoffs for a second straight season after they had combined for just 11 wins in the three years before he was drafted second overall.
He was named AP Offensive Rookie of the Year last season, when Houston beat the Browns in the first round before falling to the Ravens in the divisional round.
His stats haven’t been as good as they were in his fabulous rookie season when he threw just five interceptions. But he has put together another strong season in Year 2 despite missing top receiver Nico Collins for five games early and losing Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell to season-ending injuries in the second half of the season. He also started every game despite being sacked a whopping 52 times.
“He’s taken some crazy shots,” Howard said. “But even if he’s getting sacked and stuff like that, he just never lets that get to him. He just continues to fight through it, and it basically uplifts the entire offense.”
He also finds ways to encourage the team off the field and works to build chemistry through team get-togethers. He often invites the guys over to his house for dinner or to watch games. Recently, he rented out a movie theater for a private screening of “Gladiator II.”
“He’s like, ‘I want the guys to come in and bond together because this thing builds off the field and on the field,’” Howard said. “So, we need to be closer.”
Another thing that makes Stroud an effective leader is that his teammates know that he truly cares about them as people and not just players. That was evident in the loss to the Chiefs when Dell was seriously injured. Stroud openly wept as Dell was tended to on the field and remained distraught after he was carted off.
“It was good for people to see me in that light and knowing that there is still a human factor to me,” he said. "And I think that was good for people to see that we’re just normal people at the end of the day.”
Stroud said some of the leaders who molded him were his father, his coaches in high school and college, and more recently Ryans.
His coach said Stroud has been able to lead the team effectively early in his career because he knows there are others he can lean on if he needs help.
“Understanding that it’s not all on him as a leader, it’s all of our guys just buying in, doing what they have to do,” Ryans said. “But also, C.J. understanding a lot of guys are looking up to him on the team and he takes that role seriously. But it’s not a heavy weight for him because we have other leaders, as well, around him.”
Stroud considers himself stubborn and though some consider that a bad quality, he thinks it’s helped him be a better leader. He's had the trait as long as he can remember.
“That kind of carried into the sport,” he said. “Even as a kid, my mom used to always say how stubborn I was and just having a standard is how I hear it. It’s stubborn (but) I just have a standard on how I like things to be done and how I hold myself is a standard.”
And, to be clear, he doesn’t consider himself a bad leader, but he did enjoy hearing that others on the team consider him a great one.
“I just don’t look at myself in that light of just I’m all-world at that,” he said. “But I try my best to lead by example and it’s cool because I don’t ask guys and to hear what they have to say about that is kind of cool.”
Though he doesn’t consider himself a great leader, Stroud does have strong feelings about what constitutes one. And he’s hoping that he’ll be able to do that for his team Saturday to help the Texans to a victory, which would make him the sixth quarterback in NFL history to start and win a playoff game in both of his first two seasons.
“That would be making everybody around you better,” he said of great leaders. “Kind of like a point guard on the offense, the quarterback on the football team, the pitcher on a baseball team — just making everybody around you better.”