December 4, 2024 • 8 mins
The Houston Rockets were denied the top seed in the NBA Cup quarterfinals in Tuesday's 120-111 loss to the Sacramento Kings. De'Aaron Fox had 22 points, and the Kings went almost nine minutes without missing a shot from the field. "We were getting out of rotation for a little bit," head coach Ime Udoka said. In the game's final minutes, Udoka and Alperen Sengun were ejected after voicing their displeasure with referee John Goble over missed foul calls. Emotions continued to run high even after the buzzer, as Tari Eason attempted to enter the stands to confront a heckling fan. Udoka did not hold back in his postgame comments and is anticipating a fine from the league office. "I'll be hearing shortly," Udoka said. The Rockets, who have not lost two consecutive games so far this season, will look to bounce back when facing the Golden State Warriors on Thursday. Houston will also host Golden State on Wednesday, December 11, in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk to our friend to the head basketball coach
the Houston Rockets. Rockets getting a little bit of a
workout in here, and before that we say hi to
a coach, a Doka here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross Coach. Good morning, I guess i'd like to
ask you how you slept?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Slept great? Are you?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm sleepy? What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We got to here at one during the morning. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hey, my man, interesting night. Have you heard from anybody
at the office or is all good right now?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Shortly I'll be hearing shortly, So go from there.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh oh okay, uh. Without getting into too much great detail,
obviously you were displeased with some of the some maybe
a lot of the officials calls last night.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, obviously, you know when the game is called one
way in the first half and then it kind of
flips in the second half and.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
By the touch fowls and certain things that go.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
If you want to if you want to not call fouls,
that really benefits us. So please do that from the
start and let us be who we are defensively. Other
than that, didn't love the seven to one event as
they had, including three offensive fouls on us on moving
screens to start the third quarter and boice my displeasure later.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
On in the game.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yes, you did the moving screen in itself? Do they
do you generally speaking officials? Is it as hard or
is it an easy call in your mind? Because look,
you teach obviously now all coaches try to teach the
proper fundamentals of the big men setting the screens to
make sure the feed are planted and you're not leaning
a hip in or a shoulder in.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Uh. Is it?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Is it a constant problem do you do? Is it
occasional where you go, hey that's TICKI tak, or hey
you got to start calling a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I mean, what do you where?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Do you see? How screens are generally officiated in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
It's really a judgment call.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It's you know, certain rests call it at a higher frequency,
and we know that we know the guys who do
call it. But it's a judgment call that you could
call on every play. There are some egregious ones that
are obviously right in front of you, but there or
the su judgment call. It could be called on every screen.
Guys moved their hip, move slightly, whatever it is and
you know, just to have three of those in the
(02:08):
third quarter, let alone four other fouls and be at
that disadvantage having them an early bonus after we were
allowed to play aggressive in the first half is what really.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Stood out to me.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
How is Jalen's eyes He had it checked on this
morning at all.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You gotta looked at it last night.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
He has a scratch above the eye, you know, and
then the scratch brasion on the eyeball. So thinking he'll
be okay, some minor scratch, but were scratching two places
on that one play. And you know, those are some
of the things that I took objection with, which is
if you want to look at the monitor on every
other you know, soft touch or soft out, but you
(02:44):
don't look at the ones when guys get hit in
the face like I'll be did the other night and
then Jalen that night, and so consistency there is what
I'm talking about. And if you're not going to call
anything great, that benefits us. But if you're going to
look at everything, look at the obvious ones.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Like that, well, if you want me to start a
go funding account, I'll be happy to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
You know, I got your back. You know this right,
I'm okay. My coaches are all offering to chip into
whatever are.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
They're really good. They're on more making more money than
I am, so that's good for them.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
They're roll to help out.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I thought about the game, you got hurt late in
the contest. Fox is going to do his thing, so
Bonus is going to do his thing. I thought the
Keegan Murray sideline three baseline threes really came at a
terrible time.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
For your squad.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, we were getting out of rotation a little bit,
and he got loose a little bit there.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
He'd been struggling shooting, and.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So we obviously wanted to keep him down and keep
him you know, and added in a struggling mode like
he had been him and hurt her.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And they came out and made some shots.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
As you know, they were shooting around twenty percent percent
on the year when they're typically thirty seven percent shooters,
So we didn't want to let them go going Those
hurt us. I think what really hurt us even more
was Deroz and post subs. You know, he had three
points a halftime and then I think twelve to fifteen
in that third quarter, basically off of one play or
we got the early bonus Fule trouble, put him at
the freakdom line, he made some shots in the post,
(04:01):
and so the combination of those things obviously heard us
in the third quarter.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
As far as tomorrow night, Golden States had a long
winning streak against you guys, I know, it's it means
a lot to snap through those things. They lost last
night and in somewhat controversial fashion themselves to Denver. What's
it like facing a team I mean, it's a barometer test,
not a you're gonna get him once, but you're gonna
get him twice in the next six days.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, So it's another thing we'd like to measure ourselves against.
You know, we talked about it before the Minnesota game
and with the ok See game and those things. The
teams that are you know, traditionally ranked higher or have
we've struggled with. You know, we obviously we're we're down
thirty against them earlier in the year and came back
and got it to overtime. And so good test for
us obviously coming up with loss. We haven't lost two
(04:45):
in a row this year, so we want to self
correct and adjust and and come back and get a
win there. But you know, to your point, we play
him again in a few days to go to Las
Vegas and seasoned tournament. So great test for us. They're struggling,
they've lost I think four or five in a row,
and we know it'll be good tests and they'll come
out desperate as well.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
What does it say about your team that you've not
had to worry about long losing streaks, because even the
championship level teams go through some skids, and so far,
again we're still very early in the season. You've not
been able to have to worry about, you know, a
streak that goes beyond say three games.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, that was a big point of emphasis going into
the season. You know, I talked about consistency this year,
and I think you know, we put up the winning
and losing streaks.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Last year there were too many three game losing streaks.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Won five game losing streaking there coupled by a six
game winning streak, eleven game winning streak, and so with us,
we said, if we lose one, that's just and and
you know, make make some changes that will help us
in the next game, and not you know, make the
same mistakes, and so so far we've done that, haven't
lost to in a row and come back with a
nice amount of aggression after a loss, and so look
to do the same thing tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Have you been around a team as a player or
as a coach that has had so many different guys?
And I don't know if you look everybody wants consistency,
But part of the char of this year's basketball team,
I think he may has been that if it's Fred
struggles one night, Dylan comes through, if Tire's hitting shots,
Alpi's not or and vice versa. That you've had different
(06:10):
guys kind of step up. Is that sustainable for eighty
two games? Do you like that variety? And do the guys?
I know they pick each other up, but I'm sure
there are some Knights that you're hugging Tari saying that
great job, and then some Knights where he'll miss five
or six laps and he's now down on the dumps
a little bit. So what's it like having a team
that moves up and down when it comes to who's
(06:30):
hot and who's not right now?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I think it makes you tougher to defend. But you know,
consistency is the main thing We're looking for. We like
the balance for sure. I think it makes you that
much more of a hard team to prepare for. And
you know, you got six or seven guys close to
double figures. You know you're kind of getting hitting everybody
from different angles on different nights.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
But consistency is the main thing.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
So the ups and downs with some guys are happening,
we'd obviously like to erase those and have those guys
on a consistent basis. And if we do that, I
mentioned the Chicago game and some other games where everybody's
hitting on all cylinders and you see the result in
that game, obviously regarding to a high level, but also
scoring at a high level, and it makes us even
more dangerous. So as much as the balance we like,
we obviously want to have the main guys be the
main guys on a consistent basis.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
For I let you run. Was the Oklahoma City win
the high water mark for you as a coach as
a rocket through a year plus that the great vibe
in the arena on Sunday night.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I mean there's been quite a few, honestly, you know,
you look at last year with the streak that we
went on late. You know, some some big wins against
Denver last year, Sacramento and some of these playoff teams
that were you know, highly rated the year before.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So we've had quite a few. Okay see, it was
a good one.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Minnesota was a good one as well, but you know,
they all count as one, and we're confident group that
we can compete and beat.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Anybody on any given night. So it was a great.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Environment, and there no doubt right after the holidays, the
two top teams in the West and all those things
that they looked at. But for us, it was really
to avenge what the loss we had up at okay see,
and then play it much better game. And I think
we did that obviously and pulled out a tough, hard
fought win.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Coach, thank you for the time. I appreciate you jumping
in before you guys, get some work in at the arena.
And again, if the NBA is mad at you and
they punish you, just take your coaches pretty and they
don't ever spend it anyway, So just take it their money.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And good for them.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Gotcha Merry Christmas today exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
They owe you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. You
may you may do it with it on the program.
All right, that call's coming up a little while. Thoughts
and prayers. Hopefully it's not too bad, although the f
and Glasses is maybe the light of the year.
Let's talk to our friend to the head basketball coach
the Houston Rockets. Rockets getting a little bit of a
workout in here, and before that we say hi to
a coach, a Doka here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross Coach. Good morning, I guess i'd like to
ask you how you slept?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Slept great? Are you?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm sleepy? What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We got to here at one during the morning. It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hey, my man, interesting night. Have you heard from anybody
at the office or is all good right now?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Shortly I'll be hearing shortly, So go from there.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh oh okay, uh. Without getting into too much great detail,
obviously you were displeased with some of the some maybe
a lot of the officials calls last night.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, obviously, you know when the game is called one
way in the first half and then it kind of
flips in the second half and.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
By the touch fowls and certain things that go.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
If you want to if you want to not call fouls,
that really benefits us. So please do that from the
start and let us be who we are defensively. Other
than that, didn't love the seven to one event as
they had, including three offensive fouls on us on moving
screens to start the third quarter and boice my displeasure later.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
On in the game.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yes, you did the moving screen in itself? Do they
do you generally speaking officials? Is it as hard or
is it an easy call in your mind? Because look,
you teach obviously now all coaches try to teach the
proper fundamentals of the big men setting the screens to
make sure the feed are planted and you're not leaning
a hip in or a shoulder in.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Uh. Is it?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Is it a constant problem do you do? Is it
occasional where you go, hey that's TICKI tak, or hey
you got to start calling a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I mean, what do you where?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Do you see? How screens are generally officiated in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
It's really a judgment call.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It's you know, certain rests call it at a higher frequency,
and we know that we know the guys who do
call it. But it's a judgment call that you could
call on every play. There are some egregious ones that
are obviously right in front of you, but there or
the su judgment call. It could be called on every screen.
Guys moved their hip, move slightly, whatever it is and
you know, just to have three of those in the
(02:08):
third quarter, let alone four other fouls and be at
that disadvantage having them an early bonus after we were
allowed to play aggressive in the first half is what really.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Stood out to me.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
How is Jalen's eyes He had it checked on this
morning at all.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You gotta looked at it last night.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
He has a scratch above the eye, you know, and
then the scratch brasion on the eyeball. So thinking he'll
be okay, some minor scratch, but were scratching two places
on that one play. And you know, those are some
of the things that I took objection with, which is
if you want to look at the monitor on every
other you know, soft touch or soft out, but you
(02:44):
don't look at the ones when guys get hit in
the face like I'll be did the other night and
then Jalen that night, and so consistency there is what
I'm talking about. And if you're not going to call
anything great, that benefits us. But if you're going to
look at everything, look at the obvious ones.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Like that, well, if you want me to start a
go funding account, I'll be happy to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
You know, I got your back. You know this right,
I'm okay. My coaches are all offering to chip into
whatever are.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
They're really good. They're on more making more money than
I am, so that's good for them.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
They're roll to help out.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I thought about the game, you got hurt late in
the contest. Fox is going to do his thing, so
Bonus is going to do his thing. I thought the
Keegan Murray sideline three baseline threes really came at a
terrible time.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
For your squad.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, we were getting out of rotation a little bit,
and he got loose a little bit there.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
He'd been struggling shooting, and.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So we obviously wanted to keep him down and keep
him you know, and added in a struggling mode like
he had been him and hurt her.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And they came out and made some shots.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
As you know, they were shooting around twenty percent percent
on the year when they're typically thirty seven percent shooters,
So we didn't want to let them go going Those
hurt us. I think what really hurt us even more
was Deroz and post subs. You know, he had three
points a halftime and then I think twelve to fifteen
in that third quarter, basically off of one play or
we got the early bonus Fule trouble, put him at
the freakdom line, he made some shots in the post,
(04:01):
and so the combination of those things obviously heard us
in the third quarter.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
As far as tomorrow night, Golden States had a long
winning streak against you guys, I know, it's it means
a lot to snap through those things. They lost last
night and in somewhat controversial fashion themselves to Denver. What's
it like facing a team I mean, it's a barometer test,
not a you're gonna get him once, but you're gonna
get him twice in the next six days.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, So it's another thing we'd like to measure ourselves against.
You know, we talked about it before the Minnesota game
and with the ok See game and those things. The
teams that are you know, traditionally ranked higher or have
we've struggled with. You know, we obviously we're we're down
thirty against them earlier in the year and came back
and got it to overtime. And so good test for
us obviously coming up with loss. We haven't lost two
(04:45):
in a row this year, so we want to self
correct and adjust and and come back and get a
win there. But you know, to your point, we play
him again in a few days to go to Las
Vegas and seasoned tournament. So great test for us. They're struggling,
they've lost I think four or five in a row,
and we know it'll be good tests and they'll come
out desperate as well.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
What does it say about your team that you've not
had to worry about long losing streaks, because even the
championship level teams go through some skids, and so far,
again we're still very early in the season. You've not
been able to have to worry about, you know, a
streak that goes beyond say three games.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, that was a big point of emphasis going into
the season. You know, I talked about consistency this year,
and I think you know, we put up the winning
and losing streaks.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Last year there were too many three game losing streaks.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Won five game losing streaking there coupled by a six
game winning streak, eleven game winning streak, and so with us,
we said, if we lose one, that's just and and
you know, make make some changes that will help us
in the next game, and not you know, make the
same mistakes, and so so far we've done that, haven't
lost to in a row and come back with a
nice amount of aggression after a loss, and so look
to do the same thing tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Have you been around a team as a player or
as a coach that has had so many different guys?
And I don't know if you look everybody wants consistency,
But part of the char of this year's basketball team,
I think he may has been that if it's Fred
struggles one night, Dylan comes through, if Tire's hitting shots,
Alpi's not or and vice versa. That you've had different
(06:10):
guys kind of step up. Is that sustainable for eighty
two games? Do you like that variety? And do the guys?
I know they pick each other up, but I'm sure
there are some Knights that you're hugging Tari saying that
great job, and then some Knights where he'll miss five
or six laps and he's now down on the dumps
a little bit. So what's it like having a team
that moves up and down when it comes to who's
(06:30):
hot and who's not right now?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I think it makes you tougher to defend. But you know,
consistency is the main thing We're looking for. We like
the balance for sure. I think it makes you that
much more of a hard team to prepare for. And
you know, you got six or seven guys close to
double figures. You know you're kind of getting hitting everybody
from different angles on different nights.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
But consistency is the main thing.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
So the ups and downs with some guys are happening,
we'd obviously like to erase those and have those guys
on a consistent basis. And if we do that, I
mentioned the Chicago game and some other games where everybody's
hitting on all cylinders and you see the result in
that game, obviously regarding to a high level, but also
scoring at a high level, and it makes us even
more dangerous. So as much as the balance we like,
we obviously want to have the main guys be the
main guys on a consistent basis.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
For I let you run. Was the Oklahoma City win
the high water mark for you as a coach as
a rocket through a year plus that the great vibe
in the arena on Sunday night.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I mean there's been quite a few, honestly, you know,
you look at last year with the streak that we
went on late. You know, some some big wins against
Denver last year, Sacramento and some of these playoff teams
that were you know, highly rated the year before.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So we've had quite a few. Okay see, it was
a good one.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Minnesota was a good one as well, but you know,
they all count as one, and we're confident group that
we can compete and beat.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Anybody on any given night. So it was a great.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Environment, and there no doubt right after the holidays, the
two top teams in the West and all those things
that they looked at. But for us, it was really
to avenge what the loss we had up at okay see,
and then play it much better game. And I think
we did that obviously and pulled out a tough, hard
fought win.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Coach, thank you for the time. I appreciate you jumping
in before you guys, get some work in at the arena.
And again, if the NBA is mad at you and
they punish you, just take your coaches pretty and they
don't ever spend it anyway, So just take it their money.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And good for them.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Gotcha Merry Christmas today exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
They owe you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. You
may you may do it with it on the program.
All right, that call's coming up a little while. Thoughts
and prayers. Hopefully it's not too bad, although the f
and Glasses is maybe the light of the year.
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