Head Coach Ime Udoka Joins as Rockets Look to Extend Their 3-Game Win Streak

Head Coach Ime Udoka Joins as Rockets Look to Extend Their 3-Game Win Streak 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, it's Matt with He at one twelve, fresh
off the basketball practice court, joining us now for his
weekly visits. He made okay, head coach of your Rockets
beat the Pacers last night three straight wins. He may,
first of all, good afternoon, Thanks for spending some time
with me today. Tell me how your too big men
are feeling right now?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Outbring is better, much much better. Went through a good
workout today feeling much better. So I'd say he's probable
for the game. I was hoping to have him back
ninety percentis I guess. And Steven had a little swelling,
little stiffness, but felt better after the game with some
treatment last night, So hopefully have him back as well.
But we'll know a little bit more how you feel

(00:47):
it tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Did Steven happen hurt on one particular player or was
it just a progression of him playing minutes?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh? He wrote down a play he fell over. I
don't know if you remember that in the third Oh, yeah,
fell over with somebody and yeah, he basically tweaked his
right ankle there. Didn't land on a foot or anything,
but was wrestling with somebody and it just rolled over.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
You mean, why would any grown man want to wrestle
with Steven Adams. I mean every time he goes down
to the ground, I feel like that other guy's body's
gonna break into like fifteen pieces.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well yeah, I mean, he got the first two or
three offense rebounds of the game, and they subbed some
guys out to come in and boxing the mountain. They
couldn't either, so eventually you're gonna have to tackle him,
and that's what happened on the tackle.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
All right, So let's get to it. First of all,
you won. The game was comfortable for three quarters. It
kind of got kind of weird in the fourth, but
we wanted bringing that up. They were the worst three
point shooting team in the NBA. They were making a
boatload of them. That had to shock you a little bit.
And then the turnover count started to get high on
the rocket side too. But other than that, it was
a dominant performance by Durant. You got your Barie Smith

(01:47):
doing his thing. You got a man Thompson, so you
were able to with stand missing out for a couple
of games and get some nice victory still despite the absence.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, I think, you know, with some guys that normally
don't make shots and make shots, and we're willing to
live with those and so we know those percentages will
come back to earth eventually, and for us, it was
really stay of the course, take away what we wanted
to make it tough on other guys and those, like
I said, in the second half the numbers dropped from
three point percentage and we did a lot of good

(02:18):
things guarded at a high level. Overall, I think offensively
been sharp, and our spacing and attacks have been really good.
And so that's the result you get in these last
three games is really good defense on point, decisive chrisp offense,
and comfortable wins.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
You know, I think Kevin's been a fifty to forty
ninety guy for much of his life. Field goal, free
throw three point percentage. It feels like it's been ninety
percent of his rockets career. I don't want to say
you're amazed, because this is what you brought him here for,
but it feels like there's such fluidity from his shots,
say fifteen feet and in would you agree.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, I mean those are almost like a layup for him.
And so, you know, as mid range has always been
a big part of our No one of the best
to ever do it and let alone the last fifteen
years or so, and you know he can rise up
over those guys very efficient to get to his spots
and it's almost it's almost money. So not surprised at all.
You know, the reason we brought him here was because

(03:14):
of that. The efficiency isn't dropped at all, it's not
He's even more efficient as getting older.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Jabbari has a nice streak of going fifteen or more
for you and that's always a nice way to have
that in the back pocket. It's the catch and shoot threes,
which are really good. It's that fade away from ten.
What do you think has changed most the most improved
part of Jabbari's offensive game so far.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
This year, I'd say the physicality and being decisive. He's
driving it better, taking contact better and getting to his
spots and so not getting knocked off is off his
drive as much. So, you know, just his body in
general on both sides of the ball. You know, he's
more comfortable with the physicality of the game and opportunity
as well. You know, when you look at Jalen and

(03:57):
Dylan and then Fred going down, that's three stars artist
from last year. So he's going to be in a
different role with that starting lineup.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
He made Doka with us here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety. All right, so the month of December go
seven and six, you obviously would like to have gotten
to at least ten wins. What would you say the
ups and downs of this last month for your squad?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I would say it ups is that we played really
good basketball at points you know lately of course, but
even in the losses, you know, we had big leads,
and two of those losses or played the Denver really
close and had some late game meltdowns, and so there
were a lot of good things that you did in
those games, you know that that got masked because of
the late they game breakdowns or fouls at the end.

(04:37):
And then the mats would be those late game meltdowns
and letting the leads slip away. And so find the
balance of doing what we did really well to build
those leads with staying consistent throughout and not letting us
have those roles to lose two fourth quarter leads like
that and then foul against New Orleans and Denver to
you know, let them back in the game and lose
the overtimes is obviously not a positive.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
May did last year around the league teach everybody a
little something about not sweating the standings too much. And again,
obviously you want to be in seeding, and you loved
to be in the two seed, but Golden State didn't
know they were gonna be the seventh seed until the
playing round and you had constant shuffling. Is that something
you can live with that you know what you want
to win every game. You know there's gonna be a

(05:21):
few bad losses in the mix. But if you're gonna
sweat those things, you're gonna be miserable a lot more
times than you are when you celebrate good victories.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, definitely, standings are you know, less important, honestly with
the with the play in you don't know who you're
going to play if you're the one of two seed,
and the seven, eight, nine, ten are all really good teams,
especially in the West, and so you know it's a
matchup thing in the playoffs, and sometimes certain massives are
worse depending on seating or just a team in general.

(05:49):
And so for us, it's really about playing good basketball
and we want to do that at all times, but
especially late in the year. Being healthy at the right
time and kind of hitting our stride and so, yeah,
you want to avoid the lumps. But what I told
the team was going into the Laker game, we're not
a different team than five games ago. We've lost some
let some days slip away and lost some overtime games.
But if you won those games, it would master the losses.

(06:11):
But there's still things we need to work on to
be sharp about. And so for us, it's playing the
right way regardless. And you know, like I said, you
want to be hitting your stride going into the end
of the season.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
I don't know if think guys would admit it as much.
I know that I talked to Jabari after the game.
It was nice. It was his first Christmas Day game.
You had a lot of first time guys playing Christmas.
Did you notice any extra energy coming out of the
locker room or as they were playing the game, knowing
that it was the only game being played on that
time during that time.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
I think it's good for everybody to go through for
the first time. Like I said, all these benchmarks for
our young guys, you know, whether it's in season, tournament,
gettingto Las Vegas or playoffs for the first time, it's
great to be on the stage and it means you're
doing some thing as well. And we've got some really
good players and so myself playing in some and coaching
in some, it's not new to me, and Kevin's played
in a million of them. But for the other guy,
it's a great experience, and I think a little extra

(06:58):
juice the fact that we play the Lakers for the
first time. For let You Run.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Youve got Dorian Finney Smith. You've had him for a
couple of games. I would expect his game hasn't changed.
Obviously you're you're keeping him on a minutes restriction right now,
but as a Houston Rocket, what have you seen in
terms of his plug and playability for you right now?

Speaker 2 (07:17):
These are things because it's rhythm, legs and conditioning back,
but the IQ, toughness and you know, intangibles are there
from day one. The communication has been really great. It's
great to hear him on the court in the loud arena.
You know, he's one of the guys calling out coverages,
being very vocal, and we need that from everybody, let
alone our veterans, and so adds to our depth, adds
to our versatility and just overall rotations and lineups have

(07:41):
that quality of player and join us at this point,
at this point of the season, does.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
It feel like for the first time, and obviously Fred
not being with you is a huge loss, but does
it feel like you've got you can look down on
the bench, You've got a variety different options depending on
the matchups about maybe using Josh, maybe using during Finney
Smith big lineup, small up. Do you feel like that's
that Dorian adds that to your list.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Yeah, we're getting there. You know. We love our depth
in general, and to have Josh and Aaron a different
guys step up all year has been great for us.
But now I would say having the full compliment of
guys back it adds to that. And you know, once
we get off the minute restrictions for him and Tari
and those guys, and Alfi gets back healthy, we'll really
get to see what we are minus spread this year.

(08:23):
But I think it's just only added to our depth,
which we have, you know, three deep at every position
that we're really comfortable with. All right.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Lastly, Ryan Hollins and I decided we're not going to
go down to the ball on New Year's Eve because
it's gonna be crazy, plus being in the twenty five
degree temperature. If I gave you a prime seat for
the ball dropping at midnight, would you go to it
or do you just pass and watch on TV?

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Absolutely not. I never wanted to go to that, and
I will avoid the crowd and the code as well.
We'll see if I watch on TV either. But no,
that's not one of my bucket list things to do.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
It really isn't minding that people think I'm nuts about that. Emay,
thanks for the time. We'll seeing the plane tomorrow. I
appreciate the visitors always.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Thank you.