March 5, 2025 • 10 mins
As the NBA season rolls on with roughly about twenty games of the regular season left, the Rockets this season have ushered the organization into newer heights followed with the infancy of their young core. Rising stars like Jalen Green, Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun the Rockets have sprung and kept themselves in the postseason and playoff picture conversation as we get closer and closer to the end of the regular season. Losing their last 3 games against the Kings, Thunder, and Pacers the Rockets seemed to have hit a bump in the road recently as they've let the last few games slip away from them. Hearing from Coach Ime Udoka, Sean and Brian take a moment discussing the pretty lengthy season the NBA has from October to April with 82 regular season games, could this young Rockets core be fatigued approaching the end of the regular season?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Those rockets did not look good last night. Emy U
Doka a little upset Sean. They lose two in a
row Oklahoma City and Indy, the Indiana Pacers. This is
the head coach, he may U Doka. He was pretty
frustrated after the game last night. Earlier today, you said
(00:22):
we wanted to see energy, consistency and aggressive use.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
How would you assess those areas the opposite of what
we talked about, what we would hope to have with
some guy who's not playing last night. Yeah, and so
it's hard to win when you don't give sixty seven
in the first half and played uninspired and you know,
(00:45):
lack of physicality and throwing the ball over the gym
and don't look like we care at times. And so
you know that one hurts because you do all that
work to get back into it and go thirteen for
sixteen or thirteen for twenty six when the free throw
line missed about five point blank layups.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You know, then you can extend the lead when you're
up one and do all that work and then give
it back. But more than that, to your point, I
care about the fight and effort and competitiveness from the
start to avoid getting into that hole.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And there's you may you duck. He frustrated, to say
the least for the effort that the Rockets put out
on the floor last night.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
There can be no bigger indictment on a team than
when your coach says times wondering if they care, if
we he said, I think he said we care. Yeah,
but I can't think of anything. I mean, you're gonna
get your ass kicked, You're gonna miss shots, you're gonna
miss layups, you're gonna I mean shoot fifty percent from
(01:42):
the floor. And what he say, or would he say
thirteen to twenty six or something at one point. But
the one thing you can't have come out of your
coach smouth. He's right, But the one thing you don't
ever want to hear as a player that you don't care,
because to me, that's just it basically says one thing
you can't the effort. You can control effort and care,
and even if they do, when the optics look like
(02:03):
they don't, your own head coach is questioning it. That's
not a good thing at all. And uh, you saw
that last night, and so did he. Yeah, you're not
beating anybody shooting free throws like that and missing easy
and easy, you know, layups at the rim. But you're also,
like you said, put yourself in a bind if if
coming out of the gate, you're not if it feels
(02:24):
as if you don't care and you're throwing, like you said,
there are people in there in the front row are
getting jump shots. Last night, with the way the ball
is being moved around and missing, is that you're you're
You can't have a head coach have that feeling about
his team, and last night I see why he did.
And that's the that that's such an indictment on a team.
They got to get they got to stop that. You
(02:45):
can't have those optics. Oh well, the performance showed they
shot fifty from the free throw line. You can't win.
That's elementary school. Like I said, you go out and
shoot twenty free throws right now without warming up, And
I know it's pressure, it's different, but you got a
chance it Hell, you can underhand them and maybe make
fifty percent. They can't.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You just can't beat teams like that in this league.
Thirty from three point land nine of thirty.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Yeah, last night, and now you understand all those things
that are happening free throw. Isn't that a little bit
of concentration. It's not. It's not like you're being contested.
It's a concentration thing. Missing easy laps a concentration thing.
And when you're not concentrating, you know what the coach thinks.
You don't care because this is your jobs. If you're
not concentrated on the job, what the hell are you
thinking about? And he makes a great point. But what
(03:31):
I do like about him as well as well, among
other things, is that he he is not afraid to
offend his team.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah, and if they're offended, they out When I say,
I don't know if they're offended or he not afraid
to put it out there that could some could take
it ah Man too critical or offensive. No, he's the
coach and if more people thought like him, they'd probably
shoot the free throws better. And I think they do
last night. It's listen, it's a game. But you don't
want to fall into the trap because we've seen a
little bit of this lately and that's been a pro
(04:00):
And it's obviously he's just not talking on a knee
jerk thing. This is a trend that he didn't like seeing.
I'm with him.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, you look at the Pacers last night, only ten
free throws, but they made all ten, one hundred percent
from the free throw line.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
The shot ten free throws, Yeah, is a bit odd,
but hell they did they let they left nothing for chance?
Did they?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
One hundred and fifteen points for the Pacers, only ten
coming from the free throw line. They made every single
shot from the free throw line of the Rockets. Like
you said, thirteen to twenty six. Not a very good
defensive effort from the from the Rockets. They've lost three
in a row.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Man.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, you see really really good spurts from this team,
and it looked like they did last night and the
night before.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
But that's where the sustain consider. That's the That's when
when a team you start to want, well are we
are we losing focus because of our youth, which we
can't keep making excuses for. That's when that starts to
creep in. You say, where's what's happening. It's one thing
to do it for forty or fifty games, but when
you got to sustain it for eighty two of them,
it's you're not gonna win them all, but you still
gotta You can't be disinterested you don't. Any night, you gotta.
(05:06):
You may lose, You're gonna lose, you know, thirty of
them regardless. You can't be but you gotta. There's got
to be some interest, man. Yeah, you know, and when
if there's no interest, there's a there's a passion that
goes with it that your game will reflect it. And
I think it showed last night. And basketball is even
more blatant because our eyes are right on them. You're
on the court. You know what I'm saying. It's hard
(05:27):
to hide mistakes in an open court. It's really you know,
on the basketball for it's hard to hide those mistakes.
And when your coach can see through the physical mistakes
and know that something's going on with either the effort
or the attention span or the the just the lase
fair attitude, that's a problem.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah. They've they've dropped to the five seed in the West.
At one point they were the two seed. Yep, the
Lakers are now the two seeds. The Lakers are on
seven in a row, they're eight.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
So this is gonna prove to be And I don't
know if they're gonna win the championship. And I'm gonna
tell you this, it's going to prove to be a
historic trade for the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
And yeah Lebron, I mean, he's been playing pretty good
basketball anyway, but he's revitalized, you can see it because
he knows he's got a chance to win the thing again. Yeah,
and this one is a full fledged legit one, right,
and no disrespect to twenty twenty. But let's be real. Yeah,
that wasn't That's not the NBC season. It's a different thing.
(06:24):
So you're this is a I'm anxious to see as
a Laker. I tread lightly on this, but getting Luka
Doncics was We said him, like, what are you kidding me?
As a Laker fan, you were through the roof. As
a Mavericks fan, you're not. And then all of a sudden,
Kyrie gets hurt and now you're getting ticket prices charged.
It's just the Dallas Mavericks are going nowhere fast. Have
(06:47):
you seen what the Cavs are doing? Yeah, come on, man,
they've won eleven in a row. I'm gonna tell you
something on your Bengo card. Going in you didn't have
a team. What's their record now? Fifty one and ten? Yeah,
and what's the so fifty one ten. That's fifty one
six one. So sixty two games. You got twenty left
fifty one six is that about right? Twenty twenty one games? Yeah,
so we got about twenty yeah, like twenty one games. Yeah,
(07:09):
and they've won fifty one games fifty one. If they
go in this role and let's say they just okay,
let's just give them fifteen to their next twenty one,
that's sixty six wins for them. Now, I can assure
you on your Bengo card, the Cleveland Cavaliers were not
a sixty six point team over under. I like to
know what the going into a good team. But you
weren't thinking between sixty five and seventy wins. No, that
(07:31):
was not on the Bingo. But you could have made
a lot of money on that. I'm taking the over
on whatever win total they had.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, Boston's forty three and eighteen and they've won seven.
They're seven and three in their last ten. Yeah, it is, yeah,
the number two.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
It's scary how good the Cleveland Cavaliers have played this year.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
And then you look down at the Oklahoma City Thunder
and they're fifty and eleven.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
And that's why And think about that they're one win
behind and you're talking about like we're giving the wow
factor to Cleveland. Yeah, which is they should, but it
didn't like. It didn't like they're nine games in the
East ahead of what Oklahoma City is in the West.
Their fifty wins as well, they're one game apart. They
can end up going winning, you know, sixty five sixty
four games themselves. The hell of a season by both
(08:16):
of them. The question is, would you bet that both
of them will be in the NBA Finals? No?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Would you bet that either would be in the end one?
Both or none? If you had to bet it, neither. Yeah,
I'm gonna say none. Yeah, I actually think the same thing.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Now. I want you to see that's that's that regular
season magic, and say, can you play long series against
teams that Now the one thing that Oklahoma City said, Well,
they both but Oklahoma City's got a guy who can
take over a game. He's gonna he keeps this up.
He should win the MVP. Yeah, but I just I'm
just telling you, man, I I don't know. And both
(08:52):
are so good, but there's a part of me that
thinks after the season, it's like, then we get the
NBA finals, we'll see neither one of them. Right, But
if you're going by who's in the best basketball teams
all year long consistently, it's not just the record, the
Optics as well, it's been those two teams. Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah. Like the team that I wouldn't want to face
in the playoffs in the West would be the Denver Nuggets. Well,
oh yeah, that's the team.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Probably probably the best player in the league.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Jimmy Butler is like, I can't vitalize that team.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
They were in the playing at one.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Point, Dude, I had I had them. When all this
is broke down, I mean they're left for dead, like, yeah,
the run is over. Yeah, and they've kind of caught
fire and Stef's filling it up, and you know, it
is crazy that we're actually talking about this like they
they were old by the way. Man, they even gonna
you know, last year that this is a this is
team that's their run is done. Yeah, And I'll be damned, man,
(09:46):
it's been impressive. But when you got the Jokich, of course,
you're you know, you're always gonna have a chance in
the West because he's so good.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Golden State just beat the New York Knicks, Steph Curry
twenty eight points, Jimmy Butler nineteen, Brandon Podzimeski nineteen.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Simply not around these parts as well. Pozzi Pozzy, yeah, Pody,
don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Who the hell that is? Yeah, okay, yeah, I don't know,
but yeah that's the last. I just don't. Don't let
Steph Curry cook in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
But they tell you what, but you got to deal
with Nick.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Come on,
Those rockets did not look good last night. Emy U
Doka a little upset Sean. They lose two in a
row Oklahoma City and Indy, the Indiana Pacers. This is
the head coach, he may U Doka. He was pretty
frustrated after the game last night. Earlier today, you said
(00:22):
we wanted to see energy, consistency and aggressive use.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
How would you assess those areas the opposite of what
we talked about, what we would hope to have with
some guy who's not playing last night. Yeah, and so
it's hard to win when you don't give sixty seven
in the first half and played uninspired and you know,
(00:45):
lack of physicality and throwing the ball over the gym
and don't look like we care at times. And so
you know that one hurts because you do all that
work to get back into it and go thirteen for
sixteen or thirteen for twenty six when the free throw
line missed about five point blank layups.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
You know, then you can extend the lead when you're
up one and do all that work and then give
it back. But more than that, to your point, I
care about the fight and effort and competitiveness from the
start to avoid getting into that hole.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And there's you may you duck. He frustrated, to say
the least for the effort that the Rockets put out
on the floor last night.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
There can be no bigger indictment on a team than
when your coach says times wondering if they care, if
we he said, I think he said we care. Yeah,
but I can't think of anything. I mean, you're gonna
get your ass kicked, You're gonna miss shots, you're gonna
miss layups, you're gonna I mean shoot fifty percent from
(01:42):
the floor. And what he say, or would he say
thirteen to twenty six or something at one point. But
the one thing you can't have come out of your
coach smouth. He's right, But the one thing you don't
ever want to hear as a player that you don't care,
because to me, that's just it basically says one thing
you can't the effort. You can control effort and care,
and even if they do, when the optics look like
(02:03):
they don't, your own head coach is questioning it. That's
not a good thing at all. And uh, you saw
that last night, and so did he. Yeah, you're not
beating anybody shooting free throws like that and missing easy
and easy, you know, layups at the rim. But you're also,
like you said, put yourself in a bind if if
coming out of the gate, you're not if it feels
(02:24):
as if you don't care and you're throwing, like you said,
there are people in there in the front row are
getting jump shots. Last night, with the way the ball
is being moved around and missing, is that you're you're
You can't have a head coach have that feeling about
his team, and last night I see why he did.
And that's the that that's such an indictment on a team.
They got to get they got to stop that. You
(02:45):
can't have those optics. Oh well, the performance showed they
shot fifty from the free throw line. You can't win.
That's elementary school. Like I said, you go out and
shoot twenty free throws right now without warming up, And
I know it's pressure, it's different, but you got a
chance it Hell, you can underhand them and maybe make
fifty percent. They can't.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You just can't beat teams like that in this league.
Thirty from three point land nine of thirty.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Yeah, last night, and now you understand all those things
that are happening free throw. Isn't that a little bit
of concentration. It's not. It's not like you're being contested.
It's a concentration thing. Missing easy laps a concentration thing.
And when you're not concentrating, you know what the coach thinks.
You don't care because this is your jobs. If you're
not concentrated on the job, what the hell are you
thinking about? And he makes a great point. But what
(03:31):
I do like about him as well as well, among
other things, is that he he is not afraid to
offend his team.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah, and if they're offended, they out When I say,
I don't know if they're offended or he not afraid
to put it out there that could some could take
it ah Man too critical or offensive. No, he's the
coach and if more people thought like him, they'd probably
shoot the free throws better. And I think they do
last night. It's listen, it's a game. But you don't
want to fall into the trap because we've seen a
little bit of this lately and that's been a pro
(04:00):
And it's obviously he's just not talking on a knee
jerk thing. This is a trend that he didn't like seeing.
I'm with him.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, you look at the Pacers last night, only ten
free throws, but they made all ten, one hundred percent
from the free throw line.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
The shot ten free throws, Yeah, is a bit odd,
but hell they did they let they left nothing for chance?
Did they?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
One hundred and fifteen points for the Pacers, only ten
coming from the free throw line. They made every single
shot from the free throw line of the Rockets. Like
you said, thirteen to twenty six. Not a very good
defensive effort from the from the Rockets. They've lost three
in a row.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Man.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, you see really really good spurts from this team,
and it looked like they did last night and the
night before.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
But that's where the sustain consider. That's the That's when
when a team you start to want, well are we
are we losing focus because of our youth, which we
can't keep making excuses for. That's when that starts to
creep in. You say, where's what's happening. It's one thing
to do it for forty or fifty games, but when
you got to sustain it for eighty two of them,
it's you're not gonna win them all, but you still
gotta You can't be disinterested you don't. Any night, you gotta.
(05:06):
You may lose, You're gonna lose, you know, thirty of
them regardless. You can't be but you gotta. There's got
to be some interest, man. Yeah, you know, and when
if there's no interest, there's a there's a passion that
goes with it that your game will reflect it. And
I think it showed last night. And basketball is even
more blatant because our eyes are right on them. You're
on the court. You know what I'm saying. It's hard
(05:27):
to hide mistakes in an open court. It's really you know,
on the basketball for it's hard to hide those mistakes.
And when your coach can see through the physical mistakes
and know that something's going on with either the effort
or the attention span or the the just the lase
fair attitude, that's a problem.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah. They've they've dropped to the five seed in the West.
At one point they were the two seed. Yep, the
Lakers are now the two seeds. The Lakers are on
seven in a row, they're eight.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
So this is gonna prove to be And I don't
know if they're gonna win the championship. And I'm gonna
tell you this, it's going to prove to be a
historic trade for the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
And yeah Lebron, I mean, he's been playing pretty good
basketball anyway, but he's revitalized, you can see it because
he knows he's got a chance to win the thing again. Yeah,
and this one is a full fledged legit one, right,
and no disrespect to twenty twenty. But let's be real. Yeah,
that wasn't That's not the NBC season. It's a different thing.
(06:24):
So you're this is a I'm anxious to see as
a Laker. I tread lightly on this, but getting Luka
Doncics was We said him, like, what are you kidding me?
As a Laker fan, you were through the roof. As
a Mavericks fan, you're not. And then all of a sudden,
Kyrie gets hurt and now you're getting ticket prices charged.
It's just the Dallas Mavericks are going nowhere fast. Have
(06:47):
you seen what the Cavs are doing? Yeah, come on, man,
they've won eleven in a row. I'm gonna tell you
something on your Bengo card. Going in you didn't have
a team. What's their record now? Fifty one and ten? Yeah,
and what's the so fifty one ten. That's fifty one
six one. So sixty two games. You got twenty left
fifty one six is that about right? Twenty twenty one games? Yeah,
so we got about twenty yeah, like twenty one games. Yeah,
(07:09):
and they've won fifty one games fifty one. If they
go in this role and let's say they just okay,
let's just give them fifteen to their next twenty one,
that's sixty six wins for them. Now, I can assure
you on your Bengo card, the Cleveland Cavaliers were not
a sixty six point team over under. I like to
know what the going into a good team. But you
weren't thinking between sixty five and seventy wins. No, that
(07:31):
was not on the Bingo. But you could have made
a lot of money on that. I'm taking the over
on whatever win total they had.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, Boston's forty three and eighteen and they've won seven.
They're seven and three in their last ten. Yeah, it is, yeah,
the number two.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
It's scary how good the Cleveland Cavaliers have played this year.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
And then you look down at the Oklahoma City Thunder
and they're fifty and eleven.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
And that's why And think about that they're one win
behind and you're talking about like we're giving the wow
factor to Cleveland. Yeah, which is they should, but it
didn't like. It didn't like they're nine games in the
East ahead of what Oklahoma City is in the West.
Their fifty wins as well, they're one game apart. They
can end up going winning, you know, sixty five sixty
four games themselves. The hell of a season by both
(08:16):
of them. The question is, would you bet that both
of them will be in the NBA Finals? No?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Would you bet that either would be in the end one?
Both or none? If you had to bet it, neither. Yeah,
I'm gonna say none. Yeah, I actually think the same thing.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Now. I want you to see that's that's that regular
season magic, and say, can you play long series against
teams that Now the one thing that Oklahoma City said, Well,
they both but Oklahoma City's got a guy who can
take over a game. He's gonna he keeps this up.
He should win the MVP. Yeah, but I just I'm
just telling you, man, I I don't know. And both
(08:52):
are so good, but there's a part of me that
thinks after the season, it's like, then we get the
NBA finals, we'll see neither one of them. Right, But
if you're going by who's in the best basketball teams
all year long consistently, it's not just the record, the
Optics as well, it's been those two teams. Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah. Like the team that I wouldn't want to face
in the playoffs in the West would be the Denver Nuggets. Well,
oh yeah, that's the team.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Probably probably the best player in the league.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Jimmy Butler is like, I can't vitalize that team.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
They were in the playing at one.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Point, Dude, I had I had them. When all this
is broke down, I mean they're left for dead, like, yeah,
the run is over. Yeah, and they've kind of caught
fire and Stef's filling it up, and you know, it
is crazy that we're actually talking about this like they
they were old by the way. Man, they even gonna
you know, last year that this is a this is
team that's their run is done. Yeah, And I'll be damned, man,
(09:46):
it's been impressive. But when you got the Jokich, of course,
you're you know, you're always gonna have a chance in
the West because he's so good.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Golden State just beat the New York Knicks, Steph Curry
twenty eight points, Jimmy Butler nineteen, Brandon Podzimeski nineteen.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Simply not around these parts as well. Pozzi Pozzy, yeah, Pody,
don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Who the hell that is? Yeah, okay, yeah, I don't know,
but yeah that's the last. I just don't. Don't let
Steph Curry cook in the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
But they tell you what, but you got to deal
with Nick.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Come on,
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