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October 22, 2025 11 mins
Head Coach Ime Udoka Joins The Show After 2OT Loss In OKC 
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, no, No one, I'm Sports Talk seven ninety. It is
the Matt Thomas Show and ross for our number two Rockets.
Last night fall in Oklahoma City to start this season.
Very exciting basketball game in double overtime, and he may
dok is going to join us. He does every week
here on the show between now and hopefully a late
run in June for an NBA championship coach. Good morning,
thanks for joining us again this season. A couple of

(00:23):
thoughts as you're on the plane to trying to close
your eyes and reflect on an exciting game that just
came up a little bit short last night.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, the opportunities that we had to win it and
some of the things that we did well early on
that kind of got away from us in the second
half in overtimes. So plenty of positives to take away
from it, opportunities to do it, but we did some
things to lose it as well.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
You know, a lot of folks will look at the
stat sheet and there's nothing more crazier for me as
a sports broadcaster and a fan than to over discuss
something of one game, because it's a body of work.
But you to realize and you know this and I
think hopefully good NBA. You were going against one of
the supreme defenses in the NBA case, and Wallace and

(01:04):
Aaron Wiggins and lou Dort were not going to make
it easier for you guys, and you were able to
still get some things done accomplish it offensively, especially with
the way out he was playing last night.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, there were top defense as far as forcing turnovers
last year, making you play in the crowd, and we
handled that really well early. I think, you know, in
the first half we were really good. And then second
half overtimes got away from us, and you have twenty
four turnovers and give up twenty six points off those
and you know, barely lose and have a chance to win.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
That's obviously going to stand out.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
And so some things we need to do better with spacing,
playing with pace and then just handling the pressure.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
A little bit better.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
You'll do a deeper dive on those turnovers. And that
was obviously a huge part of the game. In your
mind as you watch it was some things you were
doing offensively that getting in rhythm in the offense that
was troubling you. Was it more of what Oklahoma City
was doing in terms of intercepting passing lanes and the like,
a little bit of both.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I think the pressure while they're some guys bringing up court,
for sure, I know that was there. But then you know,
we have different outlets and different guys that can initiate.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
But from there we have to, you know, set.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Good screens, set our guy man up to take those
denials away and get ourselves open. And they did a
really good job of kind of choking away those pass
the lanes and taking taking us out of some sets.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
From there, you know, we want to keep it simple.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
We talked about hitting singles all night and make the
simple passes, not playing the crowd, and sometimes he over
dribbled a little bit, and when we did play in
the crowd, we have to know where our outlets are at,
so get to get to our space and a little
bit quicker.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
How is a man Thompson doing.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
He's fine.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
It was just cramping in the calf came on and
late in the fourth quarter. He tried to play through
it a little bit and until it really caught up
to him and had to hold him out. Obviously, would
love to have him in the in the later stages
of the game, but just cramping. I think the first
game obviously, and then the two overtimes extra minutes for
him caught up.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
With them rocketed. Coachimy Adoka was here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. How would you assess overall his game? Obviously
very aggressive getting to the basket and did not go
the way that he wanted from the three point line.
But did you like the takes that he was shooting.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, I mean for the most part, you know, they're
sagging off him, so he gets to get downhill and
attack and try to find guys and did a good
job of that. You know, he just like everybody else,
had the high turnover numbers. You know, a few guys
had four and steven and a few others had three.
But you know, we want him to get to the corners,
and he shot it extremely well in preseason and has

(03:34):
been better since last year, and so I wanted to
be confident with those and at times in summer late
shot clocks as well. But we want him to shift
and invert on the wings and kind of give guys
space to operate there. And a few times we're a
little slow with our spacing.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Like I mentioned, he may.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
You ransom zone. They ransom zone. You and I talked
a little bit last year about it. It felt like
ten years ago you didn't even see his own defense.
Why are we seeing it more today, especially with as
many prolific three point shooting as the league has right now, Let's.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Just change the pace that it takes teams out of
some of the things they're trying to do.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
They have really good one on one players.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
You can kind of load up and send them certain
places on the court, But at the same time, we're
playing big lineups with some really small lineups, and so
may not be as many favorable matchups for us, And
you know, it's a game of cat and mouse and
who's gonna make who adjusts to what, and that zone
helps us kind of guard some of those actions better.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Was altbe in Rhythm three. The most he's ever been
is you've seen him in person. I mean, look, no
disrespect to euro League and whatnot, and you've seen him
in practice, But in terms of an NBA game, it
looked like he had a conference with that ball left
his hand beyond the arc that maybe I haven't even
seen in his entire NBA career.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, absolutely, I think he's going to be in some
different situations this year. He's putting a ton of work
on his jump shot in the offseason. You saw that
in euro Basket and so, but like you said, the
line is a little bit different, a little closer there,
and I think he's had great carryover from his summer
playing basketball there And so with him playing with Steven
and some o the bigs, he's gonna have to space

(05:06):
the times and be in some physicians to make him
pay from three, and teams are going to make him
prove it. He obviously he was confident and did a
great job last night, but a lot more catch and
shoot opportunities versus picking pops now that he's kind of
playing at the four at times, and I think he
was extra aggressive ready for those and if you're going
to be in those slots, you have to make him pay,
and he did that overall.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
All.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
Would you see from Reed Shepherd twenty eight minutes from
him and just how he played on the floor both sides.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, it was some ups and downs.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
It's gonna be some learning curves for guys, especially you know,
with Fred out and they're having to handle and initiate
and not just play off ball as much as they
did last year. I'm in as well, and so just
understanding the physicality of the game, which he's improved at
since last year, and how teams are going to guard
him and respect him, you know, being the third pick,
being a shooter, and you know, freeing up hisself.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Guys have to free up and set as well. Like
I said, they were kind.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Of blowing everything up on and off ball, and so
for him, it's just just more of the learning that
he's going to have to go through.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
This year was aggressive looking for shot.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
I think it wasn't just some men that didn't shoot
it well, a few other guys as well. And you
look at the numbers, only going eleven for thirty nine
from three and having some really good looks and so
game one some things to take.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Away positive and negative.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
I think that's with the team overall and Rito learning
to go from this.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Some people talking during the game, I guess about Kevin
Duran and his looks, how did you feel overall just
working within the offense where you know that's that's a
guy that can go down the floor and basically get
up a shot anytime he wants to, but you also
want him to kind of play with the team around him.
What is it like for you as a coach finding
the right moment to get him going and but also

(06:47):
wanting to play with with everyone else.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, yeah, you want him to be who he is,
which is a great score. But we understand just like
we're trying to take Shay out, they're trying to take
Kevin out.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
For the most part, they want loud.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Or pretty much face guarding the whole time. So that's
what I mentioned. Our setups have to be better. Guys
have to try to make theirself get open, and we
need to set better screens. So playing with a little
more force and pace and not to let him dictate
where we want to go in the court.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
That's gonna be a big thing.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
But at times he was somewhat of a decoy because
they held the way they were guarding him, and he
got guys open looks, and at times when they're trapping
him or or they're really face guarding him, we're basically
playing four on four at times, almost like a box
in one, and so we have to do a better
job getting them open, getting him.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Into spots to score.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
But he has to be aggressive as well and get open,
and so it was a little bit of both, and
we understand what okay Se does, but he's seen that
throughout his career, and then it's just well and we'll
handle that as the season goes.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
I don't think you guys did anything differently to Shane
the second half. Was there something that you saw from
him and the Bernard being turned up a little bit
because obviously in the first half he wasn't a real
huge part of the offense, but got himself involved in
the second half in overtime.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
No, I think our our traps weren't as aggressive, for sure.
I think we got caught a few times looking at
other actions and then he got the pick and roll
where he had more room freedom to operate. You know
he's gonna come out aggressive when he's had the poor
first half. We saw that last year and n season tournaments.
Some of the games we guard him really well, and
then when we were in the zone, we did allow

(08:20):
him to get to the spots where we didn't want
him to. We wanted to send him to the crowd,
send him to middle. He either wants to attack the
seams and get away from the double teams, and repeatedly
late in the fourth quarter in overtime, he got to
those spots and that's where he saw some of those
jumpers where we did a great job of funneling him
to the help in the zone specifically, and so we
didn't do as good a job and for those reasons
and kind of allow him to get going. And then

(08:43):
obviously you got to the free throw line a little
bit too much as well.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Before you wrap things up, I asked you this before
the game yesterday. It's worth for this audience as well.
You went with the double bigs last night, or with
the jumble, whatever you want to call the lineup, tell
for this audience, dictate emy what you think you will do.
How much it will be a bit against who you're
going with now Homegren obviously it being out there with
Hartenstein that dictated it last night. How much will you
try to push the envelope to put that big line

(09:08):
up out there against guys that maybe not be as
tall and as physical as Oklahoma City would be.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah, there are a lot of things that play in
it into it, and it's not just other teams that
big lineups. We do like to put alpurn on some
lesser scoring threat wings and you saw him on door
it and certain guys last night, and there's plenty of
guys in the league and from game to game we
could do that with. But it's also dictated by how
they want to guard. And you know, they've been a

(09:33):
team that puts home Gren on them in a lot,
and we wanted to free up them in as well,
and so we if we.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Don't play our double big, they'll switch that matchup.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
And so it's not just based on their personnel's how
they want to defend. We take all those things into account,
and you know.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Fringing up them in with a guard on him.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
You saw how he got downhill versus the length of
home Grin and some of those guys, And so it's
a night by night based, night to night thing to start.
We'll be flu with it until we get healthy, fully healthy.
Have some options with Dorian and Jay Sean and those
guys we can look at, but we love the versatility
that we have and obviously the lineup that we've had
a ton of successes is playing with those two bigs,

(10:09):
and someone will continue to go with you.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Look, once the game got started last night, once the
ceremony was overwheling the rings and all that, it was
just an NBA game, but you were going to get
that opportunity coming up here on Friday night. I'm assuming
that Katie is very excited about being wearing the Rock
and Home gear for the very first time.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, I think everybody is, and you know, to me,
I think our whole team enjoyed that game. You know,
we want to be tested right from the start, and
so Detroit is another you know, up and coming team
that plays extremely physical as well, and so it will
be another challenge for us and ready to get this
first win out of the way.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Had an opportunity, like.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
I said last night, you know, fouled laid a few
times with some free throws and things of those nature,
but had the opportunity there, and then we'll take a
look at that and try to improve on game two.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Great visit, friend, Thank you for the time. We'll see
you Friday night and good luck against the Pistons. Appreciate
the time as always, Thank you, Thank you guys,
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