The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Head Coach Ime Udoka Comments On Criticism Of Officials Following Ejection In Rockets Loss To Kings

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

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.

Let's talk to our friend of the head basketball coach, the Houston Rockets. Rockets getting a little bit of a workout in here. And before that, we say hi to Coach Doka here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Coach, good morning. I guess I'd like to ask you how you slept. Slept great. How are you? I'm sleepy.

What are you talking about? We got here at 1 3 in the morning. It's crazy. Hey, my man. Interesting night. Have you heard from anybody at the office or is all good right now? shortly. I'll be hearing shortly, so we'll go from there. Uh-oh. Okay. 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. 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 by the touch fouls and certain things like, oh, 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 7-1 advantage they had, including three offensive fouls on us on moving screens to start the third quarter and voice my displeasure later on in the game. Yes, you did. The moving screen in itself, do generally speaking officials, is it as hard or is it an easy call in your mind? Because look, you teach obviously, all coaches try to teach the proper fundamentals of the big men setting the screen

and make sure the feet are planted and you're not leaning a hip in or a shoulder in. Is it a constant problem? Do you do it? Is it occasional where you go, hey, that's tickey tack or, hey, you've got to start calling a little bit more? I mean, where do you see how screens are generally officiated in the NBA? It's really a judgment call. It's, you know, certain reps 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 are, it's a judgment call that could be called on every screen. Guys move their hip, move slightly, whatever it is, and, you know, just to have three of those in the 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 stood out to me. How is Jaylon's eyes?

He had it checked on this morning at all? Yeah, you got to look at it last night. He has a scratch above the eye, you know, and then the scratch abrasion on the eyeball. thinking he'll be okay. Some minor scratch, but we're scratching two places on that one play. And, you know, those are some of the things that I took objection with, which is you want to look at the monitor on every other,

you know, soft touch or soft foul, but you don't look at the ones when guys get hit in the face like Alpi 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 like that. Well, if you want me to start a GoFummi account, be happy to do that. You know I got your back. You know this, right?

I'm okay. My coaches are all offering to chip into whatever. Oh, they're really good. They're making more money than I am, so that's good for them. I'm glad they're willing to help out. I thought of too about the game. You got hurt late in the contest. Fox is going to do his thing. Subonis is going to do his thing. I thought the Keegan Murray sideline three, baseline three, is really came at a terrible time for your squad. Yeah, we were getting out of rotation a bit and he got loose a little bit there he'd been struggling shooting and 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 herder and they came out and made some shots as you know they were shooting around 20 for 7% on the year when they're

typically 37% shooter so we didn't want to let them go going those hurt us I think we're really hurt us even more was derose and post-ups you know you had three points at halftime and then I think 12 to 15 in that third quarter basically off of one play or we got the early bonus foul trouble put him at the free throw line he made some shots in the post and so the combination of those things obviously hurt us in the third quarter yeah uh 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 in in somewhat controversial fashion themselves to denver what's it like facing a team i mean it's a barometer test not only you're going to get them

once but you're going to get them twice in the next six days yeah so it's another thing we'd like to measure ourselves against um you know we talked about it before the Minnesota game and the OKC game and those things that the teams that are you know traditionally ranked higher or have we've struggled with you know we obviously we're down 30 against them early in the year and came back and got it to overtime and so um good test for us obviously coming off a loss we have a loss two in a row this year so we want to self-correct and adjust and come back and get a win there but you know to your point we play them again in a few days to go to Las Vegas in season tournament so um great test for us they're struggling they've lost I think

four or five in a row and we know it'll be a good test and they'll come out desperate as well. 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. Yeah, that was a big point of emphasis going into season. I've talked about consistency this year and I think, you know, we put up the winning and losing streaks last year. There were too many three-game losing

streaks, one-five-game losing streak, and they're coupled by a six-game winning streak, 11-game winning streak. And so with us, we said, if we lose one, that's Justin, and make some changes that'll 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 two in a row, and

I've come back with a nice amount of aggression after a loss, and so look to do the same thing tomorrow. 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 look, everybody wants consistency,

but part of the charm of this year's basketball team, I think he may, has been that if it's Fred struggles one night, Dylan comes through. If Tyre's hitting shots, Alpi's not, and vice versa, that you've had different guys kind of step up. Is that sustainable for 82 games? Do you like that variety?

And do the guys, I know they pick each other up, but I'm sure there are some nights that you're hugging Tari saying, grab that great job, and then some nights 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 hot and who's not right now? 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've got six or seven guys close to double figures. You're kind of getting hitting everybody from different angles on different nights. But consistency is the main thing. So the ups and downs with some guys are having. We obviously like to erase those and have those guys on 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. 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. For our let's your run, was the Oklahoma City win, the high water mark for you as a coach as a rocket through a year plus? That's a great vibe in the arena on Sunday night. 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 so we've had quite a few okay C is a good one Minnesota was a good one as well but you know they all count as one and we're a confident group that we can compete and beat anybody on any given night so it was a great environment in 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 okayc and then play a much better game and I think we did that obviously and pulled out a tough hard-fought win. 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 per day and they don't ever spend it anyway. So just take it from their money.

They're good for them. Gotcha. Merry Christmas to them. Exactly. They owe you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. You may do it with us here on the program.

All right. Call's coming up a little while. Thoughts and prayers. Hopefully it's not too bad. Although the effing glasses is maybe the line of the year.