The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Head Coach Ime Udoka Joins The Show After 2OT Loss In OKC

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Head Coach Ime Udoka Joins The Show After 2OT Loss In OKC 

1101, I'm Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross for hour number two. Rockets last night fall in Oklahoma City to start this season. A very exciting basketball game in double overtime. And Ime Adoka 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 thoughts as you were on the plane to try to close your eyes and reflect on an exciting game that just came up a little bit short last night. 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 and over times. So plenty of positives to take away from it. Opportunities to do it, but we did some things to lose it as well. 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'd realize, and you know this, and I think hopefully good NBA fans know, you were going to be. against one of the supreme defenses in the NBA. Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins and Lou Dort were not going to make it easy for you guys.

And you were able to still get some things done accomplished offensively, especially with the way Alpi was playing last night. Yeah, yeah, they were top defense as far as forcing turnovers last year and 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, over time, got away from us. And you have 24 turnovers and give up 26. points off those and, you know, barely lose and have a chance to win, that's obviously going to stand

out. And so some things we need to do better with spacing, playing with pace, and then just handling the pressure a little bit better. 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, 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. I think the pressure bothered some guys. bringing it up court for sure. I know that was there, but then, you know, we have different outlets and different guys that can initiate. But from there, we have to, you know, set 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 passing lanes and taking us out of some sets. From there, you know, you want to keep it simple. We talked about hitting singles all night and make the simple pass and 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 I get to get to our spacing a little bit quicker. How is Amin Thompson doing? He's fine. It was just cramping and the calf came on in the fourth quarter.

He tried to play through it a little bit until it really caught up to him and had to hold him out. Obviously, you would love to have him in the later stages of the game. But just cramping, I think the first game, obviously. And then the two overtimes, the extra minutes for him caught up with them. Rocket Tech coach, Ima, Addocha, was here on Sports Talk. 790. 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? 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 high turnover numbers, you know, a few guys had four and a few Stephen and a few others had three. But you know, we want him to get to the corners and he's shot it extremely well on preseason and has been better since last year. And so I wanted to be confident with those

and at times of 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 like I mentioned. You may, you ran some zone. They ran some zone. You and I talked a little bit last year about it. It felt like 10 years ago you didn't even see the zone defense. Why are we seeing it more today,

especially with as many prolific three-point shooters the league has right now? There's a change of pace. It takes teams out of some of the things they're trying to do. They have really good one-on-one players. 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 going to make who adjust to what. And that zone helps us kind of guard some of those actions better. Was Alpe in Rhythm 3 the most he's ever been as you've seen him in person? I mean, look, no disrespect to the EuroLeague and whatnot, and you've seen him in practice. But in terms of an NBA game, it looked like he had a confidence that ball left his hand

beyond the arc that maybe I haven't even seen in his entire NBA career. 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 on the offseason. You saw that in Eurobasket. getting 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 Stephen and some of the bigs he's going to have to space at times and be in some positions to make him pay from three and teams are going to make him prove it he obviously was confident did a great job last night but a lot more catch and shoot opportunities versus pick and 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 them pay and he did that. Overall, what did you see from Reed Shepard, 28 minutes from him and just how he played on the floor, both sides. Some ups and downs. It's going to be some learning curves for guys, especially, you know, 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 game, which he's improved at since last year and and how teams are going to guard him and respect him, you know, being the third pig, being a shooter. And, you know, freeing up himself, guys have to free up and set screens as well. Like I said, they were kind of blowing everything up on and off ball. And so for him, it's just more of the learning that he's going to have to go through this year. Was aggressive looking for a shot, I think it wasn't just on men that didn't shoot it well. A few other guys as well, you look at the numbers, only going 11 for 39 from three and having some really good looks. And so game one, some things to take away, positive,

the negative. I think that's with the team overall and read or learning to go from this. Some people talking during the game, I guess, about Kevin Durant in his looks. How did you feel overall just working within the offense where you know, that's a guy that can go down the floor and basically get up a shot

any time 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 but also wanting to play with everyone else? 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

Shea out. They're trying to take Kevin out for the most part. They want Ludo, pretty much face guarding the whole time. So, like, 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. And so playing with a little more force and pace and not to let them dictate where we want to go on the court.

That's going to be a big thing. But at times, he was somewhat of a decoy because they had the way they were guarding him. and they got guys open looks. And at times when they're trapping him or they're really face guarding him, we're basically playing four on four at times. It's almost like a box of one. And so we have to do a better job getting him open, getting him into spots to score.

But he has to be aggressive as well and get open. And so it's a little bit of both. And we understand what OKC does. But he's seen that throughout his career and then it's just swell. And we'll handle that as the season goes. I don't think you guys did anything differently to Shane in the second half. was there something that you saw from him in the burner 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. No, I think 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 going to come out aggressive when he has a poor first half. We saw that last year in season tournament. Some of the games, we guard him really well. And then when we were in the zone, we did allow him to get to the spots where we didn't want him to.

We wanted to send him to the crowd, send him to the 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 for those reasons and kind of allow him to get going. And then obviously, you got to the free throw line a little bit too much as well. Before we 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 the jumble, whatever you want to call the lineup. For this audience, dictate Ema, what you think you will do, how much it will be against who you're going with. Now, Homegren, obviously, being out there with Hartnstein that dictated it last night, how much were you tried to push the envelope to put that big lineup out there against guys that maybe not be as tall and as physical as Oklahoma City would be? Yeah, there are a lot of things that play into it.

And it's not just other teams with big lineups. We do like to put Alperin on some lesser scoring threat wings. And you saw him on Dort and certain guys last night. And there's plenty of guys in the league. And from game to game, we can do that with. But it's also dictated by how they want to guard. And, you know, they've been a team that puts home grin on them in a lot. And we wanted to free up them in as well.

And so if we don't play our double big, they'll switch that matchup. And so it's not just based on their personnel is how they want to defend. We take all those things into account and, you know, preying up my man with a guard on him. 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 thing to start. We'll be fluid with it until we get healthy, fully healthy, and 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 of playing with those two bigs and something will continue to go with. You look, once the game got started last night, Once the ceremony was over with in 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. Yeah, I think everybody is.

And 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'll be another challenge for us. And ready to get this first win out of the way, had an opportunity, like I said last night, you know, fouled late a few times with some free throws and things of those nature, but had the opportunity there and we'll take a look at that and try to improve on game too.

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.