The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Ime Udoka Breaks Down Rockets Recent Struggles & the Approach Moving Forward

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Ime Udoka Breaks Down Rockets Recent Struggles & the Approach Moving Forward

12.30. It is a Matt Thomas show with Watson here in Portland. Rockets fall last night to the Blazers. Usually we get to visit with E. May on a happy note after a big victory. Unfortunately, a tough, tough, literal last 10th second of a moment lost to the Blazers. And EMA is joining us here now. Coach, good morning. Thank you for the time. Walk us through, if you don't mind, what was going through your mind, drawing up the play. itself and then obviously Tari's tipping it was just a bit bit too late obviously wanted to get in Kevin's hands you know he was on a hot streak with 37 points and knew he would get a good look and you know had confidence to him and then as always we wanted to send everybody

to the glass and you know Tari made a great effort you know point in point one second too late basically did you think it went in or was in the back of your mind going I got to look at replay? I definitely had to look at replay because when you look live and you have some doubt, then it's, you know, it's going to be close for sure. And my initial looking live was, it didn't look great, didn't look good. But some of the video guys behind the bench thought he got rid of it. And obviously the other angles, but it was still on the finger.

I don't know if you saw it like I did from up where I was calling it, but literally half the court was, with elation on one side and half of the other court was, yeah, we got it. I have never seen, and we've seen buzzer beaters, and you've obviously been a few of them. It felt like both sides thought they had won the game on the final play, literally. Yeah, that's how close it was. And even the replay showed that. And so, you know, he made a good effort, like I said, you know, Kevin got a quality look off. You know, heavily contested, but he's going to shoot over guys.

And, yeah, but overall, you know, regardless of that last play, I said to the group that we probably didn't deserve to win that game. You know, we didn't really show up and play to our standard. for three and a half quarters, and the last half of the fourth quarter, we really buckled down. Yeah, it was literally a tale of two games when it came to that. Something that has happened,

and look, obviously you're right there in front of it. You're still crashing the offensive boards with great regularity. That's no surprise, even without being gone. You've got Adams out there, and even Clint helping you on. The three-point shot has gone away the last three games. What do you chalk that up to?

I mean, this is a team that has been 40%, 90% of the year, but January is not. been kind from beyond the arc. What do you think is going on? Just a normal slump that teams go through during the season at times. You hate that, you know, everybody other than Kevin really is kind of going through it at the same time. But to your point, starting with the Dallas game

and Phoenix last game and yesterday, if we shoot anywhere close to our norm, it's a comfortable 15-point win. And so, but at times, you know that's going to happen during the season. Guys are going to miss open shots. And yesterday, it really stood out. obviously the amount of wide open looks we had. But you still have to do the other things.

And, you know, nobody's trying to miss shots on purpose. You get great looks and you live with the result. But, you know, what we can control is, you know, following the game plan, guarding specifically the way we want to and taking care of the ball. And so those things can always happen. You're going to miss shots at times, but you can still lock in onto the game plan specifics

and specifically on the VIA. We didn't guard them anywhere close to the way we wanted to. Kevin Durant, taking the last shot in the last two games, went in on Monday, unfortunately did not last night, but he was brought here to be a closer. What does it like for you just as a coach as opposed to last year? Does it make your life that much more easy, but also, you know, the other team knows that Kevin Durant's probably going to get the ball as well? Yeah, I mean, regardless, if he gets to a spot, it doesn't matter, you know,

who's guarding him or how they're guarding him. You know, he's going to get a quality look. And the maker misses is nothing to do with the defense, honestly. You know, he made a pull-up the other night and got a great look here that kind of rolled off the rim. And, you know, you bring guys in for their efficiency, for their consistent scoring. And then obviously, they're closing, which we had struggled with at times last year. And so it's good there. But at the same time, you don't want guys that fully rely on him.

You want other guys to continue to play throughout the game. And last night, it was more so of him doing what he did. And we would have liked to see other guys to join the party offensively. Rocket's head coach, IMA O'Doka, with us here on Sports Talk 790. How is Alperin Shingoon feeling? And do you have any idea as far as a possible timeline for him coming back? Doing much better, much better than we thought. You know, he has the swelling is kind of gotten pushed out.

Had a really good workout yesterday post-shoot-around and just got to move it around and get up and down and, you know, jumping around, jump rope, doing some things on the ankle just to see the flexibility. And we're happy with the progress. I'm not sure when he'll be back, but, you know, it looked a little, more bleak initially, and now he's moving well. Pain tolerance is pretty good, and so hoping to have him back definitely in the next few games. EMA is a guy who scores nearly 20 points a game.

Most nights over gives you 7 or 8 assists, 7 or 8 rebounds. It's an obvious question, but tell me from a strategy standpoint the things you have to adjust, the things your team has to adjust without being out of that lineup, not only not on the floor, but missing as much time as he's missed the last guy. full of games or so you just takes away one leg of your offense and then and it's really the post-up threat the isolation threat around the elbows and the things he's really good at and so you kind of you kind of go to other actions other players other personnel and and it's a little bit more limited because of it's the post-up threat you know kevin and jabar you can get some

posts but not to the extent of alparen and just like kevin draws those attention alpi does the same thing and i think overall um guys get more clean looks with those two on the court all right semi-loaded questions if you want to just not answer it all the way i get it uh denny abdia shoots a lot of free throws in fact he shoots more than anybody else in the NBA when you talk to officials in the off season there are some guys that will chase after fouls and get the free throw line like he does do officials catch on to that or do they come to you and say contact is contact i don't care if the guy goes a free throw line 12 or 13 times it's because the ball in his hand as much and your guys can't seem to not foul him not talking about you and

general, but just in general about whether or not a player like him or SGA, and James was certainly like that when he was here in Houston, live at the free throw line at least 10 times per game. Yeah, I mean, this is a discussion that's always had at the head coach's meetings with the referee is freedom of movement and who's initiating contact. It's definitely the hardest thing to officiate in the game. But at the same time, you know, you hate to see foul baiters be rewarded to that extent, but at the same time you have to be disciplined as well.

And so they're going to miss them, definitely. They're going to throw their body around. And for us, it's being more disciplined, not reaching your hands in there, and then having a nice point of contact instead of meeting them that low by the rim. And so we're in as discipline as we need to be on him game plan-wise, reached in too many times and, you know, bailed them out there. But the things we wanted to do with him from the start, we didn't. And let him get going, let him get downhill, and let him draw some of those fouls.

The schedule has given us a lot of off days over the first couple of months. I looked at January, it's a hot mess of games. I'm going to assume that the number one thing you can probably do is eliminate the number of hardcore practices, guys getting their shots in to do what they need to do. Is that the main thing you have to do here beyond thinking about how many back-to-backs are ahead over for this team in the next handful of weeks? Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's games every other day and then a bunch of back-to-backs coming up.

And so your time is definitely limited. you're very conscious of resting guys' bodies and, you know, saving one trip to the gym here and there to have your energy and juice for the game. And so it's always a balance there. You know, you up the film sessions, up the individual film sessions and team film sessions to, you know, make sure we're checking boxes on everything that we need to.

But you do want guys, you know, we're professionals and I trust our guys. They are grinders that they get their right amount of work, and they get the rest they need or the shots they need. And so we have a lot of optional days and guys are always in the gym getting up work even if it's not a mandatory shoot around. And keeping with that workload conversation, I'm in Thompson number two in minutes per game, Kevin Durant number four.

I guess obviously two different conversations with both of those guys because of their age, but can you kind of take us through both of those as far as talking with the player, talking with the trainer, and kind of figuring out how to try to at least help lighten the load a little bit? Yeah, it's definitely something we want to be, you know, shaved down and we are conscious and aware of. But at the same time, you know, a man, there's, you know, Swiss Army night for us, you know, with Fred and point guards out, he's handling that duty initially. And then we bring in Reed or different guys, you know, with Dorian being out and Tari being out at times. And then Jay Sean, the guys that were injured early, he was doing so much for us as far as defensively and playing the two, three, four at times. And so, you know, he's a young guy, but we still want to be conscious and aware of that with Kevin, obviously, in age factors.

where you are as well. You know, the guys that are missing, we've got to stay afloat and he's doing such a great job. And Kevin's like Fred. He never wants to come off the court anyway, but, you know, sometimes you have to save guys from themselves. And at some point, we want to shave those minutes down when we're fully whole and have nobody else on minute restrictions.

E-May, will Kevin try to pass up Wilt in the first quarter tomorrow night's game? We wanted him to get at your last night. But, you know, he's been on the high streak lately. And like I said, without Alper, there, the balls in his hands even more. But, you know, he'll do what he does. And he's going to continue to pass up people on the list. And more so than that, we encourage our guys to not sit and watch, but to, like I said, join the party like last night. And if anybody had a normal shooting night, we're in good shape. So we don't want to fully rely on a 37-year-old. Everybody

else has to do their part. And while he does what he does, and as efficient as he is, scoring is like he is, and closing like he is. All right. You've got a lot of guys on your bench behind you that will have notepads, iPads looking at officials' calls. Will one of them be on the Indiana, Oregon game tomorrow night during the game? As much as I'd love to, too, we've got a game to win here. And so this is a good chance for us to get back at what we missed on last night. Like I said, if we play offensively better, you know, we'll be in good shape, but shots are going to fall in or not.

And even with, you know, the 15 free throws for Habia and us being undisciplined early and for the first half, at least, they still only scored 103, and so we can do some things to definitely be better. We've been number one in our offense or, I mean, defense for the last month or so, and we need to have another big night defensively while making shots. All right, assuming Oregon wins tomorrow. Who do you want them playing, Ole Miss or Miami? Doesn't matter to me.

I love to see them in the championship. We'll leave it at that. Thank you, you, ma'am, for the time. Enjoy the rest of the day. We'll see you tomorrow at the arena. Thank you, guys.