The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Ime Udoka: Injured Rockets Forward Tari Eason Is 'Trending In The Right Direction'

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

In one of the biggest matchups of their season so far, the Rockets will face the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday for the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference. The Rockets currently have a half-game lead on the Grizzlies, and with a win, will earn a full 1.5-game lead and hold a 2-0 record in an important tiebreaker. "It'll be a good test for us," head coach Ime Udoka said. The Rockets are coming off a dominant 135-112 victory over the Washington Wizards to begin their three-game road trip. The starting lineup got off to a slow start, being down 10 points in the first quarter, but Jalen Green scored 22 of his 29 points in the third quarter, putting the game out of reach for the Wizards. "We definitely looked a little sluggish coming out of the gate," Udoka said. Green and Alperen Sengun continue to be the offensive leaders for the Rockets, even with more teams keying in on their play and altering their attacks. Sengun is "one of the best scoring big men in the league... We love the open shots he creates for us," Udoka said. The Rockets have secured strong wins even with injuries affecting their rotation. Jabari Smith Jr. is out with a left metacarpal fracture, and Tari Eason has been dealing with lower left leg soreness that required surgery last March. Eason has missed 10 straight games. "We want to be smart with it," Udoka said. "He's trending in the right direction." With players recovering from injury, Cam Whitmore has stepped up after a slow start to his sophomore season, recording 17 points in 18 minutes against the Wizards. Following his return from a brief assignment to the G League, Whitmore appeared displeased with his role on the team when speaking to the media after a win over the Dallas Mavericks. However, Udoka combats speculation concerning Whitmore's attitude. "People are making a little bit too much out of nothing." Rookie Reed Sheppard was assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Monday and scored 49 points on 17-for-33 shooting in his debut Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Blue. According to Udoka, Sheppard won't stay in the G League for long. "He'll be back with us when we play Memphis at home [on January 13]."

Rockets will take on the Grizzlies. It'll be a matchup of two versus three in the Western Conference. And to preview that and to recap what the Rockets have done the last week or so is our friend E. Mae Adoka, head coach of your Houston Rockets. Coach, it's Matt and Ross. Good afternoon. Kind of excited about tonight, this Memphis team, along with you guys, probably the two greatest, not surprises, but most improved teams in the Western Conference.

It's got a good measuring stick against this very good team. Yeah, I mean, it's another game. due to our position in the standings, means a lot, obviously. And then we haven't seen them since the second game of the season when they didn't have Jan Jackson Jr. Some guys were missing, so it would be a good test for us. But more about what we're going to do anyway, and on to the next.

Does it feel like that was a situation? First quarter, I think you guys were down 10 to the Wizards. I don't know if it was because the arena was stale. There was not a great crowd, hard to get kind of motivated for them because they've gone through so many injuries. But when you got going in the third quarter, especially Jalen. It was a nice and easy way to finish things off against the Wizards a couple nights back.

Yeah, we definitely looked a little sluggish coming out of the gate. You know, got down to 10, they were just playing much harder than us. We were moving the ball. And then even in the second quarter to be up to a half time, obviously we went plus 12 in the second quarter. And, you know, third quarter was obviously a tale of two games. We came out with the energy. Went on a crazy round outperin and Jayland got going, and we guarded the way we're capable and stretched the lead. 30 points per game for Jalen the last three nights shooting 48% from the floor,

43 from 3. Just seeing the ball go through the hoop a little bit more, better shot selection. And I feel like we kind of always ask about this, but, you know, the alpha dogs on the team, the main go-to guys always get this kind of microscope looked upon him, but it has been a nice run for him as of late. Yeah, I mean, sometimes it just made him miss shots. He had really good looks in other games that he's knocking down now. I do say his recognition has continued to improve,

understanding how teams are guarding him. When they're trying to double team, when he's handling his hand on the blitz is better. He's recognizing guys going under to try to take away his driving lane, and he's shooting the ball extremely well, which opens everything up for himself and everybody else. Man, Thompson is 6, 7, and 21-meas, measurable-wise.

He has 31 rebounds in his last two games. Man, the I hope America, EMA, catches on to how good this young man is, and it feels like he's doing. something different, whether he's come out the bench for you, and now he's been starting because Jabari's out. He just knows what the basketball is, knows where he is on the floor, and I just think his on-court IQ

just continues to grow and grow. Yeah, he's obviously a special athlete, so if he was 6'1, 200, he'd probably get the same rebounds with that athleticism. So it has a knack for the ball, it impacts the game in several different ways, and obviously we know who he is, and a lot of people are getting to see it

now that he's in the start lineup. he was doing that stuff off the bench for us all season. And so he gives us a ton of versatility with matchup-wise. Defensively, him and Dillon out there can kind of tag team different guys. And he's doing what we've seen him do pretty much since the guy here. Teams been keying on Alper and Shingoon more and more as he's gone along in his career. We've been seeing some fronting defense, some doubling as well. What has it been like going through those types of things with him where sometimes he's struggled?

And what do you want to see from him as he goes along in the conversations you guys are having and what you want to see from him. Yeah, I mean, he got to take it as an honor. Obviously, he's one of the best low post scores, one of the scoring big men, one of the best scoring big men in the league in general from all over the court. And so teams are paying them that respect,

going after them quite a bit, putting different smaller guys on him, doubling with the big. And so he just has to see it quicker adjust, and what he's been doing is picking the gym apart lately. So it's sometimes just simplify it, like make the right play, whatever that is. If they don't double, you go score.

If they double, make the right read. and so he's been doing that great, especially lately, Washington went after him a tonne, and even in the games before that, just making the right read, he's a hub for us that creates shots for everybody else, and so we'll welcome that all the time because we love the open shots that he creates for us.

Especially like in double teams, you have to coach everybody on that, because when he passes out of him, then there's four on three situations and get everybody prepared to score in those situations? Yeah, I mean, we understand what our spacing is and where we want specific players on the court, but, you know, we'll feed him with the guys that we like to initiate the action out of the kickout.

And a lot of times, that's Fred and our shooters, you know, being more of a threat right there. And then they can swing it and we have numbers and advantage on the back side. So the thing is for Alperman to read it and our guys to react off of that. And anytime we know he can create an advantage with the double teams on the post, we've been really good when the ball is popping, moving, and then it loosens it up for him and he can go to work. You may have Doka with us here on Sports Talk 790. Coach, when I run into Rocket fans, they always ask me, how's Tari doing? How's Tari doing?

And I don't mean to make you a doctor on the radio here, but to the best of your generalization, where are we on Tari? I know it's got to be frustrating for you as a coach to see a young man who played so well for you, first quarter point of the season, have to miss as much time as he's done the last month or so. Yeah, we're just being cautious and being smart about it. You know, he went through obviously a surgery last year, and so for us, we want to be smart with it. You know, the pain is lessening day by day. and so he's trended in the right direction,

and when he's ready to play, he'll be ready to play. And so I'm not going to make a hasty decision and rush anything in December, January. I want to be smart about it and have him when it really counts late in the season. That's where our depth comes into play. Other guys have stepped up, but obviously he'll be a welcome site when he comes back.

Is there a threshold email that he's got to wake up two, three days in a row, not feeling sore? Is it a workout, then followed by a good wake-up in the morning? What is your sports medicine team? You've got great folks that work with you. What have they said about when it's time to push it a little bit further into a different level than maybe he was, say, three or four days ago.

Yeah, he's going harder on non-game days and seeing how he feels on game days. And so that's been the plan as of now. And sometimes a little more sore than others, but they're being cautious, like I said, being smart about it and really ramping up his off days. And when we have two, three good days of the pain lessening and lessening, he'll be back out there. And so that's the plan right now. He's been really good at, you know, attacking the rehab, getting after it in the workout

sessions and so anticipating to come back soon. Do you catch you in the OKC Cleveland game last night? Yes, I did. What do you think? League going to do a good job of, I mean, look, I want the Rockets get as much publicity as possible because that's a team we love here in this town

and you guys certainly deserve it, but it was kind of nice to not to have, you know, LeBron, James, and Golden State on television for like the 19th consecutive night. Yeah, I mean, that's a good matchup with the two top teams in the West and East right now. So, you know, with really, good records and obviously a talented players. So we'll see Cleveland coming up in the next few weeks twice.

And obviously I've seen O.K.C. a few times. So it's good to kind of see what they're doing, how they're playing. And obviously shoot to aim to try to catch these guys. And so good game back and forth. Obviously, two of top teams. And it panned out like you thought it would. Are guys on the squad and maybe today's NBA players, are they use measuring sticks against other opponents?

Or is it just what's ahead of me now? And we'll just keep winning games that are right in front of us. Well, obviously, you got to play consecutive games and you got to play who's in front of you. So that's really how the NBA goes. You're on to the next pretty quickly. But matchups and personnel-wise and teams in general are good measuring sticks all the time. And so we've had a tough stretch of games at times and we have teams with lesser records. And so for us, we want to always measure ourselves against the better teams.

And regardless of who we're playing, we want to play the same way, but it's always good to have a measuring stick. And I know guys get ramped up and amped up for certain matchups. And so that's just human nature and it's always going to be like that. Rocket's head coach, Emaya Doka, was here on Sports Talk 790. We had you on last week talking about the comments from Kim Whitmore since then. How things been with him, what you've seen off the floor and on. Cam's been good. He's been, you know, playing hard.

You know, I heard people mentioning body language or whatever. It seems like people are kind of looking for something now. But very efficient last game in Washington, 18 points and 17 minutes on 6-4-A shootings. Continue to obviously score as natural. Like I said, I'm always harping on the little things, the defensive things, and recognizing who is where on the court and how you have to guard specific guys. And so that's always going to be the thing with him and the young guys is defensive coverage, schemes and knowing your personnel.

So that's the big thing there. Shot selection has improved vastly. And he's scoring it like he always does. And I think people are making a little bit too much out of nothing. Four let you run. Reed Shepard, I mean, my goodness, as soon as we finish playing the game against the Wizards, everybody on the bus was like watching the highlights and Jock Landell's giving me like minute by minute

of there's another three-pointer for Reed. He's got, what do he finish with, 49 points? I mean, I don't know if you want to put that on the all-time great RGV Hall of Fame scoring from one night, but obviously he got down there and got some of his mojo back. Yeah, it was good to see.

We wanted to see some things from him to be aggressive, confident, and run the team and hunt his shots. You know, guard defensively as well, and I think he did all the above. And so it kind of took, and it was pretty natural. It wasn't like he was forcing. He took what they gave him, had a bunch of walk-in threes,

and you got to go in there. And so loved his aggressiveness. Didn't miss a beat from not playing much with us. And so obviously a good sign. One of our most talented young guys going forward and they have big plans for him, obviously. So with the lack of time with us, it was good to see him go down there and play a little bit and looking forward to getting him back as well.

How much do you guys talk on a daily basis about how long you think he needs to be there? Obviously, injuries could play a role up here, rotation times, opponent's number of games in a certain days, but anything right now, or is that kind of a fluid situation? No, we looked at the three-game road trip we were on. It went perfectly with their schedule of three home games, and so we'll reevaluate it after that, but that was the plan as of now.

He'll be back with us when we play Memphis at home and go from there. Last question. Where are we on Jabari? I know he was with us on the trip here now. What have they told you in terms of, I know that you mentioned a couple days ago the media that there was not surgery scheduled. Is that an option that maybe he can't avoid that, or is that ultimately going to be the plan of action?

No, he's looking at both options. You know, one takes a little longer than the other, but they're both available. And I think the rehab process is different with no surgery versus getting a pin in there. And so he's figuring it out, looking at some second opinion doctors, and he'll make a decision soon.

Sorry to get so medical on you, but you've got a couple of key guys out, so that's what I had to be asked. Hey, thanks for the visit. See you tonight and good luck against the Grizzlies. All right. Thank you guys. We'll see.

That's EMA. Don't go with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.