The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Ime Udoka Joins The Show After Securing The #2 Seed

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Ime Udoka Joins the Show After Securing the #2 Seed

1.30 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross, Ross, the day off. Let's spend 10 quarter minutes right now with the head basketball coach of your second-seeded Western Conference playoffs. Houston Rockets. E. May I doke up with us on the show. Coach, thanks for joining me late this morning.

A thought or two about, first of all, capturing the two-seed. And obviously, you sat out some folks against the clippers on their night. And what's it like being in a really good spot here, we can rest some guys between now and the end of the regular season? Yeah, it's an accomplishment, obviously. We've got more to go, but our guys should be proud of where we're at and the fact that we earn some rest and are in a position to pick our own destiny and fate instead of having to rely on anybody else or be in the late season battles like a lot of teams

are doing right now. So guys understand that. They deserve it. They put in the work to get here. And now it's a chance to get healed up, rested up. sharpened up and give some other guys some opportunities so we can improve our depth. Is everybody, I mean, by the time that you guys get started, you feel like I'll be able to be back to close to 100%? Is this off time between not only these games that they may or may not play in the week off?

Is that put you as close to 100% as possible? Oh, absolutely. I mean, other than All-Star break, you don't get this amount of time off in the season at all. And so we got guys nicked up, you know, afraid got the ankle. Jabari had come off the ankle and got a little growing. Some Alpi got a little back. things here and there. They could obviously play through if we needed to, but it's a chance to get healed up, obviously, in these games. Don't want to be off too long, so we'll get in some work in the next two games. But a chance to stay sharp, get rested, get healed.

And at this time of year, with that week off before the playoffs, avoiding the playing is a big advantage as well. So is there going to be a big watch party at the Adoka House on Tuesday night to see who you play? Not a watch party, but I'll be watching alone. to see something like that. Obviously, myself and the staff will be preparing for two opponents, and so we'll have a step ahead regardless of who it is, and then obviously focus and zero in on the opponent once we figure out who it is. But it's a little bit different than years past where you may know a week before

who you're going to play based on the seedings. The plan brings another element to that, but exciting for the fans, opportunity for other teams to sneak in, but we have to prepare for two as if we're playing each of them. You may have your personal favorite, and I wouldn't ask of that of you, because I have my personal favorite, and I don't want to give that out too much either. But the point being is that, you know, I've looked at the standing. I look at it every day.

I look at it 15 times a day. I didn't anticipate the Spurs beating the Warriors a couple nights back, and then they lose that game, and then Memphis loses to Minnesota, and that moves up the Golden State of the sixth spot. It's incredible how tight these teams are, and how you try to anticipate who you might be playing, and it would be frankly idiotic to do it because things could just change here a lot in the next 48 hours.

Yeah, that's why ever since probably with 10 games out, 20 games out, we've worried about ourselves and wanted to be in this position to solidify our seed and not have to worry about anybody or get the help. And at this point, to your point, it could be anybody changes on a nightly basis. And a lot of these teams are playing each other heads up, so it can change and flip-flop, like you said, game-to-game night tonight.

And so for us, we're worried about ourselves. We'll figure out the opponent when it's there and not try to get too cute and manipulate anything. And like I said, being in the number two seed with the days off and the rest is that was our goal. Be healthy, be playing our best basketball, be sharp, and then we've achieved that. You might not have said this yet, but I know there's going to be a speech coming up from you about what playoff basketball is like. Dylan knows about it.

Stephen knows about it. Fred knows about it. But you've got a lot of young men that, don't. So what have you told them from your experience about the game of the NBA playoffs that is unlike a regular season game? Yeah, that everything's heightened.

I think we've done a pretty good job of building toward that in the last 10 games. We obviously are our last eight games. I think seven of those were against high-level teams, playoffs contenders. And so we already had our mindset around starting to shift our mentality towards that, preparing for the playoffs

so we don't have to flip a switch. But what we do is what we do, and it carries well in the playoffs, the physicality, the effort that we play with, all those things are great things going forward. But you have to experience it for the first time, but at the same time, keep it simple. It's just basketball, and what we do works and what we've done all year, the guys have bought into.

So at the end of the day, that will carry over well. I'll let the vets talk to the guys about experience as well, but we'll share our stories. But getting out there and getting their feet wet for the first time is the best way to handle it. What do you think was more impactful? And it could be both the answer to it. You guys playing more zone second half of the year,

or are you going to the double-big lineup second half of the year? Well, they coincided with each other, honestly. And so the reason, obviously, when you play a smaller lineup, we can switch some things and the results are great. I mean, we're top, whatever, three in the league and defense. And so what we do mainly works, no doubt. But when you want to play the double-big, which is really good offensively, you have to go to the zone with some of those smaller lineups.

And so they coincide with each other. the more double big we played and teams don't match it they try to downsize we have to play some zone for matchup purposes and our zone is really good communication is good we got active at great activity feels like we are talking even more in the zone than a man and then on the offensive end we take advantage we have big bodies down there getting second third opportunities and so they go hand to hand no doubt but even when we do play with one big we do like our zone the activity is good keep teams out of rhythm and protect guys if they're in foul trouble or a little bit of the rest. Ema, I talk with us for a few more minutes here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ema, you took the Celtics to the NBA finals and you played three series and won them. What is it like for the players? Because look, video is a huge part of it. Are there a lot of things that teams will throw at you different wrinkles, or is it just kind of accentuate the stuff that you want to do?

I mean, meaning, is there anything that other teams could be hiding that they have not put out until the playoffs? And wouldn't that surprise you at all? If teams would make a massive shift or that just doesn't happen in the NBA in right now? It's a little bit of both. You have to do what you do really well. And then obviously somebody's going to make an adjustment at some point. If what you're doing is working, obviously stick with it and try to amplify that. But teams that are struggling will obviously go to adjustments.

And that's the job of the coaching staff to have, you know, plan A, B, C, D, E, if you need B. And for us, I think we've thrown a lot of our guys this year, mixing some things to keep teams off balance off rhythm and you don't throw it all out in a meaningless game but you save certain things that you've seen worked well and then obviously you have all your stuff in your back pocket and so if what you're doing works

you go with it until need be but expecting other teams to throw adjustments if they're struggling in a certain area or trying to take advantage or something so it's a little bit of a chess match of course much different than a regular season game where you're preparing for that team one time and then you're moving on to the next it's back and forth

ups and downs of a playoff series and a lot of times it comes down to that. In your mind and your history of being in the league, are the whistles tighter or are they a little looser come playoff time? No, I definitely think they let you play more, which, like I said, goes well for us. We want to be a physical team. We are one of the more aggressive physical teams,

and at times we have to adjust to how they're calling it in a regular season game. And the playoffs, the game slows down. The physicality goes up, and I think, like I said, what we do well travels in the playoff. And so it's not like we're trying to flip a switch and become aggressive all of a sudden. That's who we've been all year. And so they let you play more, no doubt.

I think like we said, the pace slows down. You have to grind out possessions on both sides of the ball. And so it bodes well for us. It's in our favor to have that. And we like the games that they let us play aggressive. And so that's the case in the playoffs.