The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Ime Udoka on the Clippers Win: Game Plan, Lineups, and Team Dynamic

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Ime Udoka on the Clippers Win: Game Plan, Lineups, and Team Dynamic

11.02 on 790, Matt and Ross, with you. We spend 10 minutes now with the head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets. Last night, Rockets took care of business. 102.95 to the LA Clippers. He may have with us. Coach, good morning. How different was it facing a Clipper team without Zubats and a Hardin on the floor? I know you know all those players very well.

You certainly know Kauai and what he's able to do. But just for the strategizing during the course of the game, was it a complete different change? or there's some elements that you used in previous games without those two guys on the floor? No, it's very different, obviously. Hardin is just such a unique player and what he brings to the table.

You have to game plan and scheme for him. And Zubox is kind of their anchor on defense. And so they're very different as far as the spacing with Lopez, you know, more spaced out on the perimeter. The ball in Leonard's hand, you know, 100% of the time now. And then, you know, they're not at full strength. You know, garlands out. And obviously they're getting their guys up to speed, Mather.

and then Jackson playing in the first game. So it was very different than the team we faced before. The double team on Kauai, look, you got his shots up, but it took him 19 to get 24. So I think you'd be generally speaking pretty pleased the way you guys doubled him on a fairly regular basis. Yeah, and that's my point. You know, with Hard Gone and some of their guys out,

we, you know, have to go after Kauai Leonard. Obviously, he's going to have the ball on his hands and much more. And so, yeah, you don't always look at the final score, you know, him having 24 points. It's the 19 attempts. other than nine free throws, I think we did a decent job on them. Reed back off the bench. Good to get a men back out there.

There was some time out there that it looked like that men didn't have to necessarily worry about ball handling as much as maybe in previous games. Was that intentional or just how the game progressed, especially because he had not as many big men chasing after him as he had in recent weeks? Yeah, I think, you know, we like to have multiple handlers out there at times. And so when we can get our reading our men out there together, it's always been good for us. you know, obviously you can initiate through Alpi and Kevin does his chair handling as well. So as always this year, you know, we try to go through a little bit through committee while the young guys are learning. But, yeah, several different ways to attack it. And like I said, without being such a unique center, that can play up top and get us into our sets.

You can take some of that pressure off the other guys. There has been a lot of talk about him in Thompson and the five's guarding him. How much has that been discussed in practices and meetings and things like that? and as part of you as a coach kind of like the challenge of seeing that in trying to work on ways to combat it. Yeah, I mean,

it's something that we've seen since his first year, it's just his rookie year. When Alpern went out with the last 18 games, and it was technically our small ball five or him and Jabari out there at the four and the five, so quite a few teams had the bigs on him. So something that he and we are

very accustomed to, and you know, he knows the spots that he can pick whether he's handling. Obviously putting the big on him a sagging back takes away some of the driving lanes, but very good in the pocket, very good in the dunker spot. He, you know, him setting screens and rolling has always been good for us. And so he's had his practice over the last few years and we know the areas we can get to with him not handling the ball. Rocket Tech coach, Ema Adoka with us here on Sports Talk 790. Just Reed Shepard, of course, with the bounce back night shooting last night.

Is there any bit of a kind of a semblance of a maybe he's not a rookie, but a rookie Walt, he's played double the minutes that he did all of last year. What have you been seeing from him, not only just from on the floor, but as far as energy and maintaining and being out there on the floor? Yeah, I mean, he's played a lot

more this year, obviously, and didn't play a ton of his rookie year, but I think for all young guys, everybody's going to have a slump at some point during the season, and you know, what we say is don't let that affect your overall game, you know, don't just rely on jump shots to impact the game, and so, for Reid, you know, he's

making some really nice passes and stepping up on the defensive end is what we're asking all our guys to do and so they may hit that wall and obviously one more before I'll start breaking you can get your legs back get a little rest in and kind of reset from there but I think he's playing fine you know missing some shots that he normally made early in the season but Jabari did a few weeks ago Alperin's gone through his thing and so you just have to push through it like I said and I just let May shots dictate how your game's going to go we've discussed as many at times where coaches like yourself have to kind of fight the All-Star break,

you know, hey, I want to think about the vacation or getting away from the sport. Your guys have fought through that the last couple of days. Discuss the bounce back in your mind the team has had after those two home losses to Boston, Charlotte, and how you fought back. And now with a chance here to go to the break on a three-game winning streak.

Yeah, I mean, it's just the effort and intensity that takes to win a basketball game wasn't there in those two games. And, you know, quite simple. You know, whether you make shots or not, or guard well enough. If you don't play with the right effort and mindset, you're not going to give yourself a chance on the nightly basis. And so for us, it was just getting back to that. I think you saw that in Oklahoma City game. We watched quite a bit of film on the Charlotte and Boston

game and it looked like two different teams, whether it was just legs or guys thinking about All-Star Break or whatever. We had five games left and we wanted to play well. So, you know, two of those, not too well, the last two have been really good. And it's like I said, you can see the difference on the tape. Our guys have been back locked in. And obviously, he want to finish on a good note tonight. I don't know if you've heard from the medical staff. Where are you on who can sit and who can stay tonight? Is there anybody that would be definitely out for tonight's game?

Dorian will be out tonight for sure. Tario will be a game time decision. He's going to try it out and see how he feels and go from there. All right. Josh did not play yesterday. Is everything okay with him? Yeah, yeah. Josh is fine.

I think part of it was the fact that Dorian's going to be out tomorrow tonight and, you know, wanted to rest that to him. But obviously Josh is always ready to be called upon and went with a little shorter rotation, knowing that we're going to run some guys some longer minutes, and we'll have jobs tonight for sure. What did you think of Benedict Mathurin getting his first amount of playing time for the clippers? We just saw him a few weeks ago wearing pacer gear.

Yeah, I mean, he's going to be a good asset for them. I think, you know, it's always hard when you kind of get implemented into a new situation like that. And, you know, he wasn't as aggressive as he's been with Indiana, but expect that to happen over time here, you know, probably right after all-star break when he gets some practices. in but a good pickup for them in general. Do you tell the Embigate folks to keep your center and your power forward on ice and make sure you don't work them too hard?

I mean, I know it's a great experience for both them, especially for Alpi when getting the late addition, but Kevin's been through this a lot. So do you think about that? Like, hey, I mean, I want you to get away from the sport, but it feels like to me that Katie's been such a gym ride his entire life that it's, he tried to find a place to shoot some baskets even during this off time. He definitely would have done that regardless. And so, you know, it's another honor for him.

and Alperin, you know, and we want those guys to be perennial all-stars. And, you know, as much as the rest is good for you, that's a huge honor. And I think the guys will trade that off any day. But they know how to mix it in and get the rest in that they need in the days with the media and all that. And then obviously the game isn't full speed, full speed. So they'll be out there getting some rest. But even after that, they got two, three, four days off until our next game against Charlotte and get a chance to rest up there. And we've still been through this amazing run of back-to-backs.

It's getting better. I mean, they're being knocked off the list, but it feels like this squad has had more back-to-backs in the last month and a half than maybe anybody else in the NBA has had. Yeah, well, I'm sure we have. I think we didn't have any for the first, you know, eight or so weeks. I think we had our first in late December, and so, you know, we had it easier early in the year,

and that was catching up to us. You know, we basically had one every week for the last four weeks, and so it is what it is. You know, it's going to catch up to you at some point. And like I said, we have done a good job in some, I struggled earlier, and some others. and now we want to finish tonight on a good note against clippers. Is there any wrapping's up with you?

Is there any individual message you tell the guys that they step away from the sports? Or is it more of a team get-together conversation as guys try to take a step of a break away from the sport for a few days? I think it's both. I think, you know, team and individually everybody needs to, you know, kind of take a step back and decompress. You know, get your legs back. We have 29 games coming out of the break, and that goes really quickly. So get the work in that you need to. obviously don't come back out of shape or, you know, rusty, but also get away from it for a minute.

Like I said, clear your mind and prepare for what's ahead. Are you much of a standings watcher guy right now, or is that never going to happen for you? No, I think we're all conscious of it. There's such a tight race in the West that every game kind of matters. And so when it's that tight, and at this point in the season, you're already starting to peek at it. Thank you for the visit, as always. We'll see you tonight. Good luck against the Clippers.

Thank you, guys. You got it. You maya doka with us here on Sports Talk 790.