The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Ime Udoka On The Rockets Receiving National Media Attention: 'Winning Puts Everybody On The Map'

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Following Tuesday's 100-96 win over the Atlanta Hawks, the Houston Rockets sit 1.5 games ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. With big wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics, the Rockets have won 10 of their last 12 and are currently on a four-game winning streak. An impressive 32-14 season record has helped Houston receive increased national media attention, with some already priming the Rockets as legitimate postseason contenders. "Winning puts everybody on the map," head coach Ime Udoka said. As the All-Star break approaches, Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun have made strong cases for their All-Star reserves candidacy. "They're getting rewarded just by being in the conversation," Udoka said. "Jalen and Alpy have both shouldered the load at some point this season. Now, everybody else is kind of being incorporated and adding more to the picture, and I think that's where our depth comes in. We don't have to rely on one guy every night." The final 14 All-Star spots will be announced Thursday at 5:30 p.m. CT. The last matchup of the Rockets' four-game road trip comes against the Grizzlies, who trail right behind the Rockets in the standings. "They do some similar things to what we do. They're second in offensive rebounding behind us. They shift the pace and make transition baskets, and they cause a lot of turnovers," Udoka said. With a win, the Rockets will go 4-0 against Memphis this season. 

The Rockets will take on the Memphis Grizzlies here in the Mid-South. And E. May Adok is with us here on the program. Coach, good afternoon. These 830 games kind of push everything back schedule-wise, right? You got time for a nap this afternoon? Yeah, a little pickleball, a little nap, a little walk. Extra time. Not much else to do in Memphis, so we'll take it.

I'm assuming Raffell will be a part of this pickleball throwdown? No, he's superstitious. like to play on game day, so I have to find some other guys. Okay, so who, if you guys are the two best pickleball players, who's the next best in the traveling group? Toki. Toki, I'll just leave it at that. Who's the worst?

Give me some real dirt going here, Coach. A lot of guys, so they're trying to improve. That's good. Hey, congratulations so far. It has been really fun. The two Cleveland wins, the Boston victory. And I'll say this, look, Atlanta game, let's be honest, coach. That thing was ugly as I'll get out, but you're able to survive it.

Is that sometimes some of your most difficult coaching and getting guys fired up after that emotional win, the tough back to back, and then having to go against Atlanta team, which is still in the playoff chase, but you're going from Atlanta to obviously a championship caliber team like the Celtics. Yeah, I mean, it was a tough stretch. And obviously the post-phone game, we had to squeeze it back in there. And so where we would have had two days of rest after Boston and before tonight, you know, we had to squeeze that game in and make it three and four nights.

So understanding guys are going to be fatigued somewhat, you know, obviously a hard fought game in Boston. And, you know, you get in two, three in the morning and have to get your energy and everything up again. So for us, it's what we want to be going forward. And everybody has to deal with these things throughout the season. And we rely on our depth and energy and the goals that we set to kind of propel us through certain things.

and I think, you know, the first half was up and down back and forth a little bit. We felt we didn't play our best until only be down one was a good sign. So got it going in third quarter. Obviously built the lead in the fourth quarter, then it kind of slipped away at the end and want to avoid those. You know, we've gotten leads this year, and that was how can we maintain and finish games. And Jay Chonte, a guy who used in different spurts, I mean, comes up with 16 points, that was good. But let's go back to the night before. and everywhere we go this year, it feels like, especially when you're taking on some of these

operational on teams, you're asked about, is this a measuring stick? You know, playing Cleveland, playing Boston, give the answer to what those mean to you. Is it just 1 of 82 on the scorecard? Do the players get extra juice for it? I know obviously Dylan was extra excited about winning the game. Your thoughts about how you get your guys ready for those teams that are, you know, quote-unquote, potential championship contenders. Yeah, I think in general, you know the teams that you want to measure yourself against,

you know, if we want to be a really good team, we need to handle our business against the lesser teams. I think we've done that for the most part, a few slip-ups early in the season. But the higher echelon teams, you know, we understand the challenge that that brings and where we want to get to. We have to beat those teams. And so naturally, they all count as one regardless, but guys get up for a certain match up certain games and national TV games and those things of those nature and so that's going

to happen but the message more so than that is that's to be who we are in every game we play and that's good enough to beat every team and so did that against Cleveland did that against Boston and the message after that is to not have that natural letdown and you know it's a wasted game if we give one back against a lesser team and so as ugly as it can be at times you have to grind your way through those and I think that's why the Atlanta game pulling it out and hanging on for the win was just as good as a Boston game. They all count as one. And to beat a good team like Boston and lose to Atlanta would have been a letdown for us for sure. Rocket Tech coach, Iman Adoka was here on Sports Talk 790 and we're just reaching the obligatory of men Thompson part of the conversation,

getting a lot of national recognition and finally getting noticed it feels like nationally. Just in this season alone, what do you think has been the biggest growth in his game that you've seen from him? And if you could give us something that you think, you would like to see him improve. I would say his confidence and aggressiveness, more so, you know, all that was hampered by the injury last year and then not being available at times. And so when he has been able to play

and he can get his minutes up and get him the opportunities, he's been really good. And he showed a pretty quick jump in his skill set and understanding of the game. And now he's taking that, you know, using all those physical abilities, learning on the fly and just being extra aggressive and confident, understanding who he is in the league.

and how teams are scheming and trying to guard him. So that's one thing with him. I think a big thing for our team in general is, you know, the IQ piece we talk about, you know, guys have all these tools and how can we play together as a team, you know, sacrifice. And then, you know, just IQ picking up the nuances of the game that he has to learn on the fly. You know, it's only, you know, a year and a half in. And he's asked to do a lot of different things than he has been in the past with the ball, on and off the ball, the ball out of his hands and guarding all these different positions.

So we're throwing a lot at him. understanding what he has to do one through five on defense and offense, and I think that's getting better as we go. And speaking of guys getting better, Jalen Green, we know he had that big stretch where he was scoring a lot of points and hasn't been doing so as much

the last few games as far as the shooting, but in that game against Atlanta, I was impressed by him not shooting threes, but still being aggressive in contributing other ways and getting to the basket. Yeah, they switched a lot of those actions to take him off three-point line, or they brought the big up very high, obviously, kind of a semi-trap.

And teams have done that to him this year, and he just has to understand when he can pick his spots, but also kind of be a decoy and get others involved. And so his understanding of that has been much better this year throughout. And, yeah, sometimes he just has to pick his spots, let other guys go to work, and it opens everything up for him. And then he still has his spurts that he can go off and end up with 25, obviously, and then really carried us through the third quarter when we were struggling a little bit.

it is a men's 22nd birthday today did you get him a gift or are you just like happy birthday move on just happy birthday from all the from all the first time Houston Rockets so him and OG OG's birthday was yesterday so they got a dual one and shoot around and no they they can get their own gifts but you just sing it to them one one time and we'll try to get a win for him tonight I like that idea hey um I know that a man's going to play in the rising stars I know that there's a couple of rockets. It would be, I would say, Jane Lin, and Alpi for all-sar consideration. What does that mean that they're in the conversation to you?

Look, this team's not had a lot of national attention. I think you're going to start to get a lot more of it, and that's good because it means teams are recognizing what this team has done. But to talk about where they are today, then maybe when you first got them here is a Houston rocket. I'll say it means for them recognition and credit for what they've done for our team. You look at the standings, I think you have to take more. winning into account and obviously Alpi and Jalen have been huge as far as a credit toward our

winning scoring, shortering the load at times and yeah, they're getting rewarded just by being in the conversation. Hopefully they both are having an opportunity to play in. So for us, it's good to get that recognition. Like I said, winning puts everybody on the map, so to speak. And you know, you get the higher televised games, you get national TV games, you get great matchups. And so for us, it's really continue to do what you've done to get us here. We know what you do. Maybe not everybody else yet, but they're starting to see. And then, you know, Jalen and Alpia both shoulder the load at some point this season.

Now everybody else kind of is being incorporated and adding more to the picture. And I think that's where our depth comes in. We don't have to rely on one guy every night. But I'm in one night, Fred, one night, Dylan one night. And that's the beauty of our team. So the recognition is good, but we've got to continue to get better throughout the second half of the season. I know there are a couple of guys that showed up on the injury report. Where are we right now?

I know we're still several hours away from tip time, but how's the roster shaping up for this evening? Got some soreness. Had some last game. We tried to monitor, you know, with the back-to-back and understanding this time of the year, three games and four nights, you have to be cautious of those things.

I mean, had some soreness a few games ago. Alpy had his calf last game, so we tried to monitor that. And any chance we can get Fred and Dillon's limited, you know, shave some. minutes off there total, that's a great thing as well. So, right, as of now, it doesn't look great for Alpi. He's had some soreness for sure.

Got hit in the calf last game, but we'll figure that out as we go, and we'll know before the game, but have obviously contingency plans with matchups and lineups that we want to go to it in case he can't play. Memphis is scoring a boatload of points. You've seen them already three times. It feels like it was just a few weeks ago we were here. You like the matchup with them? Obviously, 3-0 is great, but.

What do they possess in their game that inspires your guys to step up to the challenge and trying to knock off a team that's number one in scoring the association? Yeah, some really high-quality players. Obviously, it starts there. You know, you got Moran. You got Bain, Jaron, Jaron Jackson, Jr., is leading away for them this year. And so you got a lot of guys that can impact the game for them. But they do some similar things to what we do.

They're second and offensive rebounding behind us, fifth and pace and then transition baskets. And it caused a lot of turnovers. So, you know, take care of the ball, limiting their transition opportunities and making them score on the half court. It's kind of paramount for us. But even in the games against them this year, we built leads and then got a little sloppy at times,

and they got back into those leads due to those things and have to be more on point with that tonight. Coach, thank you for the visit. Congratulations on the great run, and we'll look forward to seeing you later on tonight inside the FedEx form for the game against the Grizzlies. Appreciate it as always. Thank you, guys.

You got it. That's E. E. Medeukukuker with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Rossi with us every week. We'll be back with us again next Thursday, but for the Rockets take on the Minnesota Timberwolves.