The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Head Coach Ime Udoka: Jalen Green Has 'Taken Pride' In Stronger Defense

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

The Houston Rockets are coming off Monday's 109-97 win over the New York Knicks to host the San Antonio Spurs. "I liked how we bounced back from the Golden State game," and "I loved our resiliency in the second half," head coach Ime Udoka said, who joined "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" ahead of Wednesday's Western Conference matchup. The last time the Rockets faced the Spurs, Houston earned a 106-101 victory. While the Rockets and Spurs will be playing each other for the third time in the first two weeks of the season, the Rockets can't get comfortable against a familiar lineup. "We're challenging ourselves to be consistent regardless of the opponent," Udoka said. Jalen Green recorded 36 points against the Spurs on Oct. 28, and while he has had a hot start offensively, Green's defensive effort has improved with a Rockets team that likes to switch consistently when defending wings and guards. "What he's taken pride in is not being the weak link out there."

joining us right now to discuss that game in all things Rockets is our friend and the head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets, IMA Adoka, for his normal Wednesday, 1 o'clock visit. Coach, thanks for the time. Congratulations against the New York Knicks. Kind of a strange, interesting game that they tried to go with seven players did the best they could. You used your bench. You got some great work out of your defense, got some good fourth quarter work from Alper and Shangoon. Just a good quality win against a team, I think, in the East is going to be pretty good for them this year in the Knicks. Yeah, it was a pretty good overall game. I liked how we bounced back from the Golden State game and came out with the right mindset against a tough physical team.

You know, I think we had a really good first half other than the last three minutes where we kind of let him go on a 10-0 run. Had a chance to push it from 15 to 20. Went the opposite way, but loved our resiliency in the second half. You have a young player in a man, Thompson, that embraces defense, EMA, you know that. The way he made life miserable. Now, Brennan's still got his points. But he had to work damn hard for him. Yeah, you don't always look at the final number.

And you look at the way he scored, the way he had to work. And it wasn't just a man. Obviously, Dylan started on him. But throwing multiple bodies at him, a man kind of finished the job there. And he's a nightmare matchup for a lot of guys as far as his size and length on the shorter guard as well. But, you know, you look at 9 for 24 more so than the 29 points that he had.

And that was great to see that he was able to that he embraces it. hard is it. You've been around a lot of players as an assistant coach, head coach now. I always say defense is more about want to than necessarily the mechanics of it. When you have a guy on your team, whether it's here or in Boston, that just embraces the role of defense,

that guy's always going to have a roster spot free in rotation time, correct? Yeah, I mean, if you want to be known as a winning team and a defensive-minded team, you have certain players. And for us, obviously, Dylan sets the tone with the first group, Fred's obviously tough, but guys have grown across the board, whether it's

Bari, Jalen Alperin last year. You saw some growth and they carried that over to this year. But then you bring in Tari, you bring in a man, and you're bringing these big physical defenders of Stephen or whoever it else it is. And you have a nice lineup out there. And so, yeah, that was Marcus Smart. You know, one defensive player here, he set the tone there. Dylan does that for us.

But our luxury is coming off the bench with guys who are really good versatility and length of size. Jalen's number shooting-wise have not been great the last couple dames, but he got you eight points in that fourth quarter. I know he is among the leaders in three points attempted this year. If you were to take a look at those shots and you isolated them, are those, hey, good shots that aren't falling? Or do you want them to be a little more careful in the type of three-point shots he attempts? Well, the uncontested ones are good,

and teams have specific game plans, which, you know, we played a few really big centers to start the season. Obviously, with Webminiama, we had, you know, some guys that were really dropping and plugging the paint early on. And so those looks were good. We missed some early on, but I think he found his rhythm, obviously. Been off a little bit the last few games, but I loved how he finished the game, you know, two for ten going into the fourth quarter, and then, you know, goes three for six

in that quarter, makes two big threes and has three assists. So stuck with his stay at the course and didn't get frustrated from some missed shots. He found other ways to impact the game, guarded well on defense, and really helped us pull out the fourth quarter. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that last part. It feels like defensively, his intensity has been pretty good and maybe a little bit stronger than he was earlier. in his career as well, Jalen Green. Yeah, he's taking on the challenge. He has different matches.

We switch a lot, so he has to know the personnel of pretty much everybody, every wing or guard on the other team. And what he's taking pride in, it was not being a weak link out there. And if teams are going to try to target him, his numbers are off the charts against, you know, guys' isolation one-on-one. And so he's taking on that challenge improved drastically in that area and just makes us overall a better team. So add that to his scoring prowess and the playmaking that he's growing in that area,

he's becoming a more complete player right in front of our eyes. Rocket Tech coach, Ema Odoca, with us here on Sports Talk 790. How would you assess Reed Shepard's season so far last game? He stuck him with him a little bit longer, and he had a career high seven points. Yeah, Reed is fine in his way, and it's going to take time for most rookies, but more opportunity to get the better he'll be. And so trying to find him extra minutes, obviously. And, you know, we've had some tough games where we've had deficits and tried to come back

or lost in leads. And so consistency across the board will not only affect him, but will affect our team in general. And I think my job is to find him the minutes and continue to help him grow as he goes. And so he's seeing a lot of things for the first time already. You can see the game slowing down for him. And he gets the shots we love for him to take,

but he's also taking the challenge defensive in and making the right reads and the pick and roll. So he's going to continue to grow. And we look forward to him taking those steps as he goes throughout the season. You mentioned picking spots for him, to get in. Give us a case and point. Is that going against maybe a second tier group, whether that's going against a defensive matchup that you think he can work with? Because look, when we saw him playing college hoops, the thought was, well, yeah, he can guard

some people in the NBA and when he eventually gets some repertoire and some experience out there. Yeah, I mean, I don't think, you know, he's not going to be as strictly against second team guys. We have confidence in him. And the lineups that he's been out there with, it seemed to be some bigger guys around him, but he's going to have to switch in guard as well. And so we haven't played the big wings with LeBron and Kevin Durant and certain guys like that. So we don't feel like we've had to hide him at all

or anything, but you have a man with him, Tari, with him, Steve, and you have some length of his eyes around him that can, you know, work some things schematically, but he's taking on the challenge. It's about moving his feet and, you know, not reaching down, slapping down. He has great hands, but not bailing some guys out. So he'll learn the game

as he goes and learn personnel in the league, but I think overall you've seen him grow already and things have slowed down from on both ends of the floor. And so that's all it will take him getting his feet wet one time and he's a pretty quick winner. Eighth game of the year tonight, Coach, this will be the third game against San Antonio. Look, there are always going to be scheduling quirks in the NBA, but how do you approach this without guys going? It's just San Antonio again. How do you do that?

Is it because Victor possesses so many things you have to worry about and that you don't think about that in the schedule, but you're facing the same team for the third time in 10 games? Yeah, not at all. It was very similar last year to start the season. And so we've seen these guys in preseason, seen them twice already. And obviously the game, the first game at their place, we lost. So that should be enough of a wake-up call.

And then we came back to the second game with a different intensity and mindset. And so for us, it's about challenging ourselves to be consistent regardless of the opponent. Webbingyama presents all those challenges that you mentioned. But Chris Paul has been playing extremely well. He's kind of rounded into form a little bit. And they've added some veterans, Harrison Barnes and some different guys like that. So they're not the same team. and they obviously gave us a loss

and then we came back and a hard fought win against them but all we have to do is look back at the last game against the Clippers when they're up 20, 27 points in the first quarter and end up losing but they are dangerous from the start if you let them get too comfortable. Wimby nine blocks in his last game.

What is that like for you as a coach with the message to the team? You want them to be aggressive. You want to still play your game and get to the pain but also be aware of Wimby's presence. Yes, it's making the right reads. It's picking your spot. and, you know, he's going to be in a deep drop, so the shots will be there.

They're trying to, you know, funnel everything toward him, but pick your spots and know he's going to come over and try to intimidate at the rim, so our outlets and space needs to be in the proper places, and then, you know, make them work as well on both ends. You know, we crowd them with a bunch of tough active wings that we have, but Alprin got to make them work the other end like you did last year at times, and so you don't want to let them off the hook and just let them roam free. We'll try to go at them like Alprin did last game with Carl Anthony Towns

and wear him down a little bit that way. Lastly, for let you run, a couple of folks called in and said, hey, what's going on with Fred shooting so far? And slumps are going to happen. I think young guards, EMA, would let the poor shooting affect the other parts of their game. But I'm looking at the numbers right now for Van Vleet. 39 assist in five turnovers. The defense against bigger guys, night and nine out is still superb.

What does that say about a guy that can give it to you, if not on both ends of the floor, every single night, tonight, last night, hopefully next future nights, he's going to be able to hit some threes and add to the work that he's done by dishing the ball off and most important not turn the ball over. And we look at the shot quality and the looks that he's getting and those are great looks that he's made all throughout his career. But he's going to continue to do the other things like you mentioned. I think he doesn't let that deter him from running the team and getting guys in their proper spots and taking the challenge defensively. Understanding he can impact the games. And if he had made some shots against Charlotte, Jalen made some shots against Charlotte Alper and made some out of the gate,

we might have a different story right now, but you can't, nobody tries to make a miss shots. As long as they're taking the right ones and continue to do the other things that help impact winning, we can live with those misses. And everybody, the worm will turn for everybody like they did for Jaylen and Alper in last game. And we understand guys are going to round into form a little bit better. But yeah, we'd love for those shots to fall, and we have confidence that they will as the season goes off. And very lastly, you mentioned Alpe going against Wemby. Last year had a lot of success.

So far not nearly as much. is it a look when you talk to Appi about him he's like he's tall is there a comfort that he needs to eventually get against him or is it just you know what no matter what time of year it is how many times you play against a guy guy like Winbenyama is going to cause problems

for any center much less yours yeah I think he's grown since last year and he's a second year guy so he's going to be better across the board defensively but Alperin the scene at all from every center basically in the league and he's had shorter guys you know up under him. He's had bigger guys with length on him, and he's had success against everybody.

And so he figures it out as he goes as well, and we move around different spots. And, you know, I think I attribute it more to a slower start from Alpey than, you know, any defense that anybody's throwing at him because he was missing, you know, some pretty easy point-blank looks that he normally makes. And so you don't want to overreact to that. And, you know, you saw him find his rhythm last game. And we expect Alperin to be great and have bouncebacks as usual. Thanks for the visit, always. Coach, we'll see you tonight. Thank you. And good luck against Spurs.

Thank you. Eman and Doca joining us here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross getting ready for tonight's game with the San Antonio Spurs. Again, 7 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790.