The Houston Rockets continue to suffer embarrassing losses in December, with the latest being a 128-108 beatdown at the hands of the lowly Los Angeles Clippers at the Intuit Dome on Tuesday. The Rockets have now lost four of their last five games, and so when head coach Ime Udoka was asked in his postgame press conference where he sees his team improving each year, he wasn’t in the mood to hand out compliments.
“I mean, yeah, we’ve had some improvement,” Udoka said. “But lately, it’s been some slippage, no doubt. It feels like the energy and focus defensively is not there… I wouldn’t say Clippers are a team that play extremely hard, and they outplayed us, just effort alone.”
Udoka managed to diss both sets of players there. The Clippers did indeed play harder than the Rockets, who just lost their way in this game after the first quarter.
The Rockets looked to be in control when they jumped out to a nine-point lead in the first quarter, but the Clippers responded with a strong second quarter to take a 63-58 lead into halftime. We have seen this team collapse time and time again in the second half this season, but that didn’t happen here.
The Clippers won the third quarter 35-24 to take a 98-82 lead into the fourth. You’d have thought the only way the Rockets turn this around would be if we saw some magic from Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun, but Udoka benched both of them for the entire quarter. It was a stunning decision and ensured there was little to no chance of a comeback.
While Udoka didn’t specifically speak on the decision to have his two stars on the bench, he did explain why he was trying different lineups in the second half.
“It wasn’t even defensive,” Udoka stated. “It was just energy in general on both ends. And so, we work our way up to a nine-point lead and just get undisciplined and gamble in the back court, foul shooters, and multiple things to kind of give our lead away. And still with that being said, you’re down five at halftime.
“And we show some specific things on the film and come out and do the exact opposite in the third quarter to let them get that lead,” Udoka added. “And so wanted to switch it up and give different guys a look and hopefully get a little energy.”
Whatever Udoka is doing isn’t working at the moment. The Clippers, Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Pelicans, Utah Jazz, and Dallas Mavericks currently have the five worst records in the West, and the Rockets have lost to all of them in December.
After the loss to the Kings on Sunday, Udoka said he needs to do a better job of motivating his team in games against lesser opponents. This clash against the Clippers, who are now 8-21, presented the Rockets with the opportunity to right the wrongs, but they laid an egg instead. Udoka needs to find a way to arrest this skid fast.
Ime Udoka Says James Harden Is A Foul-Baiter
Saying the Clippers aren’t a team that plays very hard wasn’t the only shot that Udoka fired at the opposition in his press conference. When asked about the Rockets not being able to keep James Harden off the free-throw line after managing to do so last time around, he called the guard a foul-baiter.
“The undisciplined things of reaching in and fouling,” Udoka said. “Fouled him on three jump shots and then slap down. He’s a foul-baiter, and you don’t stay disciplined, show your hands, and reach in. And so, prime example of the things we did well last game or that we need to do against certain guys, and obviously didn’t come out with that tonight.”
Harden finished with 29 points (7-14 FG), four rebounds, six assists, and two steals. He was 12-13 from the line while the Rockets as a whole went 13-18.
When the teams had last met back on Dec. 11, Harden had just gone 4-5 from the charity stripe in a 115-113 Rockets win. Udoka felt they didn’t replicate what they did on that night and paid the price.
The Rockets have now dropped to 17-10 and take on the Los Angeles Lakers next at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday at 8 PM ET.
