The Houston Rockets lost 107-97 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night and afterward, their head coach Ime Udoka took a shot at the Lakers while calling out his team.
“To kinda get punked by a team that’s not known for physicality or punking people is not a good sign,” Udoka said.
Coach Udoka was not happy with the Rockets effort.
“To kinda get punked by a team not known for physicality or punking people is not a good sign” pic.twitter.com/pNU5dhqNFj
— Lachard Binkley (@BinkleyHoops) December 3, 2023
Udoka pretty much called the Lakers soft there and that isn’t something that will go down all that well in their locker room. While the Lakers aren’t the most physical team in the league by any stretch, I don’t necessarily think they are all that soft either.
It might not be the most ideal metric to measure something like physicality, but the Lakers rank sixth in the league in points in the paint with 54.9 per game. In the game against the Rockets, they had a 54-34 edge in that regard, as they dominated inside.
The Lakers are not really a finesse team and when these sides face off next on January 29, I’m pretty sure L.A. would try to send a message.
Ime Udoka And LeBron James Got Into A Heated Argument In The Game
Udoka may have been a bit salty when he made those remarks. Not only had his team lost, but he and LeBron James had also gotten into a heated argument in the fourth quarter. They both were assessed with technicals but it was the second of the night for Udoka, which meant he was ejected.
LeBron had a hilarious response when asked about the argument with Udoka, as he stated they were talking about how much they enjoyed Thanksgiving. When the Rockets head coach was asked about it, he didn’t share many details, only stating that the official was not happy about the conversation they were having.
Leaked audio of James and Udoka’s altercation did shed some light on what exactly went on, with the former taking offense to the latter using the word “b*tch”. Udoka wanted the Lakers to stop crying over calls and LeBron told him to not use that word so loosely.
We have seen LeBron get upset over the word in the past, so if Udoka really did use it as the audio suggested, then it wasn’t surprising that it led to them exchanging words.
Ime Udoka’s Impact On The Rockets
In his short time with the Rockets, Udoka has once again shown he is one of the better head coaches in the league. Houston is off to an 8-9 start to this 2023-24 season, which is pretty impressive considering how the last three campaigns went for them.
The Rockets were 17-55 in 2020-21, then 20-62 in 2021-22, and 22-60 in 2023-24. They look set to breeze past those win totals this time around and the 46-year-old deserves a fair bit of credit for that.
The Rockets were 29th in defensive rating last season at 118.6 and Udoka has them all the way up at 10th this season with a rating of 110.0. The arrival of Fred VanVleet and the much-maligned Dillion Brooks have also helped matters and the Rockets look set to be in the mix for one of the final play-in spots.
There is one issue that Udoka has failed to address, though, and that’s the Rockets’ woes away from home. They have the worst road record in the NBA at 0-8 and while you get that a relatively young team would struggle on their travels, you don’t expect them to be this bad.
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