The Los Angeles Lakers took a 3-0 lead over the Houston Rockets with a sensational 112-108 OT win in Game 3 on Friday. The Lakers have one foot in the second round already, but need to take care of business in Game 4 at the Toyota Center in Houston on Sunday.
Rockets head coach Ime Udoka had harsh words for his team after the Rockets blew a six-point lead in under 30 seconds to lose Game 3, admonishing them for being scared of the moment. Udoka caught a lot of flak from fans and analysts for blaming his players in a series where he’s been thoroughly outcoached by JJ Redick, but a well-known voice has now defended him.
Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas defended Udoka’s comments against his players in the latest episode of ‘The Gilbert Arenas Show,’ claiming that the way the players performed was worthy of what Udoka had to say and that they ‘belong under the bus’ for that performance.
“He didn’t do nothing. The s–t they was doing out there is under the bus. I feel sorry for the coaches today, that they can’t be real coaches anymore, or they’re going to get fired. There’s no way in hell that you’re supposed to lose a game when you had 19 more shots than your opponent. You shot 98 shots and had 108 points. You belong under the bus, around the bus, inside the bus. Don’t even come to the next game.”
Udoka’s comments came after mistakes that are hard to attribute to the coach.
The Rockets blew a six-point lead in under 30 seconds at the end of regulation in Game 3, committing two turnovers to let the Lakers force OT despite having a 97% chance to win the game. This was an embarrassing loss for the franchise, which might get swept by a Lakers squad without their two leading scorers, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, while being led by a 41-year-old LeBron James in his 23rd NBA season.
Udoka deserves blame for not being able to come up with an offensive strategy to consistently score on a Lakers squad that was decidedly average defensively all season. They’ve been more competitive in the two games they didn’t have Kevin Durant, but they funnily need a late-game scorer of that caliber to help bail this team out, as they keep losing close games.
Blame can’t go in only one direction if the Rockets actually get swept in the first round. The players definitely haven’t held up their end of the bargain, outside maybe Amen Thompson. However, Udoka hasn’t put them in a position to succeed with a rudimentary game plan that the Lakers keep exposing.
They don’t have a genuine point guard on the floor, and coach Udoka hasn’t given his players a possession-to-possession plan to rely on with their poor half-court creation all season. His players did fall apart with careless turnovers to lose Game 3, but it’s hard to say he put them in a position to win that game anyway.
Even though Udoka hasn’t been everybody’s cup of tea, Arenas is correct when he says that coaches shouldn’t be scared to talk to their players like this. Maybe it could have been more effective behind closed doors, but we won’t know either way until we see what vesion of the Rockets show up for a win-or-go-home Game 4 contest for them on Sunday night.
