The Houston Rockets fell into a practically insurmountable hole against the Los Angeles Lakers, falling 112-108 in overtime to a team still missing two of its three best players. The Rockets were also without Kevin Durant, but they had a chance to win the game, but fell apart down the stretch and into overtime, with the Lakers walking away with the 112-108 victory.
Head coach Ime Udoka called out his team after the loss, saying “Horrendous mistakes. “I don’t know if you want to say youth or scared
of the moment, or whatever the case.” Just once I’d like to see Ime call out his own horrendous mistakes — and there have been many in the series — but just another moment in a long string of Udoka assigning blame but failing to take any for himself.
Although it certainly wasn’t Ime who turned the ball over to LeBron James in closing moments, leading to a three — that was Reed Sheppard. And it wasn’t Ime who missed a shot down the stretch — that was Alperen Sengun. But the Rockets have struggled closing out games even with Kevin Durant this season — and that’s ultimately a failure of coaching as well that a long-standing issue has not been addressed.
In addition, Udoka’s season-long issues with rotation have been well-discussed around here and have reared their ugly head once again in this series, partcularly in Game 2.
Udoka also told his team following this loss to, “Grow up. You’re not that young anymore.” But if it were up to me, the Rockets would be doing some serious introspection following this likely series loss, and moving on from Udoka should be one of the top considerations. This season has been as much about a referendum on Udoka’s coaching inadequacies as much it’s been a referendum on Houston’s mismatched roster.
But in this one, the Rockets were led by Sengun, with 33 points, 16 boards and 6 assists. He was 15-for-27 from the field. Amen Thompson had 26 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals on 8-for-14 shooting, and Jabari Smith had 24 points and 6 boards on 8-for-16 shooting.
Reed Sheppard also pitched in 17 points, but he shot just 6-for-21 from the floor and and had 5 turnovers in 45 minutes played, including a big one down the stretch. Coach, maybe if you didn’t pull Reed all year when he made a mistake, it might have made him more confident in these types of moments — some coaching 101 stuff. Reed did add 7 assists.
The Lakers were led by LeBron James with 29, Rui Hachimura with 22 and Marcus Smart with 21, but this game — and series — is less about the Lakers and more about Houstons failures. The Rockets did battle back from an early 15-point deficit in the first half, but couldn’t keep it together to close things out.
Once Houston loses this series, I believe all options should be on the table — including firing Udoka, or trading Kevin Durant or even Alperen Sengun. I don’t know that the Rockets feel the same way, and in fact, I fear that they don’t. This teams needs changes, that’s for sure.
