Ime Udoka on Rockets Recent Struggles

0:00It is Ryan C. Crest here. There was a recent social media trend, which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to chumbacaceno.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumbacaceno has over 100 online casino style games, all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at chumbacaceno.com. Sponsored by Chumbacaceno. No purchase necessary VGW group void for prohibited by law, 21 plus terms and conditions apply. Where to spend 10 minutes right now with the head coach of the Houston Rockets. Rockets here in Memphis going to take on the Grizzlies tonight. We'll have it for you here on 7.90 beginning at 6 o'clock with the launch pad 7 o'clock tip time. You may doke with us here. You may first of all, thanks for joining us. These conversations sometimes aren't fun, especially after the way the performance of the last couple of games. Has it been, I mean, obviously the answer is yes to this, but to the level I want to get your thoughts on. Those two games against Miami and Atlanta were fun, interesting buzzer beaters.

1:01You beat some good teams. You get on the road. You got some teams that are probably worrying about the end of the season and in Chicago and then the Minnesota game without end. I guess the level of frustration for you about this team's inability to stay consistent, especially in this time of year when you're trying to juggle for seedings in a Western conference. Yeah, I would say it's been a problem of ours throughout the year. Look and feel and play like a different team at times against the big matchups. Kind of get up with those and then have roles against the middle of the teams with the losing records. And so obviously something we want to change and be consistent with ours who we're playing. And even in those games, you know, we got really good stretches. It was a poor quarter or two. That kind of split us behind. Obviously the first quarter in Chicago after a good win, but even the end of the Miami game, letting them come back like we did in the first quarter in Chicago. Outside of that played a great do quarters. Didn't play our best, you know, most of the night against Minnesota, probably a sea level game and put together, you know, good last three minutes

2:02and a great start to overtime, but have to be more consistent and sustain that effort, that defensive mentality and then offensively being aggressive and confident. Was there anything that Minnesota did in that last half of the overtime? I mean, look, that was minutes 53 and 54 of the game. What went from so good in that fourth quarter to, you know, allowing those free baskets that they were able to make that comeback and such as a short period of time? They started going after Kevin a little bit. They blitzed a few times. We got to Alpin and the pocket. And Jabari had a White Open three missed. A man in the pocket one time and had some White Open shooters and Alpin and the dunker spot and kind of shot over a few people. So a few missed cues outside out of the blitz and then some turnovers, a second violation. Obviously in some turnovers, I got the amount of transition, but that was the point. Once we got the lead, you know, where T-Fest wasn't set because they were getting out running and scored pretty much seven to 10 seconds on the shot clock a few times in a row.

3:03You're so late this season here. It's not about teaching. It's not about an extra practice. It's not about intense film setting. It's a little bit of, I guess, the psychologist part of your job as a coach to say, look guys, we've let a lot of these kind of games slip through our fingers and if we want to be where we want to be and make a playoff run, we got to get this corrected down with about 10 games of the year. Is that the way you're kind of approaching things? Absolutely, because even in those games that we haven't played a full four quarters, we've had really great stretches, really dominant stretches and obviously, like I said, so go down 21 on Chicago and come back as fast as we did in the way we did. Obviously we played really good basketball and guarded at a high level. So how can we sustain that? That's the main thing coming out to start games with the same intensity that we bring when we get down. And so that's the real thing. I mean, I think we all know we can get back and want to be playing our best going into playoffs and have a chance to still do that. Where I can take coach, he made Doka with his here on sports talk 790.

4:05Yeah, obviously when you go through bad stretches out here, one of the things that pundits like to go to is vibes or body language or things like that. And there's been some national people picking up on that. Just your perspective, how do you feel morale, chemistry, vibes, whatever you want to call it with the team? I was saying everybody's frustrated when you lose and nobody's going to be happy about it. And so body language isn't going to be totally up beat when you're down 20 or giving up a big league. But you have to have some resiliency and some determination to get back in these games the way we have or to be even keeping it close when we're not playing our best. And so we look at that thing, those things overall and how can we manage to play a better quarter here? So we're not down the deficit. So I don't put a ton in that. I think our guys are all on the same page rooting for each other, cheering for each other. And when it's going well, we are up beat and all that. And you just got to maintain that even in the down times. And so I don't look too much into that. I think all our guys know what's this take now and how we have to play at a more consistent level.

5:05And so we don't look at that. I don't really hear it, but we go about our business and try to put a full game together tonight against Memphis. Now, as you mentioned, just going about your business, what do you do as a coach? You try to keep it just business as usual. Do you try to do anything differently when these types of stretches pop up? No, you definitely talk about you don't sleep and under the rug and act like it's okay. You're like, we're playing our best, best, well, our most consistent. We make that a point and see how we can get to it and show the great stretches that we've had to come back from down 11 in the last three plus minutes and then take a 13 point lead. We did some really good things. We were physical into the ball. They were the aggressor most of the night. We flipped it there and if we can come out with that to start and show them all the good things, the positive things, obviously we look at what went wrong as well, but you understand what can get you there and how consistent you have to be. And so we look at both, you know, put on the table and see the ways for us to improve and how we could do it in these last nine games. How have you liked a men since the change when you put Regan the Star on up the last handful of games?

6:09Yeah, men's been great regardless. I think even going back to his last 20 or so games, even before Reed was in line if he's been playing that extremely high level. On the ball off the ball, it just gives him more variety when Reed is in to not have to handle as much. You know, you can get back into some of his darker spots and then screening and rolling and do the offensive rebounding. And so just gives him more varieties as ways he can score, ways he can attack and not just having the ball and setting up. So he's still doing that some. Obviously, I want him to continue growing that role, but he's still good to get other things. You don't just want to limit him. You may you got the Memphis Grizzlies in tonight. This is a team that said 29 different players. What is it like for even for a division opponent, you will see him for the fourth, third time this year to have to basically drop a new lineup or at least film study wise of a bunch of guys you've largely have never seen before collectively play together at the same time. Well, you just take a look at Chicago and Washington and all these other teams that are, you know, guys that are auditioning for roles

7:11for their futures and, you know, he had a close game of Boston the other night. They beat Denver a few games ago in their last five and so, you don't look at the names on the back of the jersey as the NBA and you can beat any night if you don't come out with the right mindset. And so for us, it's about coming out aggressive, guarding them just like they're anybody else and then we got to get back to our physicality on that end offensively, taking care of the ball, sharing the ball and, you know, being aggressive, attacking there and not looking for fouls or calls or anything like that. And so, like I said, it's more about us, honestly. We'll go about our business tonight like we have to, but we want to see a consistent four quarters and then carry it on to the next game as well. How to have fun anytime, anywhere. Step one, go to chamba casino dot com. chamba casino dot com. Got it. Step two, collect your welcome bonus. Come to pop a welcome bonus. Step three, play hundreds of casino style games for free. That's a lot of games all for free. Step four, unleash your excitement. Chamba casino has been delivering thrills for over a decade. So claim your free welcome bonus now and live the chamba life. Visit chamba casino dot com.

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