Ime Udoka didn’t hold back in his comments toward his players after the third straight loss of the Houston Rockets against the Los Angeles Lakers in their first-round playoff series.
On the late-game collapse:
“Horrendous mistakes. I don’t know if you want to say youth or scared of the moment, or whatever the case, but yeah… you have a six-point lead with 20 or 30 seconds to go, get a rebound, and just have to hold the ball and get fouled… or it’s basically one-on-four and we throw it away. Foul, a terrible foul on Marcus Smart to give him three free throws. Next play, backcourt, you got it. Double’s coming, you try to split it instead of throwing it to Alpy [Alperen Šengün] wide open. Another turnover, and then James makes a tough shot. Then the final play, for the last shot, we don’t run what was drawn up. All of the above.”
On closing out games:
“It’s obviously a weakness of ours to close out and finish. The amount of mistakes or the type of mistakes are egregious, and you can’t have those.”
Message to the team in the locker room:“Grow up. You’re not that young anymore. You’ve been to the playoffs once, and we watched every situation just now.”
Final message:“Now, you’ve got to go get one on Sunday and don’t let this one beat you twice.”
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