On Friday night, the Houston Rockets lost a second consecutive game to the Portland Trail Blazers. Head coach Ime Udoka ripped into the team’s effort in his post-game press conference, particularly how their effort wanes without Kevin Durant. However, is Udoka’s messaging on intensity beginning to fall on deaf ears?
Udoka’s Durant Comments Are Missing The Point
Durant played 39 minutes in the 111-105 loss to the Trail Blazers on Friday night. He played 37 minutes in the 103-102 loss to the same team on Wednesday night as well. Over the two games, Durant scored 67 points on 25 of 46 shooting from the field. Alarmingly, over the same two games, he had just 4 total assists and 5 turnovers. But a lack of assists isn’t necessarily an indictment of Durant’s passing. The rest of the Rockets combined for 52 of 149 from the field over the same period. That’s 34.9%.
That’s just a small part of the context that led to Udoka’s postgame comments. When asked what went wrong in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s game, Udoka answered: “Took a 37-year-old out of the game for 2 minutes and you lose a 13-point lead. 11-0 run. That’s what went wrong. Don’t play with any aggression, confidence… mentally weak.”
In that fourth quarter, the Rockets shot 6 of 28 from the field, and again, removing Durant, just 3 of 21. All those misses did help with the Rockets’ usual strategy of hoarding offensive rebounds. They had 6 in the quarter. But the rebound-to-point exchange rate has been nose-diving in Houston of late.
Injuries
The Rockets’ late-game execution struggles are irrefutable at this point. Despite a surprisingly effective offensive start to the year, they don’t come as a surprise to many, either. The team doesn’t have a starting point guard. Against the Blazers, the point center was absent as well. Starting center and team assist-leader Alperen Sengun isn’t yet halfway through his expected 2-week injury absence. The Rockets have been relying on Sengun’s stewardship of the offense all season, and it’s no surprise the wheels look like they’re coming off without him.
The Rockets lost even more of their offensive oomph in the middle of Friday night’s game when Tari Eason went down to a right ankle sprain. Eason nearly managed to gloss over Houston’s crunch-time woes on Wednesday night, when his inbounds steal and tip-in briefly looked to have sealed a Rockets’ win. Unfortunately for Eason, who had his fingertips on a career highlight, he also had his fingertips on the ball as the game clock expired. No basket.
So, is there actually anything Houston can do to mitigate all these personnel issues? Durant can create for himself and sometimes hit the open man or a short roller after a double. But being a 9-5 playmaker is not what his game is about. Nominal starting point guard Amen Thompson can get downhill and put pressure on the basket, but his lead-guard skills remain Trichinosis-raw. Sophomore guard Reed Sheppard has looked like Houston’s third-best offensive player of late, but he was a -16 in the fateful quarter.
The Non-Durant Part Of Udoka’s Message
Udoka’s message of playing harder and calling out mental weakness seems more like venting than anything productive. However, there’s one other, particularly notable part of Udoka’s post-game comments. He touched on the Rockets’ 1 for 17 three-point performance in the quarter, saying: “Bunch of wide open looks. Making shots helps, but […] you have to play with some aggression[…] drive it physically.”
Jabari Smith Jr. went 0 for 7 from three in the fourth quarter. Some of those were wide-open looks that he just couldn’t knock down. On most of them, though, the Blazers’ defense completely sold out on getting a hand up on the shot. Theoretically, they were prime opportunities to drive.
Now, there’s a hole in the theory that Udoka’s post-game message was an encouragement for Smith to drive – and Smith would probably lose the ball in it. Smith’s driving ability is extremely limited. On top of that, Smith’s confidence in shooting the ball is something the team has worked hard to cultivate. He’s six-foot-eleven. It’s debatable whether any of these contests should have really affected him. With time dwindling and the Rockets having already lost the lead, early shot clock threes weren’t even necessarily a tactical misstep. Telling him he shot the team out of the game may not be a constructive or even accurate message.
The Crux Of Houston’s Issues
But the Rockets’ offense is at a point of crisis. There’s chatter about point guard Fred VanVleet‘s possible return this season, but certainly not any time soon. The Rockets need a Band-Aid fix right now. Udoka preaching about mental toughness for the umpteenth time this season is unlikely to provide it. The team is over-reliant on Durant because Durant is the only player who doesn’t need an effective offensive infrastructure to help him score.
Sengun provides the infrastructure for others to score for the first 40 minutes of a game. Playing through big men becomes enormously challenging in crunch time, though. It’s a challenge to get them the ball, and then when you do, the defense is allowed to play them more physically than at any previous point in the game. Even three-time MVP Nikola Jokic came up against this problem in the 2024-25 playoffs.
The Last Word
As for when Sengun isn’t available, Udoka is going to have to do more coaching than just calling his players soft. The Rockets’ next game will be Sunday night against the 8-30 Sacramento Kings. Hopefully, the embarrassment of the last two games will keep them motivated for what could otherwise be a trap game. The Rockets won’t solve their offensive issues overnight, but something more than effort needs to change. The Rockets might be missing their starting point guard, point center, and most of their three-point shots. But Udoka completely missing the point of why they’re so reliant on Durant might cost them the worst of all.
Featured Image: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images