We’ll soon learn if telling your team to “grow up” proves to be a genius motivational tactic.
Rockets coach Ime Udoka viciously ripped his team after one of the most shocking collapses in recent memory in their 112-108 home overtime loss to the Lakers in Game 3 on Friday to fall in a 3-0 series hole.
Houston somehow lost despite having the ball while leading by six points with less than 30 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
“Grow up, and you’re not that young anymore,” Udoka said of his postgame message to the team. “You’ve been to the playoffs once, and we watched every situation just now.”
You can likely begin prepping the “Gone Fishing” segments for the Rockets’ season after Friday’s choke job, one that certainly raises questions about this group of players and Udoka’s future with the team.
Udoka has come under fire for his team not performing as expected this year, and going out this meekly — albeit without Kevin Durant — is a bad look for the 48-year-old leader.
That he would be so blunt and openly critical of his players is an interesting wrinkle since some coaches would take the blame to avoid making it seem as if they put their talent under the bus.
But Udoka didn’t hold back.
“Horrendous mistakes,” Udoka said to describe the loss. “I don’t know if you want to say youth or scared of the moment or whatever the case. You have a six-point lead with 30 seconds to go…”
Friday’s game unraveled when Jabari Smith Jr. made one of the most mind-boggling turnovers you’ll see with the Rockets ahead, 101-95, and the Lakers not even pressing.
Instead of holding the ball, he attempted to pass in the direction of the one Laker even remotely playing defense in Marcus Smart.
Smart intercepted the ball and Jae’Sean committed what Udoka called a “terrible” foul to bump him while he shot a 3-pointer, resulting in three foul shots that Smart made to slice the deficit to 101-98.
The Rockets still had control of the game, but Reed Sheppard got pick-pocketed on the next possession, resulting in a LeBron James game-tying 3-pointer with 13.6 seconds remaining.
Udoka said the Rockets then botched their final offensive play.
“We don’t run what was drawn up,” Udoka said.
The Lakers scored first in overtime and never trailed the rest of the way to put the Rockets on the brink of elimination.
A season that began with championship aspirations could instead end in one of the most underwhelming showings in team history and perhaps lead to Udoka being fired.
“It’s obviously a weakness of ours to close out and finish,” Udoka said. “The amount of mistakes or the type of mistakes are egregious, and you can’t have those.
“I talk about age all the time, but I’m not talking about 23, 22, whatever it is. I’m looking at five years, four years, three years in the league and drawing from there and learning from previous experiences.”
