Ime Udoka after Rockets came back to beat Blazers

Ime Udoka after Rockets came back to beat Blazers

You talked about wanting to run much more after the All-Star break what was the thinking behind that we got the young athletes to get out um you know and challenged our first unit that probably is not uh naturally the most you know fastpac team but want to you

Know get out in open court I think it benefited a lot of guys and um Jaylen and obviously the bench is good but Jaylen and some of the guys weren’t uh getting the opportunity that they had in the open court with the first unit so

You know we want to kick heads um it all starts with defense getting stops and then when you get 12 turnovers and I’m sorry 12 steals um it’s obviously opportunity to get out and run more but we’ve been made a concerted effort and guys have taken Pride on that end to

Playing the playing the uh full court instead of the slower Pace where I felt our execution was good in the first half of the year I was going to ask about that you always talk about defense leading to offense but the opportunity to run like that does it sort of

Increase energy and and make a team more disruptive yeah I think so but also um what we also encourag is going to make plays and you know obviously Simons had a roll in early we did a hell of a job I’m in specifically on him in the second

Half and we just ramped up our pressure and didn’t want to let him hurt us again like he did in in Houston and so um we’ve been really good lately going after guys Durant and some of some of those guys and um I think it gen generates some energy from us for sure

And we get out and get those Steals and you know you ramp it up even more on the defensive end I was going to ask you about a men’s defense what did you see from him tonight that impressed you you I mean guarded several different guys

And you know I think he had four block shots and tons of deflections tons of steals but um him really zeroing in on on Simons that was the main thing U 19 and a half I think and he what I think he finished at 23 and he had a huge

Fourth or third quarter in Houston so we didn’t want to let him get going um start the game a little too LAX on him where he got some easy shots some Rhythm shots and it’s good to have that body to put on him and you know bother his shots

Deter him at the rim and you know he’s so quick off the floor when he does rise up he can really get a good contest things were sluggish for a while when Jaylen gets a couple dunks a man gets some Fred wins a jump ball does

That give a little boost or is that what happened did it give a boost yeah but I think you know didn’t love our start at all obviously 63 in the first half we were scoring enough we had 55 and um you know we I really challenged him at

Halftime you know we held the Clippers at 44 in the first half and came out and you always seems like you have a natural let down when certain guys are out but we want to avoid that and I love the CH the way they responded to the challenge

To come out and hold them to 24 in the in the third 20 in the fourth and um really use your defense to ignite our game in general so the energy was better they responded to it well and guys took the challenge of taking away their Shooters and taking away some of their

Um best scores thank you a long way to give Fred credit for a jump

Houston Rockets Fan Information Source

Ime Udoka talks to reporters after the Houston Rockets beat the Portland Trail Blazers on 3/8/2024. Jalen Green scored 27 points on great efficiency while Amen Thompson completely disrupted the Blazers offense. Jabari Smith Jr, Fred VanVleet and Alperen Sengun were also solid.