Press Conference: Ime Udoka l Houston Rockets Game 3

Press Conference: Ime Udoka l Houston Rockets Game 3

decent enough offensive game we’re in good shape but uh the communication with Red’s really off ball uh I think our we did go after Curry got out of his hands um knowing who we’re ro rotating to and off of wasn’t the best especially in the second quarter gave the lead back coach I think prior to the game we talked about the moment and how you said this this team just has to kind of experience a game three on the road having gone through that can you talk about the just the overall experience for them in this moment in a hostile environment a loud crowd everything going on i think we handled it fine obviously built the lead early um we’re playing good overall basketball um so you know they did what they did went after Jaylen quite a bit and he made the right play and everybody was making a pay from there but um to your guys’ point the defense that let up um and and letting certain guys shoot it um rotating the non-shooters out of those blitzes was really what allowed them to get back in the game and so um I don’t think it was a problem as far as handling it we we got the lead and just didn’t maintain it and let him back into three at halftime fred had a really hot start there and then scored only four points in the last three quarters what what were they doing if anything to take him out of the game and and why do you think that he hasn’t been as much of a scoring factor in this series so far well we’ve been going after him and Jaylen quite a bit in the pick and rolls like kind of hawking them full court um when they do put two bodies on the ball we didn’t do a good job good enough job making them pay tonight as you saw I think we were 19 for 48 in the paint that’s not good enough um you know point blank layups or floers or making the right read from there you got to convert those um they did with Payton and and Green slipping out and we didn’t what was the impetus for a lot of that blitzing and trapping do you feel like you can’t really guard Curry as much one-on-one it’s not one-on-one it’s the pick and roll is the way you want to go about that yeah we’ve gone after him quite a bit and make the others have to beat us um you know when they have certain lineups out there it’s favorable to uh force it to the other guys and and make them beat us i think Peyton hit a big one tonight where when they were up one and that’s a gamble we’re going to take at times u but uh something we’ve done quite a bit it’s gone after him and um it’s obviously worked out well enough and they haven’t scored over 100 in a few games coach the last 5 minutes or so uh they’re forced you into a lot of tough shots contested shots what did you see on on the offensive end for you guys down the stretch where you weren’t quite able to score to keep up yeah they upped their physicality on defense um and then we when we did have the good looks um like I said we missed a lot of point blank stuff at the basket little floaters and and you know some layups and so um you know they did what they did all game we did what we did all game and uh Payton and some of their guys rolling out made plays and we didn’t coach um you mentioned the issues that you know you guys had tonight do you feel they’re easily correctable as we we look ahead to Monday and tonight feel in any way like a little bit of a missed opportunity considering they were without Butler tonight yeah I mean we know they’re still dangerous without Butler so that that doesn’t change anything as far as that i think um it’s something we’ve seen all year teams go after Jaylen obviously had a big game last game so we expected that coming in and um when you do does his job and has two on the ball and gets it to guys they have to make him pay behind it and so um you know nothing new as far as that like I said teams have done it all year and uh their gamble paid off we didn’t make them pay with that especially with the point shot uh paint shots and so um something you can easily correct is obviously taking care of the ball a little bit better um finding the outlets out of that and making them pay and it’s a gamble on both sides when both team teams are blitzing each other and um like I said their guys made a few more plays in ours tonight coach over here they’ve uh Amen Thompson’s had some struggles in this series in this game specifically they’ve been guarding with the center how do you feel about the way he’s been playing offensively and what you can do to get him going yeah he was one of the guys that missed quite a few you know easy opportunities tonight um you know we’ve we use him in each way as a handler as a screener and every every other way and so um you know he had some um roles in the pocket you know brought him up and set the screen and he get out in the pocket and like I said he didn’t convert a lot of those a lot of those easy ones um and so uh we do use them several different ways obviously handling and and playing in dunker and setting screens and so there’s a lot of ways to move around on the court and uh when he’s in tack mode getting downhill they do put a bigger body on him they still collapse the paint you got to find his outlets there and so felt like he got in trouble penetrated a little bit too much and missed some of the kickouts the Warriors ended up with an advantage in second chance points tonight you didn’t play this double big lineup all all that much do you feel like that might have uh helped to to combat some of the rebounding issues no I think that was a big thing for sure that they beat us in that area um you know we were up three at half and they had they had the lead as far as that and I think it was 16 to4 overall second chance points and so um area we can’t get hurt and it was a lot of their wings crashing so it wasn’t as much um I wouldn’t say loony or or their big bodies it was a lot of wings coming and crashing so do a good job scrambling making them miss shots and we got to come up with those uh rebounds and stops thank

Press Conference by Ime Udoka