Udoka: We could be above average
Team improved, but expectations are now greater
For the first time since the Rockets returned home after a win Dec. 23 in New Orleans, they had a day on Sunday for a practice and especially for a video session. It was not pretty.
In the three games after they shut down the Pelicans down the stretch, the Rockets lost to the Pacers, Suns and 76ers, allowing 123, 129 and 131 points. They had the NBA’s secondranked defense before those games. They have had the worst defensive rating in the NBA in the past three games.
There were mistakes to correct, points to emphasize. But first, there was a message to deliver about expectations and aspirations.
“A lot of mental preparation for us and (emphasis) on who we want to be going forward,” coach Ime Udoka said. “It doesn’t feel good to be .500. That means you’re (on pace for) 41-41. That would be an accomplishment in most people’s eyes. But we don’t like the feeling of that.
“We’re not comparing ourselves to past teams here. We want to … set a new standard for ourselves. We could be 20-10 very easily. It’s not a good feeling to be 15-15. Yeah, we’re bringing it up to show the games we’ve given away and where we haven’t executed down the stretch or game-plan wise, and where we could be. Mentally locking in and preparing to a different level is where we need to get to.”
The Rockets ended the 2023 portion of the 2023-24 season in 10th-place in the Western Conference, a significant improvement from the previous three seasons when they and the Pistons, their opponent Monday in Toyota Center, were scraping the bottom of the NBA. But just as they were certain that the Pistons would not be satisfied with finally breaking a losing streak that reached an NBA single season record of 28 games, the Rockets did not want to settle for better than they were, but still just breakeven.
“Much more than anything physical right now is a lot of mental work that needs to be done,” Udoka said. “What we really talked about is where we’re at right now. We’re at .500, which is average, not a great feeling, and where we want to get to.”
Cranking up the urgency, especially against a team for which every game lately brought a Game 7 of determination, would lead, Udoka believed, to improved focus on details.
He cited “the mental aspects and attention to detail, gameplan awareness, specific personnel.
“I think the effort, competitiveness, has been there since day one so it’s not a physical thing,” Udoka said. “It’s locking in on the details. That’s what we really focused on in film session.
“When you give up 131, one guy (Tyrese Maxey) scores 42, that’s still 90-ish points left. We really broke down how they got those. Us scoring 127 is obviously enough for us to win, but our defense the last (three) games has been last in league. We’re six overall, we want to see how we can get back to No. 2.”
The Rockets have had assignment breakdowns through much of the past two weeks, even before the three-game losing streak and before the win in New Orleans. They had problems against big men slipping screens. They had assignment mistakes, with short closeouts against shooters that gave up open 3s. They had uncharacteristically soft switches.
They have been hindered by the injuries to starting forwards Dillon Brooks and Jabari Smith Jr. Brooks would have been assigned to defend the Pistons’ Cade Cunningham on Monday, duty that will likely fall to Jae’Sean Tate. But much of the Rockets’ defensive issues after spending most of the season ranked behind only the Minnesota Timberwolves have been about execution, rather than personnel.
“I think a lot of our mistakes were mental, knowing personnel, knowing things we were supposed to do,” forward/center Jeff Green said. “We just have to get better at it. We have another opportunity (on Monday) against a team that has been playing really well, despite what their record shows. So, we got to come ready mentally and physically.”
To regain that intense focus, Udoka wanted a return to the hunger that drove the defensive improvement in the first place. That began with not being satisfied with improvement from the previous two seasons when the Rockets were last or second-to-last defensively.
“This is a completely different team than last year,” forward Tate said. “We have completely different players, completely different roles. Like coach said, we’re not really worried about last year. We’re not really worried about last game. We’re just trying to get ready for a team that’s coming off a win and starting the new year on the right note.”
With losses in four of five home games since the 11game home winning streak, and with the only win in that stretch against the severely depleted Mavericks, there was not a need to do much convincing. Just 2-6 since a five-game winning streak had them a season-best four games better than .500, the Rockets saw lapses catch them in most of their otherwise solid recent performances. Those brought them back to the corrections that needed to be made.
“We did a lot of learning, a lot of film,” Tate said. “There’s a lot to learn from these last few days at home. I think mostly, it’s just trying to lock in for a whole 48 minutes. That’s what (Sunday) was about. It was more of a mental day, seeing what got us to where we’re winning games.
“We kind of had some slippage. The first part is acknowledging it, then taking care of it.”
Acknowledging came on Sunday. That was easy, if not enjoyable. The tough part comes next.