HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Ime Udoka walked off the floor at halftime on Wednesday night thinking his team’s eight-point lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers should’ve be much bigger.
The Rockets scored 61 points on 49 percent shooting while connecting on 8-of-18 three-pointers through the game’s first 24 minutes, but allowing 10 second chance points to go with 10 turnovers allowed the Cavs to stay within arm’s reach.
“We talked about it at halftime,” Udoka said. “Showed a good amount of clips of those things, and didn't really help. The same thing hurt us in the second half.”
The Rockets beat the team with the NBA’s best record on Wednesday night, but it didn’t have to be a 109-108 decision that came down to the game’s final shot.
Fresh off committing 17 turnovers two days prior, the Rockets gave the ball away 22 times against the Cavs, leading to 33 points, and Cleveland scored 25 second chance points off 20 offensive rebounds.
“33 points off of 22 turnovers is a huge number that we got to clean up,” Udoka said. “And then the offensive rebounds, where they got kick outs or put backs, really kept them in it, so we thought that at halftime and as the game went on, that's why they stuck around.”
The Rockets ended Wednesday with the West’s second-best record, 29-14, but Udoka has started to see a little bit of slippage in areas that helped them build that record.
Through the season’s first 32 games the Rockets allowed 15.4 points off turnovers per game, fourth best in the NBA, while allowing 13.5 second chance points, 12th best, but in the 11 games that have followed Udoka’s team is allowing 16.2 points off turnovers and 14 second chance points, which is 11th and 18th best respectively.
Not a big drop off, but a decline, nonetheless, but overall, the Udoka has seen his team experience a drop off at the defensive end, and it’s come while the offense has seen a surge.
When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day, the Rockets were second in the NBA in defensive rating, allowing 106 points per 100 possessions while scoring 112.5 points, which was 11th best, but those numbers have almost flipped in January.
The Rockets offensive rating this month is 118.1, seventh best, while their defensive rating has shot up to 113.4, which is 12th best.
“I think when it's up and down and you're scoring at ease, sometimes you let go of what made you really good,” Udoka said. “We did discuss the lack of defensive aggressiveness, talking about Detroit games specifically, and we wanted to come out and be better tonight.”
Wednesday’s defensive rating was 112.5, a slight improvement, but not where Udoka wants to be.