Speaker 1: He's the Matt Thommas Show with Rocks.
Speaker 2: One O two on Sports Talk seven II. Let's spend
ten minutes right now with the head basketball coach if
your Houston Rockets. His name is Emay Adoka. Rockets tonight
taking on the Atlanta Hawks, and this Hawk team coming
in has won eleven consecutive games. Rockets could certainly like
to begin the streak like that going here sometime soon.
Thanks for the time. Tell me about how awesome that
third quarter was for you. Guys came back after being
down double digits, and I really thought it was a
turn of the corner in fourth quarter. What was the
difference in your mind those final tova's compared to what
you saw all of those opening minutes of the third
quarter two nights ago.
Speaker 3: I would say, our energy and see it was way
better than the third. Obviously, getting down, we battled back
and that was a good sign. But you know, defend
at a high level, holding num to twenty two. Obviously,
scoring thirty seven is a great number for a quarter.
The fourth quarter to start it was it was a
few bad plays in a row, turnovers that led them
out to easy baskets and kind of went on. I
think they went on thirteen to six run to retake
the lead, and so after all the work we put
in third, it was, you know a little disappointing to
come out in the fourth and kind of give it
right back, you know.
Speaker 2: It's the turnover count was significantly lower than it was
from Monday, but it meant it felt like every one
of them turned out to be leakouts into baskets for
the Lakers. That's at least the way I saw it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have twelve turnovers. They scored twenty three points
off those, and there are eight or ten and fast
break points. That was a big part of it. And
so a lot of live ball turnovers that got out
to the layups. You know, you want the dead ball ones.
If you do turn it over, you want to throw
out of bounds or a travel or whatever the case
may be instead of a steal that leads to an easy,
uncontested break. And so to the credit, they were efficient
in those although we had the number lowers, just the
types of turnovers that really hurt us.
Speaker 2: Did you feel like man with a men being as
efficient as he was Alpi was ten of fifteen. That
was it was you needed something of a bounce back
in that and get to get out be out there
and tell me the obviously the discappointment level for losing
those two games at home and then obviously now unfortunately
a little bit of separation between you and the Lakers
for that three spot in the West.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we had an opportunity to go the other way,
especially how tight the standings are, and you know, we
at least want to win one and win the season
series a tiebreaker and put ourselves in a little bit
of hole there, but have time to kind of dig
ourselves out. We're two games behind and lost columns. So
get on the streak, like you mentioned, start to play
more consistent basketball, and finish here on the right note,
we can get ourselves right back in contention where we
want to be.
Speaker 2: You may Tari got to double digits for the first
time this month. Unfortunately he just has one three point
two his credit. This is a prolonged slump for him.
Is this a deep dive into shot selection? Is it
to where the balls leaving his hand? Because I WI
always have the before belief if I can usually tell
when the ball leaves a hand if it's going to
go in because of the rotation of where it was shot.
What's what's in his mind right now, because obviously this
is the deepest funk he's been in quite some time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it starts to become mental at some point, you know,
like I always had with young guys, you have your
ups and downs, and Jabari played his way out of
it and been playing great basketball this year. Alpiece had
to deal with it somewhat at times, and so you
want to do other things to inject yourself into the game,
not just rely on three pointers going down. You know,
call some havoc on the defensive end, like he does,
get some easy baskets, He got some out in transition,
get to the free throw line and put backs, you know,
get on the offensive last things of that nature. So
you're not just relying on three point shot. But honestly,
it's the same great looks he was getting all year
when he was shooting forty five plus. And he just
has your ups and downs. But he has to stop
overthinking it. I think that guys will start to hesitate
and pass up open shots trying to get something better.
You know, stay the course, trust the work that you
put in, and you'll shoot your way or work your
way out of that slum.
Speaker 1: How did you feel about the way you guys handed
Luca handled Luka Doncic for a couple of games, because
to me, it seemed like a lot of times it
was pretty good defense, even though you look up he
had a four point triple double and then I guess
at least you didn't give up sixty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, he's a tough shot maker. You know,
he was efficient with the shots. But other than the
first game where we had some miscues and he got
some wide open threes, he didn't get the same open
looks in this second game. I think, you know, he
made really tough, contested shots in the lane that you
kind of want to live with, and we did a
really good job on him on Christmas Day and making
him miss the same shots and so very efficient. That's
why he's one of the best in leading the league
in scoring is because he can do that on a
nightly basis. But the other things were, you know, the
three point attempts being at seventeen and then the free
throws being at fourteen, that's way too high a number.
And obviously you see it's the same thing he did
against Miami last night seventeen attempts in fifteen free throws,
so consistent with what he does, and that's why he's
the lead scorer.
Speaker 1: Rocket Tech coach Imo Adoko was here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. We know that every game at this point
of the utmost importance. Do you feel like, as a
coaching staff and around the team, are you guys trying
to get into play off mode or trying to try
to keep things a little bit normal.
Speaker 3: No, you have to ramp it up and understand that
after all, start breaking goes very quickly, and let alone
the standings of how tight it is this year, you know,
and when you've given some games away early, you have
more sense of urgency you know later in the year.
And so for us, you already have to kick into that,
no doubt. I think in general we understand what's on
the line now the rest of these games. You want
to get to that mode as quickly as possible. But
also you know understanding that this that you can go
from three to seven pretty easily and get on a
good streak ourselves.
Speaker 2: This Atlanta team, I think we'll catch them. You mean,
at the absolute wrong time. They have won eleven consecutive games.
Not only are they winning games. You may be as
you know, they're blowing people out. What's what's the election
that's working for them right now?
Speaker 3: They've been number one on offense and number one on
defense in the last you know, just on their streak
eleven games. I think Jalen Johnson's playing an extremely high level.
But they're playing fast, aggressive, you know, shooting the three
really well, and then they're great on the boards. So
that's always ah, you know, formulas for success you shoot
the ball with fast in transition and crash the offensive
and defensive glass. And they've done that.
Speaker 2: Uh you got I guess one of a couple of
back to backs now left to go before the end
of the season. It feels like we are always running
into these things. Is Dorian going to play tonight or tomorrow?
I guess I was trying to figure that out at
this point. Dorian to play tomorrow. Okay, so Dorian is
out tonight and how's It looked like Albe was pretty
fresh for a couple of games of back spasms those
things and always pop up, but he looked very nimble
and was able to really be effective at least scoring
for you and when you needed two a couple of
nights ago against the Lakers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's feeling good. I think, you know, had it
been in the playoffs, he could have played probably the
first Laker game, but you want to get him that
rest to make sure he's one hundred percent coming back.
And so yeah, it looked looked really good. Obviously a
very efficient game. Twenty seven points, ten, ten assists, and
you know, very effishing ten for fifteen shooting. So great
bounce back night for him, and obviously we're gonna need
him down the final stretch.
Speaker 2: And lastly, I meant tom and continue to give you
lots and lots of minutes. He is, scoring has gone up,
He's twenty six for you. How's he how's he holding
out during all this? I know he's young in spry,
but it feels like he has really taking a lot
of bumps here and probably a lot of cold tubs
after games these last few weeks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's definitely meticulous with the recovery, you know, getting
the needles and massages and everything, taking care of his body.
But yeah, we lean on him in several different ways.
Obviously the scoring has been great, has bumped there, but
the rebounding assists numbers no turnovers last game and then defending,
you know, the best player on the nightly basis. It's
a lot of work and so he takes care of
himself to be prepared for that and has really relished
in this role and I think that's what he's looking for,
that's what we need from him, and he's in the
forty winter range consistently but still does at a very
high level.