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Speaker 1: He's the Matt Thommas Show with Rocks.

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Speaker 2: One O two on Sports Talk seven II. Let's spend

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ten minutes right now with the head basketball coach if

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your Houston Rockets. His name is Emay Adoka. Rockets tonight

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taking on the Atlanta Hawks, and this Hawk team coming

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in has won eleven consecutive games. Rockets could certainly like

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to begin the streak like that going here sometime soon.

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Thanks for the time. Tell me about how awesome that

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third quarter was for you. Guys came back after being

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down double digits, and I really thought it was a

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turn of the corner in fourth quarter. What was the

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difference in your mind those final tova's compared to what

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you saw all of those opening minutes of the third

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quarter two nights ago.

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Speaker 3: I would say, our energy and see it was way

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better than the third. Obviously, getting down, we battled back

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and that was a good sign. But you know, defend

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at a high level, holding num to twenty two. Obviously,

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scoring thirty seven is a great number for a quarter.

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The fourth quarter to start it was it was a

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few bad plays in a row, turnovers that led them

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out to easy baskets and kind of went on. I

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think they went on thirteen to six run to retake

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the lead, and so after all the work we put

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in third, it was, you know a little disappointing to

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come out in the fourth and kind of give it

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right back, you know.

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Speaker 2: It's the turnover count was significantly lower than it was

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from Monday, but it meant it felt like every one

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of them turned out to be leakouts into baskets for

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the Lakers. That's at least the way I saw it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you have twelve turnovers. They scored twenty three points

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off those, and there are eight or ten and fast

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break points. That was a big part of it. And

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so a lot of live ball turnovers that got out

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to the layups. You know, you want the dead ball ones.

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If you do turn it over, you want to throw

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out of bounds or a travel or whatever the case

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may be instead of a steal that leads to an easy,

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uncontested break. And so to the credit, they were efficient

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in those although we had the number lowers, just the

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types of turnovers that really hurt us.

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Speaker 2: Did you feel like man with a men being as

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efficient as he was Alpi was ten of fifteen. That

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was it was you needed something of a bounce back

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in that and get to get out be out there

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and tell me the obviously the discappointment level for losing

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those two games at home and then obviously now unfortunately

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a little bit of separation between you and the Lakers

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for that three spot in the West.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we had an opportunity to go the other way,

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especially how tight the standings are, and you know, we

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at least want to win one and win the season

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series a tiebreaker and put ourselves in a little bit

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of hole there, but have time to kind of dig

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ourselves out. We're two games behind and lost columns. So

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get on the streak, like you mentioned, start to play

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more consistent basketball, and finish here on the right note,

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we can get ourselves right back in contention where we

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want to be.

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Speaker 2: You may Tari got to double digits for the first

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time this month. Unfortunately he just has one three point

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two his credit. This is a prolonged slump for him.

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Is this a deep dive into shot selection? Is it

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to where the balls leaving his hand? Because I WI

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always have the before belief if I can usually tell

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when the ball leaves a hand if it's going to

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go in because of the rotation of where it was shot.

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What's what's in his mind right now, because obviously this

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is the deepest funk he's been in quite some time.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it starts to become mental at some point, you know,

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like I always had with young guys, you have your

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ups and downs, and Jabari played his way out of

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it and been playing great basketball this year. Alpiece had

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to deal with it somewhat at times, and so you

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want to do other things to inject yourself into the game,

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not just rely on three pointers going down. You know,

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call some havoc on the defensive end, like he does,

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get some easy baskets, He got some out in transition,

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get to the free throw line and put backs, you know,

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get on the offensive last things of that nature. So

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you're not just relying on three point shot. But honestly,

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it's the same great looks he was getting all year

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when he was shooting forty five plus. And he just

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has your ups and downs. But he has to stop

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overthinking it. I think that guys will start to hesitate

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and pass up open shots trying to get something better.

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You know, stay the course, trust the work that you

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put in, and you'll shoot your way or work your

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way out of that slum.

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Speaker 1: How did you feel about the way you guys handed

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Luca handled Luka Doncic for a couple of games, because

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to me, it seemed like a lot of times it

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was pretty good defense, even though you look up he

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had a four point triple double and then I guess

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at least you didn't give up sixty.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, he's a tough shot maker. You know,

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he was efficient with the shots. But other than the

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first game where we had some miscues and he got

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some wide open threes, he didn't get the same open

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looks in this second game. I think, you know, he

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made really tough, contested shots in the lane that you

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kind of want to live with, and we did a

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really good job on him on Christmas Day and making

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him miss the same shots and so very efficient. That's

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why he's one of the best in leading the league

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in scoring is because he can do that on a

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nightly basis. But the other things were, you know, the

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three point attempts being at seventeen and then the free

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throws being at fourteen, that's way too high a number.

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And obviously you see it's the same thing he did

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against Miami last night seventeen attempts in fifteen free throws,

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so consistent with what he does, and that's why he's

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the lead scorer.

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Speaker 1: Rocket Tech coach Imo Adoko was here on Sports Talk

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seven ninety. We know that every game at this point

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of the utmost importance. Do you feel like, as a

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coaching staff and around the team, are you guys trying

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to get into play off mode or trying to try

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to keep things a little bit normal.

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Speaker 3: No, you have to ramp it up and understand that

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after all, start breaking goes very quickly, and let alone

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the standings of how tight it is this year, you know,

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and when you've given some games away early, you have

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more sense of urgency you know later in the year.

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And so for us, you already have to kick into that,

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no doubt. I think in general we understand what's on

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the line now the rest of these games. You want

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to get to that mode as quickly as possible. But

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also you know understanding that this that you can go

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from three to seven pretty easily and get on a

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good streak ourselves.

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Speaker 2: This Atlanta team, I think we'll catch them. You mean,

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at the absolute wrong time. They have won eleven consecutive games.

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Not only are they winning games. You may be as

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you know, they're blowing people out. What's what's the election

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that's working for them right now?

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Speaker 3: They've been number one on offense and number one on

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defense in the last you know, just on their streak

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eleven games. I think Jalen Johnson's playing an extremely high level.

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But they're playing fast, aggressive, you know, shooting the three

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really well, and then they're great on the boards. So

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that's always ah, you know, formulas for success you shoot

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the ball with fast in transition and crash the offensive

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and defensive glass. And they've done that.

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Speaker 2: Uh you got I guess one of a couple of

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back to backs now left to go before the end

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of the season. It feels like we are always running

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into these things. Is Dorian going to play tonight or tomorrow?

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I guess I was trying to figure that out at

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this point. Dorian to play tomorrow. Okay, so Dorian is

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out tonight and how's It looked like Albe was pretty

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fresh for a couple of games of back spasms those

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things and always pop up, but he looked very nimble

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and was able to really be effective at least scoring

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for you and when you needed two a couple of

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nights ago against the Lakers.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he's feeling good. I think, you know, had it

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been in the playoffs, he could have played probably the

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first Laker game, but you want to get him that

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rest to make sure he's one hundred percent coming back.

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And so yeah, it looked looked really good. Obviously a

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very efficient game. Twenty seven points, ten, ten assists, and

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you know, very effishing ten for fifteen shooting. So great

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bounce back night for him, and obviously we're gonna need

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him down the final stretch.

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Speaker 2: And lastly, I meant tom and continue to give you

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lots and lots of minutes. He is, scoring has gone up,

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He's twenty six for you. How's he how's he holding

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out during all this? I know he's young in spry,

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but it feels like he has really taking a lot

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of bumps here and probably a lot of cold tubs

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after games these last few weeks.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he's definitely meticulous with the recovery, you know, getting

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the needles and massages and everything, taking care of his body.

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But yeah, we lean on him in several different ways.

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Obviously the scoring has been great, has bumped there, but

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the rebounding assists numbers no turnovers last game and then defending,

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you know, the best player on the nightly basis. It's

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a lot of work and so he takes care of

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himself to be prepared for that and has really relished

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in this role and I think that's what he's looking for,

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that's what we need from him, and he's in the

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forty winter range consistently but still does at a very

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high level.