On Tuesday evening, the Houston Rockets suffered their second straight puzzling loss with a road defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers. Just two days after dropping a game against the lowly Sacramento Kings, the Rockets were unable to bounce back against the 8-21 Clippers, ultimately falling by a final score of 128-108.
After the game, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka reportedly put his team on blast, and took an indirect shot at Los Angeles in the process.
“Ime Udoka pointed to his team’s game plan discipline as an issue tonight, particularly how they guarded Kawhi and Harden. Also said his team didn’t play hard enough. Remarked that the Clippers aren’t known for playing with a ton of effort but they won the effort and energy battle tonight,” reported Will Guillory of The Athletic on X, formerly Twitter.
Overall, the Rockets have still had a mostly successful start to the year at 17-10, but given where they were after the first few weeks of the season, and considering that they have had the most lenient schedule in the NBA this year so far from an endurance perspective, that mark has to feel like a bit of a disappointment for both Udoka and the players.
There hasn’t necessarily been one specific issue to pinpoint for the Rockets so far this year, but the team’s lack of a true point guard is something that fans are continuing to point out as a potential problem for the team moving forward. Interestingly enough, some have floated the Clippers, and former Rockets guard James Harden, as a potential trade partner to help alleviate this issue.
In any case, the Rockets will next take the floor on Christmas night against the Los Angeles Lakers. That game is set to tip off at 8:00 pm ET from the Crypto.com Arena.