![\"Rockets](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2273004811-e1777107749191.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Rockets Coach Throws Team Under the Bus<\/p>\n
The Houston Rockets handed the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> a gift on Friday night, and their own coach made sure everyone knew it.<\/p>\n In one of the most shocking late-game collapses of the 2026 NBA<\/a> Playoffs, Houston blew a six-point lead in the final 30 seconds, lost 112-108 in overtime, and now stares down an 0-3 series deficit.<\/p>\n \u201cHorrendous Mistakes,\u201d Udoka Doesn\u2019t Hold Back<\/p>\n When asked how the game fell apart from his vantage point, Rockets coach Ime Udoka delivered a scorching assessment of his own players. \u201cHorrendous mistakes,\u201d Udoka said<\/a> bluntly.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if you want to say youth or scared of the moment, or whatever the case.\u201d He then methodically broke down every critical error in the final sequence, a turnover on what was essentially a one-on-four situation, a terrible foul on Marcus Smart that gifted the Lakers three free throws, a backcourt violation, another turnover, and finally, the Rockets not executing the final play as drawn up. \u201cAll of the above,\u201d Udoka said.<\/p>\n Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka on losing Game 3 to the Los Angeles Lakers: \u201cHorrendous mistakes. I don\u2019t know if you want to say youth or scared of the moment or whatever the case.\u201d <\/p>\n LeBron James and Marcus Smart Punish Every Mistake<\/p>\n At\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c one point, the Rockets had a 101-95 lead after LeBron James had back-to-back turnovers, leading to the game being pretty much out of reach. But with 25 seconds left, Houston made a mistake that led to a foul on Marcus Smart, who was at the line for a three-point shot and scored all three free throws, bringing the score down to a three-point difference. James then made a steal from Reed Sheppard and hit a very cool and very cold three-point shot to tie the game with only 13 seconds left in the game.<\/p>\n Alperen Sengun\u2019s last-second shot missed the rim, which allowed the game to go to overtime, where the Lakers outscored the Rockets 11-7 to end the game \u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c112-108.<\/p>\n Sengun and Thompson Were Not Enough<\/p>\n In\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c their defense, Houston\u2019s young core did not give up after falling behind by 15 points in the first half. Alperen Sengun showed his strength throughout the game with 33 points and 16 rebounds, while Amen Thompson contributed 26 points and 11 rebounds. The Rockets even outrebounded the Lakers and had more points in the paint; however, all those efforts were pointless due to the late-game meltdown. Kevin Durant, who is still recovering from a sprained ankle, was not present to rescue \u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200cthem.<\/p>\n A Closing Problem That Goes Deeper Than One Game<\/p>\n Udoka acknowledged the collapse<\/a> wasn\u2019t an isolated incident. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a weakness of ours to close out and finish,\u201d he said. \u201cThe amount of mistakes or the type of mistakes are egregious and you can\u2019t have those.\u201d<\/p>\n With a 0-3 series hole, the Rockets\u2019 season is way too close to be over. And after a presser where their own coach publicly dismantled their performance mistake by mistake, the question now isn\u2019t just whether Houston can survive Game 4. It\u2019s whether Udoka himself survives the summer.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJayesh Pagar<\/a> Jayesh Pagar is a writer at Heavy Sports, covering the New York Knicks and other NBA teams. He brings four years of experience across digital sports media, including NBA, WNBA, college basketball, and college football. He covered as the Knicks beat writer for ONSI and has written for PFSN, Sporting News, and ClutchPoints. More about Jayesh Pagar<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rockets Coach Throws Team Under the Bus The Houston Rockets handed the Los Angeles Lakers a gift on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-717598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116464567247508508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}