HOUSTON — Ime Udoka’s pregame attempts to downplay the significance of Wednesday’s NBA Cup quarterfinal didn’t mesh well with the atmosphere within the Toyota Center.
This wasn’t just another game.
For the individuals who were no stranger to high-stakes contests — Udoka having patrolled the sidelines both as an assistant and head coach in an NBA Finals, and the Golden State Warriors, the closest thing to a modern-day dynasty — there was nothing out of the ordinary for a mid-December fixture. Udoka spent the early part of the evening focusing on his team’s performances over the recent West Coast road trip and glossed over the prospect of advancing in the tournament. Out on the floor, Steph Curry paused his warmup for his best quarterback impersonation, laughing and drawing up play-action passes with staff — a look at the relaxation the Warriors felt.
But the Rockets, who typically spend the hours before tipoff loosening up and joking around, were library silent. Each seat in the arena was adorned with a red T-shirt commemorating the NBA Cup, eerily reminiscent of the old days, when meaningful games in April and May were a regular occurrence. The boos from the Houston faithful erupted as soon as the first Warrior sneaker touched the hardwood — and continued every time Curry or Draymond Green did, well, anything.
This wasn’t just another game.
So when Jalen Green saw the loose ball rolling across the free-throw line with six seconds left in regulation and instinctively pounced, attempting to fight Jonathan Kuminga and Kevon Looney for possession, it wasn’t about his 5-of-15 shooting performance — or anyone else’s, for that matter. Udoka has said several times that he doesn’t care much about shooting statistics. The result supersedes all else, and a semifinal berth in Vegas was on the line in a one-point game. Golden State had won the previous 15 meetings with Houston, long before Green’s time. And like the great American poet Kendrick Lamar said, he inherited the beef.
This wasn’t just another game.
“When you get a taste of winning, it’s from the other side,” Green said following Houston’s 91-90 win. “It’s a side I ain’t been on in two, three years of this. You’re going to do whatever it takes. So I saw the opportunity to dive on the floor, and I took it. The results came out amazing.”
This is who the Rockets are and what they have become. Forty-eight minutes of resilience, fortitude and belief.
Wednesday night was also a reminder of the potential perils that plague inconsistent offenses — Houston made just six 3s and turned the ball over 17 times. They are 30th in assist ratio, 23rd in 3s made and 27th in 3-point percentage, three red flags for a team preaching the importance of spacing the floor and being a multi-dimensional, equal-opportunity offense.
On far too many occasions, the Rockets’ lack of an on-court hierarchy resulted in the ball being flung toward Alperen Şengün, who was asked to create something out of nothing. That the fourth-year big finished with 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals is a testament to his growth, taking Udoka’s advice of imposing his will early and punishing the Warriors’ lack of size. Houston ran into another strong defensive unit in Golden State (fourth in defensive rating per Cleaning the Glass) who threw different looks at the Rockets, forcing them to create more offense from the midrange (36 percent) than at the rim (35 percent), a rarity given their roster.
But for all this team isn’t offensively, Houston is a defensive juggernaut — which has defined its 17-8 rise. In the 48 hours leading up to the quarterfinal, Udoka and the coaching staff went over multiple Warriors sets, zeroing in on Curry-centric actions. Houston forced three turnovers on Golden State’s first four possessions, a trend that would manifest itself throughout the game.
In a few instances early in the fourth quarter, Udoka was displeased with how the Rockets defended the Warriors’ split action, a staple of their offense designed to punish teams that pay too much attention to Curry and forget about their movers and cutters. But Houston was able to reel in the effort, getting back to communication and rotation. Curry finished with 19 points but took 17 shots and missed six of his nine 3s. Any possession that ran the former MVP and NBA champion off the 3-point line, as long as the shell behind was intact, was a win. Before Jalen Green hit the game-winning free throws in the final seconds, Houston had held Golden State scoreless over the final three minutes, a culmination of all factors coming together.
The Warriors, who are near the top 10 in ball retention, coughed up the ball a whopping 22 times, eight of which were 24-second violations. Second-year forward Amen Thompson said his brain is wired to generate an opponent’s offensive malfunction that when the buzzer sounds signaling a shot clock violation; his body still thinks there are at least 10 more seconds in the possession.
Houston’s defensive stalwarts — Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason and Dillon Brooks — are all wired the same way. They’re just as likely to be involved in a dustup as a timely stop. The Rockets are within striking distance of the best defense in the NBA, which happens to be their NBA Cup semifinal opponent, the Oklahoma City Thunder. None of this is possible without embracing the defensive culture instilled by Brooks, Houston’s emotional leader alongside the leadership of Udoka and Fred VanVleet.
“The guys that came — me, Fred (VanVleet) and Ime — showed a different brand of basketball, and it’s fun to play,” Brooks said. “It’s contagious for the rest of the guys even if they’re not that type of player. It shows that even if you’re not shooting the ball well and turning the ball over, missing plays, you can rely on your defense.”
Udoka might have said this was just another regular-season game, but his actions showed otherwise. He said there were strong comparisons to a 1990s matchup given the physicality, low number of free throws and defense on both ends. But even beyond the NBA Cup, this was a dress rehearsal for how Houston might address games in the postseason, assuming it stays on the current path. The rotation against Golden State was tightened to eight, with veteran Aaron Holiday getting the nod over rookie Reed Sheppard for backup point guard duty and Smith spending a decent chunk of his minutes as a small-ball center.
“We’re going to continue to fight and not give up,” Udoka said. “Got stops when we needed to, hit big shots when we needed to, got on the floor. Didn’t shoot the ball extremely well but … you can always rely on your defense when the shots aren’t falling.”
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(Photo of Jalen Green fighting for the ball with Jonathan Kuminga: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
