The Houston Rockets led the Los Angeles Lakers by six points with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation on Friday night… and went on to lose the game, giving the Lakers a commanding three-game lead in the series.
“Horrendous mistakes,” Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said after the game, according to ESPN. “I don’t know if you want to say youth or scared of the moment or whatever the case.”
Two late turnovers allowed the Lakers to scrape their way to overtime, including LeBron James stealing the ball from Reed Sheppard, which led to James hitting the game-tying three-pointer.
“It was a stupid turnover,” Sheppard said. “[Alperen Sengun’s] man came up. I should have hit Alpie right over half court and just made the simple play. I tried to split the two defenders.”
“It’s obviously a weakness of ours to close out and finish,” Udoka said. “The amount of mistakes or the type of mistakes are egregious, and you can’t have those.”
The Rockets were without superstar forward Kevin Durant, who missed the game with an ankle injury, but Udoka wasn’t making excuses for his squad.
“Grow up,” he implored his team. “You’re not that young anymore.”
It’s unclear if Houston will get Durant back in time for Sunday’s Game 4.
“Up in the air,” Udoka said. “I think we made some progress in the last few days, but we’ll see how that [goes] with only one day in between.”
As tough as this loss is to stomach for his locker room, Udoka needs his squad to refocus and work toward extending the series.
“Now, you’ve got to go get one on Sunday and don’t let this one beat you twice,” he said.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.