Stubborn and rigid in their own opinion, Uduka s poor on-the-spot command led to the failure of the Rockets G7?

In a previous NBA playoff game, the Golden State Warriors defeated the Houston Rockets who played at home 103-89. After this game, the Warriors, who won the tiebreak in the game, locked the total score of the series at 4-3 and successfully advanced to the Western Conference semi-finals. They will also meet the Minnesota Timberwolves who defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semi-finals; while the Rockets were somewhat regrettably defeated the last game and ended in the first round of the playoffs.

Considering that the Rockets have won two consecutive victories in the past two games and have chased the total score of the series from 1-3 to 3, everyone will be more optimistic about the Rockets' prospects, after all, their momentum is there. However, the result is completely contrary to the imagination of many fans. The Rockets did not continue the momentum in the past two games, but were almost suppressed throughout the game. Judging from the actual situation, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka was obviously suppressed by Warriors head coach Steve Kerr in terms of personnel use in this game.

Uduka reduced the number of rotation players to 8 in this game. Substitute point guard Aaron Holiday, who entered the rotation in the last game and hit a three-pointer, did not enter the rotation. On the other hand, even among these eight players, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason, who performed well before, have very limited playing time. The team's five starters and substitute center Steven Adams played more than 25 minutes, and the other four players played more than 35 minutes except Adams and Jalen Green.

Green had a mess of his touch in four consecutive games, and only played well in G2 during the entire playoffs. It is already very unreasonable for Green to still get a lot of playing time with his performance like this. In addition to G2, Green only scored 55 points in the remaining six games, and averaged less than 10 points per game. In the remaining six games, he had an offensive efficiency of 19 of 61 shots and 5 of 26 shots outside the three-point line, which was a terrible level. After all the game was like this, they could still get nearly 30 minutes of playing time and stay on the court at the last moment of the game, which also shows that Uduka's trust in Green is unreasonable.

Adams' performance in the previous games was amazing, and his opponent had no way to limit him. His advantages in figure and confrontational ability were also fully revealed. However, in the G7, the Warriors were also summarizing Adams' characteristics, and they were also attacking Adams' weaknesses in their own ways. Warriors wing pitcher Buddy Hield felt hot, and he kept punishing the Rockets' defense on the court. In this case, letting Adams continue to stay on the court is completely giving the opponent room to take action. As a result, Adams still got more than 25 minutes of playing time, which also shows that Uduka's on-the-spot command ability is very poor.

Dillon Brooks, another winger, has difficulty controlling his emotions on the court and can easily distract himself from some off-court things. In fact, in the previous game, Dillon was affected by the foul crisis, resulting in insufficient playing time. He played for less than a few minutes in the second half, and the Rockets won the game, which shows that Dillon is of little value at least in this round of series. As a result, Dillon got a lot of playing time in this game while feeling poor and in modest form.

Uduka's offensive tactics are very scarce. In the third quarter of the game, the team can only rely on Amen Thompson's impact to create damage to the opponent. Amen is indeed very capable and has won a lot of points, but he has cramps due to lack of physical strength. In the fourth quarter of the game, since Amen could no longer play and other players did not have the ability to score, the team's offensive pressure fell directly on Alperen Sengun. Originally, Shen Jing had no way to defeat the opponent's defense line by relying on his own strength. In addition, his own physical strength has also entered a bottleneck period. He was completely restricted by his opponent on the offensive end, his emotions gradually lost control, and his body language was completely deflated.

From the previous games, we can feel that what the Warriors are most afraid of is actually the Rockets' substitute forward star Smith. Smith is tall and the Warriors' team is short. Smith is misplaced no matter how he plays on the court, and he can also use his mid- and long-range shooting ability to punish his opponent. As a result, in this game, Smith's playing time was extremely fragmented, and it had a significant decline compared to the previous games. Moreover, he did not have enough tactical status on the court to support him, and he could not play his shooting characteristics.

Faced with the opponent's tactical changes, Uduka did not make any adjustments, but instead went all the way on the wrong path, which is also an important factor in the team's final defeat. Judging from the actual situation, the Rockets are not without opportunities. If he reduced Adams' playing time in the first half when Hilder had already shot crazy, the Warriors' score would definitely not be that easy. If he can use Smith and Holiday rationally with Green and Dillon's poor touch, the Rockets will also have a greater threat on the offensive end. They may not fall behind so much in the first half, and Amen does not need to be so hard in the third quarter.. By the fourth quarter, they don’t need to rely on the inefficient Shen Jing.

To sum up, Uduka is certainly not a bad head coach. His defensive coordination is also an important factor in the Rockets' breakthrough in their record this season. However, Uduka is not a head coach with a high ceiling. He is too rigid in employed people, and he is determined to do so and dare not correct himself. He is obviously slower than his opponent in terms of on-site command. The Rockets team is a team with a high lower limit, but under Uduka, the upper limit of this team is obviously not too high. The Rockets' young players are talented, but the talents of Uduka, such as Amen, Smith or Shin Kyung, do not seem to be fully utilized.