Houston Discovered The Player Who Is Giving Them Undevelopment In Playing The Game….

On Sunday afternoon, head coach Ime Udoka and the Houston Rockets saw their team’s faint playoff hopes come to an end with an overtime road loss to the Dallas Mavericks despite leading pretty much throughout the entirety of the game, including holding a 15-point advantage at the end of the first quarter. The Mavericks got the game into overtime courtesy of a buzzer beater in regulation from Dante Exum, who has seen a career resurgence during his time in Dallas, and ultimately, Udoka’s squad will now be officially be watching the big dance from home despite a recent 11-game winning streak that shocked pundits and fans around the league.

During the final moments of overtime, Luka Doncic hit a shot that essentially put the game away for the Mavericks and appeared to say something in Udoka’s direction as he headed back down to the other end of the court.

After the game, Udoka was asked about that incident and had a hilariously blunt response.

“I don’t understand Slovenian so I don’t know,” said Udoka, per Jackson Gatlin of Locked on Rockets on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.

For his part, Doncic indicated that the verbal sparring stemmed from a previous encounter between himself and Udoka earlier in the season from which there was evidently still some animosity.

“He was talking to me in the first game there, so you know I’m going to go back,” said Doncic, per Noah Weber of The Smoking Cuban on X.

A disappointing finish for the Rockets

As previously mentioned, coach Udoka and the Rockets recently raised eyebrows around the league with a shocking 11-game winning streak that saw them catapult from a surefire lottery team to having a legitimate chance to knock off the Golden State Warriors and secure the number ten seed in the vaunted Western Conference playoff picture, thereby earning themselves a spot in the Play-In round, which would have given them a chance to compete for a spot in the NBA playoffs.

Instead, the Rockets have now lost several games in a row while the Warriors have found a bit more consistency, and Golden State effectively ended any realistic chance that Houston had at that prized number ten slot with a recent win in the Rockets’ home arena, which saw Klay Thompson have one of his best games of the year.

Still, Ime Udoka’s first year at the helm in Houston following his stint leading the Boston Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals was a relative success, as the team’s free agent signings of Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks paid dividends and the team also saw the emergence of Alperen Sengun (who ironically missed the entirety of the winning streak due to injury, as well as the rest of the season) as a player with legitimate star potential.

Next year, the expectation will likely be that the Rockets at least make the Play-In round with another year of experience, and motivation from this year’s disappointing finish, under their belt.

DALLAS — 

Kyrie Irving scored a season-high 48 points, Dante Exum forced overtime with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer and the Dallas Mavericks rallied from 22 points down for a 147-136 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday.

Luka Doncic had 37 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds as the Mavericks took another step toward the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Dillon Brooks scored a season-high 29 points, and Fred VanVleet had 24 points and 12 assists for the Rockets, who were eliminated from postseason contention after not trailing until the final three minutes of regulation.

It was a fifth consecutive loss for Houston following an 11-game winning streak that is tied for the longest in the NBA this season.

With Houston leading by three with 8.3 seconds to go in regulation, Jabari Smith Jr. missed two free throws. Dallas was out of timeouts, and Exum scrambled up the court and passed to Doncic. The Dallas superstar dribbled toward midcourt and faked a shot before passing to Exum, whose 3 over Smith beat the buzzer.

Irving, who scored 25 points in fourth quarter and overtime, put Dallas ahead for good in the extra period at 133-131 with two free throws.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul George scored 23 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter, James Harden added 22 and Los Angeles rallied to beat Cleveland for their 50th victory.

Los Angeles overcame a 26-point deficit for the third-largest comeback victory in franchise history.

Terance Mann hit a tying 3-pointer and Amir Coffey followed with a 3 to give the Clippers their first lead since late in the first quarter, 118-115.

Jarrett Allen completed a three-point play to tie it at 118. After a timeout, George hit a jumper for a 120-118 lead with seven seconds left.

Darius Garland drove the lane and got blocked by Paul, but the Cavs got the offensive rebound. Max Strus put up a desperation shot from the right corner, falling down by the Clippers bench as it missed with time expired.

The Clippers reached the 50-win mark for the first time since 2016-17 when they had 51.

BOSTON (AP) — Jaylen Brown scored 26 points and reached 10,000 in his NBA career, leading Boston past Portland for their 13th straight home victory.

Kristaps Porzingis had his third straight double-double with 12 points and 10 boards in just 27 minutes for NBA-leading Boston.

Payton Pritchard scored 20 points, Derrick White had 15 and Jrue Holiday 12 for the Celtics, who have won 14 of their last 16 overall.

Dalano Banton led Portland with 28 points and Deandre Ayton had 22 points and 14 rebounds. Jabari Walker added 14 points and 18 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who finished 2-5 on their seven-game road trip.

Celtics star Jayson Tatum sat out because of a right knee contusion. It was the sixth game missed for the team’s leading scorer (27.0 points per game).

PACERS 117, HEAT 115

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Myles Turner finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds, T.J. McConnell added 22 points and Indiana hung on to strengthen their playoff prospects with a victory over Miami.

The Pacers have won four of five to take a 1 1/2-game lead over the Heat for the Eastern Conference’s sixth and final guaranteed playoff spot.

Jimmy Butler had 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Heat. Tyler Herro scored 21 points but had a made free throw erased because of a lane violation on Kevin Love with 3.6 seconds to go and the Heat down two.

Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin each scored 20 and Adebayo had 12 rebounds for Miami, which lost for just the second time in six games as it tries to avoid staying in the league’s Play-In tournament.

Indiana never trailed over the final 45 1/2 minutes, but Miami certainly made it difficult late. The Heat cut the deficit to one twice in the final 3 1/2 minutes, but the Pacers answered both times on a festive day for Pacers fans.

THUNDER 121, HORNETS 118

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Josh Giddey had 20 points, 13 assists and 13 rebounds for his 11th career triple-double, Isaiah Joe had two key 3-pointers in the final 1:30 and Oklahoma City beat Charlotte to snap a three-game losing streak.

The Thunder had lost their previous three games — their longest skid of the season — with stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams out with injuries.

But Aaron Wiggins stepped up with 26 points and Chet Holmgren had 20 points and 10 rebounds as the Thunder escaped with a win when the cold-shooting Brandon Miller missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have sent it to overtime.

Grant Williams led the Hornets with 19 points, and Vasa Micic had 17 points and 10 assists.