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Head coach Ime Udoka of the Houston Rockets yells from the sidelines against the Golden State Warriors.
Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka turned up the heat after his heated exchange with Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry at halftime of their 106-96 win on Sunday.
He slammed Curry and the Warriors for being crybabies.
“When people start complaining about foul calls or crying about physicality, you’ve done your job,” Udoka told The Athletic. “That’s the first step in winning the battle. So I told my team when this team starts crying about it, up the intensity, up the aggressiveness, and make the refs adjust to you.”
Unlike Udoka, who did not back down with his strong statement postgame, Curry took the incident in stride.
“He made a reservation to International Smoke and canceled it,” Curry told reporters after the loss. “I was upset with him. We went back and forth on that.”
Curry’s witty remark on the tense incident had his longtime teammate Draymond Green laughing hard beside him on the podium.
Green was also at the center of some of the heated moments in the physical game. He got a technical foul for planting an elbow to Rockets All-Star center Alperen Sengun then a flagrant foul for elbowing Sengun again on his way to the basket in a separate play.
“The tech, I’m not going to stop because the referee says stop and give up position,” Green told reporters. “I already give up six inches and 50 pounds.”
Amen Thompson’s Defense on Stephen Curry
It was a rough game for Curry, who was held to only three points on 1-of-10 shooting after putting up 125 points, scoring 52, 37 and 36 in three consecutive games in three different cities in four nights.
Rockets second-year guard Amen Thompson, who hails from Oakland and attended one of the Warriors superstar’s basketball camps when he was a kid, put the cuffs on Curry.
“I live for those big matchups — playing the greats,” Thompson told The Athletic. “He’s one of the top 10 greats of all time. That’s a matchup I want.”
Green had nothing but praise for Thompson, who is a candidate to join him on the NBA All-Defensive Team.
“Amen Thompson, you know I’ve been a fan of him,” Green said. “He’s so athletic. He’s just getting more and more confident. He is really the key to that team.”
Steve Kerr Praises Rockets Defense
Golden State coach Steve Kerr commended the Rockets for their defense of Curry.
“They were great,” Kerr said of the Rockets’ defense. “I mean ball pressure. They forced 20 turnovers. They’ve been one of the hottest teams in the league and probably the best defensive team in the league this last month and they took it to us.”
Kerr wants the Warriors to quickly move on and focus on their last four games to try to clinch a playoff berth and avoid the play-in tournament.
“We ran into a hot team. You just quickly move on,” Kerr told reporters. “I’m gonna go home and I’m gonna watch ‘The White Lotus’ and then I’m gonna get on a plane tomorrow. I’m just being honest.”