{"id":172186,"date":"2026-01-10T14:35:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=172186"},"modified":"2026-01-10T14:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:35:55","slug":"udokas-durant-comments-are-missing-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/10\/udokas-durant-comments-are-missing-the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Udoka’s Durant Comments Are Missing The Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday night, the Houston Rockets lost a second consecutive game to the Portland Trail Blazers. Head coach Ime Udoka ripped into the team’s effort in his post-game press conference, particularly how their effort wanes without Kevin Durant<\/a>. However, is Udoka’s messaging on intensity beginning to fall on deaf ears?<\/p>\n

Udoka’s Durant Comments Are Missing The Point<\/h2>\n

Durant played 39 minutes in the 111-105 loss to the Trail Blazers on Friday night<\/a>. He played 37 minutes in the 103-102 loss to the same team on Wednesday night<\/a> as well. Over the two games, Durant scored 67 points on 25 of 46 shooting from the field. Alarmingly, over the same two games, he had just 4 total assists and 5 turnovers. But a lack of assists isn’t necessarily an indictment of Durant’s passing. The rest of the Rockets combined for 52 of 149 from the field over the same period. That’s 34.9%.<\/p>\n