Ime Udoka brought some serious sore loser energy to the podium on Monday night after the Rockets’ heartbreaking overtime loss to the Nuggets, when he called out the referees, calling it the “most poorly officiated game” he had seen in a long time and saying two of the officials “have no business being out there and the crew chief was acting star struck”.
On Tuesday afternoon, the NBA released its Last Two Minute Report for the game, which featured three incorrect calls, all of which went against Udoka’s team. The report featured two incorrect foul calls against the Rockets; one on Kevin Durant, which the L2M Report deemed to be a clean block of a Nikola Jokic shot, and the other, a foul on Amen Thompson, which should have been ruled a clean steal of Jamal Murray.
They also added one incorrect no-call on a rebound by Tim Hardaway Jr. that should have been called a loose-ball foul as THJ pushed Sengun before pulling down the board.
One notable play that was not featured in the report was the foul that was called on Amen Thompson before the inbounds pass in the final seconds, which led to the game-tying free throw by Jamal Murray; that foul call was confirmed by the report.
Rockets coach may be justified, but still petty
While this may add a little air of credibility to Udoka’s case, it’s still a pretty weak look. This was a great basketball game, and one that Houston easily could have won, but they didn’t make enough plays down the stretch, and the Nuggets did.
There were obviously some bad calls, but it went both ways, and this game was not decided by the referees. Udoka and the Rockets are bitter because they built a team that is designed to be the main contenders to the Thunder for Western Conference supremacy, but they’ve now been bested twice already by Denver.
They are a very good team, a contender in the West even, but they are not on the Nuggets’ level, and they know it. In the first meeting between the two teams, Denver came into the game without Christian Braun due to injury, and moments in, they lost Aaron Gordon, who has been out ever since.
Both of those players missed the rematch on Monday as well, and to make matters worse, Peyton Watson exited just five minutes in with an injury of his own. And still, despite being extremely shorthanded, Jokic and Murray still pulled out the tight victory. It’s a tough scene for the Rockets, and no report from the league is going to change that.