Ime Udoka feels that Steph Curry played right into his hands with their heated in-game exchange on Sunday night.
The Houston Rockets head coach Udoka was involved in a tense moment with the Golden State Warriors star Curry heading into halftime of their game. Curry was complaining to the referees about the way he was being officiated, which led to Udoka walking over and exchanging words with him. You can see the video of the incident here.
After the game, which Houston won 106-96, Udoka didn’t say a lot about the episode with Curry, simply calling it “friendly banter.” But speaking with The Athletic on Monday, Udoka got a little more candid and took a subtle jab at Curry for “crying.”
“When people start complaining about foul calls or crying about physicality, you’ve done your job,” said Udoka when asked about the Curry incident. “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.'”
Curry had a very frustrating game against Houston on Sunday as it was clear that he was the focal point of the Rockets’ defensive gameplan. He ended up with an uncharacteristic three points on 1/10 shooting (including zero points in the second half) and also got clowned on social media over the awful performance.
The Rockets and the Warriors have a budding rivalry, including individual players on both sides who have some scores to settle. Even the Rockets head coach Udoka, who has had incidents with other top NBA superstars before, isn’t afraid to get into the mix either.
