Tempers seemed to blind some players during the Miami Heat’s close win against the Houston Rockets. It began with an incident between Tyler Herro and the Rockets’ Amen Thompson. As they came together, the latter threw Herro onto the ground, erupting chaos on the floor. The end of the game saw six ejections, including the two perpetrators and the Rockets’ head coach, Ime Udoka.

Such aggression does tend to be possible in NBA games. Considering Houston lost at their home, anger was probably the leading factor for Thompson.

Ideally, a coach would look to suppress such emotions. Surprisingly, that’s not how Udoka seemed to feel about the scuffle. Rather, he didn’t speak with much regret.

“They were in each other’s faces, bumping chests a little bit. One guy is stronger than the other,” he said in his post-game presser after the Rockets’ 104-100 loss.

Heat fans, for obvious reasons, were furious with the way the game ended. But even though Thompson did receive their fury, Ime Udoka’s reaction also drew some aggression.

NBA Fans react to Ime Udoka’s comments on the scuffle

Both players instigated the incident between Tyler Herro and the sophomore Thompson. For a brief second, they both grabbed each other, but it was the Rockets forward who escalated the situation. But Udoka, not seeing any fault in his players’ actions, didn’t sit well with the Heat fans.

“Poorest excuse ever for animal behavior,” an enraged fan wrote. The former Celtics head coach is known for his brute personality. Udoka isn’t afraid of confrontation. Last season, he even clashed with LeBron James, which led to him being ejected from the game for his comments.

Some fans, though, had some issues with Udoka’s “stronger” remark. The Rockets HC intended to speak about the physical comparisons between Herro and Thompson. However, fans turned the tables on him. “Stronger one couldn’t stop him on defense all night, I get the frustration,“ one such comment read.

Tyler Herro has been in remarkable form in the recent games for the Miami Heat. Amidst the Jimmy Butler drama, the 24-year-old has been instrumental in ‘Vice City’ winning three of the last five games. Tonight, he was once again prolific, scoring a game-high 27 points to lead the Heat to the victory.

What seemed to bother some fans, though, was Udoka’s response. As the head coach, his ideologies are supposed to be passed on to the team. With him embracing such violent conduct from one of his players, the fans were unhappy. “Pretty unprofessional response from a Head Coach but he’s still in his feelings so it makes sense,” a fan expanded.

Not to play devil’s advocate, but Ime Udoka’s merciless ways do seem to have rubbed off on the Houston Rockets in the right way. They are arguably one of the hardest teams to beat due to their tenacious defense. Moreover, they have experienced a drastic improvement from last season.

Still, that is no excuse to engage in fights as such. It will probably be a conversation the Rockets have internally. But those things can’t be ascertained. With all that’s known, it seems like Ime Udoka wasn’t upset with Amen Thompson. “Seems like the entire Rockets team salty! I’m sure Amen gonna get suspended a couple games,” a fan suspected.

In hindsight, the sophomore will most likely be penalized with a hefty fine with possible suspensions. Previously, the likes of Draymond Green and other NBA players have been levied with such punishment for violent conduct. Luckily for Thompson, he doesn’t have a history of such incidents that could factor into a lenient decision.