Ime Udoka doesn’t hold back on his philosophy, even when his own players affect the team’s scheme. On the receiving end was center Alperen Sengun. A missed chance from the 23-year-old drew the ire of the Houston Rockets head coach in the tense 117-116 win over the Warriors.

Before taking that 25-foot three-pointer, Sengun was 1-4 from beyond the arc. With 6:15 remaining in the final frame, the Rockets had a lead of 10 points. The Warriors were smart enough to bait the 23-year-old center to shoot from distance. The Turkish star has a career average of just 28% from the three-point range, and that gamble worked as Alperen bricked his shot.

Ime Udoka reacted because the shot went against the team’s scheme and gave a fast-break opportunity for Golden State. Charles Bassey grabbed the defensive rebound, and De’Anthony Melton made the 25-foot three-point shot after a two-man play with Pat Spencer. The Rockets’ head coach was quick to call a timeout. Sengun tried to apologize with his hand raised, but Udoka was furiously yelling at Alperen. Even the broadcasters noticed the failed attempts of the 23-year-old asking for an apology.

“And he says, ‘My bad,’ but Ime Udoka didn’t want to hear it. Because now you’ve opened the door for Stephen Curry and the Warriors. You take bad shots, which leads to long rebounds and easy transition buckets. That was the only way the Warriors could win.” Sengun was on the bench for a minute after the timeout.

Sengun would return and redeem himself. He finished with 24 points and scored 5 of those in the final 1 minute of the game, including the go-ahead layup with 11 seconds left to help Houston win by 1 point. This victory came at the right time for Ime Udoka’s team. Now, they are just one game back of the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, the third and fourth seeds in the Western Conference, respectively, but don’t hold the tiebreaker against either.

While the coach may have been vocal against Sengun’s one play, he was also quite appreciative of the overall performance.

Ime Udoka asked 29 other teams to pick their poison

The Rockets have extended their win streak to six games, and during that period, Houston leads the league in offensive rating (points per 100 possessions), per Cleaning the Glass. The head coach had made some tweaks to the style of play that were better for Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun. From just isolations and post-ups play now it’s more ball movement and dynamic, making it difficult for their opponents to keep up.

Speaking about the duo, Udoka said, “It’s good. You have to pick your poison. You can switch it, and one of them will usually have a mismatch, and you’ve got to get two on the ball. As I said all year, teams should fear Alpie in the pocket making the right play. Made some right plays, finishes, passes tonight, and yeah, as long as you don’t turn it over, it’s really worked out well for us.”

So, the heated reaction was quickly cooled down as the Rockets secured their win. Ime Udoka was able to focus on the bigger picture and was right to praise the 23-year-old for his performance today.