Losing a 13-point lead in the final three minutes is bad. Losing it to a team without its superstar is a fireable offense to some. For the Houston Rockets, that collapse was all the ammunition Bill Simmons needed to deliver a damning verdict on head coach Ime Udoka.

Oh, how high hath the mighty fallen! That has to be the story of the Houston Rockets as the regular season comes to an end soon. They began the season as the team capable of going toe-to-toe against the OKC Thunder, built around future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant and All-Star center Alperen Sengun. However, Houston (43-29) finds itself sixth in the West, and with just four wins in their last 10 games. That run of games included a historic overtime meltdown against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, where they surrendered a 13-point lead in the final three minutes without Anthony Edwards on the floor.

Prominent NBA commentator and podcast host Bill Simmons wasn’t particularly pleased. On his podcast Thursday, he delivered an unambiguous verdict on third-year Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, saying: “Ime. I think this has been one of the worst coaching jobs of the year. I don’t see any adjustments late. The vibes are awful. I don’t think he really likes the team that much.”

It is not simply a criticism of results; Simmons pointed at the former Boston Celtics coach’s late-game decision-making, the atmosphere inside the locker room, and a perceived disconnect between the coach and his own players.

He took it further, floating a timeline that many Rockets observers have quietly noticed but few have stated openly: “If you want to go full conspiracy on it, they have not looked the same since the All-Star break and all that KD burner stuff, whether that was true or not true, they don’t look the same.”

The KD burner controversy, screenshots of an alleged private X account which surfaced around the All-Star weekend with posts reportedly critical of Rockets teammates, including Sengun, was publicly dismissed by Durant and treated as a distraction by Udoka, who declined to engage. Now, whether the account was Durant’s or not, Simmons’ point is about effect, not proof, as the Rockets were playing well before the break, and they have not been the same since.

The Rockets are averaging 114.2 points per game (21st in the NBA) and just 24.9 assists (26th). Note, this is a striking profile for a team with Durant, one of the best shooters the game has ever seen, and Sengun sharing the floor. The Rockets, this season, take the league’s second-fewest 3-point shots per night at 30.8 attempts, a low even by Udoka’s own historical standards.

Additionally, their offense is slow, static, and heavily reliant on two players doing the heavy lifting. After the 132-124 Bulls loss on Monday, in which Chicago scored 41 in the first quarter against a team that hadn’t shown up at shootaround, Udoka had blunt words for his own squad: “Poor start. Disrespected the game. Not prepared from the get-go. Just non-aggressive… You come out like that, you’re going to be inconsistent. Stop bullsh**ting.”

It was his second public blast at the team in a week, and it went viral for all the wrong reasons. Whether the coach’s diagnosis is landing, though, is precisely what Simmons questioned.

Bill Simmons Points to Damning Sengun Moment as Proof the Rockets Are “Not on the Same Page”

Before he criticized coach Udoka, Simmons had words for the team chemistry. It was a single scene, described with the kind of specificity that lands harder than any win-loss record.

“This is bad. First of all, it’s the most disconnected of all the playoff teams. There was a play last night, where they f** at the end of regulation, and Sengun had to come down, and he made this absolutely insane block to save the game on Randle. And then hits his face on the floor, and his lip is bleeding. Reed Sheppard comes over, kind of like gives him a ‘nice job, buddy’ like it’s the end of the first quarter or something. Durant doesn’t even acknowledge him, really, and nobody else on the Rockets comes over, and Sengun just walks back. This was one of the best plays of Sengun’s career. … that team is just so not on the same page. I don’t like the vibes. Something’s really wrong with the Rockets.”

Sengun has been consistently the team’s most reliable performer. The block on Julius Randle was a potential game-saving play in the dying seconds of regulation. His teammates’ collective non-reaction to it is what Simmons flagged as the real story. Houston lacks a true point guard after Fred VanVleet tore his ACL and was ruled out for the season, which has left the offense without a reliable engine to generate flow, connection, and in-game communication.

While that structural void helps explain the static offense Simmons is critizising, it does not explain the body language. Sengun’s season has included a 33-point, 13-rebound, 10-assist performance against the Bulls, and in that game, Houston still lost 132-124.

With 10 games remaining and the Rockets sitting sixth in the West, the worst-case scenario is a late spiral into the Play-In Tournament. Their remaining schedule includes Memphis, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Utah, and Golden State, which, on paper are manageable closing stretch, but one that offers no margin for the kind of lapses Simmons is documenting.