Ime Udoka Addresses Alperen Sengun’s 43-Point Game; Reveals Fred VanVleet Went Off At Rockets’ Bench
After the win, the Rockets head coach Ime Udoka spoke to the media at the press conference about Alperen Sengun’s big night and also revealed that Fred VanVleet had to shout at the bench to wake them up after the Jazz took a 10-point lead late in the third quarter.
Key points
- But a big part of it was him and Alperen being aggressive offensively.” Even Alperen Sengun spoke about Fred VanVleet’s much-needed third-quarter wake-up call that helped the team pull through down the stretch.
- In a tight game like that, those shots were needed.” This game also highlights the importance of Fred VanVleet on the floor in situations where a young team could have lost its energy after being down by 10 points in a regular-season game.
- He scored 10 of his 17 points in the third quarter after apparently shouting at the Rockets’ players, who allowed a 22-point swing in the third quarter that turned a 12-point lead into a 10-point lead for the Jazz.
So he comes out there, wakes everybody up, and plays his a– off.” Sengun’s historic performance once again highlighted his importance to the Rockets’ championship ambitions, but VanVleet’s leadership proved equally valuable in a game that could have slipped away.
Additional details
- They were blitzing him, and he was finding all the right guys,” Udoka said on Alperen Sengun’s performance.
- Udoka will be pleased with how both the young players and the veterans responded under pressure, especially with the Rockets continuing to develop their young core.
- VanVleet finished the game with 17 points, two rebounds, and three assists while shooting 6-11 from the field (54.5% FG) and 3-6 from beyond the arc (50.0% 3P).
- This makes him the third player in franchise history (after Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming) to score 40+ points, grab 10+ rebounds, and dish five assists while shooting 70%+ from the field in a single game.
- He kind of kept us afloat in the lows and took over towards the end.” After a night with such high usage, Sengun had only one turnover out of the team’s eight.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
Advertisement
Every article behind this summary — 1 article from 1 outlet
Get stories like this in your inbox.
Subscribe — it's freeOne free email at 6am — your topics, deduplicated, five minutes. No account, no paywall.