Ime Udoka Calls Out Rockets for 'Horrendous Mistakes' After Game 3 Loss to LeBron James, Lakers

Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka says his team made "horrendous mistakes" late in Friday night's Game 3 overtime loss to LeBron James and the visiting Los Angeles Lakers.

The Rockets held a six-point lead in the final 30 seconds of the fourth quarter but ultimately conceded a 112-108 overtime defeat.

"I don't know if you want to say youth, or scared of the moment, or whatever is the case," Udoka said Friday night (h/t Houston Rockets on SI's Lachard Binkley). "But you have a six-point lead with 20 or 30 seconds to go, you get a rebound and just have to hold the ball."

The Rockets are now facing an 0-3 first-round series deficit heading into Sunday night's Game 4 in Houston.

The breakdown for the Rockets started with what Udoka called a "terrible foul" on Marcus Smart with 25.4 seconds left.

Rockets guard Reed Sheppard then got the ball was attempting to move up the court with around 20 seconds left when James forced him to turn over the ball.

James then made a three-pointer to tie the game with 13.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

"Backcourt, you got it. Doubles coming, you try to split it instead of throwing it to [Alperen Şengün], wide open," Udoka said about Sheppard's play.

Sheppard, 21, was asked after the overtime loss about Udoka's suggestion that "youth" could have played a factor in that late mistake.

"No. I don't— I've played basketball long enough. Dribbling up the court with 30 seconds left is dribbling up the court with 30 seconds yet," Sheppard said (h/t Binkley). "There's never an excuse of, 'He hasn't been in a playoff game, he hasn't been in that environment.'

"It doesn't matter. It's simple basketball. I should've made the right play."

The Rockets were playing without Kevin Durant, who sat out his second game of the series after suffering a sprained left ankle in Game 2.

The Lakers were missing both Luka Dončić, who is indefinitely sidelined with a hamstring injury, and Austin Reaves, who warmed up for the Lakers but was ultimately ruled out with the oblique strain that has sidelined him throughout the series so far.

James once more stepped up for the shorthanded Lakers, finishing the win with 29 points highlighted by his game-tying three pointer to help put the Rockets on the brink of elimination.

Udoka will be tasked with finding a way to fill in for Durant should the Rockets star remain sidelined for Sunday's must-win Game 4 in Houston.