Amid his first ejection as coach of the Houston Rockets, was Ime Udoka’s altercation with LeBron James a strategy?

A confrontation with LeBron James led to Ime Udoka’s first ejection as coach of the Houston Rockets. The dispute came late during the Rockets’ 107-97 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.

The quarrel led to double technical fouls for the two respective parties, which resulted in Udoka’s second of the night. His first technical foul came with 2:51 in the second quarter.

When the ejection occurred, Udoka was frustrated by the Rockets’ play. But following Monday’s practice, Udoka revealed a part of his altercation with James was a strategy to send a message to his team.

“We want a competitive group, which we do have,” Udoka said. “But I talked to the guys about not taking a backseat to anyone. Opponents, as well as teammates and certain guys. We have certain guys who would address it, but we want everyone to be that guy.”

Dillon Brooks coincided with Udoka’s message but tried to ease the tension. Brooks said he tried to push James away from Udoka but felt the officiating crew lost control of the game. The referees assigned in Los Angeles were Tre Maddox, Dedric Taylor and J.T. Orr.

“A terrible group out there,” Brooks said. “They lost control of the game. It’s very inconsistent and that’s what you get from inconsistent — a whole bunch of nonsense…He wasn’t backing down to anybody. He played the game before. We’re still finding our identity as a team, and with our coach standing up for us, it’s a big thing.”

The Rockets dropped their eighth consecutive road game after falling to the Lakers. And 17 games into the 2023-24 season, Houston is the only team in the league without a road victory.

Monday afternoon, Udoka felt his team had a good practice responding to his message. However, the most significant test will come Wednesday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder inside the Toyota Center. The Rockets are 8-1 on their home floor.

“It was a competitive practice,” Udoka said. “My main thing is to play with a certain kind of effort that it takes to win every night. When you have some success, you have to continue to build on that and improve. Guys sometimes get a little comfortable. But we have to get back to what we did well, which is guarding and playing unselfish basketball.”