HOUSTON – Ime Udoka didn’t waste time with excuses, silver linings or nurturing words after his team suffered its worst loss of the season.

He stepped to the microphone after the Rockets’ stunning 112-108 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, which pushed Houston to the brink of elimination in this shocking first-round series, and gave an unfiltered assessment of his team’s inexplicable late-game execution.

“I talk about age all the time, but I’m not talking about 23, 22 (years old) or whatever it is,” Uodka said. “I’m looking at five years, four years, three years in the league and growing from there. Not learning from previous experiences.”

“I don’t know if you want to say youth or scared of the moment or whatever’s the case. … It’s obviously a weakness of ours to close out and finish.”

Throwing away winnable games in the final moments is nothing new to this Rockets team. It’s been a fatal flaw the entire season.

It’s no coincidence they’re 1-8 in overtime games this season. It’s no coincidence that they became the first team in the play-by-play era to blow a 13-point lead in overtime last month. It’s no coincidence that, in four of their last five meetings with the Lakers, they were within five points in the last five minutes and all four of those games ended in a loss.

One of the primary reasons why this season is one loss away from going down in history as an abject failure is that this group specializes in folding under pressure.

In Friday’s loss, it started when Houston held a six-point lead with less than 30 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The Rockets then went on to become the second team in the last 30 years to lose a playoff game after leading by six points or more with 30 seconds left in regulation.

Jabari Smith started the collapse by tossing away an unforced turnover to Marcus Smart. A few seconds later, Jae’Sean Tate inexplicably fouled Smart while he was attempting a 3-pointer. Smart would make all three free throws.

After a timeout, Reed Sheppard caught an inbounds pass in the backcourt, and instead of passing the ball up the court to one of his teammates, he dribbled around long enough for LeBron James to poke the ball away from him in the backcourt. With 13.6 seconds remaining, James splashed a 3-pointer to tie the game at 101.

In an instant, Toyota Center went from thunderous ovations to stunned silence.

To make matters worse, the Rockets had one more chance to get a game-winning shot up at the buzzer, but Udoka said his team improvised on the final play instead of running what was drawn up in the huddle. The possession ended with Alperen Şengün tossing up an airball hook shot with 1.7 seconds remaining in regulation.

Once the game went to overtime, it was just a matter of time before the Rockets put the finishing touches on their most embarrassing loss of the season — one that likely brings their season to an end, knowing no team in NBA history has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit and won a series.

In the postgame locker room, Udoka made his team rewatch their comedy of errors in the final moments of regulation and delivered a blunt message.

“Grow up,” he said. “You’re not young anymore. You’ve been to the playoffs once (before). (These are) horrendous mistakes.”

As the season was slipping away from his team late in the fourth quarter, Kevin Durant’s absence was never felt more than when he was sidelined for the second time this series because of injury. This time, it was a left ankle sprain he suffered during the second half of Game 2.

However, Durant’s presence wasn’t just missing on the floor. He was surprisingly absent from the Rockets’ bench the entire game.

When asked about it afterward, Udoka said Durant was in the locker room getting treatment during the game.

Even if that is true, Durant’s absence on the bench as his teammates fought tooth and nail to save the season only feeds into some of the negative narratives surrounding Durant and the Rockets all year.

Of course, Durant could only impact the game so much in street clothes. But having him on the bench could’ve been invaluable as the lead was slipping away late. The Rockets have talked all season about the value injured veteran point guard Fred VanVleet brings from the bench as the sage voice who has helped slow the game down for some of his younger teammates.

At best, it’s a bad look for someone of Durant’s stature to be missing during such a pivotal moment as his team is fighting to keep the season alive. At worst, it’s yet another example of the dysfunction that’s been such an overarching storyline around this Rockets team all year.

But beyond the off-court ramifications, the Rockets are clearly dependent on Durant’s skill set during moments like the one they faced late in Friday’s loss. He’s an amazing shot maker, and his presence demands so much attention from opposing defenses.

Without him, it puts added pressure on guys such as Sheppard and Smith to be decision-makers and ball-handlers in moments when they aren’t as comfortable serving those roles. That was especially true this season, since Durant missed only four games during the regular season, en route to playing the second-most minutes of any player in the NBA.

The Rockets have been bad enough at closing out games with Durant this season. Not having him out there made it even more difficult to close the game out the way they should have.

“Obviously, it’s different when he’s not on the floor. He’s a tremendous scorer. He can draw so much attention to himself when he’s out there,” Sheppard said. “It sucks not having him out there. But at the end of the day, it’s our job to go out there and fight and compete and win. That’s what we’ve got to do in the next four (games).”

Now, the Rockets need to put the emotions of this loss behind them and prepare for one of the biggest tests of the season in Game 4 on Sunday.

The Rockets losing this series is historically a foregone conclusion. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit, and this particular Rockets team has done nothing to show they have the mental fortitude to pull off such a historic feat.

But Sunday will be all about judging how this team competes. How do they come together as a unit? What kind of character do they show as a group?

Game 4 will be a crucial test to show if this team is even worth salvaging, or if it has come apart at the seams so much that the front office has no choice but to shake things up in the offseason.

Can Udoka get his group to fight for him one more time? Can he put together a functional game plan that pushes back on some of the claims that JJ Redick has coached circles around him this series?

There’s not much left to do about the flaws that got the Rockets to this point. There’s no going back now, even if Durant is healthy enough to play on Sunday.

This team is exactly who we thought they were all season.

However, there is something commendable about a team that keeps fighting even when they know there’s nothing left to fight for. Although the ceiling was much lower for last year’s Rockets, they garnered much more respect because there was never a question about their willingness to battle until the very end.

With this team, and with Durant as the leader, that answer hasn’t always been clear. But we will be getting an answer soon enough.

“We’re all in it together,” Smith said. “Just got to lean on each other. Lean on my brothers to pick each other up and bounce back.”