{"id":32705,"date":"2025-11-03T04:13:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/32705\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T04:13:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:13:24","slug":"ime-udoka-reacts-to-durants-hot-start-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/32705\/","title":{"rendered":"Ime Udoka reacts to Durant\u2019s hot start in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through his first five regular-season games with the Houston Rockets<\/a>, Kevin Durant is averaging 27.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game while shooting 55.1% overall, 40.9% on 3-pointers, and 85.4% on free throws.<\/p>\n

The Rockets (3-2) have the league\u2019s best offense and second-best net rating<\/a> over that stretch, and their newly acquired All-Star forward is among the primary reasons why.<\/p>\n

Prior to Saturday\u2019s road victory<\/a> over the Celtics, head coach Ime Udoka was asked about the evolution of his 37-year-superstar, who is now in his 19th NBA season.<\/p>\n

Udoka coached Durant five years ago as a top assistant with the Nets<\/a>, and statistically, there hasn\u2019t been much of a decline \u2014 if at all \u2014 over that time. To say the least, that\u2019s in contrast to the usual NBA aging curve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Via Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe<\/a>, Udoka said this when comparing the current version of Durant to what he saw in Brooklyn:<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no dropoff. It\u2019s the same ol\u2019 Kevin, efficient. It\u2019s good for the group to have that (in Houston), and it\u2019s rubbed off on our young guys.<\/p>\n

He goes about every day the same as he always has. Since we crossed paths with Team USA and all the (playoff) series against him, I\u2019ve seen it first hand in Brooklyn, and the same thing here.<\/p>\n

I think he\u2019s taking maybe a mentor role, a little bit, with our younger guys. He had James (Harden), Kyrie (Irving), and a lot of veterans in Brooklyn. But he\u2019s been great with our guys.<\/p>\n

In his typically modest style, Durant gave much of the credit for his longevity to trainers and younger teammates, from which he finds \u201ckid-like energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if his current level of play is sustained, he\u2019ll undoubtedly get plenty of individual accolades as the 2025-26 campaign progresses \u2014 including the potential of a 16th All-Star selection next February. That would tie Julius Erving for the fourth-most in NBA history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the preparation, and his ability to put pressure on defenses,\u201d Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla told the Boston Globe<\/a> when asked about Durant\u2019s long-term success. \u201cI think it\u2019s his competitive nature. He\u2019s one of the smarter players, just a high-level competitor. I have a lot of respect for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

More: Rockets 128, Celtics 101: In third straight rout, Houston\u2019s defense finally shines<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through his first five regular-season games with the Houston Rockets, Kevin Durant is averaging 27.2 points and 5.4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,56,58,57,9261,9262,6326,21073,9264,15751,21074,1593,2579,184,46,36],"class_list":["post-32705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-accessfree","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sstssportsnbarockets","tag-sstsnrockets","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagbrooklyn-nets","tag-taghouston-rockets","tag-tagime-udoka","tag-tagjoe-mazzulla","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}