Ime Udoka credits soon-to-be father Jalen Green’s uptick amid 8-game win streak
After the Houston Rockets' dominant 147-119 win over the Utah Jazz on Saturday, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka credited Jalen Green's hot streak amid their eight-game winning streak.
"He's on a hot streak obviously, and just like people have slumps at times, people can go on these runs like this," Udoka said to reporters.
Jalen Green dropped 41 points, four rebounds, four assists and one steal against the Utah Jazz on Saturday. He almost matched his career-high 42 points yet again after matching it just four days prior against the Washington Wizards.
"Main thing is he stayed resilient and continued to be confident when things weren't going great," Udoka continued. "All it takes for a really good score is to see a few go through, you know, run off a game or two of hot shooting and it can kind of snowball like this so like I said, I'm proud of the way he fought through some adversity.
"I've coached a lot of high-level scorers and this is right up there with them, the streak he's going on right now, it's not easy by any means regardless of who it is to drop 40 in the league consistently."
In the past 10 games, Green has averaged 27.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists to lead the Rockets to nine wins. The Rockets are 35-35, 11th in the Western Conference and are fighting for a spot in the play-in tournament. With 12 games left in the regular season, they are 1.5 games behind the Golden State Warriors who are currently tenth in the Western Conference.
Jalen Green is soon to be a first-time father
Draya Michele (39), the girlfriend of Jalen Green (22), is in the third trimester of her pregnancy and announced the news of her soon-to-come girl baby on International Women's Day (March 8).
While Michele announced her pregnancy over two weeks ago, Green discussed it in an interview after the Houston Rockets' blowout win against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, in which he matched his career-high 42 points.
When asked what has driven him to be exceptional in recent games, putting up some of his best performances, the Rockets guard mentioned his "family" and his "baby." Green did not mention Michele by name, he acknowledged both his unborn child and the mother.
With Green's career soaring and their anticipation for their baby's arrival building, the couple seems to be embracing their journey together.