{"id":80415,"date":"2025-12-17T05:52:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T05:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=80415"},"modified":"2025-12-17T05:52:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T05:52:02","slug":"udoka-slams-officiating-as-nuggets-edge-rockets-in-ot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/12\/17\/udoka-slams-officiating-as-nuggets-edge-rockets-in-ot\/","title":{"rendered":"Udoka Slams Officiating as Nuggets Edge Rockets in OT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka criticised the referees after his team\u2019s 128-125 overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, describing it as \u201cthe most poorly officiated game\u201d he has seen in a long time.<\/p>\n<p>The physical contest saw both teams combine for 59 free throws, with Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas fouling out.<\/p>\n<p>Controversy peaked late in regulation when Amen Thompson was called for an off-ball foul on Tim Hardaway Jr. with 2.3 seconds left and Denver trailing 117-116.<\/p>\n<p>Houston\u2019s challenge failed, and Jamal Murray sank the free throw to force overtime.<\/p>\n<p>Udoka complained of inconsistent officiating, though Murray dismissed the claims, saying missed calls went both ways.<\/p>\n<p>After four ties and four lead changes in the final 1:40 of regulation, Denver took control in overtime, opening a 124-117 lead.<\/p>\n<p>Houston rallied but Alperen Sengun missed a potential tying shot late, allowing the Nuggets to hold on.<\/p>\n<p>Jokic led Denver with 39 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists for his NBA-leading 12th triple-double, while Murray added 35 points.<\/p>\n<p>Sengun recorded 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for Houston, with Kevin Durant contributing 25 points.<\/p>\n<p>The win lifted Denver to 19-6, second in the Western Conference, despite missing key players, while Houston suffered its third straight road loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka criticised the referees after his team\u2019s 128-125 overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, describing it as \u201cthe most poorly officiated game\u201d he has seen in a long time. The physical contest saw both teams combine for 59 free throws, with Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":80416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80417,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80415\/revisions\/80417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}