Tilman Fertitta Wowed By Ime Udoka’s Smooth Moves Down the Stretch — How the Houston Rockets and Alperen Şengun Seized Their NBA Cup Moment By Fighting Harder

As the frantic final minutes play out between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors, Tilman Fertitta is just like everyone else in the packed, loud, beyond red building, living and dying with every play. Fertitta debates strategy with his son Patrick like you maybe debated it with your buddy or your brother. And he ends up being wowed by almost every move his chosen coach Ime Udoka makes.

It ends with the Rockets finding a way to finally beat the Warriors 91-90, punching their ticket to Las Vegas in an NBA Cup quarterfinal that brings pure electricity back to the Toyota Center. No, willing a way to win.

Their Cup runneth over. With determination, fight and just sheer want to.

“Tremendous amount of grit,” Tilman Fertitta tells PaperCity shortly after one of the sweetest final buzzers he’s heard in a while sounds. “Ime made every right call at the end. And our guys stepped up at the end. I kind of thought whoever hit the threes at the end were going to win this game. And they hit ’em. But then we made every play that we needed to make.

“And like I said Coach. . . Coach went for the two (down three points in the final 30 seconds) and said, ‘My defense is good enough to get a stop.’ And that’s a coach knowing his team. That it’s better not to shoot the three and going for the two with Alpe (Şengün). And we got a deflection, which our guys know how to do.”

Tilman Fertitta looks right at his son when he mentions the going for two rather than forcing up a three to try and tie it right away. It’s an I told you so look. And Patrick Fertitta gives a laugh and nods his head. Tilman Fertitta may be the richest guy in Houston, a billionaire hospitality, casino and restaurant tycoon, not to mention Donald Trump’s expected pick to be the U.S. Ambassador to Italy. But in this moment, he’s just a giddy Houston Rockets fan. Which is what many miss about Fertitta when they get caught up in the dollar signs or the famous friends. How he’s always been a fan at heart first. How much he’s genuinely thrilled by seeing people in the city he loves happy.

And it’s hard not to be happy about this team, these players (many of them still young enough to not know any better), this coach.

“This is when you know we’ve beaten the Warriors,” Patrick Fertitta says of his dad’s mood.

You also know when Alperen Şengün comes down the long corridor towards the locker room, chest bumping anyone in sight and hoarsely shouting “That’s how we fight!” Şengün, the 6-foot-11 center from Turkey who sometimes seems to be playing magic tricks with the ball (now, Draymond Green definitely does not see it), gets the postgame TNT interview. That’s what 26 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals in a game with real pressure and stakes will do for you.

Şengün does not care about any of that though. He just cares that he and his guys have won. That those nemesis Warriors, who sometimes seemed to have nagged at the Rockets like a nail stuck in your lumbar nerve, are finally beaten. That Houston is moving on to the big Las Vegas and ABC national TV broadcast stage for the NBA in-season tournament’s Saturday semifinals.

“That’s the most fun I’ve had in the NBA,” Şengün says.

Their Cup runneth over. With a versatile center who’s so beyond unique that could find himself subject to The Sokovia Accords. And with a defense that never quits.

The Rockets force six shot clock violations from the Warriors on a night where everything is fought for. And then Dillon Brooks attaches himself to Steph Curry, like he’s got the game’s best shooter in one of those baby carriers on his chest, to force Curry to miss a three with 11 seconds left and the Rockets down one (after that Udoka go for two decision on the previous possession). Warriors guard Gary Payton II is actually the first one to get his hands on the bouncing ball after that Curry miss, but both Şengün and Fred VanVleet both get their hands in there to force the ball away and Jalen Green dives on the floor first, beating Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga to it like he’s Usain Bolt coming out of the block to skid across the floor like a young Tom Cruise.

Green will draw a foul on the play with only 3.5 seconds left and hit both free throws in a buzzing Toyota Center to give the Rockets their first lead in the fourth quarter. It will be the last one they’ll need.

When it’s over, Houston general manager Rafael Stone will seek out Dillon Brooks, one of those veterans he brought in to help the young Rockets learn how to fight, and wrap him in a tight hug. Bonding over Ws, over a team finding its ferocity.

“Tremendous amount of grit. Ime made every right call at the end. And our guys stepped up at the end.” — Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta

The Ime Udoka Fight, The Foul and the Steve Kerr Meltdown

Warriors coach Steve Kerr will go into the Houston night angrily denouncing veteran referee Billy Kennedy’s foul call 80 feet from the basket that sends Green to the line, talk about being robbed like an old man waving his fist at kids daring to play on his lawn. But Kerr’s ignoring some of the larger truth. Several Rockets out hustle Kerr’s guys on that decisive final scramble.

These Rockets are no Vegas frauds. Their Cup runneth over with pure desire too. Ime Udoka has made these Rockets want it more, fueled their desire to crave doing something that matters in the NBA.

“I don’t think we would have pulled that game out last year,” Rockets forward/small ball center Jabari Smith Jr. says. “Just shows the growth we had, the togetherness we showed. I would have rather win that way than beaten them by 20 because it shows how much we matured and grew.”

This is how you exorcise the demons of a 15 game losing streak to the Warriors, you scratch and crawl with them to the very end, until you can drop kick them out the door. This is how you bring the intensity of the playoffs into the middle of once sleepy December.

“It’s great,” Tilman Fertitta tells PaperCity. “And when you’re playing the Golden State Warriors, you would expect it to go the other way. Because they’re so. . . They’ve played in hundreds and hundreds of playoff games. And this is our first playoff game.”

Yes, this NBA Cup quarterfinal feels like a legit playoff game, down to the red shirts placed across every seat pregame and all the butts in those seats at opening tip. With the promise of many more nights like this to come in the spring at this arena in the heart of downtown Houston. These Rockets of Udoka, Şengün, Green, VanVleet, Smith, Brooks and the incredibles energy duo of Amen Thompson and Tari Eason have brought the fun and the big wins back, grabbed back their home in many ways.

“’I’ll be honest usually when we play against Golden State there are a lot of Golden State fans in Toyota,” Şengün says. “But today I didn’t see any. That was just great. That’s what we want to see.”

Ime Udoka, the often stern faced coach with more presence than an old movie cowboy, is just as calm after the win as he is down the stretch making all those decisions that impress Fertitta so.

“We’re going to continue to fight and not give up,” Udoka says of the Rockets ending the game on a 8-0 run.

“I don’t think we would have pulled that game out last year. Just shows the growth we had, the togetherness we showed.” — Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr.

With this team, Ime Udoka’s team in every way, the fight and the want to is impossible to miss. Whether it’s against longtime NBA royalty or not.

“This is a really good team,” Fertitta says of the Warriors. “And I just hope we see them again in the real playoffs in a few months. I hope we’re there with them.”

The billionaire who’s always been a Rockets fan at heart since he was a kid is being a little conservative. These Rockets will be there in the playoffs. Their Cup runneth over with so much more to come.