LOS ANGELES – With a day off in Los Angeles on Friday, Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green and center Alperen Şengün stopped by ESPN to appear on “NBA Today.”

In recent weeks, national writers from ESPN, The Athletic, Andscape and Athlon have caught up with the Rockets at practices, games and shootarounds. Coach Ime Udoka has conducted interviews about his team’s strong start to the season.

As the Rockets practiced Saturday to end their two-game losing streak, Udoka had a message.

“I just told the team today that I have done five interviews in the last few days,” Udoka said. “It’s all cops—. You were on “NBA Today” yesterday. Granted, we’re doing well and haven’t had much success. So it’s the plot of the year. But we are just a few games away from reaching eighth place.

“My message is that you shouldn’t fill your head with it. It’s an act. I had (an interview) with Dillon (Brooks). I had one on Jalen, two on our defense. and one about our great start. We are level with a number of teams. That was the message.”

“We really didn’t do much,” Green said. “We had a good start, but the goal is the playoffs.”

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On Saturday, a day before the game against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Rockets (15-8) left practice at UCLA tied with Dallas and Memphis and in second place in the Western Conference, although both teams won that night and pushed Houston to fourth place. The Rockets’ setbacks to the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors early in a three-game trip gave them consecutive losses for the first time this season.

They did well to get back on their feet. The Rockets suffered their worst loss of the season against the Oklahoma City Thunder and prevailed in the next match against the Thunder, the leaders of the Western Conference. After a heavy home defeat against the Portland Trail Blazers, they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road.

This made Udoka more confident than curious about his team’s reaction.

“One area where we have improved (this season) is the way we adapted to losing one,” Udoka said. “That’s why our message all year long at the start of the season was: consistency, avoid losing streaks. So far we have done it. In the last seven losses, we adapted well and went back to the things we did to avoid losing two in a row. I think we were spared that, especially in the last two games. So the message is the same.

“Of course we want to (change) this result up to and including defeat, but above all we want to get back to what we did and didn’t do in these (previous) games. That was our message after just one defeat. After two, I’ll probably emphasize it a little more.”

The Rockets have the second-best defense in the NBA, but they have been ranked 20th in their last two games. That includes an 8½-minute stretch in Sacramento in which the Kings missed 15 consecutive shots, as well as Thursday’s loss in which the Warriors were without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. (Both returned Friday and are expected to be available Wednesday when the Warriors play the Rockets in the NBA Cup quarterfinals at Toyota Center.)

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The Rockets ranked second in second-chance scoring this season and were 17th in their last two games. They ranked ninth in scoring from turnovers and were 28th in their last two games.

The Rockets shot poorly, making 40.9% of their shots against the Kings and Warriors. They normally shoot poorly, but this represents a drop from their 43.9%.

When Udoka talks about “getting back to what they did well,” the qualities that drew all the sudden media attention after several years out of the spotlight until draft night, it starts with defense and rebounding .

On Thursday, the Rockets were without Tari Eason, who is in the concussion protocol and missed the loss. He returned to training on Saturday, but that is only phase three of a five-step process to get back to playing.

With Eason out, Udoka made only minor changes to his rotation. Jabari Smith Jr. spent most of his time at power forward instead of moving to center, while Eason plays backup power forward. This gave center Steven Adams a season’s best of 17½ minutes. Guard Aaron Holiday played 14 minutes off the bench.

As the Rockets await Eason’s return, they need a return to the qualities he brings that marked their rise in the Western Conference.

“When you lose, there are a lot of variables,” Udoka said. “Certain things have to be the same to set the tone. A certain amount of effort. Play with some effort. A certain level of aggression. A certain power. I haven’t seen that in the last two games. When we lose, it’s because of things we can’t control, and I think we got away with it in some moments of the game in Sacramento and Golden State.”

If they regain those qualities and surpass the Clippers, who are in sixth place in the Western Conference and just a game and a half behind the Rockets, they will once again feel worthy of the sudden attention. It’s likely there are more to come; The NBA Cup game on Wednesday will be broadcast on TNT, and a trip to Las Vegas is on the agenda.

For the players left over from the Rockets’ lost seasons of rebuilding, there’s satisfaction in escaping it all, even if they know they still have a long way to go.

“We did that,” said Shengün. “This is us, our growing up. That was our (record) back then and is still our (record). But we have to keep going up.”