OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game at Brooklyn Nets | January 5, 2024

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game at Brooklyn Nets | January 5, 2024

Shay after obiously such a big deficit what did you guys try to do to to solve things as five out there just to to check away uh I think we just tried to play harder um tried to fight it’s easy um to give up in a situation like that

We didn’t want to be that team so we just Tred to fight what do you think accounted for the you know start the first quarter do you feel like that was more them just being you know hungry on another level were there um some controllables on your side um with a

Lead like that in after our first quarter there’s definitely some controllables um now some lck unlucky stuff could happen but most of it is is in our hands um it’s two nights now in a row we haven’t started the way we wanted to and how we haven’t um this season we

Usually be good with that uh so we we we got to fix that for sure yeah Mark says that you guys always get the car back on the road um what does that look like for you guys in the next you know 48 Hours not to you know you know dramatize It

Games but obviously it’s something that’s on your mind yeah um I think it starts with the start of the game um it’s just hard to play from a deficit that big uh especially in the league with players is good um when you start like down with a deficit and everything gets Amplified

The rest of the game every you’re in bonus earlier it hurts more you miss a block out it hurts more um so just trying to play kind of our hardest play the right way um from the jump Mark um for two star game IED know

A lack of energy from his point of view I wonder between you know today and Wednesday what some of the common denominators you saw um they came from maybe a lack of energy um I don’t know I just feel like defensively we haven’t been good um and

To this point we’ve been very good uh I don’t know what it is uh we will watch film and and try to figure out and correct it for next game for sure and and it’s probably hard to remain perfect spe leag after a stretch like December

Is there would you call this some sort of hangover or how would you label it um just playing basketball in the NBA um we’ve got out to a good start um better than most expected um we’ve lost two games in a row that maybe people say we shouldn’t

Or games that aren’t to our character um but it happens you have to you have to lose to become a winner um and we’ve lost two games in a row and we play the way we didn’t want to play for two games in a row um but it’s just

About how we respond for the next one yeah and we haven’t really talked about any rebounding troubles lately because it feels like you either match teams effort on the glass you know through that December Str or done other things to kind of gloss over that but tonight

They they win Second Chance Point 30 to7 I just wonder what you saw there that that may that your um a mix of turnovers offensive rebounds um getting back on defense but when you don’t um match the team’s energy level those are usually the categories of the game that get out of

Hand cuz energy controls all that and effort controls all that yeah now that you’re mentioning I think you just said you have to lose to become a winner for for you where do sentiments like that come from second where does what come from sentiments like that just statements like that in general Um I don’t know where I got that Kobe or Michael Jordan one of them um but yeah I yeah I think Michael Jordan said he’s he had to fail to succeed same thing is this a good learning point for the younger guys on the team that proves that it’s not going

To go your way every night there going to be nights like this every every every experience you can learn from but the toughest ones you learn the most from so for sure ther uh CH you guys all talk about kind of solving with all five out there

As the game went along uh how did you guys do that at a a higher level uh just continue to stick in it together and um try and play through each other uh and I feel like we did a good job of that down the stretch and

The second half we just have to uh come out the gates um that same way yeah anything that you noticed about either the way that Brooklyn came out how hungry they were finally getting back home here uh or or the way that you guys came out that uh allowed for that

Start um is a combination of us and them uh they were getting a lot of Second Chance points uh they were making shots we were missing shots um ball got a little sticky on offense sometimes um you know just a perfect combination of what you don’t want to

Happen uh and a lot of it was controllable for us so uh we have to get um into practice and into the film session um and and improve those things sh was just saying you know when you get down big like that every little thing hurts so much more you know Los ball

That goes off the wrong way or you know that that kind of thing what what does that feel like out there as you’re chasing it um late and in you know every little bounce of the ball matters uh I mean you can’t worry about that stuff uh

You can’t control how the ball bounces sometimes um we just have to go out there and focus on what we can’t control and that’s boxing out uh making the extra pass running hard in transition whatever it might be just control we can control and um you know that’ll that’ll

Fix a lot of our problems obviously second St game where we we talked about the slow starts and second St game where you end up catching up by the end of the game make it a a you know few possession game I wonder if you put

Any value in you know that that late juice that that makes these games close after being down so much uh I mean there’s definitely value there uh it’s it’s easy just to give up and say you know we’ll get the next team uh you know when you’re in those situations

But uh credit to us for not doing that and and fighting um and giving ourselves a chance at the end at the end of the game you always want to um put yourself in position to be able to win a game um and we we almost did that tonight uh but

Weren’t quite able to do it all the way and uh you know we got to put oursel in a better position from the jump uh next time yeah you mentioned Second Chance points they wi those 30 to seven and we haven’t really talked about rebounding recently because you know at December

Stretch you either match te effort on the glass or you did think that they maybe glossed over some of that I I wonder what you saw there tonight that contributed to their their second chance points deficit um I saw that myself personally I have to be better on both

Ends of the floor rebounding both offensively and defensively um and and we have to be better as a team um not only at at finding somebody to hit on the glass when the shot goes up but also going and uh and get in the ball it’s it’s a

Combination of both uh it takes all five guys out there but each one of us has to look at ourselves in the mirror and uh you know I’m going to start with myself on that one yeah I I think you played 33 games at ex you know where around that

Mark now um in your first season in the league I wonder how you’re holding up and how just the schedule and everything is treating um I mean we’re in the middle of uh a long season with um you know a lot of physical games with u really

Great athletes so um you know there’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way um you know you’re not going to wake up feeling perfect every single day but um you know if you try and dwell on that and focus too much on that uh it’s going

To take away from figuring out how to try and win games so that’s that’s where our focus is Chad how different did the net Look Tonight compared to the game on New Year te um they definitely came out with more Force um they came out and punched us

First in that game too but um you know they they uh continued that on for uh a larger portion of the game tonight um they were a more physical team and um you know that’s what helped them win the game Nicky Thunder uh Mark you guys often talk about solving

Problems all as a fiveman unit solving them together what did you see from your team to actually do that in the second half and and try to resolve some of those issues out in Florida to give yourselves at least um a shot lit yeah I mean it’s obviously a position you don’t

Want to be in but uh if we find ourselves in those positions we want to be a team that keeps fighting uh and you know squeezes everything out of the 48 minutes that we can uh and I thought we did that but I thought you know obviously the lesson tonight is you

Can’t um dig a hole like that and expect to come back and win the game at Halftime Grant Gibbs said You Know It’s Just Energy effort you know physicality thing uh was that your take was was there U anything that really stood out to you about that first half

That you know you guys got to do better yeah they were just the aggressor in the game on both ends of the floor I thought you know really credit them they’d struggled lately uh and they did a great job of attacking the game and setting a

Tone for the game they had the ball ahead of us on offense and then defensively they were physical with us and they were tighten their coverages and they built a nice lead because of that they had 17 Second Chance points at halftime uh so they did a great job

Um and went and got the game you know and had way more uh juice than we did in the first half of that game so they deserved it and we tip our head to them Mark you mentioned last game just about wanting to use every minute in 80

Game season and squeezing juice at a every minute but with with two slow starts like this um in the same week do you find any level of concern or do you attribute it to a variable that you think won’t last or what’s your thinking

Is it’s hard in a in an 82- Game season to you know react to two game Trends or things like that you know at the end of the day we have a standard that we want to play to every day you’re zero and zero you know our next game we’re going

To show up you know it’s going to be Z to zero that game uh is going to be a game that one of those teams can earn and we want to play to that standard every single night I’ve just found that you know if you start to react to you

Know any small sample Trend you end up chasing Your Shadow and missing out on the the opportunity in front of you so uh we have to learn the lessons from these games uh for sure and we’ll do that we’ll stare at them but at the same

Time we need to turn the page and and get ourselves back to zero and um you know put our best foot forward against Washington we talked about the glass it feels like earlier on in the season more so um obviously you guys have done things to Maybe cover some of that stuff

Up and there are games where you’re closer to to teams on the glass but today they outscored you 37 Second Chance points I I wonder what you saw there that allow them to control to as right A lot of it in the first half was just effort and physicality you know I

Thought they just they were hungry for that game and they played like it you know and I thought um that happens sometimes to start a game uh and it takes you a second to get going and you get yourself into the game but it just

Took us way too long uh to Pace with them and eventually you know I thought we we had our juice in the second half but uh the deficit that we were trying to overcome was obviously way too much yeah and obviously you you say it all

The time there are no two games that are the same this game is not the same as last game but in terms of energy and effort like you mentioned is there’re a common denominator between today and other um I mean other than the slow starts and the the deficits that we

Allow ourselves to get into um but we just try to we try to take every individual game as its own uh life and we try to play that game to the best of our ability learn the lessons prepare for the next one and repeat the process

Over and over again and we do that after wins we do that after losses we do that that’s our process do you get any sense that after you know December you played a bunch of high-profile games then Boston obviously that coming to play in two sub 100 teams

The last couple games maybe just tough to get up for that a little bit after a pretty exciting stretch I hope not you know I hope not I think we’ve got a team that that has a a pretty uncommon maturity so with anything like that uh

They always get the benefit of the doubt from me you know they’ve earned that they’re you know into it um you know they prepare they’re professional they attack the program they do all the things I thought we had a great shoot around today they do all the things that

Um you know you need to do to get yourself ready that would be predictive of Readiness and predictive of urgency and you know they’re consistent with that all the time but at the end of the day there’s 82 of these things we’d love to play Perfect all 82 of them but uh no

One does uh so we have to learn from it you know and and you know correct the things that need to be corrected but at the same time uh like I said I they have the benefit of the doubt from me anyone else we got one more in the corner there from

Ser um welcome thank you about theil MIT do you see him as a full-fledged Point guarden believe or more like AER shooting guard uh the way we play is kind of you know positionist and and we move guys around obviously there’s times where we use them on the ball like we

Did tonight there’s times where we have them off the ball as a secondary playmaker and that’s really how we use all of our perimeter really all of our players um but he makes it easy to do that especially offensively just with his IQ and his feel um he really knows

How to activate his teammates he gets your shots um he lets the game tell him what to do he just plays the play in front of him so you can move him anywhere in the lineup and anywhere on the court uh and he brings that to the

Table and uh has brought that from day one and he’s done a great job of keeping keeping himself Sharp and ready obviously I haven’t played him a consistent role up until recently uh and he’s done a great job then we go last one Joel in front Mark you you mentioned you know

Not leaving any stone on tournament I don’t want to put any word in off tonight but um you played 12 guys I think by the start of the second quarter just what was your your line of think there um well it was 10 until the last

50 seconds I I sub beron and Lindy uh for a two for one situation just to to get some shooting out there I don’t do that every night obviously but with the way the game was going I was just trying to um you know try to get everybody

Involved see if somebody could give us a spark you know it’s usually My Philosophy when the game’s turning like that um but it wasn’t like a 12-min rotation I just it was a spot sub uh based on the situation

Hear from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s game in Brooklyn, falling 124 – 115.

0:00 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
4:16 Chet Holmgren
8:43 Coach Daigneault

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