OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Houston Rockets | February 27, 2024

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Houston Rockets | February 27, 2024

Chat the approach that you guys had playing the same team uh in back-to-back games what’ you make of the way that you guys were able to come out and um be the aggressors for most of the night um yeah we knew that uh they were going to game

Plan and change some things and um kind of try to react to our defense and see where they could uh you know gain some advantages so uh you know we really tried to just come out with energy and muck the game up and not give them consistent looks uh you know active

Hands make everything tough and I feel like we did a good job of uh you know forcing turnovers and uh you know creating 50/50 Place uh that we could win um you know I feel like there were some stretches we could still be better

In uh you know coming out of the half uh you know we can definitely clean that up um and then some of the rebound and stuff too but uh overall good good game for us in general coming out of the half uh since the All-Star break you guys

Have been uh really great defensively from a attention to detail standpoint or or just preventing slippage standpoint what stands out to you about the way you’ve defended in the second half as a team uh credit to everybody the coach has given us good adjustments at halftime and uh you know the players

That step on that Court uh you know not only the first five but uh you know the guys who Sub in in that third quarter too you know everybody’s ready to roll um you know obviously we can always be better uh like tonight but uh you know I

Feel like everybody everybody’s kind of locked in at all moments Chad you mentioned right after the break that you you felt the days off that you you had kind of come back fresh has that carried on for you you’re shooting the ball well since the Break um I mean it’s we’re definitely not

Going through January again so yeah I feel pretty good and then we’re on like about the last 30 games or so Shay’s shooting around he’s over 40% from three four tonight is his season high if he’s making threes consistently like what what does the defense do with him um

I mean it seems like he gets to that little step back a lot but uh you know he also um uses it to fake too you know he’ll kind of stutter at you and and flip his hips and go too so like it’s really hard not to respect the

Drive but you know when he’s making it at the clip that he’s making that step back at uh and even catching shoot threes too um you know it’s it’s really tough uh you know I’m I’m not going to sit here and try and tell people how to

Stop it they got to figure it out so uh Chad the other night you mentioned that you’re not going to chase shots and uh heat checks and things like that is that the same mentality defensively like is there ever a temptation to sort of chase after blocks that you feel like

You could get that might not be the best for defensive possession well I mean if I think I can get a block I’m going to go get it um but if I think it’s going to put me out of position uh where it’s going to end up hurting us as a defense

Then um you know I’m going to try not to put us in that position obviously think things happen quick decisions aren’t always you know correct the other team might read what I’m doing um and react to that so there’s a lot of factors but

Um you know a lot of us just read and react and you know try to make the right play you mentioned the team being locked in right now what has it been like being on a team where the communication is not only open but honest and everyone can be

Accountable uh I mean it’s great uh I don’t think anybody wants to go to work with co-workers who aren’t uh you know one doing their job and and two uh enjoyable to be around and you know that’s the environment that we have uh not just the players but the coaching

Staff the support staff the front office everybody enjoys coming to work and uh you know we all have one goal in mind so uh you know it makes it makes it easy to key in on what we need to do can you can you walk me through the the alleyoop to Gordon

Hayward yeah man uh my lives were terrible in the r Stars game so I had to lock in and figure it out when I when I threw it thought I was going over the backboard and ended up being being like almost short but it’s two points

So Justin hey Chad I want to ask you about Lou just what does it say about him on a night where shots aren’t falling he’s still able to have a defensive impact you know I think he held Freddy I think was like five points tonight just what does that say about him

Um I mean that’s that’s the tales of a high level competitor uh you know not letting one thing affect the rest of their game and that’s something that Lou brings every night uh you know he brings all defensive level defense uh you know intensity uh you know he makes a lot

Tough for a lot of guys um and you know I was in the boat with him too I was missing some putt shots out there but uh you know I feel like everybody on the team does a great job of knowing what what we have to do and knowing like it’s

Not going to be perfect so not letting one thing affect the other Gallow Casey Thunder uh Shane no two games in a miniseries are going to be exactly the same what do you think were maybe some different Keys tonight that you guys were able to take care of uh compared to

The game a couple nights to go yeah I think we uh brought physicality from the jump tonight um we didn’t have our best offensive game but we we brought the fight to them from the beginning um and we were able to kind of get a lead and maintain the lead from most tonight

Because of it now four straight games coming out of the All-Star break where you haven’t allowed the other team to score 50 points in the second half uh all four times anything that you’re noticing about the approach coming out of halftime and just uh how disciplined

You’ve been on that end of the floor yeah we just know that’s where we we want to hang our hat every night um no matter what or how the balls bouncing in and out the rim um or what’s going on if we if we defend we give

Ourselves a chance and we know that um and when we’re doing that in the first half we try to continue to do so and we’re not coach tells us and we try to get back on track with that at halftime you mentioned the physicality uh Mark the other night mentioned how you guys

Didn’t start the game uh as physical as you wanted to um how much of a mindset was it for you guys as players on on the floor to come out and bring the physicality to them instead of them bringing it to you guys yeah um it was important

Uh we um we know what type of team they are um and we had just beat them so we KN knew they were going to come in hungry um and try to impose their will on us and be physical um and we just wanted to match that off off jump um and

Not kind of get behind like we did last time in playing sh the last 30 games or so you’re up over 40% from three any change in your approach there anything you did mechanically any difference um no I just keep shooting them and they’re going in are you are you finding

More of them are you seeking more of them um I try to let the defense tell me what to do um and try to shoot what I’m comfortable shooting uh I work on them um and hopefully they keep going in but I’m going continue to work on them for sure

We as journalists often ask you guys how you will will continue the momentum when you have a win streak but out of these last six games what would you like to see continue with you all um just not to get complacent um and continue to to defend the way we have in

These six games uh when we do so no matter where we go who we play we give ourselves a chance hey Shay uh John chidley Hill from the Canadian press uh I was at the Boys and Girls Club of Oklahoma City yesterday and they were speaking really

Highly of you and and all the things you’ve done for that organization in particular when you took uh about 15 kids on a shopping spree uh back in December I’m curious why did you choose to do that cuz you know it’s a little more personal than just you know

Donating money to donate your time instead um I just want to show the kids that uh this kind of figure or person who I am is not Out Of Reach um and I’m an everyday person uh I went through the same things they want gone through um

For the most part I’ve been a kid before um and when I was a kid the NBA felt like it was a world away like it was almost impossible and I just don’t want them to feel that way so kind of being there and interacting with them is is

Kind of something I wanted to do and I’m curious how does Oklahoma City remind you or how is it similar to Hamilton Ontario um It’s a Small Town quiet um it’s kind of like a blue colar city um people go to work get their work done

Um and live their lives um a lot of hardworking people in both cities I would say those things Michael then Justin um Shay you guys are top five in steals top five in blocks in the NBA you and Chad are both top uh six and stock Steals and blocks

Combined Mark said that it’s not really a scheme thing that you guys are going for that is that something that individually you feel like you’re focusing on or it’s just sort of plays just sort of happening um I think plays sort of happening um Chad obviously has a gift with protecting the

Rim um that’s just his talent uh and then we have a lot of guys that are good Defenders with good hands um and we try to be disruptive defensively um and it works in our favor Shay seems like you guys really blew the game wide open in that third

Quarter there I think you had like nine of 11 points on a run there just how do you find that balance between letting the game come to you but also realizing when you have the hot hand to to just R it like you did there um just take what

The defense gives me um and trust my work uh there’s moments and you can feel it when you’ve got it going um and you should be aggressive and there’s also moments when you you you you need your teammates and you got to kind of play

The game um but it’s something that I I notice and I try to work on every game every day um and I’ve definitely gotten better at hey Chad talk a little bit about chat’s perform or I’m sorry SJ talk talk a little bit about Chad’s performance Houston’s coach said um we

Shouldn’t let Chad holgren push us around like he did tonight talk a little bit about what he did tonight yeah um he was everywhere uh he was on the boards offensively defensively he was blocking shots he was making plays um just Ling The Game come to him uh I mean

The kid’s special we’ve seen it all season long and he just continues to be consistent um the sk’s limit for him anybody else we got one more in the front last one sh one more thing on the the threes some people would say the guy’s scoring 31

Points a game and shooting such a great percentage one one more thing about the threes some people might say you know like you’re scoring 31 a game you’re shooting so efficiently why would you even need three-pointers what’s the advantage to you of of getting some more of those

Um just making the defense pay for sagging um if it’s a shot that they’re giving me being able to make it um makes them guard me tighter and then I can drive um and and the playoff teams are going to throw different schemes at us

Different schemes at me and I want to be able to be comfortable and have seen it before and know how to attack it and and take advantage of it when that time comes I don’t know should I do it like this I can hold go ahead goe Nick Gallow casy Thunder

Jaylen you guys keep kind of having these new hurdles uh to have to clear another one being these little miniseries with with the Rockets uh how do you feel like as you look at the totality of the two games you guys handled going up against the same team

Twice a team that um you know hurt you guys pretty good the first time you saw them uh yeah um you know we’re trying to be a playoff team and we take a lot of these like Min series like really serious just because you’re going to go

Into an environment where you got to play the same team over and over again um so you know we kind of use this as an opportunity to scout better um and kind of just get used to playing the team back to back and I thought we had a good

Did a good job of kind of our prep and kind of being able to flip the page obviously coming from Houston there’s a lot of things that we wanted to clean up and I thought we did a good job kind of flipping the flipping the pages and kind

Of getting back to how we wanted to play after the game Josh kind of credited Dave Bliss and the coaching staff for stuff at halftime it’s not a lot of time to talk about all sorts of defensive stuff but are are there things from a process standpoint that um are

Consistent that you feel like are really valuable to really helping the defensive efforts in the in the second halves lately yeah a lot of it is uh physicality I think when you can start the game out like that you know it kind of sets a tone for the whole game so

They were harping on that to start the game like you said you know you get really about like 4 minutes to really go over your whole Scout and and do that whole thing so uh I think just helping the hel her uh coming out with energy

Like stuff that we can control you know things like that being locked into the Scout that we already had planned uh so they do a good job kind of showing us Clips in between you know that four minutes to kind of get prepared to go out there and play the second half you

Know completely different than how we did the first but Shay had four threes tonight that’s a season High and the last 30 or so games he’s up around 45% if he’s making that shot what do you do with him defensively I don’t know you got to ask somebody else I’m on the team

I’m just cheering when it goes in I have no idea he talked about wanting to you know playoff teams are going to throw different looks at you and so if they’re sagging you know punishing them and that sort of stuff what what can it open up

For you guys if if he’s taking that shot as well uh you have to respect it like you said something that he works on I watch him work on it all the time so it’s kind of no shock that it’s going in but he just kind of understands how

Teams are guarding him and you know you got to live with something and you know he’s shooting shooting it really well so when you have to respect that part of his game it just opens up the floor you have to respect them and play him out

There and then you know we’ve seen him get to the rim and get to his mid-range and all those spots so makes it hard for him to guard and you know teams are going to probably have to double or send two at them or give different looks and

Then that’s you know we’re also everybody else is kind of shooting the ball really well so just adds another dimension to our whole team after the deadline you talked about Gordon Hayward your first impression of him was that he was taller than you thought now that

You’ve played a few games with him do you have any other takeaways on his game or anything like that uh yeah really smart player um he’s been really good for us defensively which is hard to do to you know middle of the Season kind of plug in obviously hadn’t even played how

How long did he go without playing like a year since Christmas oh yeah okay so since Christmas you know not playing and and being hurt to plug into a different team halfway through the year and still be able to understand our defensive rotations kind of plug in where we need

Him to and not really Force anything on offense kind of let him just come to him um speaks a lot to his character and how he’s you know been able to be successful in the NBA so um hopefully that’s a better answer than he he’s taller than I

Thought yes and then you guys are top five in both steals and blocks Mark said it’s not really a part of your guys scheme that it’s a lot of just Personnel how do you guys balance between being aggressive and going for those but not necessarily like overstepping your

Defensive coverages and kind of U stretching too far um it’s a it’s a thin line you know you got to read how the game’s being afficiated so um you know that comes with feel a lot of it is just playing really solid defense and then I mean

There’s a luck ass ECT involved in it too but usually you know you want to play just really solid defense and kind of have them play on your terms and then from there it’s just instinctual you know you can jump gaps um be in a good

Position to get a block uh I think a lot of our blocks are chat too so you know that kind of helps but yeah just being in the right position uh on a consistent basis I think can we can you know Force turnovers and kind of have people play

Out of their Rhythm you mentioned wanting to be a playoff team of this six game winning streak what would you like to see continue with you all winning but um you know deeper than that I think um just kind of sticking together through the highs and lows of the Season you

Know we’re just about that halfway point a little over it so um just kind of doing the same stuff that we’ve been doing to win you know kind of being consistent with our identity uh you know there’s going to be games we don’t shoot well or you know even play well but I

Think just sticking together and kind of trusting one another through the whole process you seem pretty excited to get bismack in the uh the post game can you just can you just tell me a little bit just about the the post game getting around G after the game and just like

The camaraderie around that and like where where did that come from and and like what were your thoughts on tonight uh I have no idea where that came from uh I think just like one game we were joking around and we did it and then you

Know it kind of just became a thing but I think it’s a good way to just keep the team motivated and happy and you know it’s just like it’s not like a scripted thing like we’re not going every game and like oh that’s what we’re going to

Do it’s just kind of like how our team is and you know we’re close-knit and you know kind of shows that nobody’s like above anything everybody’s in the in the break randomly and uh you know it’s just fun to kind of see how whoever’s being interviewed reacts um I feel like Nick

Has fun do you have fun okay yeah so it’s fun it’s just a fun little thing we do um just shows how close we are like it’s not like a scripted thing like we’re going into games and we’re like all right we’re going to do this every

Time it’s just random and then tell your thoughts on the late game tonight oh what time is it it’s like 1:00 a.m. I don’t know uh hopefully Mahogany’s still open Jaylen can you uh take us through your perspective of Chet’s reverse dunk and when you threw that lob were you

Expecting that from him when you passed it I didn’t think he was going to dunk it that way but I mean it was a perfect lob I mean I couldn’t couldn’t have thrown it any better so I knew he was going to dunk it but um I think to

Reverse and crazy that was that was the best lob we’ve had so far but um yeah like I said it was a perfect lob it would have been hard to mess up scw up okay uh you all surpassed last season’s win total tonight 24 games left

Can you just kind of reflect on your two seasons and how different has this one felt to you um yeah I think we just got closer as a team um and I thought that was going to be pretty hard to do from last year just cuz you know how good that group was

Um yeah I think we’re you know we’re kind of in the flow everybody’s kind of accepting where they are with the team and I think that’s a really unique thing uh we found oursel pretty quick and we kind of found out what works and what

Doesn’t so far so and we’re young so I think that’s really exciting and you know it kind of just shows Improvement I think that’s what every NBA team wants you know regardless of how the season is going you don’t want to look back at your season and see that you got worse

So the fact that we’re able to improve and have this big of a jump is is great but obviously you know we don’t want to settle Where We Are are right now but it is it is nice knowing that we’re getting better and you know we’re understanding

Each other a lot more nio kissy Thunder uh Mark your your last four games since the All-Star break you haven’t allowed a team to score more than 50 points in the second half uh what has it about been about the way your team has responded uh

At halftime to really have the the right mindset and game plan heading into the second half yeah it’s not just a halftime thing I think we uh you know came out of the break you know a great mentality the guys did a great job job during the break of taking the rest they

Needed but also uh staying somewhat sharp and in Rhythm and in shape um and we’ve we’ve caught a good um you know Rhythm coming out and U just want to ask you you mentioned a couple days ago you know sort of the the growth mindset that there’s no you know place where you’re

Going to have arrived what what are you seeing still from this team in terms of continued steps forward um and more you know potentially to come as well yeah I mean it it’s kind of like you know if you have a really good defensive game we had a great defensive game tonight you

Know you’re back at the bottom of the mountain on whatever day it is that we play San Antonio and you got to be able to replicate the physicality the effort the intensity the tension of detail awareness um so you’re just never a complete uh Team the game’s imperfect

You know there’s always something you can improve on and even um the stuff that we’re not deficient in we have to sustain which is really hard and requires a lot of focus and a lot of commitment so that’s our challenge as we continue to take on these these

Different um challenges in the season the other night uh how you guys didn’t come into the game physically as as as physical as you guys wanted uh what do you think about how you guys came into game tonight pretty good you know I thought we matched their physicality and

Exceeded it at times uh from the jump I thought we did a really good job there and as the game were on we got better um our worst defensive quarter was the first quarter uh and then we really tighten the screws uh in the second

Through the fourth so um we did a good job of having an awareness of the mentality of our opponent we just played them we just beat them on the road so uh we knew they would come out uh with some force and with some energy they did uh

And I thought we did a good job of handling that any anytime you hold a team under 110 nowadays it’s pretty good defense you guys held them under a 100 tonight um seemed really really active was that how much of a mindset was it to just get the game more messier than the

Other night yeah I thought you know we were really physical tonight and I thought we were really really tight you know in our coverages and our communication we didn’t give them much uh easy at all and so uh made them earn everything contested shots um you know scrapped for loose balls and rebounds

And uh you know did a really good job on that end of the floor this is a pretty good Sample about the last 30 games where Shay shooting it up over 40% from three what’s anything different there with his shot got his approach to it I

Mean you can ask him I’m not sure you know he’s finding them which is nice uh cuz it gives him uh some gravity you know you have to go play him he’s obviously a very good shooter um and you when you have to respect that uh and

Then with the way he can drive the ball you know a couple of these plays in transition where he’s coming down and they’re picking him up high and then he’s just like one move by the guy you know that’s coming from the shooting gravity so um he’s done a good job of

Mixing those in it’s obviously not his bread and butter uh but he shoots good ones and and is shooting them efficiently when you talk about that developmental mindset and you’re always talking about you Haven arrived at the destination he’s one of the best players in the league and yet you know there’s

There’s places still right that he’s finding these things for sure I mean everybody and he’s a Craftsman you know he’s obsessed with improving as many of our guys are it’s not limited to him but um yeah I mean he’s obviously the threes I think he’s done a great job of being

On the gas you know in the actions uh most of the season but you know recently he’s really hit it cuz teams are going to commit a third player to him on a lot of occasions and so if he’s not fast he’s going to be playing in a crowd and

So uh yeah he’s improving all of our guys are improving um Mark A lot of times uh a lot of times when people talk about spacing they just think of shooting and Chad is doing that but at the same time he’s added a lot of vertical spacing for

You guys in your offense can you just talk about sort of the unique abilities that he has to do both and the how valuable it is to have that vertical spacing yeah I mean there’s there’s more to spacing than just you know standing around on the perimeter you know you

Want to put Rim pressure uh and we do that with driving we do that with his roles and we do that with cutting you know and so um when you’ve got you know Rim pressure from those three things and then you’ve got active spacing on the perimeter around it uh that’s how you

You know create uh dilemmas for the defense and um then when you willingly move the ball you know in those situations then you can create uh advantages and you know opportunities to maintain advantages coach we talked we talked about uh Josh a little bit before the game just how

He’s competing recently and how he’s screening as well just what did you see from him tonight in his assertiveness especially offensively to start the game yeah continues to you know mix his looks you know obviously they put shenon on him at every opportunity they’ve done that you know every meeting this year um

And we’re evolving you know as a as a team in terms of understanding how to attack that he’s evolving uh in terms of making that part of his package you know that the circumstances have forced him to kind of you know take a detour on his

Player Development um so that he can be effective against that scheme and he’s done a really really good job he’s had a very open mind to it um you know he was in yesterday with K Rich working on screening angles and getting out of screens and that’s certainly not um what

He was doing you know his up basketball upbringing but um he’s taken a a great approach to it I have a lot of respect for that and he’s getting better as a result we’re getting better as a result

Hear from Chet Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s 112 – 95 win over the Rockets.

0:00 Chet Holmgren
4:48 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
11:18 Jalen Williams
19:02 Coach Daigneault

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