OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Utah Jazz | March 20, 2024

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Utah Jazz | March 20, 2024

Jayen just the group to to start the fourth um what did you feel out there in terms of being able to turn the tie of the game after it been kind of a a slog to that point uh we were just trying to get stops defensively uh I think that’s

The biggest kind of key to going on runs and kind of from there I think we’re able to do that and we’re able to get in transition uh but yeah we just kind of made our main point main point of emphasis just going trying and get stops

On the defensive end and then sh CH just seemed to live at The Rim all night tonight uh how much of that was like sheer force of will from Chad to just go through traffic to get there versus some of the things you guys were orchestrating to get him there yeah

Um Chad being talented um and then they were uh up on pick a roll which allowed him to play in the pocket um he can shoot has really good touch can pass um so we had a field day um yeah it just speaks to his work his his talent love

Um it’s really good guy Shay on certain moves like a Euro Step or like your Bump fade there seems to be like sort of a rhythm in your footwork is there anything similar on some of your stepback threes um great question um a little bit I like to um I

Like to always end up explosive through the floor um so that it’s it’s the movees a little bit different but the shots the same at the end so I like to um get a like be a be exposive when I jump to shoot and then following up on

That how has your step back sort of changed over the course of the last few years I know around like two to three years ago it seemed like it was more exaggerated like more out diagonally or something like that um yeah I used to shoot him all type of crazy directions

Now I just shoot in one way um for the most part um I probably just gave the scouting report but I I like to try to shoot the same shot um so there’s a certain level of of comfort with it Shane do you have any explanation for

Why Chad gets his face so beat up all the time he’s got a got a bloody I mean cut nose a blacked face all the time yeah his nose is in every play literally um he answer my question he tries to block every shot he blocks most of them

Affects most of them um he just puts literally his face on the line 90% of the game and that’s why we see that um just him sacrificing his situation somebody found that mad funny y yeah so it I mean obviously they were on your Tails all game um at least you

Know after that that halftime they it seemed like you guys couldn’t pull away until that TW minute Spanish where you know wigs had those couple of Threes chased Down The Long rebound um got the the th breakway dun just what did you see in that Span in terms of energy just

Overall play that maybe helped you guys pull away and what did you she open up after that uh every play you kind of listed was just we got to stop other the other and everything kind of came within transition the way we want to play everything for us kind of starts with

Getting stops you know it’s hard to run on make so uh I think we just you know kind of collectively got a couple big stops and then like you said we were able to kind of find the open band from there and then from there they’re kind

Of on their heels offensively now we’re kind of in the flow and it kind of just goes down from there and and as much as we talk about you know how often Chad was at The Rim tonight I think the the poster people will remember is the the dunk on on Taylor

Hendricks just what was either your point of views on on that dunk oh um yeah that was tough that was tough that was probably his best dunk and then he got the lob right after so um yeah that was his best dunk we talked about in locker room that was that was

Tough from him sure yeah for both of you guys um this team I think except for one guy is shooting better from from three-point range this year than last year that’s hardly ever happens that that many guys on the same team improve over the course

Of a year what What’s led to that why why is the whole team gotten better collectively work ethic and shot selection um it’s one of the things that we emphasize literally after every game um we just want to make sure we’re taking the right shots and a lot of the

Times the best shots for us as a team um and we all know what the those are for we all know what those are for us individually and as a team um and that’s something that we emphasize and then guys just work on their game um across

The board we have a group of guys that wants to get better um wants to prove themselves in the NBA uh individually and as a team and I think that’s what we attributed to sh you just had go ahead sh you just had your 50th 30-point game of the

Season um 13th guy in NBA history to do that fifth since the three-point era um when you look at the list of guys that are have done that it’s very small and then when you think about all the great scores we’ve seen over the last 25 30

Years most of those guys aren’t on that list and you just added your name to it when you hear something like that what goes through your mind thinking that you’ve done something that a lot of great players haven’t done um it doesn’t really it doesn’t really like it doesn’t really hit me

Like that um like a a lot of times like a lot of times I’m I’m so focused on like getting better that I’m more focused on like my faults and what I did wrong throughout the games um and and like not until like I see a stat on Instagram or something

Like that will I realize and notice um but it’s it’s it’s definitely cool uh it’s and and Accolade I guess you can call it it’s it’s always amazing to be mentioned in the the likes of guys that have done amazing things in the game um it’s humbling just cuz you like they’ve

Laid the foundation in the platform um for me to be able to kind of just play my game and and there’s a lot of guys that have changing the style of the game the play of the game for it to be what it is today um and I know that so it’s

It’s a humbling experience for sure but it’s cool to to say the least so Andrew last question you guys lead the league and drives and have for the last few years and mainly because of you two this season how do you guys work on like the tough finishes because I me

Obviously you guys are getting into Lane because the the defense is spread out but also you guys have a lot of tough finishes too how do you work on those tough finishes um I’ve played in the paint my whole life so for me it’s it’s a it’s

Natural um but being around the basket and making plays around the basket um but it’s something I worked on my own life for sure um like just like I always come to the gym and like just play with the backboard and play around the rim for a little bit before I start my

Workouts and maybe that’s what it is Du you hold on hold on dub what about you and your work out with him so there you go all right guys thank you KC Thunder chck your toughness is is that uh something you’ve had since you were a little kid running around or accumulated

With some of the the Battle Scars you’ve uh accured over the the last dozen years or so um I’d say I just never wanted to let somebody say that got one over on me so just try to live life that way and and then you know just offensively in that fourth quarter what

What unlocked for you guys it seemed like it’s kind of a slog of a game up till that point um we continued to play together uh I feel like we did a good job of that all game um some shots didn’t fall from the outside but we did a good job of not

Just saying we’re a team that’s going to win when we make shots um and we found other ways to open up the game and uh pull away at the end why do you get hit so much in the face you’re the tallest guy on the court

You’d be seems like be the hardest face to reach but um I don’t know why it happens but I don’t know have you always gotten hit a lot like this I mean at Gonzaga in high school I mean yeah it happens uh yeah it’s not so bad anymore I used I

Had braces growing up that’s the only time like where it was like really annoying um but now it’s like kind of just part of it who else we got we go Michael and then oh okay here we go we got two in the corner Chad you

Just talked about a bunch of times this year just molding your game on a nightly basis compared to just just what the game requires just what you see tonight that you know maybe told you that you need to go for a 30 plus whatnot um I mean first of all credit

To you know my teammates for finding me for looks and stuff uh you know I was just trying to read the game and play the game and they were uh uh up high in coverage on uh a lot of those screen actions so uh you know I

Was just trying to kind of play in the pocket and give the the ball handler an outlet and uh you know be aggressive from there whether it was to go score or to pass the ball um and tonight there were a lot of opportunities to score so

Tred to take advantage of those and and and you’re uh pretty skillful big I mean we’ve seen you have some Force underneath the rim but a lot of times his patience is uh maybe more finessed than the next big might have just how do you because tonight felt like one of

Those nights you might had your most posters of the year like how do you choose between finesse Force like what what that dialogue like internally um yeah you always want to try and play with play with force uh but not necessarily let it get into a wrestling

Match um where I’m usually not the bigger or heavier guy so just trying to play to my strengths but be forceful but uh you know also use my skill as well Chad you guys always talk about how this kind of feels like a high school a team

And one of those ways seems like the the bench unit really being engaged and hyping you guys up what does it mean to have a a bench that’s that you know supportive of you and also did you hear the crowd barking it as well I didn’t hear the barks tonight I’ve heard it

Before uh but not tonight uh I mean it’s great uh not only the bench uh you know but our starters too when when those guys get in the game we’re cheering for them too uh you know everybody wants to see each other succeed cuz you know

We’re going to do it together and um you know a lot of times when there’s like a highlight on on the floor we’re all joking about uh the bench reactions um you know from I think Shay’s game winner in in Denver uh you know shout out Trey

He was cheering before the shot went in which is pretty tough uh tonight um you know obviously there are some cool bench reactions too just uh you know it’s cool to see them and it’s great to have everybody supporting each other you had five dunks tonight do you

Remember the last time you had that many dunks in one game no it’s not usually like a stat I keep track of but uh that’s cool Michael um Chad um Mark was praising you to as a rim protector and as a vertical spacer tonight you get those poster dunks you’ve uh blocked

Some shots on potential ones if you had to Cho between the two which is a better feeling being the guy putting somebody on a poster or denying one uh it depends like how crazy the play is you know like if it’s a crazy poster versus like

A crazy block that would have been a crazy poster uh I don’t know IID probably say the poster just cuz like it happens less for me so uh Dirk brought you out last well Monday night um how does how does that happen like is it something where he hit you up like a

Week or two before and asked you or is it like a sudden thing day of no I mean it uh his people got in touch with me like an hour before um and I was actually doing like a I was busy with something so I didn’t

Have my phone on me and uh me and dub are in the same agency and uh he was calling um cam she’s in our agency she was helping me out with the event or whatever he called her and then she said that he was trying to have me walk out

With him um so like I finished up what I was doing and then rushed down to the arena I was going to the concert already anyways but rushed down there and then um linked up with him and walked out uh it just kind of happened uh spur the

Moment I guess but um maybe it should happen more after tonight so and then um do you get like nervous in those situations I mean what situ but like I’m sorry what type of situations like when meeting like with them like are you nervous or is it kind of like a

Whatever no I’m not really like a nervous person um I mean what’s the worst that could happen you know like I I was just like this would be cool um I didn’t really know what I was doing I was just kind of like walking out staring at all

The people uh that were kind of cheering and stuff uh but I mean it was it was his show not mine so like you know the attention was on him I was just kind of like you know uh supporting so it was cool on the topic of the Drake concert

You’ve been saying all season long that you wear these Nike tchs right now but whenever you need to you can put an outfit on did you get any compliments about your outfit from the team um I mean yeah but I I aboard that outfit before so like apparently that’s

Against the rules I got to I was trying to be like eco-friendly you know but that’s not allowed anymore I guess got one more to Joel just going back to the posters um I think the one people are going to remember is the the one on Taylor just

Walk me through that play what what did you see there what was your point of view um I mean there was a change of possession and uh we had the opportunity to get out quick and run um so I was just trying to you know run the floor

And uh you know try and get numbers if we had the opportunity and um they got kind of mismatched and transition trying to find somebody and uh um Collins who was supposed to be guarding me picked up Shay and then he found me and uh he tried to come from

The other side of the floor uh late so I just uh you know tried to make a play have you can you remember ever getting that level of Hang Time uh nah nah uh people don’t usually use me and hang time in the same sense uh Mark before the game we kind of

Talked about the the trickiness uh of an opponent like this uh what did you make of the way that your team kind of solved that problem together um in time for that fourth quarter burst the first8 minutes yeah credit Utah they really competed tonight um especially first

Half I thought they were the more f after the first you know six minutes of the game uh and that really tested us and I thought in the second half we showed good persistence we tried to amp it up on the defensive end uh the game

Didn’t open up for us right away uh but we kept at it and then that group to start the fourth quarter that really you know ignited the rest of the game so um I thought it was it was a good game for us good resilience by the team uh and a

Good test Chad really lived Above the Rim tonight uh how much was that his personal toughness uh to to score finish through contact and then also the the setups and and the way that the plays unfolded to give them those opportunities yeah we’ve done um we’ve

Worked hard you know as a team and the players have worked hard uh to make sure we’re finding him on roles uh he’s just such a vertical threat um not only because you could throw it up to him but you can throw it on the ground to him

And he’s skilled enough to catch it and not travel and use a dribble or a move to get into um to the basket um and that’s you know systematically you know like that’s about how you draw it up right there you know he played totally within himself tonight the system

Yielded um you know 30 something points on a night where he didn’t even shoot the three well you know but he just had a really really uh solid diet played totally within himself Within the system and on tonight on a night where we found him the system yielded a big night for

Him Mark you had a few of those forceful DS I don’t know if we’ve seen that level of force from him other than maybe glimpses all season just is there is there a conversation has it been conversation there in terms of you know how he you know the discernment there

And when to have finesse when to be forceful like just his General presence around the RO um I think he’s played with pretty good Force this year um you know he’s probably getting like more confident and stronger as time’s gone on but um I thought what stood out tonight

Is just how simple his game was you know you can have a really big game uh but still a really simple game inside of the team uh and I thought he did that tonight and I thought the team like I said you know we spoonfed him on a lot

Of plays tonight you know they’re up early to level with Shay we hit him in the pocket um and he made some nice plays there we threw it up to him obviously a couple times but I just thought we had a radar for him on the

Rolls he did a really good job in the pick and roll game of getting in and out of the screen uh and then he completed a lot of plays but it wasn’t um it wasn’t anything outside of um the way we want to play you I thought it was really good um

System game for us as well as a really good game for him obviously didn’t feel like you guys really pulled away until that that sequence at the beginning of the fourth quarter when when wigs had like those two threes and like he chased Down The Long rebound just what you see

During that two minute span what maybe open up after yeah I mean we want to be 48 minute team and we want to be a team where you know any unit at any time can can go on a little flurry like that you know cuz then it’s just a matter of you

Know hanging in there and playing through the ups and downs of the game and letting the game turn um by sticking to our stuff and I thought we did that especially in the second half tonight we just stuck to our stuff um we didn’t bust through in the third we had a

Couple chances to maybe do it they they stayed in the game uh and then to start the fourth that group did a great job and and broke the thing open a little bit are you concerned at all at how often he gets hit I mean in the head yeah what I

Mean I mean the guy S1 somehow gets hit more in the head more than anybody else yeah I mean why why is that happening and it I mean seems like every other game he’s bruised up or beaten up or what yeah I mean tonight it was just he

Was on top of the rim on offense you know that that play he got hit in the hit you know like that’s concerning you know so but yeah other than that he’s a pretty tough guy he kind of eats the punches anybody else yeah you went with K to start the second

Half can you just tell me about that decision yeah the it’s pretty simple like Dort uh I think is a better sexon matchup and K’s a good ke George matchup you know so um you know the other thing is with Kessler in the game uh in the

Second unit it it puts a little bit more pressure on your ability to pursue pick and rolls and get back in front um because of the rim presence and the rebounding presence and that’s Dort deal you know he’s just going to keep you out of those plays where you’re behind the

Ball and pick and roll nobody’s better at that than him um you know so it was really a tactical adjustment and just a matchup adjustment um you know to get him onto ston and to get uh case onto George so nothing more than that yeah

And then you had a lineup that had Giddy and Hayward as like the two biggest guys on the court what did you see from that one um they were small with Collins you know so is a unit for them that I thought we could do that against um and

Switch a little bit it also maybe spreads them out and I just think you know flipping the small lineups out there at unpredictable times making the other team adjust to that and then you know reversing course Very quickly and going back big you know allows us to

Stay pretty Nimble on our end of things and to keep our opponents off balance based on the lineups they have out there so you know like I said we’re going to we’re going to be pretty aggressive down the stretch here and we have been you know really since All-Star break uh and

We’ll continue to do so to continue to understand our team we’ll go one last one to Jo here now we’re asking rotation questions this is probably small probably didn’t even mean anything but I think somewhere in that second quarter maybe Midway through the second quarter

Shade was at the table Yeah and then you call a timeout and then the group you bring in doesn’t feature Shay just what was that yeah this is a simple one I called Z Isaiah Z and I was like Z and then Shay got up which is a Savvy move

By him because he probably would have just checked in the game if if not for the time out but I was calling Isaiah and then when I saw him sitting there I looked at him and he looked at me and that’s just how miscommunications happen

Hear from Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s 119 – 107 win over the Jazz.

0:00 Jalen and Shai
7:23 Chet Holmgren
15:27 Coach Daigneault

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