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

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

Nick Al casy Thunder isaah just what’s your take on how this one went uh the game Flow from being down big early making the comeback and then just not quite having enough late yeah um ugly game uh we got down early you know whenever you’re playing a hot team like

Them it could be tough to you know pull those wins out but um I think we just got to do better with uh game plan execution down the stretch um you know big plays are made on both sides so we got to live with the ups and downs and

Just learn from them we we know you’re a right- leg jumper but uh what’s going through your mind either during or immediately after that poster I mean in a in a moment you know you know very very exciting you know energy is real high but move on real

Quick and got a game to win so it don’t hold much weight after you know taking a loss so um definitely more than dunk would just wanted to win did it feel like the game turned a little bit on that moment though seemed like crowd got

Into it you guys maybe had a little bit more juice and energy after that yeah I mean we had we had energy um but like I said um playing a team that’s hot like that you just got to connect plays offensively and defensively uh down the

Stretch to um pull out those wins um so that’s all I have on that Michael and then my Isaiah you came into the league just known as a shooter but you’ve continued to develop your game outside of that well also like maintaining your status as an elite shooter how have you managed

To do that uh just not being onedimensional trying to do anything that I can to help the team win um whether that’s knock down shots defensive plays um being in the right spot at the right time just playing the right way um I think that’s just the most important thing is winning games

And if I can find you know little n niches here and there um to help the team win that’s what I’m going to do and over the course of the last two years you’ve become more and more of a known commodity for other teams of just

Denying you the the ball and making you take tougher shots what’s sort of that like just internally mentally where you know the team needs you to take a lot of shots from three just for spacing purposes and just for the offense but it’s going to be harder shots than your

Usual looks yeah I mean that just kind of comes with the job description um being able to take shots but if my man’s not going to help off of me that just leaves more lanes for dub and Shay and get and them to to get downhill so it’s

Kind of like um you know just give and a take so um just being able to play off of each other whether that’s you know swinging the one more for the open shot or that’s me drawing my Defender out so we can open up the lanes at what point

Did you know you were going to dunk that did you when you on the break did you know it I mean it was kind of like a last second thing I don’t know if you saw it but you know I was looking I saw Lou about to cut and once I got down

There I was just like this is the best way I could finish this um over the defender so you know I took off and the rest is history where’s that rank on your dunks that might be my that’s probably my best dunk yeah that’s probably my best dunk for sure is there

An art to coming off the bench I usually hit threes but is there an art to coming off giving that that jolt of energy uh that you have to have you’re watching the game you can kind of read what they need is it just things happen yeah I

Think it just starts with being focused while you’re on the bench uh being tuned in to every timeout knowing uh what’s going on in the court at all times you know foul count uh timeouts left actions that running actions that they’re running things like that I think if

You’re you know focused while you’re on the bench it’ll be a lot easier once you step on the court I look back at all your big dunks and they’re all with the left hand yeah can you can you tell me about that I mean it kind of all started when I was

Younger uh I learned that I jumped higher off my right leg so in doing so I just started dunking left-handed so now no matter whether I go up with one or two I mean they’re going to dunk with my left hand or with two hands this just

Kind of what what I’m comfortable so how did you find out that you jumped higher with your right leg uh running track in uh in middle school so whenever we were um trying out or whatever they made us do the long jump with both left leg and

Right leg and that’s kind of when I figured out like I jump farther with my right leg and so ever since then it’s just kind of build off that yeah Nick Alo casy Thunder uh Jaylen wanted to ask ask you about the game tying three yeah yeah no you’re good

About the game tying three and um you know what it took for you guys to even get to that point after the start that you had um and you know kind of what you then saw from there after that uh I don’t know the I don’t know the way my competitive

Spirit is the three doesn’t really matter but I think we were just uh sticking with it the whole game even though we had an awful start um I think we had good late game execution to build up into that shot um coach the play we ran we actually worked on in practice but

Haven’t really ever run it live so the fact that we were able to kind of put that to use to get that three off was was really good on our part but I thought we just stuck with it in order to get down to that position Josh you’ve talked about just

Really trusting kind of your your work your shot diet uh but you still have uh the flare for the dramatic too with the shot from your back just tell me about that play and um maybe kind of what you were feeling out there tonight offensively yeah yeah um I mean as I

Said just kind of taking what they were giving me um and as I said earlier you know we’ve seen a bunch of different looks teams are you know throwing their best defensive lineups at us you know they’re trying to Cross Match they they’re blitzing they’re um playing all

Different types of coverages so uh I think you know myself we as a team are adjusting to different looks and um you know tonight I was just trying to get down he’ll make the play and whether that was shoot the ball or or you know

Hit a shooter hit a cutter um just just trying to make the right play and um you know shots shots are going to fall they’re going to miss and you know it’s it’s important to not let the rest of your game be impacted by what happens on

You know the offensive end so um just trying to keep that in the back of my mind Josh it seems like on your shots you’re not really thinking about it as much just taking them um first is that an accurate assessment and then if it is

Um how much has that just helped you with your like your confidence and just not just the shooting but just attacking attacking the game I mean you know when when I started to get crossmatched and I think first of that’s a you know credit to the team we have uh teams are

Throwing completely different looks at us that they probably never practice to try to throw our offense off but um I think early you know I was hesitant you know I was wide open I’m like do I want to shoot it every time and and now I’m

Starting getting into a bit of a rhythm where it’s you know shoot the good ones um you know you don’t have to shoot I can get off the ball I’ve got a lot of other guys out there that can make plays so um just just being decisive of what I

Do um not thinking about not hesitating shooting with confidence um not letting the last shot impact the next one and um you know just playing the game you know playing each possession um as it comes and then how much has it helped that your teammates have and coach has constantly

Just given you confidence and and just continue to talk you up and not not doubt you at any point I mean that’s huge for a players confidence um you know when you’re missing shots and things aren’t going well to have great people around you um is I think the best

Thing for you um and it’s easy to get caught up in your own head thinking about your own game but um when you zoom out look at the bigger picture um we’re a winning team uh I’m in a really really good good place um I’ve got great people

Around me so um that’s just a blip on the radar I mean um you’re going to have es and flows as a young player in your career and and in a season and um it’s it’s just how well you can manage them highs and lows and um stick you know

Stick with the uh through the tough times and um there’s always a lot at the end of the tunnel and um you know whether that’s off the game 20 60 80 um it’s going to be there and as long as you stick with it keep working um you

Know do the stuff behind closed doors um it it will eventually show in select with the athletic this could be for either of you did did it make it more difficult to play this Rockets team today in that they’ve changed a lot since shenon went down like they play a

Completely different style um they’re just playing faster uh they do a good job of being able to switch one through five um I think that’s it I’m not saying they’re better or worse you know obviously without him but I think they’re just playing faster so that that

Gives us different looks um I think defensively they did a good job kind of loading up and yeah I think just they posed a couple issues as far as just switching one through five kind of had us jumbled up the first uh couple minutes of the game just trying to

Figure that out and you know they were physical so and have you seen Isaiah dunk like that before n that was OD I’m not going to lie uh wish we could have won so you could post about it but yeah that was OD that was a very good dunk

Sort of following up on that can you guys just talk about the energy that Isaiah just brings your guys’ team not just the dunk but on an average night just with the three ball it seems like he’s when your guys more important players just in terms of just hitting shots from

Deep uh I I mean yeah like you know aside from the three-point shooting um he gives us a lot he’s obviously a very high Gravity Guy um you know defenses pay a lot of attention to him which opens the floor up for other guys so um you know obviously shooting is what he

Does and we have full confidence in him whether he misses 10 in the row makes 10 of the row he’s getting that ball the next time and um we all trust him to make that shot and um you know he continues to bring energy Off the Bench

Um plays his role to Perfection and um you know it’s a big piece of you know what we’re doing here 82 games you going to have some starts like you did tonight is there anything warmups that you kind of feel different when you get a start

Like that you that something kind of off is it just play basketball it’s just the nature of the game is going to be games where you you can even come out with energy and not hit shots you can come out flat you know it’s just a long

Season you know they’re um I think that’s what’s fun about the game you know we we may start slow and then have to figure out certain things you know we can start fast and have a decline it’s just just the nature of basketball um you know usually try and avoid stuff

Like that you know we’ve had great starts through every single game but you know we’re just going to have games like that and I thought we did a good job fighting back from that and and getting a rhythm uh I think when you play teams over and over again too and obviously

This team just changed you know you’re basically it feels like you’re playing a different team so you’re trying to feel out you know what what’s going on within the game and not trying and force stuff so um you know there’s a there’s a tactical part to that as well trying to

Figure out your opponent just kind of depends but um biggest thing is just sticking with it and we understand that there’s runs and as ugly as we started the the game you know we go into like the second timeout we’re down seven so it’s like just kind of go with the highs

And lows of the game uh Josh for for you I mean heading into this game mean coming off of one of your best games of the year had another one of your best games of your career um for you how important is it you know for you to get that Rhythm obviously heading

Into to the playoffs and the final weeks of the Season winding down and you know how does it work for your confidence heading into that time I mean you know it’s obviously a good time to kind of hit your stride um going to the back end

Of the year and um and as I said you know any player I’m not you know I’m not isolated in this where you go through highs and lows throughout of season and um you know um it’s not a secret that you know I’ve struggled up and down this

Year and um just just trying to stay positive trying to keep buying into what we’re doing and and into the team and um as I said the work behind closed doors you know always comes to light um youve just got to stick with it you know you

Can never fold when the pressure you know gets too much and um as I said earlier we got to I got a great you know team around me organization around me um that that gives me confidence um and allows me to go out there and play

Freely so um you know it helps having you know obviously a very talented team um you know things open up for other guys because there’s so many weapons out there um so just trying to play the right way and um you know take what comes Josh I know you’ve mentioned

Before that you’re a big football fan and you’ll see like quarterbacks have discussions with their coaches about different looks they like are there anything similar like that between you and Mark because I know you guys have had a high rate of success the last couple years on some of these sideline

Out of bounds and atos yeah um we’ve been watching a lot of film before before games um and just things both ends of the floor um things he’s seeing things I’m seeing so um it’s it’s good to see it from a perspective where you watch it through a film and you kind of

Always you know I always don’t see everything during a game he won’t see everything during a game so when the emotions out of it you can sit down and watch film I think think that’s when you can get a really good idea of what’s happening on the floor and um he’s been

Great in that area showing me things he sees um and vice versa so um I think film’s a really good way to improve um both sides of the bow um and and he’s been great in that area with me Nick Gallow kissy Thunder uh Mark

What did you think of the way you guys shook off the start to this one and how did you you start to gain some traction there uh to to get back into this and make it a game for the rest of the way I thought the the bench gave us a great

Lift tonight obviously they got off to a great start we didn’t uh but to fight ourselves back into it I mean if you go down 152 or whatever it was you know you run the risk of really digg in a hole and we were able to scrape back in took

A lead by halftime uh and I thought that first uh bench group that went in there really kind of stabilized the game with their effort and physicality uh just defensively it seemed like you guys played solid defense and there just highle shot making what do you see from Houston um

In terms of being able to break away in overtime yeah yeah I thought you know there was high level shot making on some plays I thought there were other plays where uh we had breakdowns stuff we can learn from um you know you can’t score 132 on shot making you know there’s

There’s got to be some bleeding in there and there was so uh definitely stuff that we can learn from uh credit them they did a really good job of getting to their stuff putting us in tough spots uh so they went and got that game they deserved that

Game people often say like a guy’s just a shooter sort of a negative connotation which is kind of weird for a guy like Isaiah Joe who’s an elite guy over the course of like just having here him in the program where have you seen the most

Growth from him and then what do you think of the dunk tonight great dunk uh I just I mean the physicality that he plays with I mean he just empties the tank you know and you just got to respect it you know cuz every time he goes out there and plays

Um he’s giving you everything he has you know and he’s you know shorter slighter uh and yet squeezes every last ounce out of himself and to me that’s like the ultimate Mark of a competitor you know so he obviously had a good offensive night uh made some big shots for us

Thought the dunk really gave us some confidence and Juice there in the in the second or whatever that was um but you know every single night he brings it you know he’s a he’s a big time player obviously there are things that you guys could have done better but for

The most part it seemed like this game just came down to making tough shots is that something that you feel or like I said obviously you guys could there are things that you could have could have done better but I mean every night there’s you know a combination of uh

Things you can control and things you can’t and we want to be a team that looks at the stuff we can control you know we just never want to turn the page um and chalk an entire game up to uh luck or shot making or refs or anything

Like that you know we want to be a team that takes full accountability for what we can we do that after wins we do that after losses we’ll do that after this one can you can you walk me through the early Subs in the first quarter I didn’t

Think we had great energy um to start the game you I usually try to sub quicker uh on a back toback anyways you know shorten rotations especially in the first half um but I think when you get off to a start like that you know where

We’re clearly flat I was going to get those guys that was the normal pattern I was going to do I just did it earlier I think it gives guys an opportunity to go in and Elevate the game and I thought that’s what happened you know those guys

Did a great job it allows the guys that came out of the game early to kind of get a deep breath uh reset and then when they came back in they were better so uh I thought everyone responded you know exactly like we hoped with that seemed like they were

Trying to the the Rockets were trying to like really make the game more physical and you guys reacted to it uh pretty well I mean what are your thoughts on you guys’ physicality tonight they definitely you know set the more physical tone at the outside of the game

But um then in the meat of the game I thought we did a really good job of matching and exceeding their physicality in a lot of ways we built a lead uh and gain control of the game for a large part of that obviously weren’t

Able to hold on uh at the end of regulation or in the overtime but you know for a large part of the game I thought uh we threw the punches and and did a good job there mark CH only even had like less than a handful of games

Where he’s even come close to to fouling out of a game just with just being his first time just I wonder what you saw there from him in terms of the way he defended tonight uh defended you know balanced fouling defending just the physicality general just how he handled all of that

Yeah I mean I I’d have to I don’t remember all of them to be honest with you one of them was offensive file right legal screen you know so that one isn’t defensive related but um you know that’s one of those things that’s to your point

A little bit of an anomaly so we’re not going to overreact to it I mean he’s very rarely in foul trouble um they did a good job of recognizing his foul trouble and and putting him in tough spots um I thought they played you know Houston played with great intelligence

Tonight uh I give them a lot of credit for how they play the game but um you know we stayed aggressive with him through the fouls we tried to keep him out there as much as we could um it’s a good game he can learn from not really

The foul trouble but you know the way that they guarded us um with the cross matching and switching and the physicality thought they gave us a really good look tonight that we can learn from sorry if you made have hit on this uh what do you think of Gordon the

First half especially when you kind of pretty good you made a couple shots and uh get some cuts into the game uh I thought he played with some aggression uh did a good job defensively in the schemes and stuff like that so um you know just continues to learn what’s

Going on and play with more and more confidence but he gave us a good lift there in the first half especially early when we needed to stabilize the game anybody else Andrew’s got one more last onew yeah Joshua seems to be playing with there an incredible amount of

Confidence what have you seen from him over this last stretch uh yeah I mean he’s he’s played he’s a strong together a good amount of games here where he’s done that you know he’s getting his driving into the game he’s getting his passing into the game I think you know

When he pitches ahead in transition um that really ignites us you know it really gets us going offensively that’s you know the best thing he does for us so um you know played another good offensive game tonight he’s playing with a lot of confidence and aggression that’s how we need him to play

Hear from Isaiah Zoe, Jalen Williams and Josh Giddey, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s 132 – 126 fall to the Rockets.

0:00 Isaiah Joe
4:19 Jalen Williams and Josh Giddey
12:43 Head Coach Mark Daigneault

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