OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Los Angeles Lakers | December 23, 2023

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Los Angeles Lakers | December 23, 2023

How much of tonight’s uh on defense do you chalk up to some really highle shot making by them some contested threes from LeBron and and some of their secondary guys as well like you know ruy yeah um they were good tonight in terms of shot making

Um some of it is you tip your hat some of it is they were a little bit too comfortable early in the game um kind of played in The Rhythm and when you get guys of that caliber um a skill level rhythm it’s tough to stop and slow down

Um I think that’s what we ran into tonight I know you obviously haven’t seen it yet but do you think that when you look at the film you’ll see a bunch of wide open shots for you guys tonight that that would normally go down um yeah absolutely

Uh some maker Miss League uh some games the ball goes in more than it should some games it doesn’t go in as much as it should um now you don’t want to rely on shot making to to win games and be a really good team um but yeah so you’re

Going to have night like that for sure sh I’m curious because obviously expectations have Chang for you guys teams are defending you differently this year um for a team that’s you know dependent on his offense as much as it has I’m curious because you’re not always going to have super efficient

Nights just what has to happen um to kind of supplement you know some of the shot making tonight um just more attention to detail defensively um like I said I think they were a little bit too comfortable early um and when’re when we’re not making

Shots at our usual rate it just gives us less margin of error um and that we can’t afford sh um you know ad before the game said this was a must-win darham backed him up on on that said they needed to win and Mark said they were a little bit

They played like the more desperate team did you get a a sense of that and and did you guys have to try to match the intensity they had to start um yeah they uh um sure um I don’t I mean personally I feel like you know we were playing really

Hard um we did have like a a gap in the second quarter where we weren’t um firing defensively um we weren’t like ourselves offensively um and like I said that with a team that that talented um and when you don’t make shots against a team that talented

That’s in Rhythm just have less margin of error see I’m curious maybe I’m reading too deep into this but it felt like tonight there were maybe more jump passes more passes at a shot than than usual I’m just curious what about their interior defense maybe led to that for

Myself from the whole team um I think they just tried to pack the paint um good Rim protection um I think we did a pretty good job of spraying and passing out of the drives and stuff like that just uh didn’t make as much shots as

Usual is it uh first quarter both teams are really scoring up and down the floor is it easy kind of get lulled into because the scoring does come so easy to forget maybe not forget about the defense but maybe not con hard on it um that can happen you get complacent when

You’re scoring so well um yeah we haven’t been that throughout the year um obviously we’re not perfect and we’ll have periods of times like that but it’s definitely a possibility anybody else thank you sh welcome Nick Gallow KC Thunder uh Chad how much of tonight do you maybe set

Aside in terms of shot making on both ends versus some controllable stuff for you all uh as you kind of try to digest this one uh you don’t want to leave it up to shot making um because you can’t just walk in the arena and be like we’re not making

Shots tonight so let’s just lose the game um you know there’s there were some Shots tonight that um we’ve hit on other nights that we confident in hit in that just didn’t go in uh but at the end of the day we have to adjust in games and

Find different ways to win basketball games other than um just making more shots than the other team um and credit to the Lakers they made a lot of shots tonight and um you know they came out on top seemed like one of the ways that you personally tried to adjust is just

Really impact the game with your rebounding um was that something uh I mean obviously you go into every game like that but was there was there a way that you were able to get that done tonight um that you liked uh yeah I always try to impact the

Game in more ways than scoring whether the ball is going in for me or not um but uh I definitely feel like I turned it up a notch um in that aspect uh down the stretch um but uh you know I should be doing that all game long um whether it’s going

In or not so uh that’s an area I can improve in ch with this talented offensively as this team is obviously you guys are probably going to win a good bunch of games just off shot making but I’m curious you mention different ways of winning basketball games just

What’ you see tonight maybe they could have been done differently outside of shot making to to help you win um I mean there’s a few things uh just our physicality and aggressiveness on the defensive end uh we could have been better could have been better um with rotations could have been better and

Coverages I personally could have been better um one-on-one defense as well um you know every single night you’re going to come out of the game and be like we could have been better at pretty much everything we’re doing um it’s an imperfect game but um you know you just

Kind of got to understand that and Chase getting as close to it as possible um so we got to get back in the film room and practice and um continue to work towards going in the right direction on that so and and and obviously LeBron is still

Great p 40 tonight and he was everywhere just what did you see from him and I guess what were your intentions defensively and trying to maybe limit him um yeah uh you know he had a great game tonight he made some um really tough shots uh made great plays down the

Stretch um at the end of the day you got to guard him guard him with five and uh you know uh force him to play on on your terms um and not his own and and we didn’t do that tonight so next time we got a B

Better at that CH just looking at it it seemed tonight like more often the normal even on some shots where you had great contests at the rim and in the paint they just they made some really tough shots did did it feel that way to you that you were contesting well and

They made some is that frustrating um n you can’t get frustrated with it cuz uh you have to just trust that um when you make the right play uh uh no matter what the outcome is uh you just got to trust making the right play whether that’s going up to contest a

Shot or shooting the right shot making the right pass um you know making the right rotation whatever it might be you just have to trust it um uh cuz if you don’t trust it I guess uh then you can’t really um get on to the next thing uh you know

Cuz then you’re giving up something there so uh just continue to trust it whether they’re making shots or not did it seem that way I mean did you seem like did you feel like you were contesting the way you normally do and some some stuff was going um I felt like

I had some good contests that they still made shots on but uh I still feel like I can be better uh Chad on most nights going against other bigs you’ll either have a guy who’s smaller who can kind of keep up with you foot speed or a guy who’s a

Little bit bigger who can’t tonight you face ad who’s pretty similarly built to you where he can stay on the perimeter and like contest shots what’s the challenge of going against a guy like that who’s matches up with you pretty well um you said it

Uh he’s he’s got size and length but he can also move his feed as well so um you know you got to find different ways than just physical advantages to uh play against him and um you know there were some points in the game where uh I

Did that as well as uh other guys on the court but um we just got to continue to be better at that and um come back uh next game and now you’ve had a couple shots of LeBron the regular season can you just talk about the difference of

Just like playing him in person versus you know a lot of kids watch highlights of him watch regular games versus being in there um I mean you’re not looking at a screen you’re like actually out there playing uh I’d say um you know he’s a really

Good player you can see it on TV you can see it in real time um um and and that’s kind of what it is but you’re not so much focused on who you’re playing against rather than um other than you’re playing against the Lakers

And you got to try and win the game um so that’s the focus and that’s that’s what we were focused on you expected LeBron and ay Davis those are the two Headliners but then ruy comes out and he doesn’t miss and D’Angelo Russell is knocking down threes just talk about the

Headache of dealing with the other guys who kind of contributed tonight oh I mean it’s the NBA uh you know every team has a bunch of good players not just a couple um and good players make plays they make plays tonight but at the end

Of the day we can be better um not only a guarding their um main engine guys but um the rest of their roster as well um you know credit to them they made big plays tonight and came out with the w we got to be better next time M Gallow KY

Thunder uh to miss Shots by you guys and and made shots by them could have you know altered you guys’ approach in that second half what did it take to stay in it long enough to give you guys uh give yourselves a chance in that fourth quarter started playing defense um just

Too many when you have good players and you give them easy looks to start the game too much confidence to kind of flow in kind of shut it down but I think after the second quarter like we won the game just based off like numbers but

When you start you know down 20 you know they did credit to them obviously they hit shots but just too comfortable to start the game um but yeah I mean if you do like the makes and misses that’s probably every game you know I bet teams probably play us and

They’re like if they would have missed a couple we made the other one but yeah we just didn’t get stops early and then that obviously had a Snowball Effect playing down 20 on the other side of the ball do do you anticipate that when you guys watch the film you’ll say hey our

Process was good we got good looks we just you know we miss some that we would normally make here yeah for sure um and there like every player feels that that way especially when you shoot shots that you work on um second quarter it got sticky uh we didn’t move the ball really

Well and then we let their length kind of get in the game and you know they did a good job of loading on us and you know so we had a couple bad possessions and that turned into good good offensive possessions for them uh yeah they’ve been picking up the pace offensively and

Then we add into the fact that we didn’t shoot it well and we were shooting a lot of like tough contested ones kind of played in their hands but after that we settled in played defense kind of stuck with it and you know got the game kind

Of close J L being made of AD calling this a must-win game for the Lakers in general do you feel that this has been a more intense year night in and Night Out than last year was no I I I don’t really know or speak

To like the must-win thing for him um I play every game like that so I don’t really know um yeah I don’t know I think teams play us tougher if that’s what you’re asking uh in that regard uh people don’t really rest on our nights like that but um I

Don’t know I treat every game the same so I don’t really have the insight to how he probably feels about it You’ mentioned you know playing defense in second half that fourth quarter you guys got it pretty close is there a degree to which you just sort of tip your cap to

LeBron because a lot of the defense on that was pretty good down the stretch and he just made plays yeah um some of that’s controllable too like I said when you start the game and you know you give them open looks or you know I think I do

By and he end up gets in a layup like when you give him that look he’s comfortable rest of the game so then he’s able to you know feel a lot more comfortable shooting those shots and you obviously credit to him like he he still

Made him and we we were able to kind of Boggle down but like I said when you’re down 20 coming back there is a level of comfort to shoot those and kind of be in Rhythm and we just didn’t knock him off and then you know he’s a good player so

He’s going to he’s going to hit tough shots but if we can kind of control the ones early I think that changes the Outlook of the game anybody else yeah I say this is is that comfortability that you that you guys gave on me does that come in the first

Quarter because both teams are up and down trading licks and you kind of like you you’re not forgetting about defense but man the scoring is just coming so good you you you’re not concentrate as hard on it maybe let him get compliment that probably like feeds into it I don’t

Think his players were like oh we’re scoring like we’re not going to play defense but you know that does like that’s basketball um it’s easy to get caught up on wanting to play offense and you know nobody offseason goes in there and like doing defensive slides so it’s

Like you know like everybody wants to score and um I think we did let that you know get ahead of ourselves and I think it snowball because we weren’t making shots but we were getting good looks and I think we let that affect our defense and obviously they were hitting shots as

Well so I think that that had a little mix of it too um and then Jaylen you played against chat and college now it’s two years removed from that and you’re seeing in the NBA completely healthy what are the biggest strides you’ve seen from him just from your days playing

Against him College to now um ironically he’s more like free I feel like you know he’s able to like really showcase a lot that he can do and obviously that’s College like know you guys watch it it’s hard for me to watch like even my brother plays just like everybody’s just

Standing in the lane so um he definitely has a lot more space um so I I honestly didn’t even really get to like see you know how how much he’s grown in that regard but I just know he’s he’s really good now um but yeah college is it’s just such a

Different different game you you know and him in space he’s been doing a good job of getting his spots reading you know how defenses are playing him and you know he’s a matchup problem for a lot of people because you can’t really put anybody small on him and he

Stretches the floor well so um yeah I think defensively honestly I think is like the biggest biggest take away from him as well you’re making a lot of tough shots this year again you know what would you attribute that to for the reasoning why you’re able to get some

Some shots over some tough defense shooting shots that I worked on so uh that’s probably my quickest answer to that I’m getting the spots that I like to be at and um just knowing shots I like to shoot and uh yeah so I don’t want to sit

Here and be arrogant and act like you know like make tough shots but I’m getting to spots that I like to be at on the court and stuff that I worked on anybody else cool appreciate it Merry Christmas happy holidays got making uh from them from LeBron and a bunch of

Open looks for you guys that didn’t go down did it did this game kind of come down to M and make or what did you see in that regard to a degree it always does but uh I thought in the first half you know we they were a little bit too

Comfortable you know we gave up 71 points in the first half it wasn’t all the shot making I thought uh they were in a pretty good Groove and Rhythm they were ready to play they were sharp give them credit uh and then I thought our offense uh stalled for periods of the

Second quarter and you know we lost that quarter by 15 and and won the rest of the game so I think the lesson is you know if you can keep the game in a manageable spot you can withstand a cold streak of shooting obviously we got great shots coming out of halftime that

Didn’t fall uh but instead of being down 16 or 18 you’re down 10 you know and the game’s still Within Reach so uh that was kind of the story of the game I thought I know you’re forcing turnovers is a symptom not a a cause of um your defense

Was you didn’t do that at a at a high level tonight was there anything that they were doing offensively that prevented you guys from being as disruptive as you often are um well they get to their spots you know they they you know make you deal with their

Matchups and so you it’s not they’re not flying the ball way on the floor they’re kind of just punching the ball to where they want to get it forcing us to deal with that uh which is a good strategy for them because they have really really strong Personnel but I just didn’t think

Uh our disruption and our activity and physicality all the stuff that we kind of hang our hat on I didn’t think that was there uh in the first half especially we got it going in the second half uh but obviously we’re playing from behind Mark I’m curious because we talk

About the shot making just at a certain point you know Bri’s getting n1s Austin has that their four-point play ruy hitting you know moving M he’s just how much of that because it did get probably in control at some point but how much of that did you feel was maybe

Solvable I mean obviously there’s a part that’s not you know and they were sharp tonight they were the better team clearly for the 48 minutes of the game they were ready to play um you know we tip our hat to them for that uh but we

Also want to you know focus on the stuff in the game that’s controllable and uh when you put a team that’s that caliber uh of shop making in Rhythm uh or you allow them to get to a rhythm that’s when that stuff starts to fall and uh

It’s one thing if you’re kind of touching them up and uh they’re still making those shots but I didn’t think we had our fast ball there defensively in the first half and I thought that contributed to it to a degree at least that’s what we want our takeaway to be

So we’re looking in the mirror and not just kind of like you know saying it’s a make or Miss League or something like that yeah I I know cas is kind of the guy at this point that slots in when when a starter is missing but with a

Team as big and as smart as that just how much do you maybe weigh and value you know sliding a guy in like like KR maybe in case slot to start the game I mean not enough obviously to do it but um you know I thought K’s a really good

Defender he can guard up Dort can guard up um you know we have confidence in those guys and we should have some advantages as well by playing like that um but you know credit La obviously they were the better team tonight Mark you know ad said prior to the game that this

Was a must-win and Darin backed him up on that and thought said that they just felt like Vibe wise they really needed it y um when a team as seasoned as they are that’s played as much as they have has that kind of mentality how much is

There a challenge to just match what they can bring in a game they feel like they have to yeah that was the challenge tonight we knew what it was you know and so did they and credit them I mean they were the better team they played uh they

Backed that up tonight they played like the more desperate uh Team you know and and you know that’s a that’s a battle tested team that knows what they’re doing uh so it was a great experience for us to be in that there’s plenty of lessons we can draw from it um and

That’s what you want you want to be you know taking on the biggest challenges of competition that’s how you learn about yourselves and it’s how you learn about how to navigate an 82 Game season and then when you guys got it to eight it seemed like from there it was just kind

Of LeBron doing LeBron things were there things that that you guys didn’t do their DET takes of away or was it just kind of him I mean he made some difficult shots yeah he I mean those ones were tough but you know credit him obviously that’s we’ve seen that movie

Before you know he was on one tonight he was really really good you know obviously he speaks for himself but uh that was the difference at the end of the game you me you excuse me you mentioned how uh you guys didn’t have it all there defensively in the first half

How much do you think that was trying to adjust to the unor unorthodox uh lineup that the Lakers threw out there if any uh no I just thought like at the end of the day they they came out like a team that you know was was desperate for a win

Um I didn’t think we came out like poor or sloppy or soft or anything like that but we just didn’t amp it up to the level that we needed to in that first half especially uh and we allowed them to kind of get to a Groove uh and I

Thought that was that was really the game right there um so it’s a good lesson for us you know when we play we’re going to play a lot of teams that are going to come in here ready to throw their fast ball and we need to you know

Match that and exceed it and then 41 threes and 41 Shots in the paint I know you guys have 52 points there but you feel like you guys shied away a little bit or is it just what the game was giving you guys it’s kind of what the

Game was giving us you I thought we did a good job of penetrating a lot of our threes were open uh that obviously could have changed things but we just don’t want to be a team that’s reliant on the most variant you know part of basketball

We want to be a team that takes pride in doing the things that we can rely on every single night and then on the nights where the the shots go in obviously we have talented players like we have plenty of nights where the shots do fall uh then you’re extending leads

But you know you got to build your foundation with something other than just shot making uh with D’Angelo going to the bench LeBron kind of runs point that did that change anything for you there you expect it I guess um no I just I thought that was you know that move my

Interpretation of it was a physicality move to get Vanderbilt out there uh defensively on the glass offensive glass um and they were going to play kind of power ball at that point you know with that lineup you know they were going to try to go right at the front of the rim

Uh and that’s what they did you know I thought James and Davis you know they played through those guys tonight those guys were at the front of the rim on us they made us deal with them like I said give them a lot of credit they were Shar you kind of as did

You like the shots you were getting CU you saw really hot from three and then I think you were like seven of the last 35 you made threes after this yeah most of the game I thought you know I thought we had uh in the second quarter a little

Bit we had lapses where we settled a little and we weren’t as stubborn as we need to be in terms of uh driving the ball and kind of imposing our style and then letting the chips fall where they may but I thought the majority of the

Game we did that and you know obviously Miss Shots tonight Mark when you talk about defense a lot of times you’ve mentioned with great players you can’t give them the same look twice you got to switch it up with a guy like LeBron who’s been around and has seen

Essentially every coverage you can throw out what’s the process like of game planning for a guy like that similar you know he you got to make him at least think on his toes you can’t throw the same thing every single time can’t be predictable I thought the Zone was good

For us we we were able to disrupt some Rhythm there in the fourth uh by zoning them and that was good that helped us get back in the game a little bit but I mean he’s obviously who he is for a reason he’s a great great player anybody else thanks coach all

Right thank you oh by the way you guys and our fans just happy holidays uh appreciate all the work you guys do appreciate our fans hope you guys have a great couple days here

Hear from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s 120-129 loss to the Lakers.

0:00 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
3:36 Chet Holmgren
9:56 Jalen Williams
15:19 Coach Mark Daigneault

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