OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Sacramento Kings | February 11, 2024

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Sacramento Kings | February 11, 2024

Gall KC Thunder Mark after the game Shay just talked about the aggressiveness that uh he felt like the team showed on on the defensive end of the floor that led to a lot of the offense what did you notice on that end yeah I thought we

Were just a lot more edgy uh today than we were yesterday today and I thought the guys you it’s not about responding to one game but it certainly is about us recognizing uh where our standards are and and getting the car back on the road

When we’re not up to par and I thought the guys did a great job of that today we came out with a great Edge um you know certainly slipped up a couple times during the game but course corrected very well uh and played a pretty complete

48 just to have Shay be able to you execute off of uh different attacks and in that first quarter then dub be able to do it in the second quarter it feels like um you you’ve got an opportunity each quarter to have somebody that um it

Can get you a bucket late in the shot clock or you know attack off of somebody else’s attack what kind of value does that have over the course of a 48 minute game to feel like you’ve got a high level attacker on in every unit yeah you

Need advantages you know it’s hard to it’s hard to score or move the ball without an advantage and those guys are advantage creat you know um Shay tonight I thought you know they got really aggressive with him with double teams uh which volunteers an advantage you know it gets allows us to

Get the ball ahead of the defense I thought we had good attacks out of that for the most part uh and obviously dub really had a go tonight Shay played off it seemed like Shay played off the ball a little bit more today um it seemed like messed up

The Kings a little bit um what you think about that adjustment you guys made and how they reacted to it yeah I think think you know when a team’s doubling him like that uh getting him off the ball is a good thing you know it it allows us to maybe screen for

Him it allows uh us to shake him free or gain an initial Advantage before he gets it um or if they’re just doubling him over half court you know it makes it harder for them to do that that high on the floor than if they have if they want

A double they have to do it in the scoring area which usually is an advantage so uh you it’s just part of our attacks you know we’re continuing to learn as these teams throw different things things at us and I thought we attacked them well today Mark you guys

Uh they hurt you on the boards in the first half quite a bit second half they made more shots so there were a few offensive rebounds but it seemed like also you guys cleaned up some of those loose balls some of that stuff a little bit better in the second half is there

Anything different there um not really I I thought our effort you know in the first half was pretty good too you know like sometimes it’s to bounce the ball we’re not going to play perfect but uh I thought the energy on the defensive end was was pretty much there for most of

The night um we got a little sloppy you know in parts of the game on offense uh as well as we scored it I still thought we could have played better uh on that end of the floor but defensively we were able to sustain a pretty good level of

Uh of juice Chad was talking yesterday about the way offense and defense the way it works together that if you can get stops and get out in fast break now you also don’t have to play against a set defense all the time did you get the mixture there more today that you wanted

Yeah I mean that’s the benefit of scoring you know scoring allows you to set your defense and stops a lot AOW run you know it’s more efficient to score in transition so you get you get a stop you rebound you run now your efficiency goes up you’re more likely to score you’re

More likely to score you’re more likely to set your defense more likely to set your defense you’re more likely to get a stop you know it’s all cyclical and then the last thing before the the game today didn’t ask do you know when bismack is going to be available to you uh after

Allar break won’t be on uh in Orlando team Michael more ConEd effort to push the pace and beat their defense up the floor or um even on on the makes U just was that was it a concertive effort of trying to get that pace up yeah our transition offense the last you know

Nine or 10 games has not been great uh in terms of distribution in terms of production uh we were at top five transition team for the first 42 43 games of the Season uh and that dropped off you know recently um in in games where we were getting stops and so uh

It’s been a point of emphasis here for the last couple days and I thought the guys did a good job of running today Mark rebounding has been something that’s been talked a lot but this year how exactly do you frame just rebounding for this team especially in an NBA

That’s so three-point Reliant that it’s obvious you can’t just send everybody to the paint like how is there like layering how exactly do you spread the guys around the floor to get boards in I guess the hot spots yeah I mean the the rebounding area is usually you know

Anywhere from where the shots taken so you know if the shots taken close to the basket it’s not going to bounce out to the three-point line usually unless gets back tipped um so we want everybody in the rebounding area or around the rebounding area and then you got to

Block out you know teams send guys to the glass um and not just their FIV men you know we tend to struggle uh you know with the big uh strong fives but we also struggle with the crashing Wings you know it’s usually when we have bad rebounding games you look down it’s not

Just one guy it’s like a collective thing so uh it needs to be a collective thing on our end too but we’re trying to block out um and we’re trying to get guys to the rebounding area that’s our our deal Deen Fox us has some pretty

Good games against you he got some late but really was not as big a factor as he’s been in the past yeah I thought um Lou did a good job on him in the first half especially we got him uh really under control there uh he has gotten

Loose against us he shot the ball incredibly well this season I give him a lot of credit he was not a shooter coming out of uh College into the NBA he’s really developed an off the dribble three-point shot that you have to honor you know it forces you to go over on

Screens on him it really has has made him Dynamic and so he’s done a heck of a job uh as a player you know and he’s given us trouble obviously in the past but thought we did a good job on it today Lou and then everybody else in the

Help you also went with Chad and Jaylen there late in the fourth what did you see there yeah I mean it’s uh Jaylen does a good job on sabonis uh at the point of attack you know sabonis is a you put his shoulder into you and can

Get deep uh with the ball and so Jaylen helps there uh in having chap behind it to deter shots help rebound he had a steal late that was big it just gives us a lot of like cumulative length on the court and it’s just another look for us

That um you know we wanted to take a look at tonight we’ll continue to look at uh when the opportunities present themselves else two more and go ahead oh no goad no go no no there to kind of piggyback off that and the the I got to get out of

Here hurry up and figure this out uh to pick you back off the double big lineup you also threw kenrich and Jen and dub out there with him it just a really big lineup I was just curious what you were seeing to kind of throw those five out

There yeah just cumulative size you know was beginning of the second I think um they had matchups for us out there you know just trying to take a look at it you know put size on the floor um see how they work with that I I think doing

It early in the game gives you a sense of uh how it looks so that you know you can you can see whether or not you want to go back to it and um it was obviously good for us tonight CH and and J Mark I assume you’ve started formulating a plan

For Hayward maybe biombo in terms of how you want to use him rotationally and I assume you hadn’t finalized that plan my question is during a game are you so focused on Kings Thunder on a Sunday afternoon does it ever come into your mind hey this might be a spot I I might

Could use a Gordon Hayward or or anything like that not today but um you know I’ve certainly thought about it since we’ve acquired those guys and um you know all I’ll say is it’s going to be we’re going to try to make it a smooth and and um seamless as possible

Uh which probably is not going to look like a ton right away you know it’s going to be um you know put them in a role that the team can accept you know the rotation I should say the team will accept that but the rotation can accept

Um and put them in a role where they can Thrive uh early uh and then see what happens from there let it unfold from there but we’ve obviously had a nice season uh before their arrival um and so you know making sure that we lean on that first before we start you know

Getting Hasty in terms of how much we use them that’s that’s my initial mindset on it Nick Gallow Casey Thunder L shade just said that there was such an aggressiveness to your approach tonight as a team on uh on both sides of the ball how did you feel like that impacted

Things early and set a tone for the game as it went on um a lot I mean that was a it was a conversation we had for the game about how we started game recently and especially last the last game we played yesterday so we just wanted to

Have a better start which we did wanted to be more aggressive on both side of the floor and what should help 30 points off turnovers in this one I I know that’s been a theme all season but against an offense that it’s that potent

How critical is it to be able to to use your defense to fuel offense to keep Pace it’s huge I mean I feel like we always have an advantage when whenever we play fast and in transition so um every time we had turnovers or or rebounds we just wanted to play fast and

We did good Mark said uh Mark said that it you don’t want to overreact to one game in a season but when you play the way you guys did yesterday do you want to pick that apart and say like let’s let’s not do any of the stuff we did

Yesterday oh yeah I mean we don’t we don’t ever want to play like that you know it’s not a game that we want to play so I mean it’s it’s it’s gonna happen it’s life is basketball we going to get beat big we going we going to win

Some big games too so uh but we just don’t want this to happen so you know we just got to watch film fix it and and this on to the next Mark was talking about that that lately the transition offense hasn’t been up to kind of the

Standard that you guys have played too is that something you guys had talked about about turning defense into offense a little bit more than you have been lately yeah yeah defin definitely I mean I know we all know we have an advantage whenever we play fast so we got we want

To stick to that we we kind of went away from from that from for a couple games but it’s okay we just got to get back to us which we did tonight I mean today but the game like yesterday how important was it for you guys to internally get

Back to that defensive activity that you came into the game with today um I mean it was huge I mean we don’t we don’t like being in those type of games when we downb so much and we got to do so much to get back in the game so um our

Main thing was to just be more aggressive from the start which we did T today with Shay was playing off the ball a little bit more seem to really open up things for you guys how much do that help just you and the guys out there

With with him playing off the ball uh I mean it helps a lot you know they they throwing a lot of different stuff uh at shes cuz he’s been having an unbelievable year so um you know it’s good when when he’s off the ball and and and and there’s other guys that can

Create at the same time on the team so you know he’s just he’s just doing good at that and whenever he gets whatever defense or coverage they s on him you know he’s always trying to make the right play so a lot of credit to him

It’s not it’s not easy to be in his position to see different type of Defense every game so um you know what we did today help um you know heading into this game I mean obviously with dear being one of the best guards in the league you’ve

Always been attached and signed to some of the best guards in the league I mean what was your approach heading into today when you have to be matched up with them obviously making them struggle early on it uh to to be tough I mean he he he’s a good guard really fast you

Know he can do a lot on the court so to just make everything tough for him um especially after a game like yesterday where I feel like I didn’t do my job right as a as a Defender and then having the the main guy on the other team so

You know today was just uh uh an approach of on on being aggressive um he still had a a good game but uh my Approach was kind of different Lou we just talked to Mark about rebounding and he mentioned it’s not just big sometimes that hurts you it’s a lot of wings that

Will drive and cut and crash the boards you’re doing a good job of that now and you’re doing it more frequently is there a certain like situation certain Personnel that Mark wants you to go do that or is it just sort of feel an opportunity when you see it yeah

Opportunity when I see it I mean um yeah it’s not just the big you know all of us can just go in there it’s not just me and the other cars too so whenever I can go help or I should should go every time we just need to

Scare the rebound don’t matter who who who gets it we just need to get the rebound anybody else Nick alow casy Thunder uh for both of you guys it seems like you all did a great job of sort of leveraging when they were being over aggressive on the

Perimeter to be able to get the back cuts and and that kind of stuff what are some triggers for you guys when when you’re recognizing that style of defense to be able to get those those angles to the rim and those back Cuts how is that opening

Up oh I cut more than you I feel like yeah um I think a lot of it is just being aggressive early in the game I think that puts team on teams on like high alert um you know chasing us off stuff like that so then it becomes you

Know they might jump a screen and stuff like that so it’s kind of just like a read to see if they’re over playing um I think a lot of that is just you know being able to get get out and transition I think puts a lot of pressure on a lot

Of defenses you know and then that opens up us being able to cut and play off each other that way Shay there were a bunch of like help the helper plays defensively for you guys you had a big block on the backside on one um were those extra efforts gamechanging today yeah

Um we uh that’s the defense we we try to be um make multiple efforts multiple efforts um help each other obviously you’re not going to be perfect throughout a game it’s going to be slip ups but if we help each other and scramble and try to make multiple efforts it’ll cover itself up

Um we did a good job of that tonight Shay uh you said yesterday after the way the afternoon games had gone especially the way yesterday went that that energy at the beginning would be kind of a point of emphasis were you happy with the way you guys responded and came out

Yeah um yeah we we came out really good today um and I think it set the tone for the rest of the night um but yeah we we’re playing to our identity when we jump J when you guys play a game like that Mark you want to overreact to one

Game but when you play the way you played yesterday do you sit on that and do you sit with it and think about we don’t want to do this we don’t want to do this we got to correct yesterday fix it today a little bit you know we had a

Back to back so you try and scratch you know even if we would have won won that game you know you try and scratch those pretty quick just cuz you’re playing the back to back but um I think just the way we lost a lot of it was just our

Identity like we played slow we didn’t defend well so a lot of that we understood was pretty fixable and you know it’s the NBA when you’re not kind of on your game especially you know against a good team you know they have they can you know anybody can lose like

That so um yeah we just tried to come out here and make that more of an emphasis guy that market said you guys felt like you’d gotten away a little bit from some of the stops getting you out in transition and playing fast is it something you guys have talked about

Recently yeah um especially just kind of the beginning of the game sets a tone for the rest of the rest of the game I thought we did a good job of that tonight you know we came out playing really hard and we were able to you know

Sustain that for the whole game seem like I mean Shay was playing off the ball a little bit more today how much does that really open up things for for you for you guys uh he draws a lot of attention so even when he’s not in the

Action teams have to worry about him so you know it gives us a lot more space to kind of move freely for our offense you know we have a lot of other weapons on the court as well so um when he’s able to kind of play off

The ball and you know we’re able to actually go screen for him too so I think that opens up his game as well just creates a lot more of an advantage offensively and then Shay it seems like you were trying to set the tone on the

Defensive end today how much of a focus was that for you yeah um especially last game I didn’t think we defended the way we we normally do um and usually usually when you lose by that big of a margin starts defensively I mean I just tried to kind

Of turn the tide a little bit um from the jump I think it carried over question for either of you guys you both found like some comfort in the mid-range and sort of signature spots for you when you get to that is that like what’s the progression of that is

It a spot that you say I want to get really good at this spot or is it more something of I’m already good here this is something I want to get to more frequently um so so when I guess for me it’s just like when I’m playing and attacking there’s certain

Spots that I can get to and I want to make sure that I can Capital capitalize at those spots as much as possible um and that’s where that’s I guess kind of what my construction and my development in workouts looks like uh I play a

Certain way and I and I get to certain spots on the floor um pretty easy and when I get there I want to be able to capitalize and then du lotman talked about you guys being a very close Titan a team or any Super Bowl plans for all

You guys to hang out tonight going to somebody’s house uh I don’t know we’ll figure it out everybody’s tired yeah we’re going somewhere they’re playing the old yeah that was kind of um that was kind of my my next question I mean is for

Both of y’all I mean on a on a night from back to back um you know when you guys are heading into the fourth quarter and you see Malik mon hit some of the shots that he was hitting and get them back in the game I mean where does that

You know second gear come in in the fourth quarter for both of you guys to step up and make big shots and you know come out with the win um I think just sticking to the the game in general just kind of how the game was going like they team so they’re

Like you know they’re going to hit Shots tonight it was Malik Monk and you know that’s this you know he does that like he has a track record of doing that so it’s kind of just being able to respond um thought we did a good job of

Down the stretch having them shoot some tough ones and you know NBA you going to hit tough shots but I think we did a good job of just kind of sticking to our identity defensively and we able to kind of get stops which fueled you know us

Being able to go down and score I know you didn’t play the fourth quarter yesterday are you thinking more get stops or get offense um get stops uh if you this is what I was taught like from a very young age like if you get stops like this it’s a little bit

Dramatic but how I was taught was if you get a stop every possession the worst that happens if a tie is a tie if you score every possession you let them score every possession you can still lose so I always think get stops when I’m trying to win a game

Hear from Head Coach Mark Daigneault, Lu Dort, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams following the Thunder’s 127-113 victory over the Kings.

0:00 Head Coach Mark Daigneault
8:53 Lu Dort
13:11 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams

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