OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game at Orlando Magic | February 13, 2024

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game at Orlando Magic | February 13, 2024

The defense just seemed so consistent throughout the night particularly that second half it just seemed like they couldn’t get much traction against you guys what did you notice about the way that you guys kind of entered every possession on that end um a lot of it

Is a good amount of it is CH you know protecting the rim and then us covering for him rebounding I thought we did a really good job of that I think we upped our physicality stopped giving so many easy drives to the basket um you know

Some of those result in fouls but just kind of like the message um so I thought we did a good job there but Chad definitely um helps out in that regard you know just having somebody at the rim and then like I said you know we’re

Doing a good job of when he goes being able to kind of move his man out the way and gang rebound you guys bounc back from a couple losses finish the break you know heading into the break really strong uh tell me about kind of the

Feeling as you guys are heading into the break uh on a good positive note uh yeah confident you know um we’ve had good momentum coming into a lot of these games obviously since Dallas I think that was like a good little wake up call just for you know our intensity coming

Into games and the last two right we played two games it’s a blur um the last two games I think we’ve done a really good job of kind of coming out ready to set the tone and then being able to continue through that for you know the full game we played two really

Good teams so but Orlando kind of got out to a really good start but you guys took control in the second quarter and just kind of like held them off for the rest of the game what what was key to kind of turn around there uh yeah I

Think we had a good start as well you know they hit some shots early uh like I said they’re good team so kind of just weathered that storm stuff we’ve been doing all year uh I think we were able to kind of double down on our physicality and compete back with them I

Thought we were a little little slow in that department but our rotations and stuff were good so uh once we kind of got our physicality back into the game I thought we did a good job of kind of course correcting and you know playing with the lead what did you see there in

The start of the fourth quarter it was Shay starting the Third on fire then fourth quarter is like almost your turn to check in and go to work what what what kind of Rhythm did you get in there um just taking what the defense gives me

Our team does a good job moving without the ball uh playing on the catch you know I’ve been saying that all year we’ve had we have a really talented group so anybody any game can have a big game so I think when you have a steady diet of that throughout the season teams

Worried about everybody else which allows me to get to my spots we do a good job moving without the ball so I think when you have a group like that especially to start the fourth and to start those minutes where I come in I think it makes it easier for me to find

Where I want to be effective anything else thanks genten uh your defense really never let them get a real good hold on the game what was key to the consistency on that before for you guys um I I we got off to kind of a poor start they had 13 uh paint points

In the first six minutes and they kind of established uh the way that they wanted to play uh early in that game and then we really corrected nicely right off the bat uh with that group that came in Off the Bench uh K Rich Jay will and

KAS uh at the end of the first and got us back in the game and then we were able to stabilize the game after that defensively I thought we’d put them in a crowd uh tried to make them as uncomfortable as possible uh and were able to stack up stops throughout the

Game it just seemed like the the hand activity from both teams was really strong a lot of strips blocks steals um what did you make of your team kind of overcoming that aspect of the battle and and being kind of a stronger team throughout the night yeah I thought um

We were stronger with the ball offensively in the second half uh first half we just we had a couple loose plays as you mentioned they were aggressive uh slapping and reaching uh and stabbing in the back court I thought that bothered us a little bit but in the second half

Specifically in the third quarter I thought we did a really good job playing with some force and uh just kind of plowing through that there were a lot of potential d action surrounding this game most notably the last game before the All-Star break what do you think of just

The focus for this group to kind of spr to the Finish Line yeah I thought it was a really focused effort I thought the guys were really locked in after that first after the start the start wasn’t great but uh other than that you know stuck to the game plan hung in there

Through a couple runs uh kept uh Orlando off balance with our offensive attacks the guys executed really well tonight we moved the ball uh and found great shots so lot to like you had five guys has some double figures talk about moving the ball just how critical is that

Balance against a defense like R yeah they’re just they’re big and they’re uh they’re active they play hard and they’re big so uh they’re not a team that you want to you know try to play over or try to play Slow against they’ll swallow you up so uh I thought we did a

Really good job of moving them uh around the floor with ball movement with uh floor movement with cutting uh we were fast tonight after stops on a lot of plays especially in the third so uh you know that was really really good and critical against obviously a very good

Defense Shay gets going and start the third then Jay de gets going to start the fourth I thought I put a lot of stress on romando’s defense yeah those guys got cooking I mean we took a lead to halftime I think we’re up eight at halftime and Chad hadn’t played great

Shay hadn’t played great um and yet you know the cumulative effect of everybody else you know kind of carried us through that first half and put us in a good position Shay’s too good of a player to have a a full game like that you know so

He really got it going in the third and then thought the attacks to start the fourth were great and the sneaky thing about that were the stops you know we really strung stops together um for the first like five or six minutes of the fourth and that really opened the game

Up does it feel good kind of go under the break with a nice Road wi at all yeah it feels good going into the break regardless of anything other than are you proud of what your guys have done no point yeah we’ve obviously had a good

Year uh we’ve had great Focus I thought we ran through the Finish Line with these last two games um you know that was evident tonight and now you know got to take a deep breath uh put some gas back in the tank and get ready for the stretch

Hear from Jalen Williams and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s 127-113 victory over the Magic.

0:00 Jalen Williams
2:39 Head Coach Mark Daigneault

Follow Our Social Media!

Website: https://www.nba.com/thunder/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okcthunder/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/okcthunder
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/okcthunder/
Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/okcthunder
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@okcthunder
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@okcthunder

#NBA #OKCThunder