OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game at New Orleans Pelicans | March 26, 2024

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game at New Orleans Pelicans | March 26, 2024

What they before that um but also the way that Lou and dub were able to kind of throw them curve B defensively and what to do to stop that down the structure yeah um we uh we suck to our game plan um I would say through the first two quarters

And halfway through the the third pretty much um then got away from it a little bit they start getting on the transition getting downhill um and it really opened up three-point shooting and then they had some momentum going to the fourth and uh I think we

Did a good job of like course correcting um and getting back into the game what we had done previously to BU build the big lead um just speaks to our maturity and our Our poise as a group to um be able to get back on track and not wait

Till after the game to say and we should have fixed it was fixing in a moment and and we did it in time to get a w and then uh dub just the the way that they were kind of forced to go small because of jit and then the way that Josh was

Able to punish them um offensively just what did you make of kind of the the swirling dynamics of this game and how you guys seem to have an answer to all of things they try to do uh yeah it’s fun being in an atmosphere like that and

Being in a game where you have to make so many like in-game adjustments and uh kind of adapt to each other so um I think that was really good for us um I think anytime you have a game where we constantly have to change and see what

The other team is doing uh speaks to our versatility and just kind of how we’re kind of everybody’s ready to play and I thought we did a good job of you know kind of having a all five mentality who was out there and you know kind of playing off each

Other talk about hard to you in the lake that game there were times where you maybe look physically uncomfortable he was just saying that you’re not 100% can you describe your your physical condition what you’ve been going through how long been yeah um a little banged up in my

Quad um since the Utah game um but yeah just take it day by day see how I feel when I wake up um yeah it’s pretty much it yeah even what they said through the h d you know all that you kind of had that sequence

At the end of the game where you get the three come down rip per Jones and that kind of breaks open the game just as is going on with how you’re feeling like just describe that sequence to me and just the end of the game when you started like

Vis um try not to focus on it uh I think at that point it was like 2 minutes left in the game so just not be a liability out there um try to be aggressive yeah and mo most of it’s just trying not to think about it and just

Play the game read and react um and do everything you can to impact the game in a positive way in the last two minutes you try to fight through those two minutes and figure it out after the last one for me bar is in here talk about know it’s 82 Game season

You’re going to have games as crazy as this where you know beyond the playoff environment know lose a 20o lead it’s just going to happen across the 82 Game season I just think back to the Dallas game where they had a 30 run I don’t

Know if you guys need the leag in games like this but but with games like this like would you say you guys are becoming comfortable with that I know you don’t want to give up a 20 point leag would you say you guys are becomeing comfortable with games like this

Um I think we’ve seen the I think we’ve seen a pretty bad end of it like you’re were saying with the Dallas game you know I was like kind of almost unheard of so I wouldn’t say comfortable with it I think we just understand basketball is a game of runs

Uh you know you get a couple threes in a 20-point game and you know it’s almost single digits so uh that’s just basketball I think that’s like average for the league swings anyway uh so I think we kind of understand that you know we’re going to be on the verge

Of some of them we’re going to be on the other end is just basketball and uh we understand that and I thought we did good job of just kind of sticking with it during that whole stretch earlier you were talking about the versatility of this group on the

Defensive end and just how many weapons you guys have you also had three guys finish with 20 or more points tonight just what’s it like for you guys to play on a team with a could be anybody’s night any given night there’s just so many threats at FL it’s

Fun uh I think it’s just a testament to guys staying ready and um yeah just guys stand ready and uh you know I think everybody puts in a lot of hard work kind of behind the scenes to be ready for those opportunities gives everybody a lot of space in the

Court to get to spots they want to be at and uh something that we continue to kind of harp on also probably uh just us moving the ball as a unit trusting each other and make the right play I think we generate really good shots when that

Happens and uh you know I think when we get open looks we knock them down at a pretty high rate and then um sh you were just talking about the the Poise of this group and we’ve seen throughout the year different levels of adversity you guys have had to work through when you’re

When a team is facing a run like that what are you guys tapping into in those moments just to to stay calm this um taking a possession at a time um when a team gets Rhythm and momentum um you just you have to have a little

Bit more focus on both ends of the floor um everything matters a little bit more especially in their building like uh shot selection communication defensively um so we try to focus on like the little things um and then focus and and just being together through it run to to

Close the game after they go on a massive run to take a lead what did it take just down the stretch at that you guys yeah I mean um we we got out to a pretty decent 20-point lead um and then they started hitting shots in that in

The you know Midway through to the end of the third and crowd got involved they started getting confidence feeling good about themselves and um they came all the way back got in front but I think um our guys you know show great you know mental toughness throughout those

Stretches to to not fold uh I thought the way we responded um started getting stops getting good looks offensively um kind of flip the game back in our way uh momentum out way um kind of you know got got the game back on the right you know

Path for us so um team are going to make runs obviously you don’t want to give up a 20o lead you don’t want to get down 20 points but um you know the NBA players are talented they can make runs and I thought we uh weathered the storm well

You know when they got the deficit back you guys have seen a lot of adversity runs of this sort throughout the season what is it about this group that has such uncommon Po and maturity about them yeah we don’t Flinch we we understand um

We can be on either side of it um as I said you know it’s the NBA guys can make shots any given night and um tonight we started hot we got out to a 20-point lead then they got hot and um it can be like that every night and um youve just

Got to be able to um stay levelheaded through you know a swing either way and uh we did that tonight you know their crowd got loud got involved and I thought we we did a really good job you know start that fourth going forward um

To really kind of get them get them out of the game and um and and make them take tough shots make them guard multiple actions um and you know guys made big plays down the stretch and we’re able to close it out honestly we talked in recent week just about you

Know St using you in different ways and you know what that’s may be done for the team for you but these past couple games especially like You’ been in a different you know maybe the push outs that you were shooting early in the year are falling shooting threes that quicker

Trigger just has there been a surge in confidence for you definitely I mean anytime any play sees the ball go on the rim you start to get confidence and the rim starts to become bigger and um and those shots to feel easier but um as I

Said the same way a team go on a run up you know shots don’t always you know fall they don’t they don’t always miss so um just just taking the right ones I mean um you know seeing different looks Big’s got to me God’s got to me um just

Trying to take what the defense gives and um yeah just keep shooting with confidence you know my guys trust me coaches trust me to to step out there and and shoot them and um just got to continue to be confident with it whether they go in or

Not Josh just the the versatility that this rout has for you guys to be able to play different ways throughout a game to make a late defensive switch like you had with with Lou and dub and to change up Shay’s minutes just I don’t know when you look at this team obviously you’re

Still so young but uh how does it feel to have so many options and and uh choices that you can make for a game it’s great it’s a big luxury to have um you know when coach looks down the bench and he’s got multiple guys he can go to

At any given point in the game and we kind of spoke about the other day where we’ve had you know 10 different guys close a game throughout the year and that just speaks to the depth that we have and uh we can throw multiple different lineups and um the versatility

That the guys have and um you know we saw it tonight you know Doug got in foul trouble you you put Lou you know that’s another Elite defender in the league to guard you know one of the best um downhill guys like Zion so um it’s great

Having weapons like that that we can um you know chop and change and you know those guys were awesome tonight and uh you know especially um as we get to the back end of the year um a lot of guys are going to be in a lot of different

Roles and um it’s very important that you know when to numbers called they’re ready to come in and make an impact and it’s been that way all year and uh guys have been really good you know in that area just kind of along the same lines

On the offensive side you guys had three guys scored 20 or more points what’s it like playing with that level of you know options in terms of threats off yeah it’s it’s extremely fun I mean um same defensively I think you know it puts

Teams in a bind with with how to got us and I think that’s why we’ve seen so many different looks because we’ve got a lot of you know versatile guards on that end of the floor um teams are you know starting to guard Us in ways that they’ve probably never practiced never

Done before when whether they Cross Match whether they guard normally whether they start blitzing pick and rolls it’s it you know it forces them to to play kind of out of their normal defense and um it speaks to the group we’ve got we’ve got a special team and

Um you know when you have a versatile lineup like we have um it forces uh teams to scramble and and try to get the right look for us and um we keep throwing different things at them and um hopefully it wins his games Mark really credited your defense in in the second

Half in the fourth quarter tonight the two-way impact guarding Murphy and some of the different things that you had to do how do you feel like you’ve grown this season on that end to be able to deliver in this type of yeah a lot of

It’s you know effort I think um you know maybe early in my career early this season um it kind of wav it and you know I let the offensive side impact the defensive side and um just just kind of getting out of that habit and um you

Know playing each possession as its own and um you know it’s always fun guarding those you know talented scores like he is an athletic guy that can shoot the ball get on the rim and um it it makes me better you know having to guard

Someone like that so um you know I love I love that t type of Challenge and um I think just continuing to be um you know positive on that end of the floor where you know obviously Lou and dub are going to guard the main guys every night but

Um just being there to support them and you know obviously depending on who I’m guarding um helping more helping less um just just trying to do my part and make life easy as possible for those guys on the defensive end 120 runs and this one

I I kind of want to ask you on two levels first of all the the Poise to do it after the run that they did they put on you and then also just the Tactical of how you guys were able to get stop after stop weight um well I mean great

Fortitude by the team I thought the guys show great toughness obviously uh we were able to build a great lead we got off to a great start credit them they were really really sharp in the third especially made shots put a lot of game

Pressure on us took a lead um and then I just thought down the stretch you know we just chopped away you know a lot of game left at 4 and a half minutes when we had the timeout and the GU showed you know great toughness I thought Lou on

Williamson uh down the stretch was really effective picking him up making him work uh to get the ball making him work to get to spots uh having dub and the versatility to put him on M column you know those guys being able to Interchange like that on those two guys

Is pretty impressive and that was uh a really important uh thing for us down the stretch the one of the major things that happened was didn’t play Valen Shas at all in the second half yep um we’ve talked about the way that Chad impacts things but um the extreme nature of them

Having to basically play small all second half what do you think that did to the game and and maybe speaks to the way that uh CH causes problem yeah he’s a tough matchup you know and um you obviously they tried him on Josh a little bit and with the way Josh shot

The ball uh it makes it hard to put him there you know so uh you know I thought you know we did a good job of attacking uh when he was in the game and trying to neutralize his size on the other end of the floor uh but credit them I thought

They made really good adjustments uh to put themselves in good positions there in the second half but um you know fortunately we were able to come out of here with a win it’s a tough game just want to ask about kind of swap felt like you SWA sh D rotation to start

The first half yep that um you know like I told you guys around All-Star break you know we need to stay aggressive uh in understanding you know all the tools in the toolbox with our team and um you know that’s one thing we haven’t looked at um and we

Wanted to take a look at it we wanted to see what Shay looked like on shorter rotations we wanted to see what dub looked like in longer rotations we wanted to see um how that changed uh our substitution beginning of the second quarter and it continues to make us a

Moving Target for our opponents you know it’s something that um the more we can be nimble and the more adaptive our players can be it makes it very difficult to predict what we’re going to do um we’re going to continue to be aggressive and looking at different

Things uh and they’re not all going to work but um you know like I said we’re going to be aggressive and trying to figure out what the best uh options are for our team and we’re always looking to expand those options and not you know contract

Them without but know is a guy been high in the season yeah to not play tonight yep was that a rest thing no it wasn’t a rest thing um he was live I just thought with the way the start we got off to um with the groups

That were out there I just kind of rolled with them uh and it kind of drifted him out of the rotation and I it wasn’t necessarily pre-planned um in fact I was planning on using him but we just we were in such a good Rhythm um

Yeah I just rolled with what the you know the guys were doing uh and we’ve been playing 11 which shortens some guys rotations it makes it really hard for them to show us what they can do you know so we floated K Rich out we floated

Jay will out uh at different times and that kind of loosens up uh the bench for us we ended up doing that tonight it wasn’t pre-planned like I said but um we’re going to continue to do that just to give guys longer runs longer opportunities but he’ll be back in there

Tomorrow I know you guys need to leave come back after deficits but Winds of this nature where you know maybe have something like Le yep hold on to that by the end yep May understand this to become a game like are you like how do you do that do you

Want to weed that out eventually are you comfortable because guys coming out on top um you know in 82 games you’re just going to get such a diverse uh sample of things and uh you’re going to have to play a lot of different types of games you’re going to play with leads you’re

Going to play from behind uh we’d like to play with leads as much as possible and we’d like to hold leads as much as possible uh we’ve done a good job of that this year I think I don’t think we’ve really given up uh leads of that

Nature the way that we did tonight uh but you have to be able to handle a lot of different situations in competition and I thought our guys just showed great toughness and Poise uh in a pretty hostile environment against a very you know sharp opponent that had a lot of

Momentum um and for us to hang in there long enough to give ourselves a chance for the game to turn again uh and to string together the stops that we did down the stretch I thought was really impressive by the guys I wonder go back to what you talked about earlier about

The decision put Lou on on Williamson tonight you have so many options of guys you could put on Williamson whether it’s Jay will J dub y him kenr what does it say about this group that there are just so many guys that you could employ and have make those sort of decisions out

There yeah again we want to expand our options always you know we don’t want to be a team that’s that’s limiting our own options you know we want to be a team that expands them and sometimes like I said in the exploration of that we’re going to trip on some stuff that’s

Really good and we’re going to we’re going to trip on some stuff that doesn’t work uh but we’re going to learn in the process we’re going to expand our team’s capacity in the process uh you know I just we found that making adjustments late in games uh it’s a hard time for

Teams to adapt you know and if we can be the more adaptive team in those situations we think there’s an advantage there uh they had a little bit of a rhythm attacking us with uh the matchups as they were and so we flipped the matchup uh and I thought it bought us

You know a couple possessions there they had a hard time calibrating to it I thought but um and you know it’s a credit to our guys and their adapt adaptability and then um just wanted to ask you about Josh asked you about him after the the Milwaukee game he’s put

Together a really nice stretch here what are you seeing he’s bombing in shots you know that’s the first thing you know and there’s ups and downs in shooting obviously there’s a lot of variance in shooting but I give him a lot of credit he’s worked hard on it um he’s had the

The schemes of people leaving him open which I think is a really difficult thing you know especially as somebody that’s a developing shooter and he’s just kind of stuck with it uh through the ups and downs of the season and for him to have a night like

That shooting the ball um I’m really really happy for him and I also you know he guarded Murphy for much of the second half he played the entire fourth quarter uh didn’t see the need to sub him for defense because of the way that he was

Competing on that end um and you know I thought he was a real two-end player tonight you know and and that was huge for us I mean we don’t win that game without the efforts that he gave on defense and obviously the shot making on offense anybody else go ahead um got you

Got the M there we go yeah could you comment on the the nature of the the 12 clo in terms of you know a lot of te like whatever Jimmy Butler or some kind of alpha dog that kind of takes over down the stretch and it just seem like really even distributed yeah

Your um well we do have that if we want to if we want to go to it it’s not that we don’t have it um but we want again we want to always expand our options you know we won’t want to be a team that’s just um shrinking our options in a

Self-inflicted way um and you know we’ve got different guys that can do different things um in all parts of the game but uh I thought you know dub has shown an unbelievable ability to control the game down the stretch it allows us to move sha around the floor use them as a

Screener use them in different ways move Chad around the floor uh and then you know giddy in transition with the kick ahads and Dort as a play finisher screener uh we found a nice little rhythm and again we want to look at a lot of different things we don’t want to

Give our opponent uh an opportunity to get into a defensive Rhythm against us uh and it’s going to open up cracks for Shay when the ball comes back to him on some plays uh like it did on the three that he hit so um you know again that’s the mentality across everything

Tactically lineups everything we do we’re just trying to expand as much as possible maybe easier to forget the last he had her Jones but Shay at times looked physically uncomfortable yep the is there something going not to the point of not playing obviously you know he was out there tonight but he’s

Banged up you know for sure he’s not uh 100% so I mean we’re monitoring it we’re obviously U really wise with those decisions um he’s he obviously was good enough to play tonight um but you know he’s he’s certainly not 100% was that a thing of Milwaukee or um I’ll I’m I’ll

Let him speak on it I’m not going to I’m not going to go there but I I do know tonight he was not 100% oh

Hear from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Josh Giddey, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s 119 – 112 win over the Pelicans.

0:00 SGA and JDub
6:00 Josh Giddey
11:34 Head Coach Mark Daigneault

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