OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game at Atlanta Hawks | January 3, 2024

OKC Thunder Full Media Availability | Post Game at Atlanta Hawks | January 3, 2024

Aon Nick Gallow casy Thunder um seemed like you guys were able to to bring kind of a level of juice to this game uh coming in off the bench that your team really needed what was your uh hope or goal as you as you checked in tonight uh

Like you said I mean just kind of bringing energy trying to uplift the team uh got off to a slow start so just trying to do anything to kind of you know bring a little bit of fire uh and you know get guys going a little bit

What did you see in the second half just to be able to hang in there and hang in there it seemed like you know they they just couldn’t totally break free from you guys yeah I mean tough group tough group of guys who uh want to compete

Want to win so uh we weren’t phased by the lead that they kind of created um we understand that you know you got to stack plays and you got to kind of just you know be disciplined and Trust what we have and uh put forth the effort and

We were able to crawl back into it but um I mean the early League we kind of kind of gave him ultimately just kind of um you know set him up for for a win so uh I mean showed a lot of fight but just

Came up short and leading up to the to the late run obviously they’re super efficient they get 33 free throws I just wonder what you saw real time um on your end defensively as a team that maybe was solvable or you know it could have been better different

Um I mean I think defensively we started just kind of key in uh you know they were kind of scoring at will in the first half whatever they wanted I think second half we just kind of started to lock in with personnel and and you know rotations and kind of you

Know be better on Ball but uh I mean they play well they they hit shots they hit some big shots played well um just didn’t do enough waited too late got to we can’t have those nights like that what did that effort in the second half to Calla back from down 21 points

On the second night of a back to back just on the road what does that sort of effort require mentally from from this group uh I don’t know how to explain it um but it’s a lot of mental toughness that kind of goes into it because um

It’s one of those games where like you know you could have excuses um but we found ourselves like we’re playing the game go win um so you know find ourselves in a fight um understood that if we just keep knocking at the door and keep kind of just uh you know pushing

You know we can find ourselves back in it and uh we we we were able to get it down to one possession um and I think everybody thought that shot was going in so that’s a shot we we live with and just everybody that stepped onto the

Floor scored for you guys nine guys scored nine or more points just what how much value does that sort of balanced offense have for you guys I mean that’s huge uh when when you have a team that plays together trust the offense trust one another and you know makes the right

Plays uh it just kind of opens up the floor um makes other teams just kind of have to you know key in and respect every person on the floor that steps onto the court so uh that’s huge you know like like you guys said the bench brought brought good energy and and was

Able to kind of uplift us um and then guys got going and I mean that’s a tough loss it’s a tough one I do want because to start the season it felt like all we were talking about was the glass and you guys have ironed some of that out obviously um but

Tonight uh some of their effort it felt like was reminiscing of some of the early season stuff I just wonder what you saw from them in terms of effort maybe on your end effort um that that left such a blaring gap on on the glass

Yeah um I mean a slow start hurt us uh you know they hit shots early and then um when you get off to a slow start the Little Things become bigger you know they they become more of a a fact Factor um and so we we just kind of had try to

Key in on it but you know they have good size they have guys in there who you know are crashing the glass and we got to be better just kind of paying attention to and knowing Personnel guys who crash the glass um being aware of our surroundings Clint compella is down

There somebody’s got to get him out um and then on the offensive end trying to get Second Chance opportunities um all that just kind of factors into it so that play of the marched her up you give Joe the look in the corner are those type of plays something you guys

Practice uh I mean every now and then you know we we practice in the quarter plays and stuff like that um but you know he draws them up on the on the spot he you know he’s he’s he’s got some stuff up his sleeve so he was able to

Just draw it up and uh guys guys liked it coming out of the timeout and got a good look so um just trying to keep that um mindset that we’re an uncommon team that’s really what kind of pushed us through and you know us making that run

Later in the stretch that some we was preaching yeah tell me about that run and what it felt like you know on the floor and on the benches you guys just kept hanging around and kept hanging around uh until you were able to to make it a war possession game um it started

On defense had to get stops we knew we couldn’t just go down there and just keep going bucket for bucket with them if we were down so just you know throwing different looks at them trying to slow him down and scoring on the other end K obviously I think finish with 33

Free throws for a while there Tre was just constantly getting to the line or getting whistles I I wonder what you saw out there that that made that so challenging and and put so much pressure on on the defense to just blow the whistle constantly um he’s a superstar I

Mean they they get those calls from my what I’ve seen you know so far in the league so um um show our hands better maybe you know try to stay in front or you know something different the defense before that late run Mark just mentioned that the energy

Wasn’t necessarily I wonder what you saw that you guys could have done better just defending them and and how efficient they ended up being uh they made you know the open shots I feel like we were a little late on our rotations and you know our Pursuits K everybody that stepped onto

The force scored for you guys just how valuable is that balance that you guys have offensively uh it’s great knowing that everybody can create for their themselves or others you know unselfish team so everybody that gets out there contributes and then when you see a guy like Lindy who hasn’t necessarily you

Know had regular rotation minutes step in knock down you know big three-pointers three of them tonight just what does that what does that say about him and really kind of this whole team uh we know that he’s a shooter so whenever he touches it and put it up I

Feel like we all all have confidence in him that is going in and he does as well so just him getting his opportunity and you know making the most of it was great C casy Thunder uh marked down 21 uh what were the kind of internal conversations like with your guys to

Keep putting pressure on them keep hanging around and and give yourselves a chance yeah we didn’t have our our best tonight obviously but I thought we stuck together and stayed in it um I thought as the game War on we we got you know more and more energy uh and more and

More engaged after obviously a sluggish start so um some positives there but obviously you know we kind of played on their terms tonight uh with how they usually play and and we kind of slipped into that kind of game with them and credit them they didn’t we let they

Never let we never LED they led the whole game um so you know they outplayed us tonight anything that you noticed about the the first quarter in particular uh you called that early timeout was there something that um that you all weren’t doing that allowed them

To play on their terms I mean it just takes unbelievable energy to win uh a game and uh it takes particularly great energy to stop and slow down this team I mean there’s a reason why they score the way they do every night and so um the

Energy that we needed to have wasn’t there for much of the night on the defensive end obviously as evidenced by um you know how how well they scored it tonight um so like I said you know we just didn’t play well enough to win mark you mentioned it defensive energy

Obviously you guys eventually figured out the offense but it’s tough to save the lead there when when they’re shooting the way they are I wonder what they did that maybe you weren’t prepared for and what in real time you saw it was maybe solvable um I they didn’t do anything

They don’t do to everybody but um you know it’s hard it’s like hitting a 99 mph fastball you know it’s it’s hard when you get in the batter box with them so I mean Young’s obviously incredibly slippery slowing him down is easier said been done no uh margin forever with

Bogdanovich obviously Murray gets to his spots they’re a beast on the glass um there’s a reason why they score the way they do every night so um it just requires unbelievable energy in order to uh slow that down uh and even if you do that they can still you know get on a

Heater and and have a good one so obviously we just didn’t we didn’t have enough tonight you mentioned I know that’s been his game is you putting pressure on the defense to to blad a whistles but it felt like Beyond him you know some of those other guys were

Putting pressure on the rim drawing foul I wonder what you saw that maybe Amplified the the foul drawing made it so tough challenging that after well I mean there’s a reason why he’s so good but you got to pick him up high because he can really shoot from distance uh and

When you give him that much space he’s incredibly good with the ball you know and so then he starts into rejecting screens and uh keeping people off balance and once he’s kind of got you at his Mercy uh he really knows how to you know initiate Conta I thought most of

Those were fouls you know he he does a really good job of selling those plays so um you know we could have been a lot tighter I thought you know we got it a little bit under control uh in the second half but obviously you know we

Dug ourselves a huge hole tonight and then camri um is that a backto back thing him not plan what was that um not not rest for him more just wanting to get other guys more run you know we’ve got a lot of guys that we trust um

There’s guys that I’ve wanted to get some run for um you know Jay will in particular get him a little bit more than the little short bursts Wiggins get him more Lindy Waters is a guy that we have a lot of faith in uh who have we

Haven’t played a lot to this point and it’s just hard you know I don’t think it’s fair to anybody to play them all you know seven minutes so it’s better to give somebody a night off I thought that was appropriate with him in Vasa tonight

Um that’s why I did that it was planned going in wanted to ask you about the defense on that last possession where PlayOn missed the three just the the discipline from your group on the floor to not fouled but also force a contestant sh there yeah the good news

Is I thought we you know down 12 or whatever we were I thought you know our our situational awareness down the stretch was outstanding you know we really stacked good possessions um you know to get ourselves back in that game um you know from pressing them and

Forcing them to use both timeouts to advance the ball to the way we played offense in that stretch uh and that’s a tough differential you know it’s 3se second differential it’s not a lot of time time um but I just kind of felt like you know in order to win that game

You can’t give him a two possession you know difference and we did a really good job of kind of hanging tight there Shay got a big time rebound let us call timeout uh and obviously gave us a chance to tie the game and then just wanted to ask you about the balance that

You had offensively in terms of scoring all 10 guys scored nine of them scored nine or more is this an example of what you’re talking about where you’re going to need everybody on on stretches like this and nights like this yeah I thought you know the guys that went the game

Tonight you know gave good effort and I thought the intent of you know more Jay will more Wiggins more Lindy in particular was energy based you know inject some energy with guys that haven’t played as much and and let the uh motivation of the opportunity you

Know ignite us a little bit and I thought we had the desired effect there those guys really they all lifted us when they were in the game tonight that was a much needed boost that we that we needed from them mark it was an uphill battle but it comes down to uh your

Team’s fight not giving up and it comes down to an Isaiah Joe 3 there at the buzzer what did you learn about your team tonight it’s not always going to be perfect you know and and you know I’ll ride with these guys any night it wasn’t

Our fast ball tonight but um you know I have great respect for uh who we have as competitors the 82 Game season uh and tough parts of the schedule make it hard to really um throw your best pitch every single night but to continue to fight

The way we did uh is impressive but it’s also who these guys have proven to be over for a long period of time so now we got to get some rest and get off our feet and get ourselves uh ready to play Brooklyn it’s a good challenge for us on

Uh Friday anyone else go ahead Jo I do Wonder because this isn’t the first game where you’ve had a chance late to kind of make a run and win a game that probably wasn’t winnable early on so I just wonder how much you care or value because obviously you probably won

Run like that earlier but to be a ATL away from overtime like how much do you value that late juice I mean there’s a lot of G 82 games a lot of games but every time a game goes by that’s one less opportunity you have and so we want

To be a team that just squeezes all the juice out of the Season you know with every single minute we can play and um like I said we put ourselves in a great position tonight uh late to try to give ourselves a chance but there’s also

Lessons from this game I mean when you end up losing by three I mean at any point in the game if we had just gotten a little bit tighter uh or if we started a little bit better it could have been a different night obviously we were one possession away from that one

Hear from Aaron Wiggins, Cason Wallace, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault after a close game in Atlanta, ultimately falling 141 – 138.

0:00 Aaron Wiggins
4:56 Cason Wallace
7:08 Coach Daigneault

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