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

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

OKC Thunder uh case before the game Mark said that the game plan was really similar to most nights like protect the rim first and then fire out what did you think of the way that you guys were able to make sure that they didn’t get a lot

Of easy stuff down low um I feel like we guarded on the perimeter you know very well you know Lou he stepped up and uh well not stepped up he did what he usually do um guarded one of their main guys and you know made it tough for him

All night so I feel like that started it you you seem to kind of just have eyes in the back of your head on the perimeter in terms of being able to just keep those hands in the passing Lanes know when those passes are coming how much of that is Instinct versus like

Studying and knowing what what teams are going to do um just knowing that I’m ging one of the main guys you know they’re trying to get the ball in his hands so me knowing that and you know trusting my instincts as well just shooting the passing Lane knowing that

They’re going to pass it to him so and I want to ask you about Chad uh it’s a big time assignment for him tonight and he did more than than hold his own uh physically with tenacity what did you see from him um Chad played to the level

That we knew he could you know he block shots get rebounds play tough you know make it hard for everybody on the court to um score in the paint so I feel like he stepped up to the challenge as always coach gave you guys a lot of credit for manufacturing points tonight

Against their defense what what kind of win into making sure that you guys were able to generate good looks and and make sure that you’re able to generate points throughout the night um just making sure that we’re moving you know cutting the wings and you know spacing in the

Corners for open shots um driving and knowing that you have a kick out how much have you guys had to kind of learn different ways to to win games throughout the Seas I mean you come off a Spurs game where you put up 140 points and then tonight a low-scoring game but

You kind of had to figure out a way to win this one tonight um just diging into the game the game plan and you know it was a um a physical game tonight so just playing through that without you know getting as many calls as usual just sticking together and keep playing Cas

So we we talked about Chad and how he held his own against jonis and it felt like earli in the year we were talking about you know some of those heavier I mean everybody who who CH has to guard is usually heavier but earlier in the

Year it felt like we were talking about you know five man defenses and trying to um do some of the things that cat couldn’t do on his own and I it it feels like today was one of those days where even in the window chat wasn’t doing

One-on-one stuff that you guys were you know timing rebounds just bringing some of the help just what did you see there and what have you seen as The Season’s gone along in terms of progressing and helping chck with some of those assignments uh like you said he always

Has a tough matchup so just knowing that we it’s a team game and you know we’re trying to you know ease the load off them a little bit so just trapping you know squeezing the ball and you know firing out when coach mentioned your aggression on

Offense and kind of how you’ve grown in confidence whether it’s self-creation or just uh you know shooting without hesitating this year where has that confidence come from and how has it you know come so far in in such a short span of time just knowing all the work that I

Put in you know just my teammates trusting in me them telling me to keep shooting the ball keep making plays so they’re um they’re encouraging me to do more as well Nick Al oissy Thunder uh ch defensively Mark came into the game saying you know protecting the paint

Protecting the rim top priority like it is normally and then spray out what do you think of the execution of that to hold them to so to so few points um I think we did a really good job as a team uh you know I don’t think

There was too many missed assignments uh we were all really keyed in on that end uh you know helping the help guy uh especially when I had to go um and help on drives uh there were a lot of syn downs um taking away that that dunker

Pass and uh we had active hands on those skips stole a few of those um overall just a a great team effort and and uh kind of focus on that end Jaylen what do you think of the way Chad handled the valent Tunis matchup and really um you

Know held his own in some um nice uh he did a good job um I think when you’re as competitive as he is like you’re not really let somebody get the best of you the whole night so he did a really good job from start to finish uh

Just accepting the physicality and being physical back uh you know he also put him in a lot of rotations offensively uh going at him as well so you know whenever you have to worry about somebody offensively too you know it takes away from when you

Want to go on offense you got to guard them as well so he did a good job uh being just as physical and kind of matching that and then going back at him offensively so offensively for you guys it can sometimes for any team you start off

Slow you’re not making shots and that can you know get you in a rut you guys really opened things up offensively as the game went along what helped you do that you want sharing the ball that’s my answer there you go yeah I think it was

Sharing the ball but I think it really started on defense um you know when shots aren’t falling early you can kind of just get frustrated I guess and let that you know seep into the other end of the floor and we didn’t do that and once we got our

Defense established and going which I feel like we did very early on in the game uh you know it it made the offensive end easier for us got us some easier looks especially in transition um and and that’s big for us uh you know it kind of gets the energy

Flowing and helps us make some shots uh which we did down the stretch um so yeah I started on defense just kind of piggybacking off that and this is for either one of you who wants to answer but coming off of last night’s game or the last game in San Antonio you guys

Put up a season High 140 points tonight it’s a it’s a defensive battle and you guys seem throughout the season just to be able to learn different ways to to win games just what’s gone into that and how important is kind of that skill in the NBA uh it’s extremely important you know

No two games are going to be the same and uh you know if you’re doing something well teams are going to try and take that away so you have to be able to adjust in real time in games uh from game to game week to week uh you

Got to be able to learn from kind of the flow of things uh how other teams are guarding us uh what’s working for us um and and you got to find a balance between sticking with what’s working and uh adjusting to what they’re trying to take away just just a quick followup

This your second season how do how do you feel like you guys have grown kind of in that area over over the course of time here doesn’t uh I think we’re just doing a good job like we just have more games under our belt with each other you know

For the most part it’s the almost the exact same group so um yeah we just have a lot more reps uh guys know kind of what’s expected them every game um and I think there’s just a little more trust everywhere across across the board so guys are kind of willing to sacrifice

You know stuff for the the good of the team and I think everybody knows that their number can be called any any night so I think when you add a mixture of that and guys you know enjoy being around each other and playing with each

Other I think there’s a lot of a lot of good that can come from that and you know we’re getting more and more comfortable being in these situations with each other and you know now that we’re like 40 something games in and we’ve been through a lot of adversity

Throughout the year we kind of know what we can fall back on when adversity does hit and dub we we we talked about the just how Chad held his on tonight against jonis and pretty much every match up he’s going to have is you know a guy probably heavier and we talked all

Year about just um not just the one-on-one stuff but the fem man defense and what it takes in the windows where he can’t do everything himself I just wonder the progression you’ve seen in terms of not just tonight but as the years going on you know the windows

Where CAD can’t do everything himself and you have to you know time rebounds around him or you know bring that low help stuff like that um it’s not really you know an adjustment to that he does a lot defensively to where like there’s there’s we haven’t had we don’t have

Matchups where you know we’re trying to hide him or you know keep him out of certain situations cuz he’s versatile throughout the whole entire time I just mean like when he’s out of a play already but oh yeah yeah we talk about stuff like that he goes and tries to

Block a lot of shots obviously that’s the rim protection that we were looking for last year so we we understand that we got to go in there and gang rebound uh like he was talking about when when he goes a challenger shot hitting the next guy that’s trying to crash um so

This stuff we understand game plan wise this stuff um I wouldn’t even say that changes game to game that’s just uh being competitive and understanding what it takes to win it’s part of our defensive scheme too you know there’s a lot of shots that there’s not a lot of

Shots that he can’t affect or block so we understand that so when he does go up it’s kind of like unsaid communication to kind of go in there and help him out yeah and and the way they tried to shrink the middle of the floor specifically um in defending Shay it it

Took him some time to kind of calibrate that and adjust to that but it felt like you know to start the second to start the fourth you guys came in had that instant punch just what did you see that helped you attack those minutes well Mark kills us when we lose those minutes

So there’s a little extra juice to win those minutes credit to this guy uh for running the show um uh in those minutes um especially when Shay’s out uh you know he does a good job of facilitating and keeping us study so yeah and and obviously you guys

Saw everybody saw Shay uh being named an All-Star starter I just wonder your general thoughts on that and he he was first in in player vote so I just wonder what you guys think that means well deserved and duh next yeah obvious that it was going to happen uh and he’s very

Deserving and uh I’m sure it’s not going to be the last time that it happens uh that’s all I got that was my answer and it’s good to see that uh people around the league other than us as players uh are respecting it too um because it’s pretty undeniable what he

Does every single night um I’m sure there’s people on every team voting for him uh cuz you know there’s there’s not a night where it’s like he wasn’t an All-Star tonight um you know he brings it every night and uh that’s huge for us and he’s going to continue to do that

For a long time we just here talking about just the way New Orleans tried to shrink the floor early against you when you when you drove um obviously led to a like a slower start relative to to what you’ve seen But by the end of the game

You calibrate you have 30 plus a pretty normal night just what did you see as the game went on that they helped you adjust um we just uh we we know obviously we’ve seen them quite a bit this past year and a half um you know how they want

To kind of play against us on both ends of the floor um and we just tried to attack it in the right way uh they’re a team that obviously loads a lot um has good Defenders Dynamic Defenders and they are are pretty tough to score on um

But there’s certain keys to attacking a team that with with that kind of caliber of Defense um and we got them into the game for sure yeah and I think the the Minnesota game was within this past week so that’s that makes two games in a week

Or so that you shoot under 40% and and still pull out the win I just wonder how as time’s going on how comfortable you feel in games where um you depend more so on the defensive end of the floor um we we always try to do so we always try

To focus before the game during the game after the game on defense um that’s where we like to hang our and that’s what we we focus on for the most part yeah and and I think you called the end of that but but dub and chat were just

Talking about um kind of how deserving you were the allstar not I just wonder your thoughts on it and just the players voting you first among the the west back court what that what that means to you yeah um it’s an honor uh it’s a blessing uh obviously there’s so many

Talented um players in the NBA so many talented guards um especially in the west there’s there so many talented players um and to be voted first by by my peers people that do the same job as me every night um it’s a really good feeling what did you make of the way

That uh Cas was so disruptive tonight it just seemed like he was in every passing Lane and um got his hands on a lot a lot of deflections yeah he was um he was himself he like you said disruptive um he has great defensive instincts great

Great hands um he was all over the place loose balls steals rebounds um he was huge T it there was one thing for Chad to kind of hold his own and handle the defensive matchup with Valen Junes but he really was able to to take advantage

Of that on the other end as well uh what do you think of just the the energy and the physicality he exerted on both ends of the floor yeah he brought it tonight um obviously Chad that’s was one of the knocks on him coming to the NBA um but he’s so tough

He’s so mentally strong that he fights all night and makes up for it um and that’s just who he is who he’s been all season so no surprise to me but CH was obviously really good tonight as usual do you uh when you come into this building do you think about last season

And how you guys got that first I guess significant Big Win here like and and how was the franchise changed since that game um no I don’t think about it at all uh one of the things in beginning of the Season that we all said was like nothing

Is given based on the past like we have to earn every win going forward um so like last season has I I haven’t thought about it at all obviously we did better than what was expected but it’s a new season new game new new team um and

Obviously we’ve grown a lot to answer your second question um in the I guess eight months or however many months has been since since that game we’ve uh gotten a lot better um just got to try to stay on that course um and keep growing Shay I just wanted to go back to

The fact that this was such a defensive battle between both of these teams tonight and Mark gave you guys a lot of credit for manufacturing points and just generating points throughout the night against their defense what went into that for you guys and just throughout the season there have been games where

You guys have had to kind of generate points when when the shot wasn’t falling what what goes into that for you guys um just try to play the right way uh try to play to our strengths um not try to do anything that we aren’t comfortable doing each and

Every guy out there and then as well as a team um when we trust those things and play together usually things work yourself out Mark I I understand it Zion adds an element to their their offense but they shoot 39% from the field 25% from three

Just what you like about the way you guys contain them tonight yeah I thought um we did a great job defensively obviously and and pretty consistent throughout the game I thought we set a really good tone of physicality early uh both teams it was a really physical game in the first quarter first

Half uh and we were able to sustain a really high level defensively tonight really threw out there wasn’t much that they got uh that was easy so a lot of credit to our guys that’s a hell of a physical output yeah and the Minnesota game recently was another game where you

Shot pretty poorly under 40% and you still managed to to grind that game out I just just wonder how comfortable you are at this point now with with games like this where you have to depend almost solely on defense to to get a win yeah you know I thought um like I said

The defense was was there early and and there throughout offensively I thought we generated pretty good shots early um and then in the second quarter I thought we really manufactured offense like we got a little tighter with our execution continue to get good shots I just thought it was a very intelligent uh

Performance by the team offensively and then you know we slowly broke through a couple more shots went in we were able to loosen them up a little bit so I just thought um our Our poise to stay with it even when the shots weren’t falling and we weren’t really you know moving the

Scoreboard a ton uh was impressive it didn’t impact our attacks on offense and it certainly didn’t impact our intensity on defense right and you mentioned generating better looks in the second quarter there was some of that in the fourth quarter and obviously the the common denominator are is you know those

Dub and and chat lineups and it felt like new New Orleans did about as well as anybody in terms of limiting Shay’s line of sight and in turn dub and Chad kind of ate off some of that just what’ you like about the way they attack those

Those minutes and those lineups yeah I just thought we were intelligent with our attacks throughout the night you know uh I thought we were against San Antonio too the difference was we were just able to gain a lot more of a rhythm in that game some of that was our shot

Making on that night and our shot making tonight but again I thought the sign of a mature good team is the ability to sustain uh intelligent offense and high high level intensity on defense regardless of the ball going in and I thought we were that type of team

Tonight coach at what point of the season did you say you know what this team could be pretty good um I don’t know I mean the games just keep rolling you know it’s like you’re just playing the game in front of you we’re just trying to uh was it

Preseason even I mean last year at times you know there were and even before that there was an uncommon uh consistency you know to the team team Even in our our losing Seasons um I thought there was an uncommon Poise to the team last year with some of the

Games we were able to compete in uh win some of them and so this year has felt like kind of a continuation of that and and a build on that as we’ve continued to you know improve internally and continue to add you know good players to

The roster so uh I’d Zoom it out from there but you know pretty early on you know this team had kind of an uncommon way about it and uh your thoughts on uh Shay getting uh voted in nothing to take lightly into it all start yeah I mean there’s certainly

Nothing to take lightly and the season he’s having is nothing to take lightly I mean like I said we’re just playing the game in front of us and the season just kind of punches you in the face but when you zoom out and look at what he’s done

To this point in the year there’s a lot of season left but it’s impressive and the thing I always go back to I mentioned many times this season is he does it inside the team and so uh his success also impacts the hole and and somehow create space for other guys to

Elevate and other guys to improve and other guys to rock out a little bit and I think you see that um in the other players on the team and their Improvement and the trajectory some of those guys are on and not just limited to like dub you know like Chad you know

Like I’m talking Wiggins the way he’s playing right now and really that’s a credit to a player of his talent that he’s able to balance High ambition and high production also with creating the level of space he does for the rest of the team that’s to me the most

Impressive thing about him he’s a great player Mark before the game you talked about the rim being your top priority and I wondered what you saw from Chad in terms of not just shop loocking but just the physical presence uh that he provided to help with that effort yeah I

Mean valent chunis is a load you know that’s he’s given up a lot of weight to that guy you know valent chunis is really hard to move for anybody and um yeah he really battled tonight Chad did I mean just really battled and then um

The the guys did a good job of of scrambling we had a couple plays where we put him in a crowd we kind of ripped the ball from him a couple times on rebounds and when he had the ball deep um and when you do that you know you’re

Able to use the dynamic element of Chad on the other end of the floor and we were able to get to that a lot tonight Chad had a very good offensive game we did a hell of a job of leveraging his gravity he made great reads whether to shoot drive he stayed aggressive

Throughout the game with his jump shot I thought uh there was a lot to like about how he played offensively tonight too and then your other rookie KAS was just seemingly everywhere and I know coming into the season one of the things you guys talked about was just his awareness

Off ball uh what what is he doing so well on that aspect of the game just in terms of being in passing Lanes yeah he’s really really anticipatory he gets uh he smells the play before it happens he’s really learning the pictures um he’s good on ball he’s good off ball and

Offensively he’s coming you know he’s he’s finding a good balance he’s always kind of shot the open ones he did that from the beginning and shot the well but he’s starting to make more plays on the catch he’s starting to hit the gas a little bit more finish a little bit more

Just sneakily becoming more Dynamic offensively and growing there which again we really like him and how functional and easily playable he is but we they also understand that there’s a lot more in there and we want to continue to cultivate That Mark you mentioned just how well you guys put uh y in the crowd and I think you know earlier in the season we we talked a lot about you know guys um and the effort that surrounds CH because it’s not a one-on-one game and a lot of

Those matchups he’s he’s usually playing a guy that’s heavier than him and so I just wonder what you’ve seen through the progression of having to put guys like that in crowds and how you’ve seen the guys around CH kind of help him you know pitch into those matchups and stuff yeah

I mean we’re learning you know Chet’s learning we’re learning um you know we’ve we’ve done a pretty good job of that I think uh in most of our games uh of recognizing what we need to do to neutralize the opponent’s strengths uh valent Tunis and his physicality around

The basket certainly is something that we have to be pay attention to against this team um but you know the bigger and stronger uh you know the other teams bigs are the more uh difficult it should be for them to guard us too you know so

We just need to doesn’t need to be perfect there’s a couple plays where they punch it in there to him and he he goes and scores at the basket but uh I thought we were able to Leverage our advantages on offense too and and put

Them in dilemas on that end of the floor which is is critical for us it’s a complete game it’s not just you know one end of the floor or the other

Hear from Cason Wallace, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Head Coach Mark Daigneault following the Thunder’s 107 – 83 win in New Orleans.

0:00 Cason Wallace
3:26 Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams
10:31 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
15:12 Coach Daigneault

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